Lenovo's latest ThinkPad claims 29-hour battery life, powered by Snapdragon X Elite chip

[zohaibahd]

What just happened? Lenovo is pulling back the curtains on a new variant of its latest business-focused ultraportable, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, and it's making some lofty claims about this Arm-powered laptop's battery life. Powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite processor, the company asserts that the new T14s Gen 6 can achieve a staggering 29 hours of battery runtime on a single charge.

Manufacturer battery life claims have to be taken with a grain of salt until third-party testing can validate them. Still, even discounting a bit of marketing hyperbole, if the T14s gets anywhere close to that 29-hour figure in real-world conditions, it would easily outperform most Intel and AMD-based laptops currently on the market. For comparison, the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro promises 'only' up to 22 hours of Apple TV movie playback.

Delivering the promise is a fairly standard 58Wh battery pack, though the Snapdragon X Elite's power-sipping Arm cores no doubt help maximize that capacity. This SoC itself utilizes 12 custom Arm Oryon CPU cores along with a beefy Adreno GPU.

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Curiously, Lenovo has outfitted the cooling system with dual fans. One fan is likely dedicated to the X Elite itself, leaving us curious about what other heat-generating components necessitated that second blower.

The rest of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 spec sheet checks all the boxes you'd expect from a premium ultraportable. There's up to 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 1TB of fast NVMe SSD storage. The 14-inch OLED panel pushes a sharp 2.8K (2800 x 1800) resolution while offering HDR, 100% DCI-P3 color, and other high-end display niceties.

Lenovo retained the traditional ThinkPad design language too, complete with a TrackPoint nub in the middle of the keyboard. Ports are plentiful: two USB-A, a pair of Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm audio jack, and even a SIM slot. WiFi 7 is supported too.

With an all-metal chassis weighing just 2.73 pounds and standing 0.67 inches thick, the ThinkPad T14s seems to tick all the boxes for a highly portable productivity partner. The only potential fly in the ointment is pricing, which Lenovo hasn't officially announced but early retail listings in China suggest it will start around $1,700.

That's a premium price point, even for a hardened business machine, though the claimed runtime could make it worthwhile. Meanwhile, the less premium 14" WUXGA IPS model available in the US is listed for $1,754.35 currently and promises "multi-day battery life."

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Lenovo's latest ThinkPad claims 29-hour battery life, powered by Snapdragon X Elite chip

 

[mbk34]

What's the use case for a 29 hour battery life? Wouldn't users just plug a laptop in when they go to sleep anyway?

 

[Burty117]

What's the use case for a 29 hour battery life? Wouldn't users just plug a laptop in when they go to sleep anyway?

If you don't need to recharge as often, you also wear the battery out slower, so the battery will last many years longer before it degrades to a point of being pretty useless.

 

[mbk34]

You wonder how many years people keep their laptops for. If it's for business then you'd probably just offset a new laptop against your tax (assuming your taxes work that way). If it's a gaming laptop then you'd probably want something more up to date after a few years. I'll admit I keep my laptops forever though, I've got a Surface Go from 2018 and a HP Spectre from 2017 sitting on my desk. They're not heavily used but I haven't noticed that much battery loss. I might be tempted by a Zenbook duo going forwards though.

 

[zamroni111]

But the ssd slot is only the 2240 instead of 2280.

 

[nintendo1889]

But the ssd slot is only the 2240 instead of 2280.

Is 2240 lower voltage?

Another use case: portability.


You wonder how many years people keep their laptops for. If it's for business then you'd probably just offset a new laptop against your tax (assuming your taxes work that way). If it's a gaming laptop then you'd probably want something more up to date after a few years. I'll admit I keep my laptops forever though, I've got a Surface Go from 2018 and a HP Spectre from 2017 sitting on my desk. They're not heavily used but I haven't noticed that much battery loss. I might be tempted by a Zenbook duo going forwards though.

For years Intel refused to make multi core chips even when it was obviously a way to sell better systems with more bang for the buck and power efficiency. That's why it seems there's an x86 vs arm discussion going on:

'The ongoing conversations around ARM vs x86 power are based on a false premise,' says Intel's VP of technical marketing

ARM might appear more naturally efficient, yet Intel insists x86 is just as good in the right hands.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[zamroni111]

Is 2240 lower voltage?

Another use case: portability.


You wonder how many years people keep their laptops for. If it's for business then you'd probably just offset a new laptop against your tax (assuming your taxes work that way). If it's a gaming laptop then you'd probably want something more up to date after a few years. I'll admit I keep my laptops forever though, I've got a Surface Go from 2018 and a HP Spectre from 2017 sitting on my desk. They're not heavily used but I haven't noticed that much battery loss. I might be tempted by a Zenbook duo going forwards though.

For years Intel refused to make multi core chips even when it was obviously a way to sell better systems with more bang for the buck and power efficiency. That's why it seems there's an x86 vs arm discussion going on:

'The ongoing conversations around ARM vs x86 power are based on a false premise,' says Intel's VP of technical marketing

ARM might appear more naturally efficient, yet Intel insists x86 is just as good in the right hands.

www.pcgamer.com

Intel and AMD based t14s can have 2280 slot.
how much power ssd consume anyway?
2280 can also have larger heat spreader