Whenever you think of a Lenovo ThinkPad, you’re probably thinking of a boring business laptop that your IT admin will hand you to get work done. A fancy Windows laptop that directly competes with the latest MacBooks is probably the last thing on your mind. Well, I’m here to say that this is what the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 shakes up.
Built for the premium enterprise audience, this is Lenovo’s latest MacBook killer. The design of the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 might not have changed over the first generation, but the laptop brings some nice features that make it well worth the asking price of $1,474.
The haptic trackpad makes scrolling the web easy, and the gorgeous 3840×2400 resolution OLED display is perfect for road warriors. Even the AMD Ryzen Pro CPU under the hood is plenty fast for everyday tasks, and even light gaming, as long as you’re plugged into power. The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 is a showstopper if you want a fancy Lenovo laptop. It’s a modern ThinkPad, that’s worth the money.
ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2: Specs
| Product | ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 780M Graphics |
| Memory | 64GB LPDDR5X-6400Mhz (soldered) |
| Display | 16-inch WQUXGA 3840×2400 resolution OLED, Anti-reflective, Anti-smudge, Dolby Vision, Touch, 100% DCI-P3, 400 nits, 60 Hz. |
| Storage | 1 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal |
| WLAN & Bluetooth | -WiFi 6E 802.11AX (2 x 2) -Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Ports | -2 x USB-C 4 -USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 -Full sized SD card slot -Headphone/mic combo |
| Camera | -Glass haptic touchpad with integrated navigation buttons: 120mm / 4.72″ wide -Dual-purpose TrackPoint: Use a mouse or double-tap to open the TrackPoint Quick Menu |
| Keyboard and trackpad | -75% recycled aluminum on top cover (A side) on Arctic Grey models -75% post-consumer content (PCC) recycled aluminum on keyboard frame (C side) -55% recycled aluminum on bottom cover (D side) -97% post-consumer content (PCC) recycled plastic in a speaker enclosure -97% PCC recycled plastic in battery enclosure -90% PCC recycled plastic in AC adapter -Low-temperature solder: motherboard, SSD, fingerprint reader module, display module, trackpad -100% rapid-renewable, compostable bamboo-sugarcane fiber in packaging Plastic-free packaging |
| Audio | -Dual user-facing speakers with Dolby Atmos |
| Security | -Chip-level AMD Memory Guard -Discrete Trusted Platform Module (dTPM) -Match-on-chip (MoC) fingerprint reader -Facial recognition with IR camera -Camera e-shutter (off / on) F9 control key -Kensington Nano Security Slot |
| Battery | 72Wh, supports Rapid Charge (up to 80% in 60 minutes) |
| Dimensions/ Weight | 15.8mm x 355mm x 238mm / .63″ x 13.95″ x 9.35″ |
| Materials | -75% recycled aluminum on top cover (A side) on Arctic Grey models -75% post-consumer content (PCC) recycled aluminum on keyboard frame (C side) -55% recycled aluminum on bottom cover (D side) -97% post-consumer content (PCC) recycled plastic in speaker enclosure -97% PCC recycled plastic in battery enclosure -90% PCC recycled plastic in AC adapter -Low-temperature solder: motherboard, SSD, fingerprint reader module, display module, trackpad -100% rapid-renewable, compostable bamboo-sugarcane fiber in packaging Plastic-free packaging |
ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2: Pricing
The ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 was launched late last year. Lenovo has it priced at $1,474. My review unit, however, has a few bumps that kick the price up to $2,768.35, as currently on sale. The CPU was bumped up to the Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS, for an extra $402. The OS was bumped to Windows 11 Pro for $60, RAM was bumped to 64GB, and the SSD was bumped to 1TB for $194. Lenovo also upgraded the display on my unit to the 3840×2400 OLED option, for $402.
Design
The design of the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 is what gets me. While it hasn’t changed between generations, this ThinkPad is still different from all the others in Lenovo’s lineup since it has more of an industrial look. The chrome corners are squared off and flat, and the top Arctic Gray lid has a brushed aluminum finish. While that departs from the carbon fiber lid that I’m used to on Lenovo laptops, the device still has the glowing red dot on the signature ThinkPad logo to make me feel like a fancy executive when showing off the laptop in public.
The lid even has a notch on it (which houses the camera bump and dual mics) and makes opening it with one hand easier. Indeed, this ThinkPad is pretty portable for a 16-inch laptop, since it comes in at 0.62 inches in thickness, and weighs about 3.99 pounds for units with the standard FHD display. My unit is slightly heavier at 4.28 pounds, however, but it is still pretty manageable. You don’t feel the weight.
Open up the lid, meanwhile, and you’ll see the keyboard deck, which is flanked by two upward-firing speakers that add to this device’s premium look. It’s almost identical to what Apple has done on the MacBook and Dell on its XPS laptops, and those speakers sound pretty loud. I jammed out to my favorite tunes on Spotify while writing this review and noticed quite a lot of bass in EDM songs.
This year’s ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 does have some design tweaks to the material that Lenovo is proud of. The lid has 75% recycled aluminum, and the keyboard frame uses 75% PCC recycled aluminum on the C side. The bottom cover, meanwhile, uses 55% recycled aluminum. As for the other parts of the laptop, there’s 97% PCC plastic in the speaker enclosure, 97% PCC in the battery enclosure, and 90% PCC plastic in the AC adapter. Even the packaging is friendly to the environment. It uses 100% rapid-renewable, compostable bamboo-sugarcane fibers.
Ports
There are not many ports onboard the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2. While you get a full-size SD card reader, you’ll still need a dongle if you use USB-A accessories. That’s because this laptop only has two USB-4 ports, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and an audio jack. USB4 competes with Thunderbolt, so that extra bandwidth is nice to see, but the lack of USB-A did bother me. For connecting printers, I had to grab my dongle. Of course, even Apple’s MacBooks suffer from this problem, so it’s not all a loss.
Keyboard and Trackpad
At first glance, the keyboard on the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 looks like your traditional ThinkPad keyboard, but you’ll quickly see that it isn’t once you get typing. The curved keycaps onboard have a softer feeling to them and don’t go quite as deep as some of the other ThinkPad models. Thankfully, though, Lenovo didn’t reverse the FN and Ctrl Keys, meaning if you’re coming from an older Windows laptop, you should feel at home. Spacing between keycaps is even, though, and I was happily able to speed-type my way through this review. Sometimes, I did feel the keyboard getting a bit “squeaky” which is likely due to the thinness of the keycaps.
You might have noticed from the photos thus far, but this ThinkPad does indeed have a TrackPoint nub. If you double-tap on it, you’ll bring up shortcuts for controlling the microphone, voice typing, battery, and audio settings. You can customize the menu to switch things out for the device cleaning feature, or Dolby noise suppression if you want. To control the haptic trackpad below the keyboard, Lenovo gives you a link to the Sensel touchpad settings app, too. You can adjust the click force to low, medium, or high. I preferred high for a harder-feeling trackpad.
Speaking of the haptic touchpad, the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 has one of the best I’ve used in a Windows laptop. While it’s not directly centered in the chassis (and is surrounded by a palm rest that’s smoother than the rest of the laptop), it sure does the trick quite well. This haptic trackpad is quite large, though not as big as the one on a MacBook, and has the shortcuts on the top that signature ThinkPad trackpads have.
I was able to go a full three weeks without using a mouse with this laptop. That’s just how good this trackpad is. There is also a fingerprint reader on the keyboard deck near the Trackpad. The laptop supports Windows Hello, but the added fingerprint reader means you have one more layer of security.
Display and webcam
Lenovo upgraded the 16-inch display of my ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2. While it comes with a 1920×1200 IPS display as standard, I was bumped up to a 3840×2400 resolution touch OLED display. It’s a heavy jump in price of nearly $405, but this is worth it. This display shines bright, though it’s only 60Hz. Other laptops with OLED screens tend to hit about 120Hz. It does support Dolby Vision HDR, though.
I watched my favorite show, NBC’s Chicago Med on the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2, and I was blown away. The reds in doctor Halsted’s jacket looked vibrant and bright. And operating room lights were shining true to what they’d be like in person. My colorimeter has it 100% sRGB, and 97% Adobe RGB. brightness hit about 400 nits.
It honestly was hard to go back to using my Surface Laptop Studio (which has an LCD display) while I had this ThinkPad. OLED displays just bring everything to life, be it the colors in webpages, or just the vibrancy in videos.
Because of the high screen resolution and accuracy, I was able to live a life free of my monitor. Most times, the ThinkPad sat on my desk without being plugged into a display. The 16:10 aspect ratio and slim bezels make stacking windows side by side and multitasking a simple thing.
Atop the display is a standard 1080p webcam. It’s just alright. It has Windows Hello support. I wish it was a higher resolution. 1080p doesn’t cut it for a $1,000+ laptop anymore.
Performance and battery life
Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 sports last year’s Ryzen 7000 series chips under the hood, which is a jump from last year’s model with Ryzen 6000 series processors. In 2024, AMD announced the Ryzen 8000 series, so these CPUs are now a year old compared to when the laptop launched. Still, it packs a punch in 2024. Web browsing, running virtual machines, and even light photo editing in Photoshop all run smoothly. For productivity at least, this is a MacBook-level device.
The review unit I have comes with the AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 7940HS with Radeon 780M graphics (4GB vRAM), along with 62GB of RAM. This CPU has 8 cores total and runs with 35W of power base and up to 54W under turbo. Benchmark results are below, both on power and off power when in performance mode.
| Geekbench 6 (Single/Multi) | 3DMark TimeSpy | Cinebench R23 (Single/Multi) | PCMark 10 | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 | 2,300/12,000 (Power) 2,000/7,999 (Battery) | 5,000 (Power) 3,333 (Battery) | 1,700 / 14,900 | 7,616 (Power) 6,100 (Battery) |
| | Geekbench 6 (Single/Multi) | 3DMark TimeSpy | Cinebench R23(Single/Multi) | PCMark 10 |
| MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max | 3,178 / 21,284 | N/A | 1,900 / 23,962 | N/A |
This issue plagues a lot of AMD chips, but the CPU power you get isn’t the same as it is when plugged in than when it is on battery. You’ll need power if you want the best performance. You can see how much the benchmark results go down when unplugged. Still, when plugged in, the Radeon 780M graphics pack a crazy punch, since the Timespy score tops so high. When playing at 1080p on medium to low settings, I easily for about 45-50 frames per second in games like Cyberpunk. It’s not too crazy, though, as if you plan to get into creative tasks, you’ll hit roadblocks. As you can see, the Cinebench scoring isn’t nearly as high against a MacBook.
As far as battery life goes, the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 is a winner. I got about 10 hours on a single charge, with juice left over for the next day. Of course, I readjusted the power settings for battery life, and I lowered the screen brightness, but this laptop does get solid battery life for standard web-based workflows. The unit comes with a large power brick, rated at 135W for quick charging, so you’ll want to keep this in mind.
Should you buy the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2?
If you’re in search of a new ThinkPad that has a lot of fancy aesthetics, the ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 will be for you. It is worth the buy and is one of the closest MacBook killers Lenovo has ever made. You might have to pay a bit extra for the upgrades, but the gorgeous OLED display is worth it. The haptic touchpad is a nice touch, and so is the AMD CPU under the hood, which is more than speedy enough for light gaming.
