You can swap the Function and Ctrl keys without a trip to BIOS, tweak the camera’s brightness and contrast levels, and set a maximum charge threshold (to prevent battery wear if it’s plugged in most of the time).
Jared Newman / IDGįlicking the privacy shutter covers the camera (and disables face recognition).Īlso worth noting: Lenovo’s Vantage software has some useful customization features. Like other higher-end Lenovo laptops, the E14 also has a physical camera privacy shutter that shows a red dot when it’s covering the lens. A fingerprint reader is built into the power button along the ThinkPad E14’s right side, and the camera supports Windows Hello so you can sign in with just your face. Lenovo does have its security bases covered, though. At maximum brightness, the screen was perfectly legible even with the sun at my back. While its 300-nit brightness level is on the dim side for a higher-end laptop, the matte finish does help counteract glare if you’re computing outside. The non-touch display folds down to a 180-degree angle. This isn’t Lenovo’s thinnest or lightest ThinkPad, but it is sturdy. Its hefty plastic case has no discernible flex, and it meets an array of ruggedness requirements under the MIL-STD 810H standard. Design and displayĪesthetically speaking, the E14 is pretty much the quintessential ThinkPad, right down to the trackpoint nub, trio of trackpad buttons, black chassis, and red accents. Lenovo does say that it offers an option for Nvidia GeForce MX450 graphics, but at present it’s not available on the company’s website. In any case, the lack of discrete GPU and H-Series CPU options puts the ThinkPad E14 squarely in the realm of office-drone productivity laptops-a point that’s emphasized by the rare sighting of an ethernet port on its right side. (The baseline Core-i3 model, for instance, has a list price of $1,249, which is $200 more than what TigerDirect charges for our review unit, but it’s down to $600 in a Memorial Day sale.) Expect to spend in the neighborhood of $1,000 for all but the most basic configuration. Lenovo sells many other variants, including those with Core i3, Core i7, and AMD Ryzen 5 processors, though the company’s website makes pricing difficult to gauge. Weight: 3.51 pounds (4.19 pounds with power brick).Right side: USB-A 2.0 Gen 1, gigabit ethernet, Kensington lock.Left side: USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (always on), HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm headphone jack.
Webcam: 720p with privacy shutter and Windows Hello face recognition.CPU: Intel Core i5-1135G7 with Iris Xe graphics.