Lenovo has a huge number of different laptops, so they need a way to divide them up. The ThinkBook, for example, is only made for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It tries to offer the looks and prices that consumers want along with some of the extra security and services that businesses need. The ThinkPad line, on the other hand, looks and has features that are all about business.
The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 is a 16-inch machine with high-end parts and a few features that SMB buyers will like. It is an interesting addition to the lineup. It does a good job, but it’s not the best in its class. It’s also quite expensive and of questionable quality. Because of this, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd.
The AMD Ryzen 5 6600H CPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU for the ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 start at $2,359. To get a Ryzen 7 5800H, you’ll have to pay $2,619. My review unit with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD hasn’t been released yet, and I don’t know how much it will cost, but it will probably be close to $3,000.
That makes this 16-inch laptop a very surprising amount of money. Even though it has nice parts, it costs more than other high-end machines like the Dell XPS 15 and XPS 17.
A New Design That Mostly Works
The ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 has a look that is easily recognizable as a ThinkBook, especially on its two-toned lid with a big ThinkBook logo. This makes it stand out from the rest of Lenovo’s laptops and gives it some style. Aside from that, it looks like any other business laptop, with a standard Lenovo chassis and a dark grey color.
The back of the lid is set back about half an inch, which is different, and the keyboard is also darker. The result is a laptop that looks good and stands out just enough, without being too flashy for a business professional.
It’s also made of metal, but not as solidly as the Dell XPS 15 or the MacBook Pro 16. The lid feels like it can be bent, and the keyboard deck bends in some places. At a price of more than $2,000, it’s hard to look past the fact that it’s not very rigid.
The hinge can be opened with one hand, but it moves a bit when you type a lot. Overall, I was a little let down by the ThinkBook 16p’s build quality, which hurts the machine’s suitability for its intended user.
The ThinkPad 16p has pretty small bezels and is only about an inch deeper than the XPS 15 because its lower chin is bigger (which has a slightly smaller display). At 0.78 inches thick, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme is almost the same size as the XPS 15, which is 0.73 inches thick.
The ThinkPad 16p weighs 4.4 pounds, which is a little more than the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, and a little less than the XPS 15, which weighs 4.62 pounds. It’s a big laptop, but the 16-inch screen makes up for it.
When it comes to other comforts, the ThinkPad 16p has a lot to offer. The keyboard is light and responsive. It has less travel than the keyboard on the ThinkPad, but the switches are more comfortable all around. The keyboard on the XPS 15 is a little bit better, but most people probably won’t notice.
The touchpad is smaller than it could be given the space, but it works well with a smooth, responsive surface and fairly quiet button clicks. It doesn’t have a touch screen, which is something I like to see on a high-end laptop.
The image quality of the 1080p webcam will please business users who need to use videoconferencing to get work done. An infrared camera lets Windows 11 Hello work without a password, and the off-center power button has a fingerprint reader for those who prefer to log in that way.
Lenovo’s Glance software can detect when the user steps away and put the laptop to sleep. It also has features for digital wellness, but they were turned off on the review unit I used.
ThinkShutter is a privacy screen from Lenovo that covers the webcam. The ThinkPad 16p Gen 3 also has Microsoft’s Secure BIOS, which is a big plus for business users.
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It’s Faster at Play Than at Work
Even if you’re in business, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to have fun. With its Ryzen CPU and RTX 3060 GPU, the ThinkPad 16p is better at playing games than doing work. I’ll start with how well it works for work and creativity since that’s what you’re paying for, but I’ll also talk about how it works for games.
The ThinkPad’s thermal design was fine, with only a small amount of throttling. However, when the CPU and GPU turned on, the fans made a lot of noise. Lenovo’s thermal utility didn’t make a big difference in any of our usual benchmarks, but I’ve included those scores where they were relevant.
My review unit came with a 45-watt AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU with eight cores and sixteen threads. Until AMD’s 7000 series comes out, that’s the best, and it’s a fast CPU for sure. Still, it was behind our comparison group in Geekbench 5, which included machines with 45-watt 12th-generation Intel CPUs.
Like always, AMD’s single-core scores were the slowest. The ThinkPad 16 was fast in Cinebench R23 multi-core, and it did well in our Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video as H.265.
The ThinkPad 16p worked well, but it wasn’t as fast as some newer laptops with Intel chips. In the Pugetbench Premiere Pro benchmark, which runs in a live version of Adobe’s Premiere Pro, the ThinkPad 16p was slower than laptops like the HP Envy 16 that used the RTX 3060 CPU. Some Intel optimizations in Adobe apps help this benchmark, but they may or may not be useful for a given workflow.
Overall, the ThinkPad 16p meets the performance needs of even the most demanding professionals, no matter how big their business is. It can also meet the needs of creators. Most of our benchmarks show that Intel’s latest 45-watt 12th-generation CPUs perform better, and the Apple MacBook Pro 16 continues to be the best.
It’s Not a Bad Laptop, but It’s Also Nothing Special
Some laptops are harder to put into groups and rate than others. This kind of machine is the ThinkBook 16p Gen 3. Lenovo says that the laptop is good for small and medium-sized businesses, but I didn’t find much that really makes it stand out for this group.
Normal consumer laptops have things like privacy settings for the webcam and sensors that can tell when a user is nearby. They also look nice and work well. Even better, the ThinkPad 16p comes with an industry-standard one-year warranty, which is less than what many real business machines offer.
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Even though the performance was good and the battery life was better than some other 16-inch laptops, the build quality wasn’t good enough for the $2,359 price tag. With this amount of money, you can get a Dell XPS 15 that is about as fast, much better made, and has a much better screen.
When I look at the ThinkPad 16p as a machine for SMB users, I’m not convinced that it has any major benefits. There isn’t much that you can’t find on other consumer-focused mainstream laptops, and the build quality doesn’t match the price.
Conclusion
Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 is a 16-inch machine with high-end parts and a few features that SMB buyers will like. My review unit with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD hasn’t been released yet, but it will probably be close to $3,000.
The ThinkPad 16p Gen 3 is a big laptop with a 16-inch screen. It’s made of metal, but not as solidly as the Dell XPS 15 or the MacBook Pro 16. Lenovo’s Glance software can detect when the user steps away and put the laptop to sleep.
It’s faster than some older laptops with Intel chips but not as fast as some newer machines. Lenovo’s thermal design was fine, with only a small amount of throttling. The build quality isn’t good enough for the $2,359 price tag. You can get a Dell XPS 15 that is about as fast, much better made, and has a much better screen.
