Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen4 Laptop test

Overview
Test summary
- Video Call
- Music & Video

We put the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen4 through our rigorous DXOMARK Laptop test suite to measure its performance in sound, camera, and display. In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview

Key specifications include (as given by the manufacturer):

Physical specs: 1.79 x 22.7x 31.8 cm, 1.32 kg
Display: 14-inch, IPS OLED Up to 14″ WUXGA (1920 x 1200), IPS, anti-glare, touchscreen
Audio:2 speakers, 2 microphones
Webcam: 1080p; 5 MP RGB+IR

Scoring

Use-case and feature subscores included in the calculations of the global score

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

camera

140

display

Readability

HDR

SDR

115

audio

Playback

113

149

Capture

122

133

Duplex

135

153

Pros

Camera has generally accurate target exposure
Well-managed, undisturbing display reflections during video calls
Pleasant sound signature in audio-capture and voice intelligibility
In Music & Video, display shows good brightness range, with maximum brightness that is higher-than-advertised on HDR content (600 nits vs 500 advertised)
Good display color performance in both SDR and HDR

Cons

In Video Call, strong exposure instabilities sometimes visible in high dynamic scenes, and limited dynamic range
Limited management of audio in duplex situations
In music and video, EOTF in HDR has similar highlight clipping as seen on other windows laptops, and black level is limited by panel technology
Unpleasant sound signature for Music & Video

The T14 provided a good and homogeneous display experience, ensuring good readability and faithful rendering of both SDR and HDR content. Its built-in microphones offered a very satisfying experience, delivering pleasant timbre and good intelligibility (although its handling of duplex calls was not optimal). On the downside, the playback experience was unsatisfactory due to poor timbre from the built-in speakers. The laptop’s camera performance was adequate, but can be limited in difficult lighting conditions.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Laptop tests: For scoring and analysis in our laptop reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluations under controlled lab conditions and real-life scenarios.
(For more details about the Laptop protocol, click here.)
The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen4 overall & use-cases scores

Video Call

123

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

144

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro, 2023)

About DXOMARK Laptop tests

DXOMARK's Video call use case is a score that evaluates how a device handles video calls and videoconferencing in multiple conditions. This score focuses on the camera performance and the capture and playback rendering of voices. Read more about how we test the use cases of Video call score here.

During video calls, the camera’s target exposure was generally accurate, but strong exposure instabilities were sometimes visible in high dynamic scenes. Dynamic range was limited, and color rendering was sometimes inaccurate. The built-in microphones provided a pleasant sound signature and great voice intelligibility, but two people speaking at the same time may not be able to hear each other.

Camera

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

135

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the camera subscores for the video call use case:

Camera scores comparison

Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels

This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.

The following graphs show the objective measurements performed in our camera labs:

Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels

This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.

Target exposure on face with illuminance levels

These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.

Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions

Audio

122

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

144

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the capture subscores for the video call use case:

Audio capture scores comparison

The following graphs show the frequency response, distortion and directivity in capture, recorded in our semi-anechoic room:

Audio capture frequency response

A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency captured by the laptop when recording an objective test signal at 1 meter in an anechoic environment.

Audio capture Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise

This graph shows the Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise over the hearable frequency range. It represents the distortion and noise of the device capturing our test signal.

Audio capture directivity

Directivity graph of the laptop microphone(s) when capturing test signals using the camera app. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) over the angle of incidence of the sound source (normalized to the angle 0°, in front of the device).

Music & Video

126

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

154

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro, 2023)

About DXOMARK Laptop tests

DXOMARK's Music and Video use-case score evaluates the capability of a device to reproduce multimedia usages such as videos, movies and music playback in indoor conditions. This score focuses on the display performance and audio-playback rendering. Read more about how we test this use case here.

The T14 Gen’s display has a higher-than-average brightness range (600 nits vs 500 advertised) and provided a wide HDR color gamut. It had good color performance in SDR, even though blues were slightly desaturated. It handled reflections well. The darkness of blacks (especially for SDR content) was limited by the panel technology; and as with other tested Windows laptops, highlights in HDR content were clipped and disturbing at high display brightness. The built-in speakers have a limited frequency range, and their sound signature was unpleasant.

Display

140

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

156

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the display subscores for the multimedia use case:

Display scores comparison

The following graphs show the objective measurements performed in our display lab:

Display gamut coverage for video contents

Video gamut SDR

Video gamut HDR

The primary colors are measured both in HDR10 and SDR. The extracted color gamut shows the extent of the color area that the device can render. To respect the artistic intent, the measured gamut should match the master color space of each video.

Display reflectance measurement (SCI)

Measurements above show the reflection of the device within the visible spectrum range (400 nm to 700 nm). It includes both diffuse and specular reflection.

Display reflectance profile

Display brightness uniformity

0.15
cd/m²

0.108
cd/m²

0.117
cd/m²

0.176
cd/m²

0.13
cd/m²

0.139
cd/m²

0.201
cd/m²

0.157
cd/m²

0.17
cd/m²

Distribution of brightness (min)

423.9
cd/m²

423.7
cd/m²

426.6
cd/m²

408.1
cd/m²

411
cd/m²

416.7
cd/m²

405.4
cd/m²

407.3
cd/m²

414.4
cd/m²

Distribution of brightness (max)

This illustration shows the brightness measured on nine zones of the display for minimum brightness (left) and maximum brightness (right) for SDR content.

Display SDR EOTF measurement

This graph represents the rendering of contrast (gray levels) for SDR video content, measured in the dark. We expect to be close to the 2.2 or 2.4 gamma references.

Display peak brightness for video contents

Display white point

This graph represents the color temperature of white content, compared with the reference (Daylight illuminant D65) measured in the dark on video at minimum and maximum brightness.

Audio

109

Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4

152

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the playback for the multimedia use case:

Audio playback scores comparison

The following graphs show the frequency response, distortion and directivity in multimedia playback, recorded in our semi-anechoic room:

Audio playback frequency response

A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency emitted by the laptop when playing a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Audio playback Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise