Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G6 review - The inexpensive multimedia laptop with a Ryzen 7000

[Redaktion]

The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G6 is a 16-inch multimedia laptop with an IPS display and an AMD Ryzen 7000 processor. At a price of US$900, you will surely have to make quite a few compromises but even so, it boasts a good keyboard and long runtimes.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkBook-16-G6-review-The-inexpensive-multimedia-laptop-with-a-Ryzen-7000.774481.0.html

[NikoB]

A very boring model at an inflated price.

The screen is depressing, the processor is weak and outdated.

Despite the fact that 2 memory modules are installed, the AIDA64 test shows a terrible result for ddr4 3200 (3200x16=51GB/s), one of the slowest dual-channel modes ever seen for Zen3.

Business laptop, but there is no reliable connector for the angled round power plug. USB-c here should be purely optional for emergencies, because the model and its overall durability preclude frequent use outside the office or home. This means that it will most often be used from a power supply rather than from a battery, and the extremely flimsy USB-C sticking out to the left, perpendicular to the case, will be very annoying, especially for right-handers.

With such a price and such modest characteristics (they could have installed at least a 1TB SSD), there are unlikely to be anyone interested.

If at this price it had 32GB/2TB out of the box with IPS 100%sRGB/120-144Hz or at least a 16/1Tb+4k@120Hz screen, it would have been a different matter. At least the eyes could enjoy the screen of this outdated typewriter...

For example:
On amazon - Acer Aspire 5 - 770euro - 32Gb/2Tb with i5 12450H + usb4/tb4 + angle power tip + rj45 on left + 3xusb-a 3.2 but with non-classical numpad.

HP Victus Gaming Laptop, 15.6'' FHD 144Hz IPS Display, Intel Core i5-13420H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 32GB RAM, 2TB PCIe SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Wi-Fi 6, HD Camera, Win 11 Pro, Blue, 32GB USB Card - 762euro.

www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5215vs5434/AMD-Ryzen-7-7730U-vs-Intel-i5-13420H

Lenovo's price is overestimated by 200-250 euros, at least.

[lejeczek]

Linux users avoid ! no BIOS update for us, as of 2024's March

[NikoB]

Linux users avoid ! no BIOS update for us, as of 2024's March

Lenovo constantly promises 6 years of support, but does not fulfill his promises.

I bought a laptop in 2019 with Zen+, there has been no new video drivers from Lenovo since 2020, although the AMD has released many versions since then. But all of them incorrectly work during hardware decoding VP9 (at least) on YouTube.
With the latest driver February 2024, 3500U, it increases the frequency to 3GHz and constantly loads by 15-70%, and VEGA8, on the contrary, is clearly not unloaded less than 50% (it is clear that the hardware decoding is working, but the graphs in W10 are confused in the latest versions of Windows 10 - the decoding is shown as Coding - I wrote about it 3 years ago). Coolers are noisy.
With the driver 2020 - the frequency is fixed below 2GHz - 1.4-1.7GHz usually, the load is 3 times lower on the processor (usually 15-20% no more) and slightly larger on VEGA8 (30-65%) - the cooler or off at low speeds Even with 4K@60FPS on YouTube. Official support for this series of laptops until 2025 ...

Here is the real price of support from Lenov. They know very well that there are problems and for some reason cannot affect the AMD (being the largest manufacturer of laptops and PC on the planet by the word by a market share, according to the latest statistics), so that the AMD ensure proper support of the old Zen+ series at the level W10/W11. Everyone does not give a damn about everyone. If the owners cannot file a Class Action. Or rather, lawyers will not see financial benefits in such a case.

Well, other reasonable problems that official requests were submitted in support were also ignored within 1 warranty of the year and after that.

Here is the real price of "support" from Lenovo.

So when buying Lenovo laptops, do not count on a conscientious update of drivers, and even more so on solving problems at an official request to support. They will not be.

I remember good and conscientious times, when the support and development departments even produced individual individual bios at the request of the client. Now you can forget about such a client-oriented approach.

[Neenyah]

Linux users avoid ! no BIOS update for us, as of 2024's March

How often do they need to push the BIOS update? Initial (the one shipped with the laptop) was MNCN20WW. There was six updates since then and the last one is MNCN26WW from December 20, 2023 with the following changelog:

1. 2024 IPU1 security issue BIOS update(Update agesa code to 1.0.0.Fa).
   LEN-130058 AMD-SN-7005 Return Address Predictor Security Notice
   LEN-142132 AMD-SN-7011 AMD SMM Supervisor Vulnerability Security Notice
   CVE-2023-20569
   CVE-2023-20596
2. 2024 IPU1 security issue BIOS update.
   LEN-132940 BRLY-2023-006 Binarly reported LogoFail
   CVE-2023-40238
   CVE-2023-5058
3. Update UUID format in SMBIOS Type 1.
4. ECFW Formal Release v1.26 for TB1416 AMD
   1.  Improve Auto mode function

Link to that version: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/hr/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkbook-series/thinkbook-16-g6-abp/downloads/driver-list/component?name=BIOS%2FUEFI&id=5AC6A815-321D-440E-8833-B07A93E0428C

You can't really expect them to update BIOS on a weekly basis 🤨

[lmao]

Lenovo constantly promises 6 years of support, but does not fulfill his promises.

I bought a laptop in 2019 with Zen+, there has been no new video drivers from Lenovo since 2020, although the AMD has released many versions since then. But all of them incorrectly work during hardware decoding VP9 (at least) on YouTube.
With the latest driver February 2024, 3500U, it increases the frequency to 3GHz and constantly loads by 15-70%, and VEGA8, on the contrary, is clearly not unloaded less than 50% (it is clear that the hardware decoding is working, but the graphs in W10 are confused in the latest versions of Windows 10 - the decoding is shown as Coding - I wrote about it 3 years ago). Coolers are noisy.
With the driver 2020 - the frequency is fixed below 2GHz - 1.4-1.7GHz usually, the load is 3 times lower on the processor (usually 15-20% no more) and slightly larger on VEGA8 (30-65%) - the cooler or off at low speeds Even with 4K@60FPS on YouTube. Official support for this series of laptops until 2025 ...

Here is the real price of support from Lenov. They know very well that there are problems and for some reason cannot affect the AMD (being the largest manufacturer of laptops and PC on the planet by the word by a market share, according to the latest statistics), so that the AMD ensure proper support of the old Zen+ series at the level W10/W11. Everyone does not give a damn about everyone. If the owners cannot file a Class Action. Or rather, lawyers will not see financial benefits in such a case.

Well, other reasonable problems that official requests were submitted in support were also ignored within 1 warranty of the year and after that.

Here is the real price of "support" from Lenovo.

So when buying Lenovo laptops, do not count on a conscientious update of drivers, and even more so on solving problems at an official request to support. They will not be.

I remember good and conscientious times, when the support and development departments even produced individual individual bios at the request of the client. Now you can forget about such a client-oriented approach.

is it a story about nikob buying a second shitty laptop or is it the same good old first one.

[NikoB]

Why aren't these creatures removed from the forum, administration? Or are these your own nicknames, the administration for the sake of gaslighting and bullying? Something tells me that this is the second option...

[lmao]

Why aren't these creatures removed from the forum, administration? Or are these your own nicknames, the administration for the sake of gaslighting and bullying? Something tells me that this is the second option...

you haven't answered tho, i'm a bit lost, how many bad laptops you've purchased exactly before you felt enlightened enough to give other people advices

[Jacek]

Linux users avoid ! no BIOS update for us, as of 2024's March

Why? Can you elaborate @lejeczek?

[sharath]

Linux users avoid ! no BIOS update for us, as of 2024's March

I am running linux mint on this laptop. Everything works from the go. Except for finger print reader. All it needed was to download the instruction from lenovo site and mint to get the driver. (the issue was default driver only supported swipe reader not touch)