Lenovo ThinkPad P14s 14.5" P14s Gen 5 Black 2024 Review

A beefy business laptop with killer port selection and a gorgeous display, but the fans will annoy you and the battery won't last a full day. Buy it for the keyboard and 32GB RAM, not for quiet coffee shop sessions.

The Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 is a classic workhorse that blends a sharp 14.5-inch display, Intel's new Core Ultra 7 chip, and 32GB of RAM into a genuinely portable package. For crunching spreadsheets, coding marathons, or light CAD work, it's a capable companion that won't weigh you down. But it's not without some annoying trade-offs. The fan noise is real, and the battery life might leave you hunting for an outlet sooner than you'd like. If you need a tough, ports-rich laptop that feels like a desktop replacement you can actually carry around, this one deserves a look.

Our database puts its RAM at the 87th percentile — 32GB of DDR5 is more than enough for heavy multitasking, and it shows. The Core Ultra 7 holds its own in most tasks, landing around the 75th percentile, but the integrated Arc graphics are just middle-of-the-pack. What surprised us is the lag some owners report. Not a spec sheet issue — it's likely aggressive power throttling tied to thermals, which brings us to the fan noise. When those fans kick in (and they do, often), the system stays cool under load, but you'll want headphones.

Pricing is all over the map — we've seen listings from $1,399 to an absurd $302,305 (probably a data glitch). At the real street price around $1,400, it's competitive for a workstation with 32GB RAM and a high-res display. If you're spending more than $1,600, look elsewhere. From what we can tell, the best deal is around $1,399 at Lenovo when on sale.

Stack it against the Apple MacBook Pro M5 Pro and the HP ZBook Ultra G1a. The MacBook has a vastly better GPU, longer battery life, and a quieter system, but you'll pay more and lose the Ethernet port and USB-A. The HP ZBook matches the ThinkPad's workstation pedigree with better build and GPU options but often costs more. If you're tied to Windows and need that port selection, the P14s is the smarter pick — just be ready to manage fan noise.

If you're looking for a quiet, long-lasting ultrabook for presentations and travel, this isn't it. Go grab a Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro or MacBook Air instead. Those will stay silent and last all day. This ThinkPad is for professionals who'll be docking it most of the time.

The ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 gets the important things right: it's a fast, lightweight, and durable machine for professionals who need a real keyboard and every port under the sun. But the fan noise and mediocre battery life put a dent in its armor. For coders, analysts, and road warriors who prioritize connectivity over silence, it's a solid buy — just keep it plugged in when you can.