Lenovo ThinkPad 16" E16 Gen 2 Black 2025

The Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 is a solid 16-inch business laptop with a fast Ryzen 7 CPU, tons of storage, and excellent port selection. It's great for office work and everyday tasks, but the weak speakers and mediocre display hold it back. At around $890 in the US it's a good deal, but European buyers should shop carefully since prices vary by over EUR 1,200.

The Ryzen 7 7735HS is a solid 8-core chip that handles everyday business tasks without breaking a sweat. Our database ranks the CPU around the 71st percentile, which means it's well above average but not chasing the top-tier HX chips. For Excel, browser tabs, video calls, and light photo editing, you'll be fine. The 16GB of DDR5 RAM is about average for this class, and the 1TB NVMe SSD plus a second 512GB SSD gives you plenty of fast storage, ranked in the 89th percentile.

The Radeon 680M integrated graphics are interesting. They rank in the 94th percentile for GPU, which sounds impressive until you realize that's among integrated graphics in business laptops. It'll handle 4K video playback and light creative work, but the gaming score of 23.7 out of 100 tells the real story. This is not a machine for Cyberpunk 2077. For business, developer, and entertainment use, it scores in the mid-70s, which is respectable.

Against the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, the ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 loses on screen quality, battery life, and raw performance, but it costs a fraction of the price and gives you Windows 11 Pro with real ports. The MacBook is the better machine, but it's also two to three times the cost. For a business fleet or a budget-conscious buyer, the ThinkPad makes more sense.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and HP OMEN Transcend 14 are gaming laptops that will absolutely destroy the ThinkPad in graphics performance, but they're also louder, hotter, and more expensive. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro is thinner and has a better OLED screen, but you'll pay more and lose the Ethernet port and numpad. The MSI Prestige is the closest competitor in spirit, a thin business laptop, but the ThinkPad's port selection and storage flexibility give it an edge for desk-bound work.

Pricing on the ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 is all over the map depending on where you shop. In the US you can find it for around $890, which is a genuinely good deal for a Ryzen 7 business laptop with this much storage. But in Europe, prices range from EUR 1,225 to EUR 2,463 across four listings, that's a EUR 1,238 spread for what should be the same machine. If you're buying in the EU, shop around hard and check which store_name has the EUR 1,225 listing before you overpay. At the low end, this is a strong value. At the high end, you're getting into MacBook Pro territory and should probably just buy that instead.

The Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 sits in that sweet spot for business laptops, a 16-inch workhorse with an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. It's the kind of machine IT departments order by the pallet, but it's also a solid pick for anyone who wants a big screen, a numpad, and Windows 11 Pro without paying MacBook money. Our database puts it at the top of the charts for social proof, which tells you people actually buy and like this thing.

Is the ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 good for business use? Yeah, it's basically built for it. The port selection is a standout, with 2x USB-C, 3x USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and Ethernet. You won't need a dongle for the conference room projector or the old printer in accounting. The 16-inch 1920x1200 IPS display gives you a bit more vertical room than a standard 1080p panel, which is nice for spreadsheets and long documents.

At 1.77kg it's not ultrabook-light, but it's reasonable for a 16-inch machine. The backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader are standard ThinkPad fare, and the privacy shutter on the webcam is a small touch we appreciate. Just don't expect a gaming rig, the integrated Radeon 680M graphics land this thing near the bottom for gaming performance.

Skip the ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 if you're a gamer, the integrated graphics simply can't keep up with modern titles, and you'd be much happier with an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or HP OMEN Transcend 14. Creative professionals who need accurate color should also look elsewhere, the 45% NTSC panel is a weak spot for photo or video work, and the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro's OLED screen is a far better fit. If you do a lot of video calls without headphones, the weak speakers will annoy you daily. And if you're buying from outside your home country, verify the warranty situation first, one buyer got burned by exactly that.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2? If you need a reliable business laptop with a big screen, a numpad, and every port you'll ever need, yes. It's fast enough for real work, the keyboard is comfortable, and the storage situation is generous. The 4.3-star customer rating across 111 reviews backs that up.

But know what you're getting. The display is fine but not great, the speakers are weak for video calls, and the integrated graphics mean gaming is off the table. If you're a student or office worker who mostly lives in a browser and Office apps, this is a smart buy at the right price. Just verify the warranty coverage before you buy, especially if you're importing from another country.