Lenovo ThinkPad 16" E16 Gen 2 Black 2024

The Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 is a solid 16-inch business laptop with a great keyboard, useful ports, and upgradeable internals. Performance is fine for office work, but the 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD in this config feel tight, and the display colors are dull. It's a good value if you can find it near the low end of its price range.

The Ryzen 5 7535U is a solid mid-pack performer in our database. Six cores and twelve threads at up to 4.55GHz boost means multitasking feels responsive, and the Radeon 660M integrated graphics handle video playback and light photo work without complaint. But 8GB of RAM is the bottleneck here. Windows 11 Pro plus a handful of browser tabs will eat through that quickly, and you'll feel it when things start swapping to the SSD.

The 256GB NVMe drive is fast for what it is, but it's small. You'll be leaning on cloud storage or an external drive before long. The good news: Lenovo left two SODIMM slots and dual SSD options in this chassis, so upgrading RAM and storage is actually possible. That's rare in 2025 and worth a lot if you're comfortable with a screwdriver. For gaming, the integrated Radeon 660M lands near the bottom of our charts. This is not a gaming laptop, and no amount of RAM will change that.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Pro M5, the ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 loses on raw performance, display quality, and battery life. But it costs a fraction of the price and runs Windows, which matters for plenty of business software. The MSI Prestige PRE13EVOA2088 is lighter and sleeker, but you give up the ThinkPad's keyboard and port selection. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro NP940XHA-KG3US has a gorgeous OLED screen that makes this 45% NTSC panel look sad by comparison, though Samsung's pricing sits higher too.

The ASUS Zenbook Duo UX8406CA-PS99T is a different beast entirely with its dual-screen setup, aimed at multitaskers who want maximum screen real estate. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is the closest philosophical rival: clean Windows experience, good build, but soldered RAM and no Ethernet. If you value repairability and ports over thinness, the ThinkPad makes a strong case for itself.

Pricing on this ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 is all over the map. In the US, we're seeing listings from USD 690 to USD 960 across six vendors, so shopping around genuinely matters. The lowest price we found was USD 690, and at that number this is a compelling budget business machine. In Europe, the spread is even wider: EUR 1,056 to EUR 1,409 across German, Spanish, and Italian retailers. The cheapest EUR listing at EUR 1,056 is the one to chase if you're on that side of the Atlantic. At the high end of either range, you're getting close to machines with more RAM and better displays, so patience pays off.

The Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 is a 16-inch business laptop aimed at folks who need a dependable workhorse without dropping MacBook money. This config pairs an AMD Ryzen 5 7535U with 8GB of DDR5 RAM and a 256GB NVMe SSD, running Windows 11 Pro. It's the kind of machine IT departments order in bulk, but it also shows up on Best Buy shelves for regular shoppers who just want something that won't fall apart in year two.

Is the ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 good for everyday office work? Mostly yes. The six-core Ryzen chip handles spreadsheets, browser tabs, and video calls without breaking a sweat. The 16-inch 1920x1200 display gives you a bit more vertical room than the old 1080p standard, which is nice for documents and web pages. Just don't expect a color-accurate panel. The 45% NTSC coverage means it's fine for email but not for photo editing.

At 1.81kg, this isn't an ultrabook. It's a desktop replacement that can move between rooms without much drama. The port selection is genuinely useful: two USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6. You won't need a dongle for your monitor or wired network, which is more than we can say for a lot of thinner laptops in this price range.

Skip this if you're a gamer, a creative professional who needs accurate colors, or someone who travels constantly and wants all-day battery life. The integrated graphics won't handle modern games, the 45% NTSC panel will frustrate anyone doing photo or video work, and the 1.81kg weight plus 6-hour battery make it a poor road companion. If you need a lighter machine with better battery, look at the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition or the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro. If you need real GPU power, you're better off with a dedicated gaming laptop or a workstation with discrete graphics.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2? If you need a reliable 16-inch Windows laptop for office work, school, or general productivity, and you can find it near the USD 690 mark, yes. The keyboard is comfortable, the port selection is genuinely useful, and the ability to upgrade RAM and storage down the line extends its lifespan in a way most modern laptops don't allow.

But this specific config has real compromises. 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD are tight for 2025, and the display's color coverage is mediocre. If you're planning to do photo or video work, or you want something that lasts a full workday on battery, look elsewhere. For everyone else, this is a dependable machine that does the basics well and won't punish you for keeping it around a few years.