Business laptops –– they’re durable, secure and mighty expensive. Or are they? Realizing that not every mobile professional has the means to afford a top-tier business laptop, Lenovo is introducing its L-series of ThinkPad devices.
Available in Q2 at a starting price of $649, Lenovo is rolling out four value-targeted business notebooks: the L13 ($699), L14 ($649), L15 ($649) and L13 Yoga ($799).
- In the market for another Lenovo laptop? Check out our Best Lenovo Laptops page.
- See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (Gen. 4 OLED) review, it's an absolute stunner.
I know what you’re thinking –– value equals compromise. That’s not necessarily the case with the L-Series. The L14 can be outfitted with an optional aluminum lid. The bases of the systems are constructed from ABS plastic while the L13 Yoga is sporting an aluminum-magnesium alloy lid with a plastic base. The L13 and L15 are completely made of ABS plastic. Due to these lightweight materials, the 0.7-inch L13 is the lightest of the bunch at 3.1 pounds, while the 0.8-inch L15 is the heaviest at 4.4 pounds.
Regarding security, each of the laptops comes equipped with several security features including a dTPM 2.0 chip, a fingerprint scanner, an infrared camera and the ThinkShutter, a physical camera shutter to guard against prying eyes.
With the exception of the L13 Yoga, L-Series laptops have up to 3 display options. The L14, for example can range between an HD, 220-nit panel up to a FHD, 300 nit-display. As for the Yoga, it has a 13.3-inch, IPS, 300-nit touch panel. The convertible also has an integrated rechargeable pen which sets it apart from its brethren.
As far as specs go, each of the laptops can be configured with a Core i3, i5 or i7 10th-gen Intel vPro processor. But both the L14 and 15 also offer the option of AMD Ryzen Pro 4000 Mobile processors and RAM up to 32GB. The L13 and Yoga are limited to 16GB of RAM. For storage, each of the laptops offers up to a 1TB SSD, but the L14 and 15 also have a 2TB hard drive.
And while the L-Series looks good on paper, we’ll reserve our final judgement until we get the laptops into our lab for testing.
