Lenovo ThinkPad L15 G4 Review: An affordable mid-range upgrade

Lenovo is back with an affordable enterprise convertible laptop line in the ThinkPad L15 Gen 4, but does affordable translate into feature-lacking in 2024?

It needs to be said that Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup is often gifted to employees more than sought after by individuals of their own free will.

Typically, when employers hand out ThinkPad’s, they do so at the behest of IT Admins who deem the devices’ purpose oriented and suitable for the task at hand.

Lenovo updates its most down-the-line laptop with features checklist that should aid it in 2024 for the same low price as it was in 2023 and 2022.

SPECS

Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 4

Processor	13th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-1315U Processor (E-Core Max 3.30 GHz, P-Core Max 4.50 GHz with Turbo Boost, 6 Cores, 8 Threads, 10 MB Cache) 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-1335U Processor (E-Core Max 3.40 GHz, P-Core Max 4.60 GHz with Turbo Boost, 10 Cores, 12 Threads, 12 MB Cache) 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-1345U Processor with vPro® (E-Core Max 3.50 GHz, P-Core Max 4.70 GHz with Turbo Boost, 10 Cores, 12 Threads, 12 MB Cache) 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1355U Processor (E-Core Max 3.70 GHz, P-Core Max 5.00 GHz with Turbo Boost, 10 Cores, 12 Threads, 12 MB Cache) 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1365U Processor with vPro® (E-Core Max 3.90 GHz, P-Core Max 5.20 GHz with Turbo Boost, 10 Cores, 12 Threads, 12 MB Cache)
Operating System	Windows 11 Pro Windows 11 Home
Display	15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, touchscreen, antiglare, 300 nits, 45% NTSC 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, antiglare, 250 nits, 45% NTSC
Storage	Up to 2TB PCIe SSD Gen 4
Graphics	Optional: Intel® Iris® Xe Integrated Intel® UHD
Camera	HD 720p RGB with webcam privacy shutter FHD 1080p RGB with webcam privacy shutter FHD 1080p & infrared (IR) hybrid with webcam privacy shutter
Memory	Up to 32GB LPDDR5 (4800Mhz) dual channel, soldered
Dimensions	19.93 mm x 360.2 mm x 237 mm / 0.78″ x 14.18″ x 9.33″
Audio	Dolby Audio™ Dolby Voice® 2 x far-field mics 2 x speakers
Weight	Starting at 1.77kg / 3.9lbs
Color	Thunder Black
Ports/Slots	Intel® Thunderbolt™ 4 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 HDMI 2.1 supporting resolution up to 4K@60Hz Ethernet (RJ45) Headphone / mic combo MicroSD card reader Optional: SIM slot Optional: Smart card reader
Battery	46.5Whr 57Whr Supports Rapid Charge (up to 80% in 60 minutes) with 65W adapter
What’s in the box	ThinkPad L15 Gen 4 (15″ Intel) 65W adapter (supports Rapid Charge) Internal Battery Quick Start Guide

Design

Lenovo updated its L15-series chassis two years ago with the L15 Gen 2 that leaned into its wedge shape, tapered edges, and brushed aluminum exterior lid finish.

Once again, the L15 carries the coveted MIL-Spec certification of MIL-STD 810H which hosts a battery of elemental and environmental torture test to help ruggedize the laptop line.

Despite its plasticky feel, the L15 is said to be resistant to certain levels of shock, vibration, sand, water, and temperature extremes.

The 15-inch lid to the L15 is smooth to the touch albeit a bit flexy if you’re gripping from the edges or attempting a one-finger open.

Both the lid and the bottom of the laptop feel like they are made of the same plastic material but does help the L15 feel a bit lighter than its previous versions.

Customers also have either a HD (720p) or FHD (1080p) resolution webcam that sits behind a manual shutter and an IR camera enabling Windows Hello facial recognition for one of two ways to bio authenticate on the device. The other bio authentication method on the L15 is through the embedded fingerprint reader in the circular power button on the keyboard deck.

Ports

The L15 is among the most versatile port machines Lenovo offers supporting a full HDMI slot, Ethernet, Smartcard, USB-C, Thunderbolt 4, two Type-A 3.2, microSD, and audio/mic combo jack.

Beyond the side ports, there is a back slot for optional support of a mobile broadband SIM, as well as connectivity with Wi-Fi6E and Bluetooth 5.1.

Keyboard

The backlit keyboard on the L15 is identical to other ThinkPad experiences over the past five years with a similar 1.5mm key travel, U-shaped chiclet keys with nicely separated areas between each button.

There is the addition of Microsoft Teams chat keys that help customers start and end Teams calls as well as jump into chats, which reside next to the function keys at the top of the keyboard deck.

The trackpad on the L15 feels bit squished at the bottom of the bottom of the keyboard deck with roughly a half-inch distance between the mouse and the edge of the laptop.

Lenovo maintains its mechanical trackpad design which means customers will still need to dig into the corners to register clicks unlike other devices that are moving toward haptic trackpads.

Display

The 15.6-inch panel of the L15 uses an aging 16:9 aspect ratio screen that utilizes IPS or OLED technologies depending on the configuration. Customers can get an L15 with a screen that supports 250 of 300 nits of brightness.

Colors on the 1920×1080 resolution screen are middling at best due to a combination of a matte screen and a panel with relatively low light performance.

Performance

The L15 isn’t a barnstormer of a performant laptop and there isn’t much to write home about even though it’s sporting an Inte 13-Gen Core processor. Even with support of up to a Core i7-1365U processor with vPro that has both E and P core maxes of up to 3.90GHz and 5.20Gz respectively pushing through ten cores and twelve threads, the performance of the L15 is par for the course.

Typical workloads that consist of basic to average data processing such as working through Word, Excel, PowerPoint, web-based apps, and web browsing all move smoothly along the device.

More complicated tasks such as jumping back and forth between a multitude of browser tabs, light photo editing, and even some video conferencing apps when paired with filtering effects can get the fans on this device to fire up.

While it sounds like the device is pushing the limits when the fans come on, the L15 remains relatively cool and still decently performant. It is not until attempting light video editing, reviewing macro-enabled Excel docs, hefty PowerPoint decks or web apps with plugins does the system start to stutter.

Lenovo continues to pair many of its laptops with Intel Iris Xe GPUs which don’t offer much in the way of gaming or rendering support so playing video games and exporting video content from the devices are practically a no-go.

Using software such as Davinci Resolve is nice on the L15 but that boils down to the apps optimizations as Adobe Premiere stutters, lags and crashes when scrolling through a timeline filled with cuts, filters, and effects.

As is the case with Intel’s 13th Gen processors, the Raptor Lake lineup runs a bit hotter than previous generations and could be the negating factor for the average battery life of the laptop.

The onboard Lenovo Vantage software which acts as a middle manager of performance for the laptop can only eke out a bit of extra battery life with some extreme settings put into place.

The L15 comes up shorter than its competitor, the Dell XPS 15, by about 30 mins as it logs 6 hours of moderate use and 3:15 mins of heavy use. When used lightly for tasks such as email triage (more specifically via a web browser), HD video playback, or simple web browsing, the L15 can last one and a half days under working hours, roughly 13 hours.

Summary

As this review title states, the L15 is an affordable upgrade but perhaps an overlooked purchase. The L15 checks many of the standard features listed for a modern laptop in 2023-2024 but does with minimum performance benefits.

The L15 maintaining its 16:9 aspect ratio in the face of a growing wave of 16:10 or even 3:2 devices make the laptop feel further antiquated along with its dimly light panel.

Typing on the device is just as comfortable as every other Lenovo ThinkPad and the port selection is second to none when compared to other relatively thin laptops. The added Microsoft Teams control buttons will be a plus for organizations utilizing the enterprise chat platform.

Businesses will be able to slot the L15 into as a replacement for ageing devices in the office, but I doubt many will probably even notice.