Lenovo L14 AMD G1, G2, G3: which is the better mobile Ryzen choice for 2023? (the answer is not obvious)
Lenovo has recently announced a new and updated version of their L14 AMD Ryzen notebook: The L14 AMD Gen3 comes with a few updates, which are not all for the better.
There is not a lot of information and only very few reviews out there — a review by notebookcheck, a Reddit thread, and a Twitter discussion. Is the new, updated version of the L14 and the L15 any good? Does it make sense to upgrade, or is it better to get the discounted older and cheaper versions? Read on to get the full picture.
Tldr: get the old L14 Gen2 AMD, as it still is the better choice. Even the Ryzen 5 versions are excellent, with prices around $700 new, and the Ryzen 3 variants can get as cheap as $350 on aftermarkets.
I am a massive fan of Lenovo notebooks, but only for some models (such as the L14 and L15). Other models even of the more expensive lines (T14) don’t let you upgrade your RAM: they are soldered and cannot be extended. Moreover, Lenovo notebooks are Linux certified, which brings an exceptional out-of-the-box Linux experience.
The Lenovo L14 and the L15 are great value for the cheap entry price ($850 in the US for the L14 Gen2 AMD) and they come with full Linux support. I have written several posts about them. You can read my text about the “Quest for a Good AMD Ryzen Notebook With 100% Linux Support”, to get up to speed.
There are some elements you want to change from your stock L14 and L15 notebooks, which are: RAM and the NVMe SSD. Here are my updated suggestions for upgrading any L14 or L15 (as the hardware specs of all generations are almost the same).
RAM
You have to be careful with the RAM you chose, as the information online can be misleading. The L14 and L15 don’t support Intel XMP, so firstly a lot of RAM won’t work in your machine, and secondly you will get other latency as advertised (source). Here are the three RAM kits I can recommend, for a total of 64 GB RAM in any model.
- G.Skill RipJaws DDR4 SO-DIMM Series 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) 260-Pin SO-DIMM DDR4 3200 CL22–22–22–52 1.20V Dual Channel Memory
- Kingston FURY Impact 64 GB (2x32GB) 3200MHz DDR4 CL20
- Corsair Vengeance Performance SODIMM 64 GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL22
Storage upgrade options
Here is the problem I have with the new Lenovo L14 AMD Gen3: they capped the options of SSD drives you can use. They reduced the form factor to M.2 2242, which makes your choices to upgrade very slim. Moreover, the stock NVMe drive comes with significant worse performance than in the L14 Gen2.
Notebookcheck has posted a review about the L14 Gen3 AMD. I am disappointed and will stick to the L14 Gen2 for now, mainly because of the M.2 2280 NVMe support.
To quote notebookcheck “Due to space constraints, a drive with the shorter M.2 2242 form factor had to be used. As a result, the ThinkPad L14 G3’s storage is even slower than the PCIe 3.0 SSD on the predecessor.”
The best SSD drive to upgrade the SSD for the Lenovo L14 G3 currently is the Sabrent Rocket Nano 2 TB, M.2, with theoretical values of 2500 MB/s read speed, and 2100 MB/s write speed.
With the current availability of M2.2242 SSDs, you can either go with the L14 Gen3 and install an M.2 2242 drive on your own — the maximum speeds you can get will be in the 1500 MB/s range. If you are brave, you can mod your L14 Gen3 with an M.2 extender like this one, but certainly hardware modding is not what everyone wants to do.
Conclusion
Lenovo ThinkPad L14 and L15 have not changed by a lot in their basis. This means that even the Ryzen 3 variants of the system are of excellent value ($350 on aftermarkets) and can still be extended in the same way as larger variants.
If you need an affordable and extensible notebook: the first generation of the L14 and L15 are the cheapest of the line you can get, with prices of the Lenovo L14 Gen1 starting at $700 new in the US (see this secondary link to amazon.com). In Europe, the price is even less. $350 is the aftermarket price for the Ryzen 3 version. It will not get a lot cheaper.
If you are in for the performance: Get an L14 Gen2 (or L15 Gen2), update to 64 GB of RAM and install a Kioxia Exceria Plus G2 2 TB SSD (read more about the drive here) for a whopping 3400 MB/s write and 3200 MB/s read speed and 5 years of warranty. The only issue with that drive is that is not available in the states, but you can find it on eBay, as people are using the same drive to upgrade their PlayStation 5.
Please follow me on medium & on Twitter @audiores and let me know in the comments if you have any other feedback or additions to this write-up. You can read more of my hardware and gear suggestion on my list “Tools and services for the Nomad Nerd.
