Lenovo ThinkPad E14
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 32 of 63 laptops by recommenders
People recommend it as a cheap, repairable laptop with long battery life and good Linux support. Common caveats: weak display and soldered ports.
People recommend it as a cheap, repairable laptop with long battery life and good Linux support. Common caveats: weak display and soldered ports.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Repairable with modular storage and memory
“the ThinkPad wins on modular storage, modular memory, battery replacement is dead simple”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Lenovo's New ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability” “They are good machines that run Linux well and can be repaired.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine” “it has a repairability score of 9/10 from ifixit”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12” Long battery life
“I am getting a bit more than 10 hours from a cheap ThinkPad E14 Gen7, with a 64 Wh battery”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Asahi Linux with Sway on the MacBook Air M2” “very happy with it. No problems with performance, battery, etc. at all.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M” “has battery life of >24h (reading/typing in vim)”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Spirit of ThinkPad” Good value for the price
“I can get ThinkPad E14 with a decent lunar lake CPU and 16 gigabytes of memory, at a slightly lower price.”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo” “as an owner of a similar Lenovo, that's top bang for the buck”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12” “significantly better at less than half the price”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14: Lenovo's Most Repairable Ultraportable” Works well with Linux and docks
“Everything else just worked, including my docking station and ultra wide monitor.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “VA Linux: The biggest dotcom IPO” “They are good machines that run Linux well and can be repaired.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak 60% sRGB display
“comes with garbage 60% srgb screen”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo” “the ThinkPad display kind of sucks”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo”
Other laptops people recommend
The four most recommended other laptops, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro | 928 | 688 | 57% | 13 | 5 yrs248 owners | — |
| Apple MacBook Neo | 707 | 355 | 66% | 9 | 1 mo8 owners | — |
| MacBook Air | 633 | 209 | 75% | 12 | 5 yrs130 owners | Approved |
| Apple MacBook | 499 | 348 | 59% | 12 | 9 yrs77 owners | — |
| Lenovo ThinkPad E14This page | 12 | 6 | 67% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“very happy with it. No problems with performance, battery, etc. at all.”
“as an owner of a similar Lenovo, that's top bang for the buck”
“it has a repairability score of 9/10 from ifixit”
“There's no grip, there's no feedback, you just kind of put a cable somewhere in them”
“the soldered ports for the Thinkpad are a pretty big downside”
“They are good machines that run Linux well and can be repaired.”
“the ThinkPad display kind of sucks”
“comes with garbage 60% srgb screen”
“I can get ThinkPad E14 with a decent lunar lake CPU and 16 gigabytes of memory, at a slightly lower price.”
“It stopped receiving firmware updates after two years.”
“the ThinkPad wins on modular storage, modular memory, battery replacement is dead simple”
“I think it's hard to argue that difference between the two is worth going from a 4/10 to a 9/10.”
“has battery life of >24h (reading/typing in vim)”
“significantly better at less than half the price”
“I can do all of that on my Thinkpad E14.”
“I am getting a bit more than 10 hours from a cheap ThinkPad E14 Gen7, with a 64 Wh battery”
“something like thinkpad e14 might also have been a good candidate instead”
“Everything else just worked, including my docking station and ultra wide monitor.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.