Lenovo and Dell are two of the biggest players in the commercial PC market. The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 and Dell Pro 5 14 are their main offerings for large business customers - we reviewed both.
Even when the consumer PC market is almost frozen due to the high memory prices, business customers will still buy PCs for their employees. After all, in many cases, after the three to five year leasing contracts are up, new hardware is necessary. That makes the commercial PC market ever more attractive for the PC manufacturers, as it represents a steady, dependable revenue stream.
Alongside HP, two of the biggest names of this segment are Lenovo and Dell. Lenovo's ThinkPad line almost stands as a synonym for business laptops as a whole, and Dell of course maintains a strong presence in this market as well, with its Dell Pro laptop line. In the business market, 14 inch is the most common size, and we tested the two mainstream business lines from Dell and Lenovo - the Dell Pro 5 14 and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 7. With our recent review of a high-end variant of the T14 Gen 7, it is high-time for a comparison.
In terms of their design, both are not unlike each other, with a black chassis, though the Dell offers an optional aluminum lid, while Lenovo always uses a Carbon fiber/glass fiber mix. The Dell Pro 5 is slightly heavier and bigger than the ThinkPad, but also thinner. They are equal in ports, upgradeability options and security features, but Lenovo has a user-removable keyboard, as well as the red ThinkPad TrackPoint and dedicated mouse buttons - which the Dell Pro lacks. In return, it has a bigger touchpad.
Only the ThinkPad features an optional 2.8K OLED screen
The ThinkPad clearly wins when it comes to the screen, as our review unit features a 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED option that the Dell Pro 5 14 does not provide. Our sample only contained a more basic WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS panel. There are optional WUXGA OLED panel and 2.5K (2,560 x 1,600) IPS panel options for the Dell Pro, but we would still give the ThinkPad the win here.
Both machines tested contained Intel Panther Lake CPUs, with the Intel Core Ultra 366H in the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 and Intel Core Ultra X7 368H in the Dell Pro 5 14. Both delivered almost the same CPU performance. The X7 CPU wins when it comes to the GPU, which is to be expected; the ThinkPad can also be optionally configured with this CPU. What is different: Dell's laptop ran much louder under load, while both were tied in terms of the heat output. In battery life, the Dell Pro 5 wins, thanks to the more power efficient screen and bigger 70 Wh battery - the ThinkPad we tested contained a 60 Wh battery, but there is an optional 75 Wh one if you need more juice.
Overall, Dell and Lenovo are matched quite evenly in this comparison. According to the rating, we preferred the ThinkPad, thanks to its better keyboard and pointing devices, but there is no doubt the Dell Pro 5 will also serve you well in a laptop fleet. Which one would you prefer?