My 14” Lenovo T490 laptop broke, so I bought a 16” T16 Intel gen2 to replace it. I chose Intel instead of AMD at least because it was required for the highest resolution screen, and I think it mattered for memory configuration as well.

I’ve found the 14” to be a little limiting when doing FreeCAD work, and while doing parametric CAD it’s really nice to have a numeric keypad. I’m having a bit of trouble getting used to the offset keyboard on the T16, but I think it will end up being a good tradeoff in the end. And I could not buy the same screen on a T14 that I had on my T490.

I could not find any information online about running Linux on this hardware. It was released only a few months ago. So I thought I’d report that running Fedora 37 (at this time) everything so far seems to work, including WiFi and the webcam, which I guess isn’t one of the MIPI IPU6 cameras from Intel that do not have upstream support on Linux, and aren’t expected to for years. Sleep and resume work fine.

It appears to use the same motherboard as the T14 gen4, so there is a good chance but no guarantee that this will apply equally to those systems.

I don’t have the fingerprint reader, smart card, or WWAN to test Linux with.

I moved my existing SSD over from the T490 to the T16. I did have to configure in BIOS to trust third party certificates signed by Microsoft before secure boot would work. That was the only change I needed to make to boot Linux.

Lenovo did not offer this machine without Windows, so I have a Windows license for it. However, I never booted it on this system.

I’m sad that there’s no microSD slot any more. On the broken T490, I used a 1TB microSD as a local backup target. Now I need to figure out what to do for local backups, or whether I give up and say network backups are enough. I will try a low-profile microSD USB-A USB-3.0 adapter and see whether leaving it in place permanently is feasible.

Some hardware information:

$ lsusb -t
/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 10000M
/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/12p, 480M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 2, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 3, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 4, Class=Application Specific Interface, Driver=, 480M
    |__ Port 10: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
    |__ Port 10: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/3p, 20000M/x2
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device a708 (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics] (rev 04)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device a71d (rev 01)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a74d (rev 01)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a76e (rev 01)
00:07.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a72f (rev 01)
00:0d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a71e (rev 01)
00:0d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a73e (rev 01)
00:0d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a76d (rev 01)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH USB 3.2 xHCI Host Controller (rev 01)
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH Shared SRAM (rev 01)
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Device 51f1 (rev 01)
00:15.0 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 01)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH HECI Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 519d (rev 01)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 51ca (rev 01)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH-P SMBus Host Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-P PCH SPI Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Device 0dc6 (rev 01)
02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983

Here’s an abbreviated summary of my custom order in case it helps:

  • Processor 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1355U Processor
  • Total Memory 16 GB DDR5-5200MHz (Soldered)
    • Augmented with “Crucial RAM 32GB DDR5 5200MT/s (or 4800MT/s) Laptop Memory CT32G52C42S5” — note that after adding this, the system blinks ESC/F1/F4 with a dark screen for a while as it adjusts to its new memory. It does finish booting after a couple minutes. This is documented in the HMM
  • Solid State Drive 256 GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal
    • This is a Western Digital PC SN740, which I have removed but can replace if I need to return for service
    • Replaced with the Samsung 970 EVO Plus pulled from my dying T490
  • Display 16” WQUXGA (3840 x 2400), OLED, Anti-Reflection/Anti-Smudge, Non-Touch, HDR 500, 100%DCI-P3, 400 nits
  • Graphic Card Integrated Intel® UHD Graphics
  • Camera 5MP RGB+IR with Microphone
  • Wireless Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 AX & Bluetooth® 5.1 or above
  • Integrated Mobile Broadband No Wireless WAN
  • Ethernet Wired Ethernet
  • Fingerprint Reader No Fingerprint Reader
  • System Expansion Slots No Smart Card Reader
  • TPM Setting Enabled Discrete TPM2.0
  • Battery 4 Cell Li-Polymer 86Wh
  • Power Cord 135W USB-C Slim 90% PCC 3pin AC Adapter - US
    • This is the only adapter supplied if the larger battery is selected, but it’s still possible to charge from a 65W adapter more slowly.