Lenovo ThinkVision M14t review: A pricey portable monitor with touch

Best Prices Today: Lenovo ThinkVision M14t

Buying a portable monitor is incredibly easy, or surprisingly difficult, depending on your needs. There’s lots of inexpensive portable monitors on Amazon, and some are quite good for the price. But if you want more specific features, like a touchscreen, stylus, or a display with above-average sharpness, your options begin to narrow. The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t caters to those looking for such extras, though it charges a high price for them.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 specs and features

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t is a 14-inch widescreen portable monitor. That’s a common size, but a few specifics stand out. This is a 16:10 display, not 16:9, which provides a bit more vertical space. It also provides a resolution of 2240×1400, which is quite a bit higher than the 1080p resolution common to budget 14-inch portable monitors. Finally, the display is a touchscreen, and it’s bundled with a passive stylus (Lenovo’s active pens are supported, too, but must be purchased separately).

• Display size: 14-inch 16:10 widescreen
• Native resolution: 2240×1400
• Panel type: IPS 10-point capacitive touchscreen
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Adaptive sync: None
• HDR: None
• Ports: 2x USB-C with DisplayPort and up to 65 watts USB Power Delivery
• VESA mount: 100x100mm
• Speakers: None
• Price: $400 (approximate)

The monitor is mostly sold through retailers that cater to enterprise customers, like CDW, and is relatively expensive at nearly $400. That’s a high price for a 14-inch portable monitor, though not out of line with top-tier options like the Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best portable monitors to learn about competing products.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 design

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t is part of the company’s “Think” brand, which includes the famous ThinkPad — so, unsurprisingly, it looks a lot like a ThinkPad. That means an all-black design with a grippy, soft-touch coat on the backside of the display panel. The coat readily shows fingerprints, but also makes the display easier to handle and less likely to slip or slide on uneven surfaces.

A stand is built into the bottom half of the M14t. It folds up against the back of the display when not in use and, when needed, can rotate up to 90 degrees. That means the display can accommodate any position from flat on a desk to perfectly upright, which is about as wide a range of adjustment as a portable monitor can offer.

Less expensive portable monitors, like the Arzopa A1 Gamut, often use the display cover as a prop for the monitor itself, providing a much more limited range of viewing angles. The M14t has an edge against the Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED, which also has a built-in stand, but can’t sit upright in the same way as the Lenovo.

For protection, Lenovo ships the M14t with a soft fabric sleeve. It looks nice and offers some cushion against bumps. I would prefer a cover that can clip over the top of the display, but the sleeve does the job, and owners who planned to use a sleeve anyway might prefer it.

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t ships with a stylus designed to work with Windows and Android/Chrome devices (Mac support is not listed, and did not function in my testing). The bundle’s stylus is passive, however, so it’s not precise and only works well for jotting down an occasional note or tapping a touch button in an app. Lenovo says the M14t is also compatible with the company’s active pens, which are much more precise, but you’ll need to buy the active pen separately (they’re typically around $50).

The stand offers enough stability to accept touch input at angles up to about 60 degrees. Beyond that, the stylus still functions, but trying to draw or write towards the top half of the display can cause it to wobble backwards.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 connectivity and menus

Lenovo provides just two ports on the ThinkVision M14t: a pair of USB-C ports with DisplayPort and up to 65 watts of USB Power Delivery. That means both ports can be used as a video input and/or to charge the M14t.

Lenovo does not ship the M14t with a USB power brick, so you’ll need to rely on the USB Power Delivery capabilities of the computer you use with the M14t or use a third-party power adapter. The M14t’s specifications quote a maximum power draw of about 10 watts, though, so most USB ports with Power Delivery should be able to handle it, as will most USB-C chargers.

The monitor’s on-screen menu system is unique and excellent. Instead of relying on buttons to navigate the menu, which is often fiddly, tapping the menu button opens a touchscreen menu in the monitor’s lower right quarter. It’s responsive and easy to use. There’s not a ton of menu options to change, however: The monitor only provides vague color temperature controls and doesn’t have gamma presets.

What it does have, though, is a wake-on-touch function and an auto rotation function. Both are excellent for a touchscreen portable monitor. You can use a touch to wake the monitor, if desired, and easily swap between portrait and landscape orientations.

Just be warned that portrait orientation is a bit awkward, as the stand does not tilt in that direction (meaning that, in portrait mode, you can only position the monitor upright 90 degrees or flat on a surface — unless you use a third-party stand, of course). Portrait mode will also obstruct one of the USB-C ports, and will leave the other positioned in an awkward angle. Lenovo did give this some thought, though, and compromises with an included 90-degree USB-C adapter that makes the USB-C cable a bit less obtrusive in portrait mode.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 SDR image quality

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t doesn’t make any big claims about its image quality. It doesn’t support HDR, it quotes a contrast ratio of just 1500:1, and it only promises to cover 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut (which is the least impressive of modern color gamut standards). That’s not to say the monitor’s image quality is bad — but it is more focused on sharpness and functionality than wow factor.

I measured a maximum SDR brightness of only 250 nits, which isn’t great. The touchscreen is glossy, too, so glare can easily overwhelm the monitor if it’s used in a brightly lit room. Using the monitor outdoors, or near large sunlit windows, borders on impossible.

Many portable monitors have similar problems. Increasing brightness increases power draw, which is an issue for a portable display. Still, buyers should keep this in mind when thinking about how they’ll use the M14t. It’s best in a room with light control.

The M14t achieved a contrast ratio of 1880:1 at 50 percent of maximum brightness. That’s actually not bad for a monitor with an IPS touchscreen, and it’s enough to deliver a good sense of depth and immersion when using the monitor in a lit room. OLED monitors, like the Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED, deliver a much better contrast ratio, but the M14t’s contrast is fine for day-to-day productivity.

Color gamut is a weak spot for the M14t. It can cover the entire sRGB color gamut, but only 79 percent of DCI-P3 and 77 percent of AdobeRGB. That is a rather limited color gamut, and it means the M14t can’t display as many colors overall as its competition. OLED portable monitors have a serious edge, and provide a vivid, punchy image that’s more alluring than what the M14t achieves.

Foundry / Matt Smith

Foundry / Matt Smith

Foundry / Matt Smith

While the M14t can’t display an impressive range of color, the colors it can display are much more accurate than typical for a portable monitor. The monitor’s average color error is close enough to perfect that most people won’t notice color imperfections. The sole exception is blue and cyan hues, which had a color error much higher than all other colors. Still, most people will find the M14t’s presentation realistic.

This is helped by the monitor’s gamma curve of 2.2 and color temperature of 6300K. The gamma curve is exactly on-target, and it means that content displayed on the monitor will not look brighter or darker than it should. The color temperature of 6300K is a bit warmer than our target of 6500K, but not so much that it’s a problem. With that said, the M14t doesn’t have any gamma adjustments and only four color temperature adjustments, which might be a problem if you want to change the gamma or color temperature to your preference.

Sharpness is clearly the M14t’s greatest strength. The 14-inch 16:10 panel provides a resolution of 2240×1400, which works out to roughly 189 pixels per inch. That’s a higher pixel density than a 27-inch 4K monitor. Video looks ultra-sharp and small text is surprisingly legible with no noticeable pixelation around high-contrast edges at a normal viewing distance. It’s a super-crisp experience.

On the whole, the M14t seems more interested in nailing the basics of image quality, like sharpness and accuracy, than stretching to provide a more alluring, vivid display. That’s a reasonable decision, as the M14t is pitched as a portable monitor for productivity and business. However, competitors like the Innocn 15A1F and the ViewSonic VP16-OLED deliver a much wider color gamut and better contrast at a similar price, though at the expense of a softer 1080p image.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 motion performance

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 makes no claims that would hint at superior motion performance. It’s a 60Hz IPS panel and doesn’t support adaptive sync.

Motion clarity isn’t great. Scrolling test images from games like DOTA 2 and League of Legends showed that character silhouettes and map details were difficult to make out, while the names and hitpoint bars above characters were impossible to read. This is typical performance for a 60Hz monitor with an IPS display, but it’s still not great.

Lenovo’s one concession to entertainment is an “Extreme” response-time mode. It does slightly offer a tad more motion clarity, but this feels like trying to split hairs. The improvement isn’t enough to make fast motion any more legible.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2?

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 is a solid option if you need a portable monitor with touchscreen support. It has several strong features including a fold-out stand with a significant range of adjustment, a bundled stylus, and a 16:10 aspect ratio with a resolution of 2240×1400. The M14t’s image quality doesn’t stand out, though, and its price tag of nearly $400 feels steep. The M14t Gen 2 is best for people who aren’t overly concerned about color gamut or contrast but instead need a reliable, versatile portable touchscreen monitor.