Lenovo Thinkpad P14s battery life and UEFI/BIOS flashing

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad P14s laptop. It's a sturdy machine and I have a feature-packed model. However, the battery life on first use outdoors has disappointed me! In the end, it turns out that a UEFI flash can improve it. So I decided to write a detailed tutorial on how to flash UEFI and other firmware on a ThinkPad P14s laptop.

The first time I used the ThinPad P14s outdoors, I found that the battery lasted barely 2 hours. That's a big difference from my previous the Tuxedo Pulse 15, which ran on a normal 6 hours.

As a programmer and Linux admin, I focus on optimizations, so I went to see what I could do to optimize the power consumption of my ThinkPad P14s laptop.

Parameters

Categories	Specifications
Processor (CPU)	Intel or AMD
Residential memory (RAM)	Up to 64 GB DDR4 (often 16 GB base, expandable)
Storage	Up to 2 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
Graphic card (GPU)	Integrated (Intel,AMD Radeon) or dedicated NVIDIA
Display	14 inch display typically WUXGA (1920x1200) IPS or others: WQHD (2560x1440), 3K (3072x1920)
Operating System	Windows 11 Pro, Linux (certified for selected distributions)
Ports	USB-C with Thunderbolt, USB-A, HDMI 2.0, RJ45 Ethernet, 3.5mm jack
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Camera	HD webcam with ThinkShutter cover
Sound	Stereo speakers with Dolby Audio
Battery	Fast-charging lithium-ion battery
Security	Fingerprint reader, IR face recognition camera, TPM 2.0 chip
Dimensions and weight	Approximately 32.9 x 22.7 x 1.79 cm, weight from 1.47 kg

Video

Video tour of Lenovo ThinkPad P14s:

Background

I bought the model with AMD CPU with the highest equipment: 2TB NVME storage, 64GB RAM, 2880 x 1800 pixel resolution. For a complete HW listing, see lshw listing of the ThinPad P14s.

lspci listing:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e8
00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14e9
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ea
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ea
00:02.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ee
00:02.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ee
00:02.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ee
00:03.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ea
00:03.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 19h USB4/Thunderbolt PCIe tunnel
00:04.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ea
00:04.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 19h USB4/Thunderbolt PCIe tunnel
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ea
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14eb
00:08.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14eb
00:08.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14eb
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 71)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14f7
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0e)
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc QCNFA765 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: SK hynix Platinum P41/PC801 NVMe Solid State Drive
c4:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 1900 (rev d2)
c4:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio Controller
c4:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 19h (Model 74h) CCP/PSP 3.0 Device
c4:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15b9
c4:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15ba
c4:00.5 Multimedia controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor (rev 63)
c4:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller
c5:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ec
c5:00.1 Signal processing controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1502
c6:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 14ec
c6:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15c0
c6:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 15c1
c6:00.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Pink Sardine USB4/Thunderbolt NHI controller #1
c6:00.6 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Pink Sardine USB4/Thunderbolt NHI controller #2

Listing of the lsusb program:

 Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 5986:1199 Bison Electronics Inc. Integrated Camera
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 06cb:00f9 Synaptics, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 2ce3:9563 Generic EMV Smartcard Reader
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 10ab:9309 USI Co., Ltd.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Consumption

I used the powertop program. And it turns out that the computer, when when running on battery power, it normally consumes 15-29W. Which is a lot for a laptop in 2025!

Flash BIOS/UEFI

My one rule of thumb is: when a new device comes into my hands, it's a good idea to flash the firmware to the latest version. So I visited Lenovo's site and searched for the latest BIOS version. Strictly speaking, this notebook already has UEFI.

If you are interested in the details of how UEFI boot works see my article How to boot from a 4TB drive with GTP using UEFI.

There was a version available online at Lenovo's website: R2LET33W (1.14 ) (released 04/18/2025 )
On my laptop according to the listing lshw was version: R2LET30W (1.11 ) (release date: 11/11/2024).

On the website support lenovo can be tracked down by serial number all files such as manuals, drivers and the latest UEFI firmware.

Download the ISO image here, which should boot from the CD/DVD drive.....

Bootable USB flash memory

Because the ThinPad P14s laptop does not have a CD/DVD drive and I personally do not have an external USB CD/DVD drive, it's generally best to use a USB flash drive. However, the downloaded ISO cannot be used as a bootable USB flash memory. (Linux distributions typically format their CD/DVD ISO images so that they are more glowing to be used as bootable USB flash drives. )

You can use a tool/script to create a bootable USB flash memory: geteltorito.pl
Use the following command to convert the ISO downloaded from Lenovo's website into a bootable disk image.

$ perl geteltorito.pl r2luj33wd.iso > r2luj33wd.iso.img

(I've also tried genisoimage, but it only creates an ISO image.)

Writing an IMG file to a USB flash drive

You can use the dd program to write a disk image (IMG file) to a USB flash drive, which is included with most Linux operating systems. Before you start, make sure you know what the designation of your USB drive (for example, /dev/sdb). The example below shows how to write a r2luj33wd.iso.img file to a /dev/sdc USB drive. The command must be run with superuser privileges.

dd if=./r2luj33wd.iso.img of=/dev/sdc bs=4M status=progress

Flashing USB flash memory

After restarting the laptop and booting from USB, the following screen appears:
And you can start the process of flashing the UEFI and other firmware on the laptop.

Consumption after UEFI upgrade

After reflashing UEFI (formerly known as BIOS) and another firmware update, power consumption decreased, leading to a increase in battery life.

After successfully reflashing UEFI, the laptop's power consumption decreased to approximately 9-15 W. Which is represented by the following measurement and screenshot of the powertop program:

Power from another source

Before the UEFI upgrade, when I powered the laptop via USB-C converter, the laptop was discharging because the 12V converter wasn't able to deliver enough power.
After the UEFI upgrade, the laptop's power consumption while running on battery dropped. And in this compination, the USB-C converter at an input voltage of 12V to supply enough power to keep the laptop from discharging. However, it will not charge. To charge it, I either have to put it to sleep or have 19V input

Batteries

The battery has a big impact on the life of a laptop without an electrical outlet. If battery life is important to you, decide on the capacity of the battery!

Laptop The TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen2 has a 91W-hour battery. Therefore, it can normally last 6hrs of full work while running on battery. In addition, the HW has probably been better optimized for power consumption and for Linux .

The Lenovo ThinkPad with AMD CPU has a 50W throw battery. Which is not much.
Yet in the same model with CPU Intel they install a battery with a capacity of 70W hod. Which means that the model with the Intel CPU will probably run longer on the battery. I don't understand this double standard. Maybe this is some kind of targeted discrimination against AMD CPU models.

Laptop power consumption in different modes

I have randomly measured the power consumption of the laptop in order to find out, to see how different uses affect overall consumption. The results show that even small changes in settings or usage can have a measurable impact on power consumption power consumption. Here are my results from the measurements:

Obviously, active use of more demanding applications such as web browsers has the biggest impact on power consumption. Reducing the load on the processor and graphics card, for example, when working only in the text console, leads to a significant drop in consumption. Another important factor is the backlighting of the display. Even reducing the brightness to a minimum resulted in savings, and turning it off completely when the laptop is running essentially headless mode, has further reduced consumption. The conclusions from the measurements suggest that limiting more than just running applications is key to maximizing battery life, but also to optimise the display settings.

Links

More links about ThinkPad P14s:

• https://www.bovender.de/posts/2024/08/experience-with-running-fedora-linux-on-a-thinkpad-p14s-gen-5/
• https://ounapuu.ee/posts/2024/04/12/lenovo-p14s-gen4/
• https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile-Workstations/P14s-Battery-life/m-p/5144036?page=3
• https://linuxblog.io/thinkpad-t14s-gen-3-amd-linux-user-review-tweaks/