Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook Review
by Dustin Sklavos on May 15, 2013 12:01 AM ESTDisplay Quality
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty happy to be getting notebooks in for review that don't have lousy 1366x768 panels. I desperately want to believe this is the direction the notebook market is heading in, though a pair of $1,500+ notebooks don't really constitute a trend, and I'll be a lot happier when $600 notebooks have gotten past 1366x768.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon employs a 14" 1600x900 display standard; Lenovo lists it as "wide viewing angle" but it's still most definitely a TN panel. That said, viewing angles are definitely good, and it exhibits none of the "no sweet spot" issues that plague lower quality displays. Lenovo's pseudo-glossy finish isn't as brilliant as typical glossy finishes are, but it's also not as reflective.
The X1 Carbon's display quality is acceptable, but take a look at the contrast graph to get a really good idea of how much of a difference spending just a little more on a display can make. The HP Folio's display has such horrible black levels that its contrast ratio is actually lower than its maximum brightness. Meanwhile, the X1 Carbon has a display that's both lovely and functional, and 1600x900 is about right for a 14" panel before you get into having to mess with the broken dpi settings in Windows.
Battery Life
While most of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon's user experience is at least solid, battery life is one area where it falls horribly short. That Lenovo doesn't offer any extended battery option of any kind turns out to be a major problem.
The X1 Carbon's battery life isn't horrible, but it's way out on the bottom end of competitive. Dell's two "prosumer" XPS notebooks both offer superior efficiency and running time, and the XPS 13 in particular can offer you a stellar 1080p IPS display in the process.
Heat and Noise
Sporting a larger chassis than most Ultrabooks, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is able to do a fantastic job of keeping the ultra low voltage Core i5 running cool. There's definitely a high-pitched whine to the fan when it spins up, but it's not especially loud under extreme, sustained load.
Thermally the X1 Carbon is almost boxing under its weight. None of the surfaces of the chassis get hot, and it's actually difficult to get either core of the i5 to break 70C. I think you could probably make a case for using a higher powered CPU in the Carbon's chassis, but I'm honestly happy just to see a notebook that not only doesn't have heat issues, it doesn't even flirt with them.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
91 Comments
View All Comments
gobaers - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Lenovo needs to fork their Thinkpad line into two, one for enterprise (what "Thinkpad" used to be) and one for consumer/prosumer. I thought the "Thinkpad Edge" branding would have been good for this. Taken as such, this should be called the "Thinkpad Edge X1."If they want to keep using "Thinkpad" the way they have been the past few years, why not separate out a line called "Thinkpad Pro" for diehards like me? Give us an X series, a couple T series, and a workstation replacement W series. Give us the keyboard back, magnesium rollcage design, IPS displays, charge $1800 for it. Roll back the numbers a bit; I want mine to be called Thinkpad Pro T30s. It has Haswell.
A guy can dream...
Mumrik - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Dustin, I have a suggestion.Anandtech is a general hardware site, so you don't have to review all laptops. How about just making it a rule that you unless special circumstances are in place simply won't review laptops with 1366x768 or lower resolution?
JFish222 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Stay Away!I purchased 2 of these for my company (about 3 months apart.)
Normally I would never buy a non-upgradable & difficult to service laptop for the company, but what management wants . . .
The newer of the two laptops had its battery stop holding a charge after about 6 months of use. The older unit's battery stopped holding a charge 5 days after the 1yr warranty expired. Lenovo will not replace it and referred us to a local 3rd party service center (who wants ~$600).
I can't speak on the newer unit, but the older unit that just crapped out shows 84 cycles on the battery. The only good thing out of the whole mess: Management will stop arguing with me when I say no (for now at least). A T430S is close in weight and size, and lacks the repair / mid-cycle upgrade headaches that are sure to happen in any environment.
How they every marketed this to businesses is beyond me!
PS: Only good thing about Lenovo (besides the T series) is they document the hell out of everything. Replacing the batt. will be a headache, but is doable. Anyone who's repaired a laptop shouldn't have to much difficulty, and the service manual tells you exactly what components to remove to get to it.
some_guy - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
This is the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks.I am still waiting for something that is closer to my T60 notebooks with the 4:3 SXGA+, nice keyboard, TrackPoint, and runs Linux, though some compromise seems necessary. Perhaps the next version of the Chromebook Pixel.
Belard - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
Nobody is making 4:3 screens. 16:10 was fine... but now its 16:9... it sucks. And when I'm ready for the next monitor upgrade... it will be 16:9 ugh... but it will be at least 2560x1400 res (I'd like for it to be 2560x1600 thou)... and be only 27" to get the higher dot pitch.jmsb - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
"stopped holding a charge 5 days after the 1yr warranty expired"The x1 carbon has only been out since August 2012 - 9 months at best.
Belard - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
There are other Carbon series notebooks.eviljav - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
The keyboard layout is terrible. The should put page up and page down back in the top right corner, in a block with delete, home, & end.CrazyElf - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
Yeah, it's really the price that kills this laptop. It's not a bad laptop per se, but for the money ... it's really hard to justify.One huge advantage I suppose of getting this over the Mac is that laptops like these are more durable - Lenovo Thinkpads in general are well built (although their cooling solutions could be better). I think they do pass MIL-SPEC 810F (not 100% on this one).
Battery is just so, so. And for the price they ask, I expect a better LCD panel.
CrazyElf - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
I wonder if they cheaped out on the battery - not able to hold a charge after only a handful of cycles. This is an example of saving a few dollars here and there for a laptop that costs over a thousand dollars.