Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook Review
by Dustin Sklavos on May 15, 2013 12:01 AM ESTSystem Performance
By this point, Ivy Bridge is old hat. We have a fairly common ultra low voltage Intel Core i5 and a speedy Intel SSD; no dedicated graphics required. This isn't Lenovo's fault, it's just the result of catching a product this late in the refresh cycle. Performance testing winds up being more of a sanity check to make sure everything is running smoothly.
That said, I did run into a hiccup during testing. In BIOS, the CPU was set to "Battery Optimized," which locked it at 600MHz. The setting labeled "Maximum Performance" actually just allows the CPU to turbo the way it's been designed to, and I feel it's worth pointing out that the "Battery Optimized" mode actually had worse running time than "Maximum Performance." This is easy enough to explain; modern processors are designed to finish tasks and go idle as soon as possible, so capping the CPU's top speed prevents it from doing exactly that and forces it to work longer.
System and CPU testing yields absolutely no surprises; the ThinkPad X1 Carbon's i5-3427U falls in line exactly where it's supposed to.
Graphics results are more of the same. The HD 4000 in the X1 Carbon puts in a strong showing (comparatively) in 3DMark's Ice Storm test, but it's basically still an Ivy Bridge HD 4000.
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Bob-o - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
The 15" Series 9 has upgradable RAM, but I think the 13" is soldered on. Both have upgradable drives though (mSATA on 13", not sure about 15" off the top of my head).zsero - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
The 13 inch has a free RAM slot as well!Gunbuster - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
"In and Around the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon"Can you please not call it in and around if you are not going to show any of the "in"
Hulk - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
This computer is close to what I want. It has the right form factor and other features but it needs two things in my opinion.1. IPS screen
2. Quad core - I'm hoping that Haswell will bring quad that will be suitable for these larger ultrabooks. I don't care if it throttles down to 1GHz as long as with proper air space/cooling/power it can throttle up. I'm hoping to see 25W quads with Haswell and 17W quads with Broadwell. Until then I think I'll just stick with my 2006 Dell 640m T7200.
landerf - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
I thought this was a mouse pad or something going by the picture.darwinosx - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
If the Lenovo is the Widows equivalent of a Mac that's pretty bad. Lenovo makes cheap junk and supports it the same way. They do not deserve the Thinkpad name for those of us who owned real Thinkpad's in the past. Apple's laptops just destroy this one not least because they use a modern OS and have premium build quality, screen's service and support.dave_the_nerd - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
This ultrabook is making my pants fit funny.underpass - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Something often overlooked (especially when the Mac fans get in on the fun) is that you could use this laptop as a Frisbee in the park on your lunch break and still use it for your afternoon hacking marathon. Most (if not all) of the ThinkPad line passes MIL-SPEC 810F certification for ruggedness. Also customer service for the ThinkPad line is excellent, as are the extra warranties they offer (multi-year accidental damage). Typical turn-around time for a repair is ~2-3 days. These features are huge pluses for the corporate or professional environment, which is why you still see a lot of ThinkPads in these places. Including the international space station and (former) space shuttle missions. As for the X1 Carbon specifically (I have a non-touch version with an i7), the ONLY complaint I have about it is that damned chicklet keyboard. It may be the best chicklet keyboard around, but it will never reach the 'Legendary' status of the classic ThinkPad keyboard.underpass - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
PS. The battery life isn't great, but it charges insanely fast. I think Anandtech should have a 'charge-off' between the popular ultrabooks.peterfares - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Thank you for finally starting to call out the pathetic 4GB RAM manufactures are using in expensive machines! When a $800 laptop in 2009 had 4GB RAM there is no reason anything above $500 should come with just 4GB RAM.Whenever I mention this I always get a bunch of deranged replies stating that there's no reason to have more than 4GB RAM.