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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Hrel - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
At 1200 bucks I would expect AT LEAST:8GBx1 DDR3 1600 RAM. A 256GB/240GB SSD. Wireless a/c 5Ghz. Then if they could fit a larger battery in it, 54Wh for instance, that would help a lot too.
For $1320 I expect better specs than these...
Not a bad system, just not suited well in the market; especially with Haswell right around the corner.
boe - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
If this thing was about 1lb lighter and had a higher resolution screen, I'd be interestedsmilingcrow - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
The Dell XPS 14 was mentioned but the screen is a washed out mess worthy of a laptop less than half its price. Its a poor TN panel with its one saving grace being the resolution of 1600x900.The XPS 12 and 13 in contrast have wonderful 1080P IPS panels. What were Dell thinking!
relativityboy - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
In your review you said "High resolution" that's HILARIOUS!WTH? Did someone pay you to say that?
frakkel - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I love the x series. But why did they go for 16:9 format. I dont buy a labtop for watching movies. Please go back to screens with a more square layout e.g. 4:3 or at least 16:10Belard - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
Yep... I miss the 16:10 screens like my current 5+ year old ThinkPads. To give you an idea of the height loss. a 14" 16:10 has the same height as the 15" 16:9 - I noticed this during their transition from the two aspect ratios. So we went with the older 14" model which results in a smaller and lighter notebook.A major reason Lenovo went with 16:9 is that they still have to get their displays from a supplier. And because everything is 16:9, it costs LESS money. To go with the 16:10 could had $50~100 to the costs or more because of mass-production.
At least they still make screens that are NOT gloddy.
crispbp04 - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
The use of the term "kit" to refer to hardware is driving me, in the words of Gwen Stefani, B-A-N-A-N-A-S.coastwalker - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
Hardware Enterprise vendors are in a difficult situation. Windows 8 is destroying their market. No business with any sense is going to buy the consumer mobile phone interface that Windows 8 is. This is great news because it probably means that we can switch back to Apple again like we did in the 80s. I cant wait!Shinobi_III - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
What's the point of 5Ghz wifi anyway? You point it out as absurd that it's not included.But it doesn't offer more performance, and the range is atrocious.
I have a wifi router from Asus with both, and 5Ghz is 75% signal one room off, and doesn't even work down stairs. The 2.4G works out in the garage!
RoslynWan12 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
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