Hands-on review: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon
- Only 1.18kg, very light
- 16.5mm thin, very portable
- Constructed with satellite-grade carbon fibre
- 4G LTE
- Battery life of up to 11 hours
- Core i7 processor
- 8GB RAM
- 2560x1440 anti-smudge display
- Backlit, spill-resistant keyboard
- Loaded programs fairly quickly
- Internet browsing was fast and responsive
- Ultrafast Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD Storage
The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon is an ultra-light, ultra-portable Business Ultrabook. It has a very appealing, yet simplistic style to it in the colour of Raven Black. Nothing fancy, but nothing too crude either.
It only weighs a miniscule 1.18kg, so it is extremely light, making it easy to carry. It's also extremely thin, with a width of just 16.5mm. These properties make it extraordinarily portable, which is a huge plus for a Business Ultrabook that will likely be moved around frequently from cafe to cafe, office to office, car to car. It also doesn't have a narrow lip, so it leaves plenty of room for various ports along the side.
The X1 Carbon is constructed with satellite-grade carbon fibre, making it extremely durable and allowing it to survive a large range of conditions; dust, vibration, heat, cold, altitude, water, humidity and more. According to Lenovo, it has passed military-standard durability tests for some of the above conditions - that is impressive!
It also has a very convenient fingerprint reader just below the bottom-right of the keyboard. I, unfortunately, couldn't test this out, because it had (rather surprisingly) been pre-installed with Windows 7 (not even Windows 8!), and the Windows biometrics are only available with Windows 10. Fortunately, other reviewers did get the opportunity to test the fingerprint reader, and they have all said that it works great.
It also has 4G LTE support, allowing for portable, high-speed Internet access. This is crucial for a business laptop due to the aforementioned portability meaning it will likely be moving around a lot, and there may not always be a fast and/or stable Internet connection. It also has a battery life of up to 11 hours, meaning it will last for almost an entire day without power and with constant use.
The X1 Carbon is equipped with an Intel Core i7-6500U processor and 8GB RAM. This means it is fast and responsive, even when trying to do a fair amount of tasks simultaneously. Programs loaded quickly, and browsing the Internet was fast and responsive.
It also has a high-resolution 2560x1440 anti-smudge display. This makes multi-tasking even easier thanks to the generous screen space available. The 2560x1440 resolution meant images were sharper and warmer. You can also view the screen from nearly 180 degrees thanks to IPS technology. It has a fully backlit, spill-resistant keyboard - again, meaning it's durable in case of accidents.
Another feature of the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon is that it has ultrafast Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD Storage, meaning it can open files and applications two times faster than a SATA SSD.
In conclusion, the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon is a high quality, high performance laptop, perfect for use in a business setting, thanks to its high-resolution screen, military-grade durability, port availability and security with the fingerprint reader. All of this comes with a price, of course, costing around $3,000-$3,500. But what do you expect when you're getting everything but the kitchen sink?
For more information and pricing options, click here.
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