Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
An uncompromising fusion of 1980s style and next-gen technology: it’s quirky, but traditionalists will love it
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PRICE £1,583 (£1,900 inc VAT) from lenovo.com
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been a tent pole of the executive laptop market since the London Olympics – and although we’re now on the eighth hardware generation, the latest version sticks pretty closely to the original formula.
That’s not a bad thing at all. The namesake carbon-fibre chassis keeps things light – this model weighs a spry 1.08kg – and it’s slim at just 15mm thick. A footprint of 323 x 218mm means the X1 isn’t the tiniest laptop around, but that allows Lenovo to fit in a good-sized 14in display. And while the matte black exterior tends to expose greasy fingerprints, it also makes a bold retro style statement that will appeal to old-timers.
It’s a similar story with the keyboard, which would look at home on any ThinkPad of the past 25 years. This isn’t just about style, either: it’s a design that’s earned its longevity. The keys feel enormous, with gently indented tops, generous spacing and a soft yet solid click action – and among them nestles a red rubber TrackPoint control, providing an alternative to the touchpad for those who still prefer the 20th century ways. The touchpad itself is a little on the small side, but in all you can see why Lenovo has felt no need to tinker.
Connectivity, by contrast, is bang up to date, albeit largely identical to the provision on last year’s model. The eighth-generation X1 Carbon offers a full-sized USB 3.1 connector on each side of the chassis, plus a pair of
USB-C connectors with Thunderbolt 3 support. There’s a full-sized HDMI sockkeett ttoooo, plus a SIM slot for optional LTE internet. And while there’s no room for an Ethernet socket, a small adapter is supplied in the box, which plugs into the dock connector at the left-hand side of the case. The one notable change is that the internal wireless module has been upgraded: all 2020 configurations include an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 card as standard. Another thing that’s new about this latest X1 system is the processor, which is now a sparkly tenthgeneration Intel chip. As usual, the thin and light casing means the Core i7-10510U
CPU can’t run at top speed all the time, and this was reflected in an overall score of 80 in our desktop benchmarks - a disappointing return for a tenthgeneration Core i7 processor. The integrated UHD Graphics 620 chip gives a reasonable degree of casual gaming performance too – Dirt:
Showdown was smoothly playable in 720p resolution at an average of 41.4fps – although the X1 naturally can’t keep up with more playful systems equipped with discrete GPUs.
Less impressive is the display. As we’ve mentioned, the panel measures 14in across the diagonal, and it can go reasonably bright too, up to 410cd/m 2. There’s zero touch support, however: like the Dynabook, the X1 Carbon is an unapologetically old-school laptop. Lenovo’s only concession to the age of convertible systems is the ability to fold the lid down to lie flat on the desk in front of you.
As with Acer’s TravelMate family, most X1 Carbon configurations also use a standard 1080p resolution, which at this scale looks just a little bit soft and blocky. You can choose to move up to a 4K display for an eexxttrra £125, but either way, you’ll be working with a widescreen format: that may be fine for games and movies, but in our view it’s not such a good fit for emails and day-to-day office work.
Those who actually work in offices will appreciate the matte screen coating, but for a laptop costing this much we expected better colour performance in our tests. The X1 Carbon achieved only 82.3% sRGB coverage and, in this company, a pretty dire average Delta E of 3.13. The only system that did worse was the X1’s cheaper stablemate, the
ThinkPad L14.
There’s one last disappointment to mention: the battery. The X1’s lightness seems to recommend it as a carry-around companion, and to be fair it should get you through a morning of meetings. In our videorundown test, however, it lasted just 5hrs 55mins before shutting down – this month’s worst performance.
We like the idea of a no-nonsense professional laptop that’s solidly built yet reasonably slim and light. It’s easy to see senior staff being won over by the excellent keyboard and the classic ThinkPad cachet – and the standout three-year on-site warranty will appeal to this busy constituency too. However, you’re paying a lot for a mediocre screen, unexceptional performance and poor battery life. If you’re looking for an all-rounder we’d suggest you look elsewhere, especially if you’re spending your own money.
“It’s easy to see senior staff being won over by the X1 Carbon’s excellent keyboard and the classic ThinkPad cachet”