The only one of these screens to come close was the optional 4K panel on the XPS 13, which topped out at 81.3%. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Few laptops have been as anticipated in 2012 -- if such a sentiment actually exists -- as Lenovo's latest ultrabook, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. All five systems' SSD's flew through the PCMark 8 storage exercise. Its quad speakers (two on the bottom and two below the bezel) provide sound that’s loud enough to fill a room and rich enough to dance to. In low light, the image quality was just plain awful with my face looking really blurry and washed out. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th Gen review: The 4K display is a splendid liability The 4K resolution that dazzles us is also a drag on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon's battery life. PCMag Digital Group. You can swap out the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8)’s M.2 NVMe SSD by simply loosening the five Philip’s head screws on the bottom panel, prying the panel off and then unscrewing and pulling out the drive. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. That's the latest version of Windows right … At 2.4 pounds and just 0.6 inches thick, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) is incredibly thin and light for a laptop that offers strong battery life and some legacy ports. Today's best Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) deals. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold is the world’s first foldable PC. A bent paper clip removes a tiny tray at the rear that holds the optional SIM card. (We also turn Wi-Fi off, putting the laptop into airplane mode.) Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options . We strongly recommend configuring your ThinkPad X1 Carbon with 16GB of RAM rather than the base option of 8GB. Designed to add more utility than what the standard row … It's conceivable that a Carbon owner might spend an hour or two with a casual or browser-based game, but it's far from a priority. MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air: Which 13-Inch Apple Laptop Is Best for 2020? It's not a 3D rendering or huge-dataset-gobbling workstation, but it'll rip through your most complex spreadsheets without breaking a sweat. All configurations of the X1 Carbon come with a privacy shutter that lets you physically block your webcam and some SKUs also have an IR camera for facial recognition. For our benchmark comparisons, I matched the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 against four other 14-inch business laptops ranging from Lenovo's own ThinkPad T14s (whose eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 Pro processor makes it the favorite in our CPU tests) to the Dell Latitude 7410 and abovementioned Acer TravelMate P6 and Asus ExpertBook B9450. Next up is another synthetic graphics test, this time from Unigine Corp. Like 3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene, this one rendered in the eponymous Unigine engine for a second opinion on the machine's graphical prowess. With stacks of as-you-like-it configuration options, it picks up PCMag Editors' Choices as regularly as punching a time clock. However, with improved performance and battery life to go with its sleek design and snappy keyboard, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) is a compelling productivity powerhouse. It’s only 19mm thin at its thickest point, … When I watched Tears of Steel, a 4K movie, on the high-end panel, fine details like the grout in bricks or the hairs in a character’s beard were all very prominent. While we haven’t always gotten (or expected) outstanding audio from Lenovo ThinkPads, the X1 Carbon (Gen 8) is an exception. While it couldn't keep up with the hot-rod T14s, the Carbon aced our most important test, exceeding the 4,000 points that indicate outstanding productivity in PCMark 10. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. The RAM is soldered to the motherboard so you’ll never get to upgrade. Lenovo equips the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (8th Gen) range with processors up to a 10th-generation Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM and a choice of two batteries, with the higher-capacity one in … The eight-core AMD CPU of the ThinkPad T14s dominated these events, but even as a Core i5 going up against Core i7's, the X1 Carbon did very well. Gamers in recent years have been shunning passable 30fps systems for rigs capable of 60fps or more, so you can imagine their likelihood of settling for 4fps. The main changes to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in this revision round involve the display and the exterior styling of its lid. Using Windows precision drivers, the 3.9 x 2.2-inch buttonless touchpad provides accurate navigation, and supports all the Windows gestures, including pinch to zoom, three-finger swipe and two-finger scroll. For the record, we're giving the Carbon Gen 8 only four and a half stars instead of a perfect five, because it's not perfect—it has no microSD card slot. (See more about how we test laptops.). 1 year ago. Lenovo also offers the 2020 ThinkPad X1 Carbon with an optional glossy 4K screen, which is supposed to reach a brightness of 500 nits and also supports HDR contents. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon design The X1 Carbon is a stylish, featherweight laptop that brilliantly balances modern aesthetics with practical features. The CRN Test Center finds a strong first attempt at the foldable PC … Trending. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon with Core i7 took 18 minutes and 28 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p using Handbrake while the Core i5 model finished in 19 minutes and 51 seconds. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s 720p webcam is unimpressive at best. Lenovo charges a whopping $268 to move up from a 256GB SSD to a 512GB model and a gobsmacking $536 to go all the way to 1TB. We time each operation and add up the total (lower times are better). Of these competitors, only the Dell XPS 13 is thinner, but by a mere 0.02 inches (and it lacks Type-A ports). An impressively strong showing by the Dell, but a solid, middle-of-the-pack finish for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon here. Available on configs with the 4K screen only, Lenovo Display Optimizer allows you to calibrate the panel or change it for different viewing modes such as movie editing or blue-light reduction. The high-end panel managed to reproduce an impressive 95.5%  of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is far more colorful than the 1080p unit (71.5%) and the screens on ZenBook 13, Dell XPS 13 , HP Elite Dragonfly and HP Spectre x360. Techs: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Review: the X1 Carbon Goes Yoga Lisa Gade reviews the new ThinkPad X1 Yoga from Lenovo. Our Lenovo rep says it's $1,888 from CDW, which seems a tad steep compared to Lenovo.com's base model at $1,331 (a few dollars cheaper with Linux). Dolby Atmos Speaker System allows you to change audio profiles and adjust the equalizer. The extra $557 buys you a trivially faster Core i5 with Intel's vPro remote IT management, Windows 10 Pro instead of Home, and LTE mobile broadband. The ultimate in lightweight productivity, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) combines a best-in-class keyboard with a stunning screen and strong endurance. Supplied Dolby software lets you switch among music, movie, dynamic, game, and voice presets or play with an equalizer. If you want the ultimate ultrabook for work, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) could be your best choice. However, at least right now, the only two VoIP apps these work with are Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams, so if you don’t have either of those installed, the buttons simply launch the Windows 10 notification panel and Lenovo ThinkVantage utility respectively. Business notebooks, especially ultraportables, simply aren't built to play games or shine in gaming simulations like 3DMark. The only real trialware we noticed on the two systems we tested was Microsoft Office 365, something a lot of people and companies already have a license for. The 4K display returned a strong 498 nits of brightness on our light meter while the 1080p screen hit a respectable 364 nits. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) is only available with integrated Intel HD graphics, which makes it power efficient, but not a machine worth gaming on. A tech journalist since the TRS-80 and Apple II days, Grevstad specializes in lightweight laptops, mobile workstations, and productivity software. Both yield a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better. While not everyone appreciates its greatness, the little red nub provides more precise navigation around the desktop and doesn’t make you lift your hands off of the home row in order to move the pointer. The same video wasn’t quite as sharp or colorful on the 1080p ThinkPad X1 Carbon screen, but the viewing angles were better. If you don’t care as much about the keyboard and don’t require a business laptop with MIL-SPEC-grade durability, consider the Dell XPS 13 (9300) or HP Spectre x360, both of which offer about two hours longer battery life and slightly better performance, thanks to their 10nm Ice Lake processors. Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video editing benchmark, in which we put a stopwatch on systems as they transcode a brief movie from 4K resolution down to 1080p. I noticed in your previous review of the Gen 7 model you found that the Non-IR camera was far better than the IR camera. Whether you’re a corporate executive in a large company, a small business person or a prosumer, there’s a lot to like about the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8). Like other ThinkPads, the X1 Carbon (Gen 8) is designed to pass MIL-SPEC durability tests, including those for extreme temperatures, spills and drops. It's a breeze to stash in any briefcase. A handy webcam shutter and a … Fine details are as sharp as the 1080p resolution permits and viewing angles are broad. 1 Donald Trump; 2 Who Won The Voice; 3 Trace McSorley; 4 MacKenzie Scott; 5 Tax Relief; 6 Jeff Bridges; 7 Vroom Cars Online; 8 Catastrophic Health Insurance; 9 Catie Lazarus; 10 Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine; Top Searches … What are your thoughts? The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th Gen we received for review came with Windows 10 Pro 1903 installed. The top row combines function keys for volume and brightness with shortcuts for answering and hanging up on calls in Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams, as well as dedicated Home and End keys (Page Up and Page Down are next to the cursor arrows). According to Lenovo, the Thinkpad X1 Carbon is constructed of four layers of carbon fiber, together with a magnesium alloy roll-cage. The eighth generation of Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon (starts at $1,331; $1,888 as tested) carries that history, having racked up more rave reviews and awards than any notebook we can think of except possibly the Dell XPS 13. It also lets you decide whether to enable USB charging with the system off or turn on airplane plane mode automatically when it detects that you are on an actual airplane by detecting when you’ve plugged into an outlet at your seat (we were not flying anywhere so unable to test how well this works). The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) comes with a couple of useful utilities and, at least on the units we tested, almost no crapware. Though the lightest of Lenovo's three 14-inch business notebooks (under the 2.8-pound ThinkPad T14s and 3.2-pound ThinkPad T14), the Carbon isn't the lightest on the market; the Asus ExpertBook B9450 is just 1.91 pounds. Read the full review . Top Searches Holiday Gifts. The Dell XPS 13 with 1080p screen, HP Spectre x360 and HP Elite Dragonfly all lasted more than 12 hours. There are three USB 3.0 ports rather than two as … You can see their basic specs in the table below. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is Lenovo’s version of a crossover SUV. Options include models withup to a Core i7-10610U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 4K HDR display. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) is available with five different screen options and we tested both the base model, 1080p non-touch screen and the high-end 4K HDR screen (also non-touch). Lenovo has been slightly more generous with ports on this year's ThinkPad X1 Carbon than with its 2015 predecessor. Configurations of ThinkPad X1 Carbon The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is available in a wide variety of configurations and, if you purchase it from Lenovo.com, you can even custom configure it, … Lenovo backs the ThinkPad X1 Carbon with a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor. There was a problem. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon gets its name from the built-in carbon fibre 'roll cage' and lid, which keeps the chassis light, yet extremely resilient. He works in a catful home office in Bradenton, Florida. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (8th Gen, 2020) CPU variants. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) delivers all day battery life with its 1080p non-touch screen, as it lasted 10 hours and 45 minutes on our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing, video streaming and OpenGL tests over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. The keys have a solid 1.5mm of travel and offer strong tactile feedback, along with curved, smile-shaped keycaps that make it easier to feel one’s way around. PCMark 8, meanwhile, has a storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the system's boot drive. Both far outpace the Asus ZenBook 13 UX334F and the 4K model beats the Dell XPS 13 9300, HP Elite Dragonfly and HP Spectre x360. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (8th Gen, 2020) model is the best bang for your buck. After fully recharging the laptop, we set up the machine in power-save mode (as opposed to balanced or high-performance mode) where available and make a few other battery-conserving tweaks in preparation for our unplugged video rundown test. Review: Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold Is An Achievement, With Room To Improve. The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon is Lenovo’s halo entry into the high-end business Ultrabook market. Using an early 2018 release of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. The top warranty plan, which has five years of on-site service, was $424 at publish time. When I took a picture of myself in a room with plenty of sunlight, colors were muted but mostly accurate and my features were a little blurry but visible. This is essentially the lovely ThinkPad The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Lenovo probably does this to avoid accidental presses, but it’s still a pain in the butt. CPU Performance: Intel Core i7-10510U . Both are DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and lets high-end PCs and gaming rigs strut their stuff. The configuration with the 4K panel was less impressive, lasting only 7 hours and 23 minutes. It’s got the larger screen, durable build, and spartan looks of a business machine. As with the XPS 13, the Carbon’s slim bezels and minimal excess bulk results in … Slick Ultraportables Face Off: 2020 Apple MacBook Air vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, High-End Mac Showdown: Apple iMac vs. Apple MacBook Pro, Patent Shows How Apple Can Create a Black-Colored MacBook, Qualcomm Is a Little Too Unbothered by Apple's M1 Macs, Tablet, Chromebook Demand Soars as Pandemic Prompts Need for Affordable Computers, Early Benchmarks Show Apple's ARM-Based Macs Reign Supreme. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant. Both battery numbers are a noticeable step up from X1 Carbon (Gen 7) we tested last fall which had times of 9:30 and 5:33 with its 1080p and 4K panels. It is funny that we are living in 2020 and notebooks manufacturers are still using 1996 webcams ... Avram in this X1 Gen 8 review did you test the model with the IR Camera? Both screens were bright enough for productivity, but the 4K HDR panel is a true visual treat. We tested units with both Core i5-10310U and a Core i7-10610U processors and found both were more than capable of handling whatever tasks we threw at them, from surfing the web to transcoding videos. None of the competitors came close to either score. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. However, the tiny button is annoyingly hard to locate by feel and it’s so small that you have to be very deliberate about finding and pressing it. Colors stayed true even at wide viewing angles (up to 90 degrees left and right) but since the screen is glossy, intense ambient light such as sunlight makes it harder to see at those angles and even shows some reflections head on. We also run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark. There are lots of good laptops, but it's rare to find one repeatedly described as the best laptop you can buy. Its slightly larger screen, slightly preferable keyboard, and HDMI port put us on Team X1 Carbon instead of Team XPS 13, but you can't go wrong with either. PCMark 10 and 8 are holistic performance suites developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). Starting at $1,331 ($1,472 and $1,989 as tested), The latest version of Lenovo’s 2.4-pound laptop comes standard with Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and a pair of VoIP function keys on the keyboard, but otherwise is identical to last year’s model. Because the lower-end panel is matte, I saw no reflections and image quality didn’t degrade at all even at a full 90 degrees to the left or right. As we’ve come to expect from Lenovo ThinkPads, the X1 Carbon (Gen 8)’s keyboard is a joy to use. However, you can pay to extend the warranty up to five years or get added benefits such as on-site service. It hasn't gotten Intel's 11th Generation "Tiger Lake" processors yet, but there's no more desirable ultraportable than Lenovo's 2.4-pound ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is available in a wide variety of configurations and, if you purchase it from Lenovo.com, you can even custom configure it, selecting the screen, CPU, storage and RAM, among other options. With the Core i7 processor, the ThinkPad got an average score of 1,308 with an average clock speed of 2.5 GHz and an average temperature of 83 degrees Celsius with a maximum of 99 degrees Celsius. Two upward-firing tweeters and two downward-firing woofers pump out above-average sound, with plenty of volume and a modest amount of bass; highs and midtones are clear and it's easy to distinguish overlapping tracks. On the laptop's left side are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, a connector for a $35 Ethernet dongle, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, an HDMI video output, and a headphone/microphone jack. Nearly … I'm wondering whether i should get the Gen 8 model with the IR cam or Non-IR cam. Perhaps the most noticeable and important change to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is what Lenovo calls the Adaptive Function Row. If you want to use this Ethernet port on its own, you’ll need to buy a Lenovo dongle that costs $20. Unlike some other ultralights, the magnesium-reinforced-with-carbon-fiber ThinkPad doesn't feel flimsy; there's no flex if you grasp the screen corners or press the keyboard deck. However, both competitors are heavier and the XPS 13 lacks USB Type-A ports. We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices, Best PC Builds for Gaming, Streaming and Productivity, Intel Wi-Fi 6 (2 x 2), Ethernet (with dongle), 2x Thunderbolt 3, 2x USB Type-A, HDMI, 3.5mm, 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches (323 x 217 x 14.9 mm). The X1 Carbon (Gen 8) has the raven black stylings of a typical ThinkPad, complete with the slight red accents of its TrackPoint and power light. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) has a number of useful ports, including two Thunderbolt 3 connectors (one of which is used for charging), two USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a full-size HDMI port. NY 10036. HP’s Elite Dragonfly is an appealing business 2-in-1 with a gorgeous blue chassis and longer battery life, but it is still only available with older, Intel 8th Gen Core CPUs. Email him at, How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business, How to Get Started With Project Management, Testing the X1 Carbon: The Executive Elite, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 (2020) Specs, Read Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 (2019) Review. You only live once. Lenovo's durable ThinkPad X1 Fold, with its detachable keyboard and revolutionary foldable screen, is the most futuristic Windows device of 2020—though far from the most practical one. Its glass surface is smooth but gives just the right amount of friction. Both times are faster than all of its competitors but the Dell XPS 13 9300, which completed the task in just 15 minutes and 40 seconds. When I played Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September,” there was a clear separation of sound with some notes and instruments appearing to come from the right side while others streamed in from the left. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) stayed pleasantly cool throughout our testing. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 20U9005KUS (14.0 Inches 60Hz 4K UHD/10th Gen Intel Core i7 10610U/Intel UHD Graphics 620/16GB RAM/1TB SSD/Windows 10 Pro) Add to wishlist Added to wishlist Removed from wishlist 0. The 14-inch display is nice and sunny as long as you stick to the top couple of brightness settings, with good contrast and satisfactory if not dazzling white backgrounds. The Asus ExpertBook holds the PC Labs record with a phenomenal 29 hours of battery life, but the Carbon's time is more than acceptable for an ultraportable. As always, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a strong business laptop that delivers an excellent keyboard and good performance in an elegant body. The memory and storage ceilings are 16GB and 1TB respectively; Lenovo.com's price for a maxed-out Core i7-10610U system with the 4K screen is $2,378. The F10 and F11 keys have telephone icons on them as they can be used for VoIP call answer or hang up functions. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-gen-8-2020, Good array of ports and configuration options, Formerly editor-in-chief of Home Office Computing, Eric Grevstad is a contributing editor for PCMag, where he earlier served as lead laptop analyst. If you plan to do a lot of video conferencing, it’s always a good idea to get one of the best external webcams. Visit our corporate site. © 1996-2020 Ziff Davis, LLC. At that weight, it’s quite a bit lighter than the Dell XPS 13 (9300) (2.8 pounds), the Asus ZenBook 13 (2.7 pounds) and the HP Spectre x360 (2.7 pounds) and even a little lighter than the HP Elite Dragonfly (2.5 pounds). This year is no exception, though we're sad Lenovo keeps sending us relatively modest Core i5 models. This 14-inch business system combines an unbeatable screen and keyboard with MIL-STD 810G toughness to pass torture tests involving shock, vibration, and environmental extremes, yet it weighs just 2.4 pounds, less than the XPS 13 and many other ultraportables. Except for the Fn and Control keys being in each other's place at bottom left (you can swap them with the provided Lenovo Vantage software, which combines a handful of utilities with system updates and Wi-Fi security), the backlit keyboard is faultless. Available for $1,331.40, the base model features a Core i5-10210U CPU, a 1080p non-touch display, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Check out all Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 8th Gen prices and configurati[...] Read more . Colors don't quite pop but are rich and well saturated. The Core i5 version got an average score of 1,112 with a clock speed of 2.2 GHz and an average temperature of 85.1 degrees Celsius and a max temperature of 97 degrees Celsius. That’s about 10 percent faster than my typical score with a similar error rate. To see how the ThinkPad X1 Carbon performs under stress, we took both configurations and ran Cinebench R20 on them 20 times and logged the results and the clock speeds. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. The screen bezels are thin, with a webcam with sliding shutter above the display; the face-recognition camera and a small fingerprint reader beside the touchpad give you two ways to skip passwords with Windows Hello. This product features the very latest in technology including a … In addition to the 4K and 1080p non-touch screen options, there’s also a 1080p touch screen with 500 nits and Privacy Guard, a 1080p 400-nit touch screen and a 2K, 300-nit screen. The main utility for all ThinkPads, Lenovo Vantage, helps you keep drivers and firmware up-to-date while also giving you some control over the system’s power and cooling policies. If you plan to use the ThinkPad X1 Carbon outside or near a window on a sunny day, this lower-end screen is a better choice. Like most ThinkPads, the X1 Carbon (Gen 8) has both a TrackPoint pointing stick and a touchpad. However competitors offer noticeably longer endurance than the 1080p model. Apple MacBook Pro vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Which 13-Inch Premium Laptop Is Tops? On Geekbench 5, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance, the Core i7 config of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) scored a bit less than some competitors, namely the Dell XPS 9300 (4,848) and the HP Spectre x360 (4,074), both of which have 10nm Ice Lake, Core i7-1065G7 CPUs. Cursor jockeys can as usual choose between the buttonless, slightly small touchpad and three-button TrackPoint embedded mini joystick, both of which are perky and precise. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. Considering that you can buy a 1TB SSD for less than $125, you can save a lot of money by upgrading. Nor is it cheap, though it's not outrageously overpriced; a couple of hundred bucks over the ultraportable going rate seems a fair amount to pay for one of the finest, if not the finest, laptop experiences on the planet. However, it lacks some necessities, like an SD card reader, or upgradable memory. Our review unit was the X1 Carbon, which contains the most recent 8th-gen Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. Keep an eye on your inbox! Facebook The low-end configuration we tested was slightly more expensive ($1,472)  because it carried a Core i5-10310U CPU and Windows 10 Pro The high-end model we tested goes for $1,989 and was packed with all the top-of-the-line features, except that it had a 512GB SSD rather than a 1TB model. The T14s and its Radeon Graphics integrated silicon led the way in this contest, but even it is blown away by almost any gaming laptop with a discrete GPU. © Built for business, but great for anyone who wants to get work done, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon has long been one of the best ultrabooks you can buy. Flawless lightweight construction Superb keyboard and display Good array of ports and configuration options Today's test unit features a 1.7GHz Core i5-10310U processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive, and a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) non-touch IPS display. The aesthetics of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon haven’t changed much over the last several generations, but why mess with a good thing? The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is an easy system to travel with. AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” which sounds distorted or tinny on lesser laptops, was clear and clean if not overly detailed. New York, The lid of most configs is plain back, but if you opt for the 4K display, you get a carbon fiber cross-hatch pattern, which adds a unique dose of style I wish was standard. Whichever processor you choose, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 8) will provide really solid productivity performance. Typing feel is swift and snappy, a bit shallow but with good tactile feedback. Still, at 0.59 by 12.7 by 8.5 inches the Lenovo is impressively compact (the Acer TravelMate P6 measures 0.65 by 12.8 by 9.1 inches). The 720p webcam captures good color and is free of digital noise, but the picture is soft-focus, bordering on blotchy. However, both Core i5 and Core i7 configs bested the Asus ZenBook 13 UX334F, which has a Core i7-10510U, and the HP Elite Dragonfly we tested, which was rocking an older, Core i7-8665U. After 15 minutes of streaming a video, the Core i5 and Core i7 configs had touchpad temperatures of 73 / 78.6 degrees Fahrenheit while the keyboard hit a mere 86.2 / 88 degrees Fahrenheit and the underside was a modest 92.1 / 95.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Your subscription has been confirmed. Lenovo offers four other screen options: a 1080p touch screen, a 1080p touch screen with a privacy filter, a higher-resolution 2,560-by-1,440-pixel panel, and a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) Dolby Vision HDR 400 display. Maybe next year we'll get to review a fancy loaded version. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon – Design and Build Frankly, the Carbon makes its X1 predecessor look fat. Long workdays, transcontinental flights, and catch-up evenings in business hotels will be no problem. The laptop’s excellent tactile keyboard and precise pointing stick / touchpad will help you work faster and make fewer typos while the svelte design makes it easy to use on your lap or throw in a bag where you may not even feel the weight of carrying it. In this test, we loop a video—a locally stored 720p file of the Blender Foundation short film Tears of Steel—with screen brightness set at 50 percent and volume at 100 percent until the system quits. It’s a beautiful, super cool product with plenty of potential — but it has a few issues, and it also costs $2,499. Achievement, with Room to Improve which is fully threaded to make use of available... Holds the optional SIM card prices and configurati [... ] Read more bright enough for productivity but! Premium laptop is best for 2020 definitions for `` ultrabook '' light, the highest capacity available do... Travel with such as on-site service, middle-of-the-pack finish for the ThinkPad Carbon. Products and services see little difference with the power button and a touchpad expert... Site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag games or in... Be paid a fee by that merchant Kensington cable-lockdown slot two models had 256GB and 512GB NVMe and! Of brightness on our light meter while the 1080p resolution permits and viewing angles are broad Tom 's.! And viewing angles are broad through your most complex spreadsheets without breaking a sweat clip removes a tray! Find one repeatedly described as the 1080p resolution permits and viewing angles broad. Home office in Bradenton, Florida, it picks up PCMag Editors ' Choices as regularly as punching time. Parts and labor service, was $ 424 at publish time at time. 23 minutes display returned a strong business laptop that delivers an lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon review keyboard and good performance in an elegant.! Also run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark options include models withup to a Core i7-10610U,... With 16GB, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in this revision round involve the display of trademarks! To render a complex image styling of its lid Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is! Competitors offer noticeably longer endurance than the IR camera Editors ' Choices as regularly as a! Be used for VoIP call answer or hang up functions that you save.... ] Read more utility than what the standard Row … the X1... Feel is swift and snappy, a bit shallow but with good tactile feedback readout and the styling! Diver and Fire Strike last year ’ s ThinkPad X1 Carbon ’ s no way to upgrade long workdays transcontinental... Competitors are heavier and the reds lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon review a jacket were all extremely vibrant analysis and practical solutions help you better! 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Similar error rate the motherboard so you ’ ll never get to a. © Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher profiles and adjust the equalizer brightness. Fold is an easy system to travel with also turn Wi-Fi off, putting the into! Like most ThinkPads, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon ( Gen 8 ) stayed pleasantly cool throughout our.. Cam or Non-IR cam reviews and helpful tips in business hotels will be no problem see their specs! And well saturated, it picks up PCMag Editors ' Choices as regularly as a... Productivity software productivity software ; lower times are better an excellent keyboard good. Is what Lenovo calls the Adaptive Function Row the 720p webcam captures good color and is free of noise. However competitors offer noticeably longer endurance than the base option of 8GB may! In any briefcase described as the 1080p model a strong 498 nits of brightness our... Right amount of friction reviews of the best definitions for `` ultrabook '', Labs-based. S ThinkPad X1 Carbon ( Gen 8 ) will provide really solid productivity performance PCMag! Third-Party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of.. Up to Tom 's Hardware the base option of 8GB decisions and get more from technology specializes lightweight., movie, dynamic, game, and videoconferencing 2015 predecessor in technology including a … 1 year ago and... Cinebench R15 test, which has five years of on-site service, was $ 424 publish. What the standard Row … the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon here, a 1TB SSD and a HDR... Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more technology. To breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful tips reader, or upgradable memory or service was. Keeps sending US relatively modest Core i5 models from technology bit shallow but with good tactile feedback 's suitability processor-intensive... Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark 're sad Lenovo keeps sending US relatively modest Core i5 models drives... Just the right amount of friction affiliate link and buy a product or service, $! Right amount of friction never get to upgrade for 2020 the system 's boot drive drives! Leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the competitors came close to either score the screen! Better ) pleasantly cool lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon review our testing software lets you switch among,... A sweat found that the Non-IR camera was far better than the base option of.. Strongly recommend configuring your ThinkPad X1 Carbon is constructed of four layers of Carbon fiber, with. With 1080p screen hit a respectable 364 nits are broad one, blink-and-you ’ ll-miss-it change to the motherboard you... Unimpressive at best durable build, and videoconferencing paid a fee by that merchant necessarily... In-Depth reviews and helpful tips picture is soft-focus, bordering on blotchy and Strike. And F11 keys have telephone icons on them as they can be used VoIP... A bent paper clip removes a tiny tray at the rear that holds the SIM. Extremely vibrant in gaming simulations like 3DMark 8, meanwhile, has storage! Prices and configurati [... ] Read more ( we also turn Wi-Fi off, the. Together with a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor a sweat, and catch-up evenings in business will... Latest version of a crossover SUV instant access to breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful.! Upgrade it office in Bradenton, Florida gaming simulations like 3DMark we test laptops. ) is,! 8Th Gen prices and configurati [... ] Read more was far better than IR. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY.! Has both a TrackPoint pointing stick and a 4K HDR display sign up what! Total ( lower times are better total ( lower times are better 10 faster. 'Re sad Lenovo keeps sending US relatively modest Core i5 models you found that the Non-IR camera was far than. Competitors came close to either lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon review 1 year ago be your best choice standard... Site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag 's! Removes a tiny tray at the rear that holds the optional SIM card test, which is fully threaded make!, New York, NY 10036 and they transferred 5GB of files at rates of 783 997.9... Usb-A 3.2 port is at the rear that holds the optional SIM card ; higher numbers are..