Lenovo Just Made the Best Budget-Friendly ThinkPads Even Better

Lenovo simply refreshed a number of of its extra budget-friendly ThinkPad fashions, and one, particularly, is price protecting a detailed eye on.

Cheaper than lots of its enterprise laptop computer siblings, the ThinkPad X13 and X13 Yoga are ultra-portable laptops full with all the things you’d anticipate from a ThinkPad. That contains signature styling consisting of an all-black chassis with purple trim, a purple rubber pointing stick nestled within the keyboard, and an illuminated “i” within the ThinkPad emblem.

The success of those enterprise laptops will be attributed to the constant feel and look Lenovo has maintained for greater than a decade. That a lot hasn’t modified with these new entries, although the corporate is, for higher or worse, beginning to come out of its black/purple shell. To that finish, the X13 can be obtainable in Storm Gray, a darkish silver tone that contrasts starkly in opposition to the opposite conventional colour possibility. These might look the identical because the earlier variations, however Lenovo says the touchpad is now 15% bigger.

The X13 is extra of a conveyable budget-friendly laptop computer than a 13-inch model of the X1 Carbon (that’s the place the X1 Nano is available in), so its 0.7-inch, 2.6-pound chassis isn’t as smooth or slim because the pricier mannequin. However, the additional house results in a beneficiant number of ports, which incorporates two Thunderbolt 4 ports (AMD has non-Thunderbolt USB-C), two USB Type-A 3.2 inputs, an HDMI 2.0, a headphone jack, and a SIM slot for 5G (sub-6Ghz over eSIM) or 4G LTE connectivity. The former connectivity possibility is joined by Wi-Fi 6E in making these latest ThinkPads futureproof.

One of the few complaints I’ve had with earlier fashions was that the shows had been dim, uninteresting, or each. I’m hoping the 13.3-inch, 2560×1600-pixel (16:10) display screen on the brand new X13 fashions fixes these previous flaws. These are Dolby Vision licensed and rise up to 400 nits of brightness, which ought to be wonderful even in brighter environments. Lenovo additionally makes claims about “narrow bezels,” although it appears to assume we’re in one other decade as a result of the thick body bordering the X13’s display screen jogs my memory of Ralphie’s glasses in A Christmas Story.

Moving to efficiency, the X13 is available in Intel and AMD flavors. Processor choices embrace as much as a twelfth Gen Intel Core i7 vPro chip for the Yoga whereas the clamshell mannequin will get AMD Ryzen Pro 6000 CPUs. Memory goes as much as 32GB and as much as 2TB of PCIe SSD storage. As anticipated, the X13 depends on built-in graphics solely, so that you’re taking a look at Iris Xe or Radeon 600M.

The X13 and X13 Yoga are simple updates to the earlier fashions, however there are a number of hybrid work-friendly enhancements past the upgraded wi-fi assist. These two laptops now include “up to” a 1080p webcam with IR, and whereas the elevated decision doesn’t assure good picture high quality, it ought to imply an enchancment over most 720p cameras.

Also new this yr are Dolby Voice for higher microphone efficiency and a bigger 54.7Whr battery possibility along with a inventory 41Whr battery. Lenovo didn’t make any runtime claims for the X13 but it surely says the 57Whr cell within the X13 Yoga will get it as much as 13.6 hours of battery life.

The Lenovo X13 Gen 3 and X13 Yoga Gen 3 will go on sale in June beginning at $1,369 and $1,179, respectively, for the Intel fashions. The X13 with AMD will launch alongside the others however price a bit much less at $1,119. Lenovo additionally refreshed its ThinkPad L13, L14, L15, and L13 Yoga laptops, which can go on sale in April and May.