Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 overview: ninth time’s the attraction

It makes me really feel very previous to say this, however we’re on the ninth era of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon. And there have been 9 of those for a cause. The X1 Carbon has traditionally been the most effective enterprise laptops you may get. And that continues to be the case with its latest iteration. Lenovo has made a number of tweaks, however in any other case, it’s the identical ThinkPad excellence we’ve come to anticipate.

Before we get into the pricing, I have to make the standard caveat that Lenovo likes to put absurdly excessive MSRPs on all of its ThinkPads, however they’re normally obtainable for considerably much less. So the bottom X1 Carbon (the Linux mannequin) has an MSRP of $2,336 however is at present obtainable for $1,401.60. That mannequin features a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM (soldered), 256GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1200, 14-inch, 400-nit, non-touch show. Prebuilt fashions run as much as a Core i7-1185G7, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $3,479 (listed at $2,249.40). You can add an infrared digital camera, in addition to a touchscreen with Lenovo’s Privacy Guard or a UHD+ panel, however these choices are solely obtainable with the IR webcam. The IR digital camera may include human presence detection.

The particular mannequin I examined is at present listed for $1,829.40 should you assemble it on Lenovo’s web site ($3.049 MSRP). As a full package deal, it’s listed for $2,251.99 at CDW however is at present bought on the market. It has a Core i7-1165G7 (a step down from the costliest chip), 16GB of reminiscence, 512GB of storage, a non-touch show, no vPro, and no IR digital camera. It is verified by Evo, which is this system Intel makes use of to certify top-performing fashions.

The ThinkPad’s greatest replace from the X1 Carbon Gen 8 is the brand new 16:10 show, a function Lenovo has been including to X-series ThinkPads throughout the road. It affords noticeably extra vertical display screen house than you’ll see from the 16:9 Carbon Gen 8, which implies much less scrolling and fewer zooming out whereas multitasking.

Aspect ratio apart, the display screen on this system is kind of good. It has a 1920 x 1200 decision and comes with a brand new expertise that’s supposed to scale back blue mild publicity. My unit was barely dim for the class, maxing out at 297 nits (it’s rated for 400), however the matte texture meant I nonetheless noticed little or no glare in vivid indoor settings and will work comfortably. The show delivered a superb image with vivid colours, excessive distinction, and sharp particulars. The display screen covers 99 % of the sRGB gamut and 87 % of Adobe RGB, which is sweet (although not akin to what you’ll see on one thing like an OLED panel).

In addition to this show, you may get a 400-nit FHD+ touchscreen mannequin or a brighter 500-nit FHD+ touchscreen possibility with Lenovo’s Privacy Guard expertise, which makes it more durable for potential snoops to peek at your display screen from the edges. (This possibility doesn’t have the blue mild filter.) Then there’s a UHD+ 500-nit non-touch display screen, which does embody the blue mild filter and likewise helps Dolby Vision. The FHD+ panel is sweet sufficient that I don’t assume most individuals ought to want the UHD one until brightess is an isuse.

The second factor that’s been upgraded: the hinge. Put the Gen 9 subsequent to earlier ThinkPad X1 Carbon fashions and also you’ll discover that the previous now has a single spherical hinge connecting the show to the keyboard deck. There are communication antennas inside (so it’s no soundbar hinge, nevertheless it’s one thing). I like this construct just a little extra, and it makes the underside bezel look a bit much less chunky, however of us will probably take their very own views. Speaking of that backside bezel, the seen Lenovo and X1 Carbon logos that adorned that of the earlier mannequin at the moment are gone, making a barely extra refined and fewer business look.

Third change: touchpad is greater. 10 % wider, particularly. Sure, reviewers felt that the Gen 8’s was a bit small. I’ll say that whereas the additional width is good, it’s nonetheless a bit cramped height-wise (in all probability as a result of it must accommodate a set of ThinkPad-signature discrete clickers), and I did discover myself hitting plastic loads after I scrolled. Everything else in regards to the touchpad is nice, although — it has fairly a easy texture and a simple click on. The keyboard can be snappy, although it’s a bit loud and the backspace key squeaked on my mannequin.

The X1 Carbon Gen 9 additionally has an improved Dolby Atmos audio system. There are new upward-firing audio system on both sides of the keyboard. The sound was surprisingly good, with notably forceful percussion and bass. The system comes preloaded with Dolby Access, which you need to use to modify between equalizer presets for video games, motion pictures, music, and voice calls, in addition to customized profiles. These did make a noticeable distinction, although I typically discover that I favor to take heed to music on the Movies profile for the reason that Music profile makes the vocals stand out a bit greater than I like.

Finally, the match-on-chip fingerprint reader is now built-in into the ability button (it was beforehand subsequent to the touchpad). Sure, that’s a barely extra handy place. The sensor didn’t fairly get my fingerprint each time (presumably because of how tiny it now’s), nevertheless it usually labored nicely.

If you’re not a fan of the fingerprint reader, chances are you’ll wish to spring for a mannequin with the IR digital camera, which helps Windows Hello facial recognition. Human presence detection allows the pc to routinely wake while you’re close to it and lock while you transfer away. I didn’t have considered one of these fancy cameras, however the common one on my unit was serviceable sufficient — I appeared grainy on my Zoom calls, however usually correct. There’s a bodily webcam shutter as nicely, as is customary for ThinkPads of this caliber.

Elsewhere, the Carbon Gen 9 has a heck of loads in widespread with earlier X1 Carbon fashions. It has the identical stunning black chassis with all the signature ThinkPad options, from the pink TrackPoint to the distinctive keyboard format. (Remember: Fn and Ctrl are reversed on ThinkPads.) It’s unbelievably skinny and light-weight (2.49 kilos, 0.59 inches) whereas nonetheless being fairly sturdy; Lenovo says it’s undergone MILSpec sturdiness testing. The X1 Carbon is completely up there with Dell’s XPS as one of many best-built laptops you should buy.

Inside, the X1 Carbon now consists of eleventh Gen Intel processors with Iris Xe built-in graphics throughout the board. My check mannequin was an important multitasker, with no downside operating Zoom calls on high of Spotify streams on high of heaps of Chrome tabs. Intel’s Core i7-1165G7 delivers among the greatest efficiency you’ll discover from a laptop computer of this measurement.

You wouldn’t wish to depend on the Iris Xe GPU for something tremendous graphics-heavy, however it may possibly assist with every kind of common video playback, multimedia work, and computational duties. I received by modifying a batch of photographs simply fantastic. Anyone who plans on doing a variety of gaming has entry to equally priced and equally constructed choices with GPUs, such because the Dell XPS 15.

For some uncooked numbers, the ThinkPad took 10 minutes and 22 seconds to export a five-minute, 33-second 4K video in Adobe Premiere Pro. That’s about 20 seconds quicker than the XPS 13 with the identical processor took to finish the identical process. It was over two minutes slower than the M1 MacBook Pro and took over twice so long as the Dell XPS 15 with a GTX 1650, simply for example how a lot an entry-level GPU can add.

I wasn’t in a position to run the Puget Systems benchmark for Premiere Pro as a result of it saved freezing. Lenovo is wanting into the issue however hasn’t found out the trigger but. In the meantime, the X1 Carbon tends to attain mid-200s (248, most recently) on this check. That additionally doesn’t strategy the MacBook Pro, nevertheless it does beat the XPS 13. Overall, the ThinkPad’s graphics efficiency doesn’t high the class, nevertheless it’s solidly within the combine.

I didn’t encounter any bothersome fan noise whereas utilizing the X1 Carbon. I additionally had no downside utilizing the system on my lap — it received toasty however by no means uncomfortably so. The touchpad and palm rests have been all the time downright cool, even beneath pretty intense hundreds. No complaints on that entrance, which is commendable for such a skinny system.

Finally, the ThinkPad’s battery (whereas operating my dozen-tab-plus workload with frequent YouTube and Spotify within the background round 200 nits of brightness) different a bit based mostly on settings. I persistently received over 10 hours of juice after I was on the Battery Saver profile and had Intel’s battery-saving options on, however I may see as little as 5 with a extra highly effective efficiency profile. I noticed an general common of eight hours and 43 minutes, which is respectable — higher than the XPS 15, the place I solely averaged round six hours, however worse than the XPS 13, the place I averaged over 9. I didn’t see any efficiency penalty from the Battery Saver profile, so I’d use that should you want all-day juice. Also a profit: The ThinkPad doesn’t ship with McAfee or different crapware that may eat into battery life on shopper fashions.

Apart from the dim display screen (and the dearth of an possibility brighter than 500 nits, when various enterprise fashions now supply 1,000-nit choices), the still-slightly-cramped touchpad, and the squeaky keyboard, I’ve only a few complaints about this X1 Carbon. Its value is kind of excessive, in fact, so these nitpicks nonetheless do give me some pause.

Lenovo’s new additions — notably the 16:10 display screen and the upward-firing audio system — are completely welcome, and so they make the X1 Carbon Gen 9 unquestionably the very best iteration of this system to date. It’s a method Lenovo has perfected to a tee, combining the ThinkPad line’s world-class engineering with precisely the tweaks it wanted to remain glorious within the fashionable market. While the X1 Carbon isn’t the very best worth for shoppers, any deep-pocketed enterprise shopper ought to give it a glance.