Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Overview: Quiet Journey Buddy

September 6, 2022

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Bear in mind enterprise journey? That was a factor. And by all measures, it is changing into extra frequent once more, which makes for excellent timing on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s’ half.

The ThinkPad X13s ($1,085.40 to begin, $1,385.40 as examined), is the primary ThinkPad to boast an Arm processor — particularly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. That is a part of the important thing to maybe the laptop computer’s major energy: important battery life. Tie that along with 5G community assist (our overview unit got here with an AT&T SIM card) and you’ve got an important street warrior.

Properly, possibly not a warrior. Extra of a street helper. Home windows 11 provides a ton to the Arm ecosystem, offering assist for 64-bit app emulation, however some functions nonetheless do not work. And whereas year-over-year efficiency for the 8cx is stable, Qualcomm hasn’t but caught as much as the Intels and Apples of the world, which we regularly discover within the greatest ultrabooks.

However for many who primarily use easy software program that they know will work and care extra about battery life and connectivity than the rest, there’s lastly a motive to take a look at a Home windows on Arm gadget, so long as you may make a number of trade-offs.

Design of the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

With the ThinkPad X13s, Lenovo is strolling a line between the previous and the longer term. Historically, ThinkPads have been black and boxy, with a single ThinkPad brand within the nook of the lid. However some newer designs, just like the AMD-based Z13, have challenged the idea of what a ThinkPad can appear like, with rounded corners, a rounded lip to squeeze in cameras and microphones, fewer ports and completely different supplies.

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(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

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This laptop computer falls someplace in between. With rounded corners and a slight reverse-notch above the show for cameras and microphones, the X13s has a few of these newer design components. Fairly than the deep raven black shade we affiliate with most ThinkPads, the X13s is “thunder black,” which appears to be like extra like darkish grey, however in any other case its recycled magnesium chassis feels acquainted.

Lifting the lid reveals nearly all conventional ThinkPad stylings. There is a ThinkPad brand on the deck, and the pink TrackPoint nub sits on the heart of the keyboard. The 13.3-inch show has noticeable however unobtrusive bezels.

Ports listed below are minimal, which is more and more frequent amongst skinny, gentle notebooks. The left facet has two USB Sort-C ports, whereas the correct facet is house to a 3.5 mm headphone jack, SIM card slot and a Kensington lock slot. I’d have appreciated to see Lenovo put a USB-C port on both sides of the laptop computer; Then I may cost from both facet and guarantee equipment all the time match.

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(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

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Snapdragon-based laptops, just like the ThinkPad, should be skinny and lightweight. Positive, there are many Intel laptops with LTE or 5G assist, however Qualcomm doubles down on the message. Lenovo has met that aim with a laptop computer that is simply 2.35 kilos and 11.76 x 8.13 x 0.53 inches. I carried it by one hand to an area park on a pleasant day to get some outside work in.

That is lighter than the Apple MacBook Air, one other Arm-based laptop computer, which is 2.7 kilos (and fabricated from aluminum), and a bit thinner at 11.96 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches (it is bigger in different dimensions). The HP Elite Folio, an Arm laptop computer we reviewed final 12 months and are together with right here to check year-over-year, was 2.92 kilos and 11.85 x 9.03 inches. The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, a relatively priced laptop computer utilizing Intel U-series processors, is 3.46 kilos and 12.36 x 8.95 x 0.7 inches, however can also be a convertible 2-in-1.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Specs

CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3
Graphics	Qualcomm Adreno 690 (built-in)
Reminiscence	16GB LPDDR4X-4266
Storage	512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Show	13.3-inch, 1920 x 1200, 16:10
Networking	Qualcomm WCN685x Wi-Fi 6E, Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G, Bluetooth 5.1
Ports	2x USB Sort-C 3.2 Gen 2, 3.5 mm headphone jack, SIM card slot, Kensington lock slot
Digital camera	5 megapixel digicam, infrared
Battery	49.5 WHr
Energy Adapter	65 W
Working System	Home windows 11 Professional
Dimensions (WxDxH)	11.76 x 8.13 x 0.53 inches / 298.7 x 206.4 x 13.4 mm
Weight	2.35 kilos / 1.06 kg
Worth (as configured)	$1,385.40

Home windows 11 on Arm: 64-bit Emulation is Right here

The ThinkPad X13s is Lenovo’s first ThinkPad-branded laptop computer to make use of an Arm processor (however not its first ever — the corporate dipped its toes in with the Flex 5G in 2020. Maybe it was ready for Home windows to be prepared.

Home windows 11 is in a greater place to deal with Arm chips than Home windows 10 ever was. Home windows 11 on Arm helps x64 emulation, opening a great deal of software program to the platform that did not work in Home windows 10. (This assist was being examined in Home windows 10, however it was finally deserted and solely included in Home windows 11.) Microsoft just lately launched Arm64EC for builders to construct native apps or transition x64 apps extra simply, so hopefully extra Arm-native software program comes quickly.

Proper now, it is a blended bag. There are apps that run natively on Arm for Home windows, together with the Edge and Firefox browsers, Adobe Photoshop (opens in new tab), VLC, Netflix, 7-Zip, Handbrake and Zoom.

Nonetheless, some functions do not but work. Dropbox, for example, famously hasn’t labored with earlier Home windows on Arm gadgets. In my testing, that is nonetheless the case. You may should go to the Microsoft Retailer to obtain Dropbox for S Mode (opens in new tab), which does not retailer information regionally in your gadget. There’s nonetheless a really actual probability that specialised software program you want will not work as anticipated.

Moreover, a whole lot of the outdated guidelines nonetheless apply (opens in new tab): Video games and app utilizing variations of OpenGL past model 3.3 or which have anti-cheat drivers that are not developed round Home windows 11 on Arm will not work, and plenty of third-party antivirus functions will not work (On the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, there is not any free trial of McAfee Dwell Protected, however there is a bookmarklet for it in Edge that the corporate added. Coincidence?).

Arm on Home windows is best than it has been, however it nonetheless wants work to get wherever close to the success Apple has had on its Arm-based Apple Silicon with macOS.

Productiveness Efficiency on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

We examined the ThinkPad X13s with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. What’s completely different about our testing on the X13s in comparison with earlier Home windows on Arm laptops is that Home windows 11 permits emulation of 64-bit apps.

That allowed us to run Handbrake and our Cinebench R23 stress check, which we could not do earlier than. That being mentioned, efficiency by emulation is usually a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the apps work. On the opposite, you are testing the emulation, not the {hardware} itself. Nonetheless, it offers you an thought of the efficiency you may get, and should you’re emulating software program, that normally means taking a success.

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(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

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On Geekbench 5, our go-to general efficiency check for laptops, the ThinkPad X13s achieved a single-core rating of 1,125 and a multi-core rating of 5,891. That is a giant distinction over the HP Elite Folio, which ran a previous-generation Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, with a single-core rating of 792 and multi-core rating of three,115. The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (Intel Core i7-1255U) and MacBook Air (Apple M2) have been nonetheless considerably sooner.

Lenovo’s laptop computer copied 25GB of information at a charge of 550.95 MBps, falling behind the Folio (666.5 MBps) and the MacBook Air (958.85 MBps). The Dell Inspiron’s 404.86 MBps velocity was the worst of the bunch.

Beforehand, we could not run Handbrake on Home windows on Arm methods. Now, there’s an Arm native model (you may emulate an x86 model, however you should not try this!). It took the X13s 18 minutes and 21 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That is nonetheless far behind the Inspiron with Core i7 (9:49) and the MacBook Air (7:52).

Now that Home windows 11 can run 64-bit apps by emulation, we may additionally run our Cinebench R23 stress check, wherein we run the rendering 20 instances. (Like Handbrake, we could not run this on the HP Elite Folio final 12 months.) After all, as a result of Cinebench R23 shouldn’t be an Arm-native app, it means we’re stress testing the emulation simply as a lot because the 8cx Gen 3 itself. This took over two hours to run.

The ThinkPad began the check at 3,470.97 earlier than dropping to 1,548.65, the bottom rating on the check. After that, it appeared to bounce a bit between the 1,700s and 1,800s. What we could not get, nevertheless, have been clock speeds and CPU temperatures, which weren’t logged by HWInfo (additionally an x64 app, and emulated).

Show on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

The display screen on the ThinkPad X13s is colourful, however not the brightest. Once I watched the trailer for “Black Panther: Wakanda Endlessly” the blues within the oceans of Atlantis have been vigorous, as have been the orange fires creeping up the darkened partitions of the Wakandan throne room. Nevertheless, I did really feel the necessity to flip the brightness all the best way up.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

In response to our instruments, Lenovo’s panel covers 117% of the sRGB shade gamut and 82.9% of the DCI-P3 shade gamut. That is the very best of the bunch, with the MacBook Air at 107%/75.9%, the Elite Folio at 100%/70.7% and the Inspiron at 61%/43.5%.

However the ThinkPad X13s measured 300 nits of brightness, falling behind the Elite Folio (390 nits) and MacBook Air (489 nits). The Inspiron, at 251 nits, got here in final right here.

Keyboard, Touchpad and TrackPoint on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

The ThinkPad X13’s keyboard could also be acquainted to longtime followers of the model, with its scalloped keys and room for quite a lot of buttons which might be eschewed on many laptops, like Dwelling, Finish, Delete, Web page Up and Web page Down. A fingerprint reader is baked into the ability button.

The keyboard is comfy sufficient, and I sped alongside at 120 phrases per minute on the Monkeytype typing check. I did really feel, nevertheless, that it did not supply the tactile suggestions I’ve seen on many premium ThinkPads previously, and no less than one colleague who tried the laptop computer discovered it felt a bit flat.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

I do recognize that Lenovo acquired inventive with the format. The arrow keys are in an inverted T (which I all the time recognize), to suit web page up and web page down buttons on both facet of the up arrow. A few of these keys are a bit small, as are the perform keys, however for many who want a devoted key for nearly every little thing, I believe they’re going to recover from it. (One exception: how many individuals want a devoted print display screen key as large as Alt and Management?

The touchpad is 2.3 x 4.5 inches, which is simply sufficiently big. It is broad, however it is a bit brief for my style. Lenovo has opted to incorporate devoted buttons to be used with the TrackPointPoint simply above the keyboard, however I want it as a substitute used the complete 2.8-inch top for the trackpad to make utilizing gestures a bit extra comfy. (TrackPoint lovers, like our editor-in-chief, will staunchly disagree with me right here, however Lenovo opted for a hybrid strategy on the ThinkPad Z13).

TrackPoint is not precisely my jam, however for many who desire to maneuver the mouse with out taking their fingers off the house row, it will get the job performed. The brief reply is that it really works. I discovered that it required extra stress than I appreciated out of the field, however that is simply adjustable in settings.

Audio on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

The pair of top-firing audio system on the ThinkPad X13s get good and loud, however they’re nothing particular. They have been adequate for me to jam out to the groovy string devices, shaking tambourines, the vocals and occasional shouting within the Grass Roots’ “Let’s Dwell For At this time” (which serves because the catchy theme track to “Pachinko” on Apple TV Plus). There’s principally no low-end although, so that you lose out on the results of bass and percussion.

There’s not a lot in the best way of audio software program on the X13s. Business Vantage’s settings are largely for the microphone, which is smart should you’re on a name however not for jamming out when you fill out spreadsheets.

Upgradeability of the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

Earlier than opening the ThinkPad X13s, take out the SIM tray and SIM card, you probably have one. There are six captive Phillips head screws on the underside of the X13s. If you loosen them, the lid pops up barely, and a few fast use of a pry device takes it the remainder of the best way off.

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(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

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About half of the accessible inner house is taken up by the battery. The appropriate facet of the house is roofed by paper for warmth safety. Flipping it up reveals that there are two heatpipes: one which covers the CPU, and one other, held down by two small Phillips head screws, that covers the 5G card and an M.2 2242 SSD. That 5G card has thermal pads on it, so should you change it, besure to fastidiously reapply them or add new ones.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

Battery Life on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

Whether or not within the workplace or on the street, you need to be capable to final a full workday on the X13s. On our battery check, it ran for 15 hours and a couple of minutes whereas streaming video, searching the net and working OpenGL assessments whereas linked to Wi-Fi with the display screen set at 150 nits. With mobile additionally enabled, that dropped to 13:39.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

That’s not fairly the 28 hours that Lenovo boasts “as much as” on its web site, however it’s fairly spectacular in the true world. The X13s simply beat the x86-based Dell Inspiron (7:52) and even surpassed the MacBook Air (14:06). However the HP Elite Folio with a last-gen Qualcomm processor received out (16:21).

Warmth on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

One of many advantages of the ThinkPad X13s is that the Arm design permits it to run fanless, which suggests it is lifeless silent. For gentle workloads, which is what the ThinkPad X13s was designed for, it stayed cool in my utilization. However we additionally ran our normal Cinebench stress check and took pores and skin temperature measurements, which confirmed how sizzling this fanless system can get should you actually, really push it.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

In the course of the stress check, the middle of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, measured 38.8 levels Celsius (101.84 F). The touchpad, at 30.1 C (86.18 F) was a lot cooler. The most popular level on the underside of the laptop computer measured 46.7 C (116.06 F).

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

Webcam on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

Lenovo put a 5MP digicam on the ThinkPad X13s, which needs to be an ordinary for enterprise laptops. Gotta look your greatest on these convention calls. This matches as a result of Lenovo has added a bump, which it referred to as the “Communications Bar” on the AMD-based Z13, which has loads of room for each that and an infrared sensor to log in with Home windows Whats up.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

(Picture credit score: Tom’s {Hardware})

The outcomes are fairly good. Are they pretty much as good as you’d get from one of many greatest exterior webcams ? No — what’s? However I may make out the person hairs on my head and in my beard, in addition to the petals in some flowers simply off display screen. My brown shirt was shade correct towards my beige partitions.

Software program and Guarantee on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

The ThinkPad X13s comes principally freed from bloatware on Lenovo’s half. It contains only one main utility, Lenovo Business Vantage, which gives fast entry to your serial quantity and guarantee choices, in addition to checking for updates. This doubles up a bit on some Home windows options, however general I believe it is price holding round should you want assist.

That is to not say Home windows 11 would not nonetheless have functions (or shortcuts to put in them) within the begin menu. These embrace Disney Plus, SPotify, Adobe Specific, Amazon Prime Video and Twitter.

Lenovo sells the ThinkPad X13s with a one-year guarantee, which could be prolonged for as much as 5 years for an extra price.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Configurations

Our overview configuration of the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s had a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor with built-in Qualcomm Adreno 690 graphics. The laptop computer additionally sported 16GB of reminiscence and 512GB of SSD storage, in addition to a 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1200 non-touch show and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G modem for a complete of $1,385.40.

The bottom mannequin is $1,085.40, however options some notable variations. For one, it has Home windows 11 Dwelling fairly than Professional. The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and Adreno graphics are nonetheless there, however with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Not like with our overview unit, there is not any infrared digicam (the fingerprint reader stays), there is not any 5G assist.

There are fancier choices than what we reviewed, too. A configuration that is $1,439.40 as of this writing bumps as much as 32GB of RAM and provides touchscreen performance, although would not have 5G assist. The highest-end, $1,571.40 configuration is again to 16GB of RAM, however has 1TB of storage and a touchscreen, in addition to 5G.

These are simply the preconfigured mannequin. Lenovo enables you to configure your individual, so you may mix all the highest specs and go even increased.

Backside Line

It may not be saying all that a lot, however the ThinkPad X13s is the very best Home windows-based Arm laptop computer I’ve reviewed to date. Admittedly, a lot of that comes from all the software program compatibility that Home windows 11 provides, however the truth that it has lengthy battery life, a stable webcam and a light-weight design would not damage.

You’ll be able to add a 5G modem to Intel or AMD laptops. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 10), with Intel’s twelfth Gen P-series processors, for example, permits it as an expensive improve. So does the ThinkPad X1 Nano, one other skinny ThinkPad that is gentle on ports however excessive on portability. However the Arm processor permits for a silent, long-lasting design that makes extra sense with 5G.

Apple continues to be squeezing extra energy — and compatibility out of Arm with its in-house chips, however it would not supply 5G assist on its Macs but, together with the very light-weight MacBook Air. So when Lenovo makes a light-weight design with 5G assist that can final you a very long time on the street, it is price taking discover should you’re largely utilizing an online browser or software program that is appropriate. Those that do not have that assurance but would possibly need to follow conventional x86 machines a bit longer and hotspot to their telephones.

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