There’s no denying that some tech brands become synonymous with user groups. Consider the Lenovo ThinkPad. When ThinkPad gets mentioned one thinks of efficiency at the workplace and excellent typing experience. What could Lenovo have done to improve the experience? Plenty, if you consider ThinkPad X13s Gen 1. In case you want to stick to the Windows operating system and have a hybrid workflow, this is the machine you may have been waiting for. We have a couple of quibbles but we will get to that later.
Snappy Snapdragon performance
ThinkPad X13s is a departure from a lot of the ThinkPads of the past. This is a Windows on ARM or Windows 11 on Snapdragon system. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor and Lenovo says it can last up to 28 hours (video playback) on a single charge. That’s a pretty big claim and you can see why that might be attractive to a lot of different business consumers and enterprise customers who want a mobile workhorse they don’t have to worry about charging all the time.
It’s got a 13.3-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The panel is low-power and goes up to 400nits so you get decent brightness without consuming too much power (but it could have been slightly brighter, which comes handy when you’re working under the sun). The review unit comes with 16 gigs of LPDDR4X RAM, 512GB SSD storage, Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, Wi-Fi 6e and supports multiple flavours of 5G (5G sub6 or 5G mmWave). That’s a lot of connectivity options, especially for those of you who might be on the road all the time and don’t have easy access to Wi-Fi. If you’re looking to use this as a roving device, whether in airports or a cab or wherever you need to be online, this is the kind of machine that you should get.
The question is, why would you go with a Qualcomm-based machine when Intel versions exist?
With the X13s, Lenovo’s claiming plenty of video playback time. That may not be the figure you may get in productivity-focussed use cases, but if you do that kind of testing on other laptops, you’ll usually never get anything close to 28 hours.
As a pure laptop, this is as attractive as any of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X Series machines. It’s thin, easy to tuck under your arm or to slip into a briefcase. So it’s really an interesting combo for someone who’s looking for a longlasting PC on the go.
Going around the edges, there are two USB-C ports on the left side and on the other side, an audio jack and SIM slot. The keyboard itself meets ThinkPad standards. It’s got a nice click-y feel and key travel. Then you’ve also got the TrackPoint, the little rubber eraser nub for navigation, which many prefer as well as three dedicated keys under the keyboard panel to use with the trackpad. Of course, you could also use the trackpad as a conventional tool and click on that as well. The first elephant in the room: App compatibility for Windows 11 on ARM. It’s on a steady upward curve. You now do Microsoft Office natively and for a lot of users, that’d be all they need. The 8cx Gen 3 processor is adequate in termsof performance for everyday tasks. On top of performance, there’s a bunch of connectivity aspects to the machine.
The keyboard is among the best in the industry and comes with the iconic red TrackPoint embedded in the keyboard
ThinkPad X13s supports Wi-Fi 6E and 5G sub6/ mmWave
Should you buy it?
You’ve got a 5MP camera for video, cool, which is just about adequate for Zoom calls. The machine itself is a pleasure to hold. Weighing a little over a kilogram, the body is made of magnesium alloy. And Lenovo is proud that it’s 90 per cent recycled mag alloy, so there’s a green aspect to the machine as well. Next to the camera there is another circle, which is for “presence detection”. The separate sensor detects when you’re away from the machine and turns it off, thereby saving battery life. In addition, you also have Windows Hello for face log-ins.
You may also be wondering how the machine integrates into an IT environment. This is a ThinkPad, which is known to be perfect for the work environment and has IT-friendly aspects. The machine supports all of the same Lenovo security and management tools that a typical ThinkPad could use.
Like the M2 MacBook Air, the ThinkPad X13s too has a fanless design, which ensures silent operation. There is always the risk of overheating (thereby CPU throttling) under heavy load, but we haven’t noticed that during the review period. Yes, it did become warm on the underside but it didn’t throttle productivity.
When it comes to reparability, there are six screws on the bottom that have to be removed to open the rear panel. The service cover can also be easily removed; reparability shouldn’t be an issue.
If you are a travelling executive who needs a laptop that can connect from anywhere and has excellent battery life, this is it. With the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s you can leave the charger at home and truly connect from anywhere.
At a glance
ThinkPad X13s versus MacBook Air (M2)
Device: Lenovo ThinkPad X13s
Price: Upwards of ₹158,014
High notes
- Excellent battery life
- One of the best keyboard experiences
- 5G connectivity
- Light and compact
- Quiet during operation
Muffled note
- Display could have been slightly brighter
- No HDMI or Thunderbolt 4 ports