Even though the Lenovo ThinkPad brand is geared for enterprises, these tough, feature-packed laptops appeal to a wide range of consumers. The current ThinkPad X1 Carbon, codenamed Gen 7, ($1,179 starting price as tested), is a notable illustration of this crossover. This ultraportable business notebook distills the ThinkPad idea to its core, cutting weight while retaining. ThinkPad staples like the ergonomic keyboard, the recognizable red TrackPoint, and a plethora of IT security and manageability capabilities. It also has enthusiast-oriented capabilities such as facial recognition and a stunning HDR-enabled 4K glossy screen, which are overkill for many business users.
There are no surprises here: the Carbon is still a ThinkPad. The machine is made of magnesium alloy with a soft-touch texture and features the famous logo on the lid and wristrest. A carbon-fiber lid is one of Lenovo’s new choices for this model. It’s a faint yet appealing effect that’s only accessible in 4K models. The Carbon maintains the traditional design of a ThinkPad while being small and light. This seventh-generation machine weighs 1.1kg and has a thickness of 15mm.
The ThinkPad is also really practical. It offers two full-size USB 3.1 ports and two Thunderbolt 3 connections with USB Type-C compatibility. There is a fingerprint reader and a vTPM chip. Moreover, the webcam has been updated with IR and a physical shutter. This variant comes with an optional LTE 4G modem and a SIM card slot on the back. It lacks a micro-SD slot, whereas the Dell does have.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s webcam has a 720p resolution, as do other laptop webcams. Lenovo’s approach, on the other hand, isn’t as nice as others I’ve tried, particularly on Microsoft’s Surface tablets. The colors appear dull. There is only one manual lighting control, and there are no HDR choices. More camera choices are concealed within Lenovo’s Vantage software, but they’re far too well disguised to be useful. A little white LED is the indication that the camera is turned on. The ThinkShutter, like previous generations, allows you to cover your webcam for privacy. While the webcam supports facial authentication using Windows Hello, there is also a secondary fingerprint sensor to the right of the trackpad. Both appear to function consistently.
The audio output of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (7th Gen) is adequate and loud enough to fill a medium-sized room. When I listened to “Back in Black,” the percussion sounded a little tinny, but the overall sound was accurate, albeit not particularly lush. The Lenovo Vantage app allows you to select multiple audio profiles for music, movies, speech, and games, as well as eliminate Dolby audio enhancement, which we don’t suggest because everything sounds hollow without it.
Though the camera may be extremely basic, the microphone is not. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th Gen comes with far-field microphones to pick up your speech from across the room. Further, acoustic echo cancellation improves the clarity of what those microphones really hear. We’ve maintained that disabling the microphone using a keyboard control isn’t enough.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon comes with only a few third-party utilities. Lenovo Vantage is the company’s sole settings and utility software. This software allows you to manage anything from Wi-Fi settings to performance and cooling profiles. It also looks for changes to drivers and firmware. The 4K model has a color management program called Lenovo Display Optimizer. This allows you to select from six different color profiles, ranging from Native (the default) through Photo Pro, Movie Pro, and two distinct blue-light reducers. I discovered that utilizing Movie Pro enhanced the quality of video footage (and everything else).
There’s also some bloatware, the most of which is the same as you’d get on any Windows 10 laptop, such as Bubblewitch Saga, Candy Crush Friends, Netflix, and Hulu. There’s also a link to the Microsoft Store where you may get Photoshop Elements 2019. Lenovo provides a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. You may, however, pay to extend the warranty to up to five years and add on-site servicing.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon basic model costs $1,463 and includes a 1080p display, a Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Upgrade to a model with a 1080p monitor, a Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $1,697.
You may then increase your storage to 512GB for an additional $159. Else if you’re an IT manager, you can upgrade to the Core i7-8665U with vPro for $227. In the United Kingdom, two pre-built variants are offered for £1,700 and £2,100 — the former features a Core i5 CPU and a 1080p screen, while the latter has a Core i7 CPU with a 1440p display.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 is the greatest business laptop you can purchase, with a durable, lightweight carbon-fiber shell, a fantastic keyboard, and plenty of security and manageability capabilities.
Despite being a fantastic business laptop with long battery life and a lightweight feel, the X1 Carbon cannot run the great majority of top-tier PC games.
What can the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon be upgraded to? While you can’t increase the RAM in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon since it’s soldered on, you can expand the laptop’s SSD storage up to 2TB.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 is the closest thing to the ultimate business notebook. It’s not spectacular, but it’s really well designed, has a plethora of adjustable options, and has a sturdy chassis that won’t load down your travel luggage. As a consequence, it’s a unique business laptop that should appeal to consumers searching for a high-end computer. If your primary aim is work rather than gaming or video editing, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (7th Gen) is a fantastic pick. This Carbon, like its predecessors, offers a world-class keyboard, a user pointing stick, a very thin and light chassis, plenty of connectors, and long battery life with a 1080p screen. The 4K screen is stunning, but if you value battery life, opt for a lower-resolution display, such as the 1080p, non-touch basic model. While the 8th Gen “Whisky Lake” CPUs in our X1 Carbons were more than competent,
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