On Aug 6th, Lenovo released their new ultrabook: ThinkPad X1 Carbon. This is the world’t thinnest 14″ ultrabook. Since the first reveal on CES, we see many news about this new product. Now, we know the ThinkPad X1 Carbon will start ship from end of August.
August 6th is the anniversary of ThinkPad. The release conference of X1 Carbon also focus on the theme: “ThinkPad 20th”. Now, let’s have a hands on review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
Appearance
Most former ultrabooks use Aluminum-magnesium alloy case as Macbook Air’s. This material makes product a good fell of quality. However, this alloy will also makes the ultrabook heavy and not so good on thermal radiation. ThinkPad X1 Carbon will uses “carbon fiber “. This material is often uses on F1 vehicles or spacecraft. It allows Lenovo easily control the weight and improve heat radiating. The corners are all acquired smooth processing and is not as sharp as Macbook Air.
X1 Carbon uses 14 inch display. However, benefit from the narrow frame design, this laptop has a size just like 13 inch laptop. X1 just weight 1.36kg. This is very similar to a 13 inch laptop. The minimum thickness is 8mm and maximum thickness is 18mm.
X1 Carbon has made many design improvement when compared to the last generation X1. It uses matte screen to avoid reflection of light. The area of Wrist rest has increased more than 30%. The touch pad uses toughened glass and has the similar area as Macbook Air.
There are two indicator light to show the battery life.
Shortcut button, including volume button and mute button, are all placed to the left top corner.
In order to decrease thickness, X1 Carbon re-designed charge port. X1 Carbon has a rectangle charging port. The vents, one USB port and Wi-Fi port are all place on the left frame.
On the right side, there are SD card slot, handset port, Mini Display Port and USB 3.0 port.
In summary, X1 Carbon created a new solution. By using new material and new design, this ultrabook makes a good balance between portability and expansibility.
Hardware Specifications
X1 Carbon upgraded the 1366 x 768 resolution screen to 1600 x 900 resolution. However, for the weak fonts effect of Windows, the font appearance is not so good on it. During the release conference, Lenovo didn’t revealed any other hardware specs. But we guess it should uses Core i5-3317U CPU, 4GB RAM storage, 128GB SSD and Intel HD 4000 graphics card for the one we tested on the conference. But rumors said there will be 2 model for the new product.
Battery Performance
Lenovo officially announced that the X1 Carbon can support 8.2 hours battery life and 20 days standby time. And the X1 Carbon will use a new charging technology called RapidCharge. This new tech will quickly charge 80% battery power in no more than 35 minutes. This will allow users to use more than 6.6 hours.
Shipping date & Price
On the conference, Lenovo didn’t announce the shipping date or the price. But the HK price is $12800. But rumors has shown that the X1 Carbon will available on the end of this month.