A lot of what makes the best laptops for Adobe Photoshop also makes the best laptops for video editing: a well-balanced combination of performance, battery life, and a bright and vivid display. Whether you're just learning the ins and outs of editing photos or can wield the lasso tool like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeon, there's no shortage of great options, whatever your skill level.

Laptops with Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are now available for creators with demanding Photoshop needs, as well as all Intel's Core Ultra 200-series and AMD's Max Pro series of processors. Professional editors can benefit from the added performance of a discrete graphics card by enabling Photoshop's hardware acceleration features, which helps power through demanding tasks faster.

A high-resolution OLED display is also something to consider. You'll not only get to enjoy the rich hues and deep contrasts OLEDs are famous for, but some of them also have wide color gamut coverage — wide enough to find colors in between colors.

For beginners or anyone looking to save money, any laptop with last-gen hardware will still provide more than performance to move Photoshop edits along quickly. Even ones without a discrete graphics card. Check out our best laptop deals for the best discounts at various price points.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/6/25: Updated intro, benchmark comparisons, recently reviewed, and FAQs; added the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a as the best workstation and the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition as the best 2-in-1.

The Quick List

Best Overall

There's little not to love about the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9. It features a gorgeous display, powerful processor, solid discrete graphics, and enough memory and storage for creators of all skill levels. It even comes with decent battery life and a comfortable, bouncy keyboard.

Rami Tabari said in our review, "I love a display with a little kick. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i’s 16-inch, 3200 x 2000, 165Hz panel is gorgeous. It’s reasonably bright and offers a vivid wave of color."

The Yoga Pro 9i covers 105.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is well above the premium laptop average (91.2%). Its display is far better than similar laptops like the HP Spectre x360 16 (87.1%), Dell XPS 14 OLED (79.9%), and Apple MacBook Air (77.8%).

The Yoga Pro's powerful combination of an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card provide enough power for even the most demanding projects. The Yoga Pro 9i also lasted a respectable 9 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which is far more than many similarly packaged laptops.

The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 base model costs just $1,482 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The fully specced $2,043 version provides an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with an RTX 4060 GPU and a 16-inch, 3.2K, Mini-LED display. Our preferred middle-of-the-road spec costs just $1,784.

See our full Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 review.

Best under $1,000

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425) is a laptop that can do just about anything. It continuously amazes us how budget-friendly this absolute powerhouse is. With its power performance, solid graphics, and almost 16 hours of battery life, we have good reason to love the Zenbook 14 OLED as much as we do.

In my review, I note that "the display panel on the Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) looks incredible. The new trailer for Chris Pine's The Poolman showed crisp, vibrant colors, particularly in the scenes shot outdoors in LA during what appears to be a Lunar New Year celebration."

Starting at just $799, this laptop has a powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 135H processor with 8GB of DDR5 memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch FHD OLED panel. But if you can flex your budget just a bit more to the higher-end spec, at just $1,049, you get an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with 16GB of DDR5 memory and 1TB of SSD storage.

The Zenbook 14 OLED's display could be brighter and more vibrant, but with a DCI-P3 rating of 79.8%, it is comparable to most other laptops in its category, such as the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 (77.8%) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405M (81.7%).

But the Zenbook 14 OLED is more than its display panel. Surviving a shocking 15 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, it is one of the longest-lasting Intel laptops we've seen this year. Considering how budget-friendly this laptop is and how well it handles Photoshop, you can't go wrong with it.

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review.

Best under $1,500

The Acer Swift X 14 is a powerful, budget-friendly option for Photoshop users who need more 3D rendering capacity. The base model starts at just $1,099. The mid-range model combines a powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with a workhorse Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, plus 16 GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It retails for just $1,299. This mid-range model offers similar performance at a lower cost without sacrificing the display.

In my review, I observe that "the glossy CineCrystal OLED display on the Acer Swift X 14 looks fantastic to the human eye. The colors are bright and vivid, though the display panel does suffer from glare, especially with overhead office lighting."

However, if you'd like more memory, storage, and a more powerful GPU, our preferred Swift X 14 configuration is available for just $1,699. It includes an Nvidia RTX 4070, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

Acer rates the CineCrystal display on the Swift X 14 to 100% coverage on the DCI-P3 format. Our lab display test measures OLED panels a bit differently, so our testing indicated that the Swift X 14 covered 79.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro (81.4%) and HP Spectre x360 14 (85.8%) outperformed the Swift X 14 in our lab testing, but the Swift X 14's display looked incredible to the eye. In addition, the Swift X 14 offers a powerful Nvidia RTX 4050 to 4070 GPU, making it a better fit for more in-depth Photoshop work.

Based on the Laptop Mag battery test, the Swift X 14 with an RTX 4070 GPU can last for 7 hours and 33 minutes while surfing the web at 150 nits of brightness. While that isn't the best battery life for a laptop on this list, it's not bad for a laptop packing a discrete GPU and OLED display panel.

See our full Acer Swift X 14 review.

Best 2-in-1

Like some of the other Laptop Mag writers, I'm picky when it comes to convertible laptops — so it's a great day when a highly-rated review of one comes across my desk, and I get to give it a buying guide superlative. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is without a doubt a laptop that deserves to be on this list.

This laptop's headlining feature is the display, a 14-inch OLED that's "far superior and even more colorful than most premium laptops overall," as Laptop Mag reviews editor Rami Tabari notes in his review. Covering 149.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, it produces vivid and richly saturated, drool-worthy colors. The display averages a maximum of 421 nits of brightness, higher than you'd see on many competing OLED laptops —all major reasons why this Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is also our current pick for the best touchscreen laptop with an OLED display.

When it comes to performance, this laptop takes a leisurely approach to finishing demanding tasks. Compared to the other laptops on this list, it was the slowest to convert a 4K video file to 1080p. Photoshop users may experience some lag when batch-processing dozens of images with numerous layers or working with filters and brush tools.

But if you're not a graphic designer or photographer who uses a lot of advanced features in Photoshop, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a lot of other things going for it: a stellar and responsive keyboard; speakers that can actually handle a baseline; nearly 13 hours of battery life; and it weighs just under 3 pounds. (Other 2-in-1s are much more brick-like.) Also, I would feel comfortable putting it on my bare lap. At its hottest point, this laptop didn't reach 88.3 degrees, well below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition review.

Best MacBook

For Apple users and design enthusiasts, the 2024 MacBook Pro 16-inch with M4 Pro CPU reigns supreme for photo editing. While pricey (starting at $2,499), it offers powerful performance and a seamless experience within the Apple ecosystem. Opting for a 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM configuration delivers ample storage and smooth Photoshop performance, making it a compelling choice for creative professionals though upgrading the memory and storage capacity can get pricey.

Reviewer Sean Riley observes, "The 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro is more laptop than most people need, but that likely won't stop you from wanting one, and after a week with it, I can't blame you."

With any configuration of the M4 chip, you’ll get a brilliant 14-core Apple M4 Pro CPU, a 20-core Apple GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine, and a gorgeous 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. Our lab benchmarking rated the 16-inch Liquid Retina panel as covering 81.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is high for laptops on this list. The MacBook Pro also scored well on the brightness test, with an average of 565 nits, much brighter than the category average of 391.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro (2024) is a smart choice for Photoshop because of its beautiful, bright display and powerfully smooth internal specs. However, there’s another crucial spec to consider: battery life. MacBooks are known for having excellent battery life, which is a fantastic feature for those wanting to use Photoshop on the go. The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted an amazing 20 hours and 46 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, significantly longer than its workstation laptop competitors.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best Workstation

At CES 2025, we were so blown away by the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a that we gave it our best laptop award — and after reviewing it, we're still blown away by it. At 0.71-inches thick and weighing 3.4 pounds, it could easily be mistaken for a productivity laptop. However, with the driving force of an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 chip, it's anything but.

The great news for Windows users is that it comes "very close to eclipsing the MacBook Pro" in terms of portability and raw CPU power, as Laptop Mag staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto candidly mentions in her review. In some of our real-world testing, it's evenly matched; the ZBook converted a 4K video to 1080p 4 seconds faster than the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro in our Handbrake transcoding test.

It's OLED display comes in an extremely close second to the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, covering 139% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. (Many OLED laptop displays don't break 100%!) Its max brightness in on par with other competitors, maxing out at an average 368 nits — but if you're searching for the perfect shade of Pantone-like purple, this could be the workstation you've been looking for.

Being as powerful as they are, Windows workstations usually come with a battery life caveat, and with a run time of 6 hours and 46 minutes, this ZBook is no exception. To be fair, that's typical for a workstation, but it's a key area where this laptop doesn't eclipse the MacBook Pro, as well as other creator-focused laptops like the Asus ProArt PX13.

Ultimately, the ZBook's price tag is where most potential buyers could draw the line. The model we reviewed costs an enormous $4,049, but the base configuration starts at a substantial $2,599. If you're not loyal to a specific operating system, that amount of money can get you a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with better battery life — but it's hard to ignore that the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a is a marvelous laptop for any creative work.

See our full HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a review.

Benchmark Comparisons

Recent reviews

We review more than 100 laptops annually, and while some simply don't have what it takes to make our buying guides, others are still strong options that came up short for one reason or another. Here are some of our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for "Best laptops for Photoshop" but could still be solid machines for your photo editing needs.

How to choose a laptop for Photoshop

CPU: You want a high-performance processor like an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9, an AMD Ryzen 7 or 9, or an Apple M4 chipset to handle complex filters, large photo files, and multiple project layers.

GPU: For heavy-duty tasks like intricate filters, 3D effects, or AI generation, you may want to consider a laptop with a discrete graphics card like an Nvidia RTX or AMD Radeon RX card.

RAM: You need at least 16GB of memory, but depending on your budget, Photoshop users will certainly benefit from 32 or 64GB of RAM. I'd stress the latter in particular isn't something you need to consider unless money is no object or you are doing this professionally and every second counts.

Storage: 512 GB is the minimum I'd consider if I'm doing a lot of photo work, though splurging for 1TB or more is a good idea. Unlike the CPU, GPU, and RAM, you can always turn to external storage, so if your budget requires you to save somewhere, this is the place to do it. However, I'd still stress that you want 512GB at a minimum to handle at least one project at a time without turning to an external drive.

Display: You want to be picky about the display since photo editing is a visual medium. You'll want a crisp, high-resolution panel in the QHD to 4K range with accurate color reproduction. For the best combination of brightness and vibrancy, we recommend opting for an IPS, OLED, or Apple Liquid Retina XDR display to ensure a high level of color fidelity.

If you're looking to set up a full photo studio workstation and didn't select a laptop with the best display, you could also upgrade with one of our picks for the best monitors or best portable monitors for on-the-go editing.

FAQs

Q: What minimum specs do I need for Photoshop?

A: Lower than you might think! As of October 2024, the minimum system requirements for Adobe Photoshop running on Windows 11 are: an Intel or AMD processor with AVX2 and SSE 4.2 or higher support, or a WinARM processor; 8GB of RAM; 256GB total SSD storage space; and a graphics card that's newer than 7 years with at least 1.5GB of video RAM, and supports DirectX 12; and a 1080p monitor.

All that applies if you have a Mac, except the graphics card, but you'll want to make sure you have macOS v12 or higher.

If you a faster laptop to run Photoshop, we recommend at least: an Intel 13th-gen Core i7 processor or newer, an AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series or newer, or Apple Silicon M2 or newer; at least 16GB of RAM; 512GB or more of total SSD storage space (PCIe Gen 4 or newer); an Nvidia RTX 2050 or newer graphics card with at least 4GB of VRAM; and a 1080p display or higher.

Mac users should be running macOS Sonoma or newer.

Q: Is a laptop that's good for Photoshop also good for video editing?

A: Most laptops that are good for Photoshop will also work for video editing, but you'll also want to be aware of the audio quality of a laptop when choosing a video editing machine. So not all the laptops on this list will be ideal for editing video or audio files.

Video editing can often demand more RAM and GPU resources than photo editing, so you may want to opt for a laptop with a discrete GPU if video editing is going to be a large part of your workflow.

Q: Why don't we recommend a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop for Photoshop?

A: On the hardware-side, a Snapdragon X Elite laptop is an excellent machine for running editing programs like Photoshop — but few native Windows on Arm versions of Adobe programs exist overall.

Currently, only Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can run natively on Snapdragon X Elite laptops. This might not be an issue if you only use Photoshop, but if you also use Adobe Premiere Pro, InDesign, or Illustrator, those can only run via emulation.

It's a similar concept to running a virtual version of Windows 95 on a Windows 11 PC, but the computer will use more resources running both the emulator and program at the same time, which could slow down various editing tasks. If you don't have enough available RAM or video RAM, the entire program could crash.

How We Test Laptops for Photoshop

Every laptop we test undergoes countless lab tests before a review goes live. We look at how a laptop performs in terms of CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, battery life, speakers, heat management, and display. While each laptop on this list has gone through every test we could run on it; there are a few specific test results we paid close attention to when choosing the best laptops for Photoshop.

When you work with Photoshop, it’s important that the colors you’re working with will translate to other screens when your file is shared. To detect a laptop’s display brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut, we use a Klein K-10A colorimeter, Klein ChromaSurf, and DisplayCal to calculate a laptop's average brightness and color gamut volume. We also pay attention to each laptop’s Delta-E score, showing how accurate a display’s colors are.

Additionally, performance is important in a laptop running Adobe Photoshop. The Geekbench CPU benchmark tests a laptop’s overall performance. To test a laptop’s GPU, the 3DMark benchmarks determine how well a laptop can run graphic-intensive applications. Discrete graphics are ideal when selecting a laptop for Photoshop, but not essential, so you might forgo a discrete GPU for a more budget-friendly laptop.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

If you want a great business laptop, the best ThinkPads should be at the top of your list.

These aren't just some of the best business laptops; they're some of the best laptops, period. While the designs aren't always the most flashy or exciting, you can get some incredible performance out of these durable workhorse laptops.

Business-forward performance and long-lasting battery life are generally the biggest selling points of ThinkPads, but the ThinkPads we selected for this list are also built for a life lived beyond the cubicle walls. When the clock strikes five, you can take in your favorite TV show on a gorgeous display or even relax with a game, depending on which ThinkPad configuration you go with.

There are dozens of ThinkPads you can choose from, but you don't want to waste your money on a subpar model when there are a few shining stars well worth considering. And if these ThinkPads are out of your budget, check out our best laptop deals for discounts on ThinkPads and dozens of other laptops.

After hundreds of hours of testing, these are our top picks for the best ThinkPads of 2025.

Update log

6/6/2025: Moved the Lenovo ThinkPad T14S Gen 6 to a new 'Best Battery Life' category; added Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Aura Edition as the new 'Best Overall' pick; updated benchmark comparisons accordingly

The Quick List

The best Lenovo ThinkPad in 2025

Best overall ThinkPad

The Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Aura Edition stands out as the best ThinkPad for most people, with a battery that won’t quit, a sleek aluminum chassis and lightweight design, and Aura Edition features that come in handy for those using their laptop for business.

In our battery life test, this ThinkPad survived for 16 hours and 24 minutes, meaning you might not have to worry about charging for two full workdays. Pair that impressive battery life with the X9-15’s three-pound weight and relatively small form factor, and you’ve got an ideal travel-friendly companion.

The ThinkPad X9-15 also promises fantastic built-in features that we typically don’t see in business laptops. Laptop Mag’s Rami Tabari adored this laptop’s rich, colorful OLED touchscreen display, sang praises for its “bangin’ audio” from bottom-firing speakers, and had fun playing around with the haptic touchpad. The only feature that’s slightly lacking is the keyboard, which also lacks the classic TrackPoint dot in the center.

While we wished this laptop offered better performance for its price, the X9-15 Aura Edition certainly doesn’t deliver bad performance results in any way. It earned a Geekbench 6 score of 11,156, didn’t falter one bit during real-world browsing and multitasking stress tests, and managed to stay fairly cool, with its hottest point at only 92.9 degrees Fahrenheit (our comfort threshold is 95 degrees).

This Aura Edition laptop allows you to utilize Smart Modes, like Attention Mode to minimize distractions while working and Collaboration Mode to instantly get your laptop ready for video calls. Then, Smart Share makes it easy to share photos between your phone and your laptop. With these features and all the other things that make the ThinkPad X9-15 great, this is the ThinkPad we’d recommend to most people.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Aura Edition review.

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Best workstation ThinkPad

The ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is a powerhouse business laptop that seriously delivers on pro-level performance. It has the specs and performance needed for resource-intensive tasks in fields like 3D design, video editing, and data analysis. While it doesn't come cheap, it's tough to beat if you're looking for the most powerful ThinkPad.

The ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 kept up well in our benchmark tests with an especially high SSD transfer speed, impressive graphics performance, and a fantastic battery life of 17 hours and 23 minutes.

That's especially noteworthy considering workstation laptops tend to struggle with battery life, often lasting less than 8 hours per charge. So, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is an especially good fit for power users who commute or travel often and rely on strong battery life. The ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is also more portable than many other workstations. It weights just 4.3 pounds, while many similar laptops weigh over 5 pounds.

The only area where the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 really lags is display quality. The display is perfectly fine for everyday work tasks, but is noticeably less vibrant and color-accurate than most other workstations.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 review.

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Best foldable ThinkPad

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is a rarity among laptops, and while its unique foldable design might become commonplace with time, it's unlikely you'll find a better one on the market right now. "What is a foldable laptop," you ask? It acts as a standard laptop in its base mode, but you can detach the magnetic keyboard, unfold the display, and pop out the stand to create an easy-to-use, on-the-go desktop (or a massive tablet)

If you're thinking, "I don't need that," then a different ThinkPad on this list will be better suited for your tastes. If the idea of a foldable laptop excites you, we highly recommend considering the X1 Fold. The model we reviewed comes built with an Intel Core i7-1260U, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 16.3-inch OLED display at 2560 x 2024-pixel resolution. It's shockingly thin and light, coming in at just 2.9 pounds in tablet mode and 4.3 pounds with the keyboard and stand attached.

However, while we love its all-in-one use case, it's important to remember that Lenovo made a few sacrifices in its design, likely to accommodate the novelty of a foldable foundation. Its Intel Core i7-1260U processor is a couple of generations old now, and we wouldn't recommend it over other products on any other laptop.

But it still performed decently on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, with its multi-core score of 7,953 offering enough juice to perform moderate workloads. If you view this as more of a tablet that can double as a laptop, that's outstanding performance. It's still worth remembering that other laptops are faster, though.

Its battery life is less than we'd like, coming in at 8 hours and 44 minutes in laptop mode and 7 hours and 22 minutes in tablet mode. If you can look past these flaws, it's an excellent foldable laptop and perhaps the best today.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 Gen 1 review.

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ThinkPad with the best battery life

The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is an all-star business laptop that goes above and beyond in the ways that matter most: battery life and portability.

This lightweight ThinkPad lasted a record-breaking 21 hours and 3 minutes in our battery life test, longer than any other laptop Laptop Mag has tested (at the time of writing). That's more than enough to get you through two full workdays. If you travel often, you won't have to worry about the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 dying on you.

The ThinkPad's lightweight also makes it fantastic for traveling and commuting. It's 14-inch display means it's compact enough to easily fit in almost any laptop bag and it weighs just 2.72 pounds so you'll barely notice it's there.

While the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 falls short on graphics and gaming performance, it showed strong overall performance in our benchmark tests. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor kept up well across the board. It's worth noting, though, that since Snapdragon-powered laptops are still relatively new, there may be some apps that aren't natively supported on them yet. So, it's a good idea to double-check that all of your must-have apps are compatible before buying.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review.

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Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make the best Lenovo ThinkPads page; we wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case. We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly. Here's a look at the other ThinkPads we've recently reviewed that didn't quite make the cut.

How to choose the best ThinkPad laptop

All of the ThinkPads on this list are great laptops, but if you're still trying to narrow down your search, there are few factors to consider to help pinpoint the best business laptop for you.

Budget: What you get for your money

Since ThinkPads are business laptops, pricing for them can be a bit higher than usual since they're intended for bulk enterprise purchases. You can buy individual laptops, too, of course, but expect to pay a bit more than usual. Top-tier business laptops, ThinkPads included, can easily cost over $2,000. You can keep an eye on our best laptop deals to look for discounts and save some money.

Design: 2-in-1 or Clamshell?

Most ThinkPad laptops feature a traditional clamshell design, meaning the display doesn't flip around or fold to go into tablet mode. If that's a must-have feature for you, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is likely the best choice from our top picks since it has the most versatile, flexible hybrid design. You can also visit our guide to the best 2-in-1 laptops for more alternatives.

Battery Life: 12+ Hours for portability

Battery life is one of the most important traits for any great business laptop. You don't want to be worried about your laptop dying while you're commuting or traveling. Luckily, ThinkPads can seriously deliver in this department. At minimum, look for at least 12 hours of battery life. If it's a top priority for you, go with the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, which lasted a whopping 21 hours in our battery life benchmark test.

CPU/GPU: Business-forward performance

Generally, most ThinkPads will come with integrated graphics, so don't expect to play any AAA games natively or tackle intensive video-editing tasks on your ThinkPad.

The more important performance-related spec to pay attention to is the CPU. Most ThinkPads are powered by Intel processors, though you can find modern options with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor as well. For solid performance, make sure the ThinkPad you're looking to buy typically has a Geekbench 6 score of at least 10,000. The higher, the better.

RAM and Storage: More is more

For many people, 16GB of RAM is plenty for a business laptop, even if you're the type to open up countless tabs and forget about them. However, if you want to future-proof your laptop or want extra assurance that you won't experience lag while multitasking, opt for 32GB of RAM.

The same goes for storage. With so many documents stored in a cloud solution, the base 512GB of storage that comes with most ThinkPads is likely enough for most people. If you want to stretch that further, go with 1TB of SSD storage instead.

Display: Sharp enough to get by

As business laptops, ThinkPads aren't necessarily known for having the sharpest, most colorful displays. That said, modern ThinkPads are starting to feature OLED displays that are significantly richer and more vibrant than their IPS predecessors.

If you plan to stream content, play games, or work with color-specific tasks, it's worth springing for a higher-res OLED display. For everyone else, I'd recommend not settling for anything less than 1080p resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate.

ThinkPad FAQs

Q: Why should you buy a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop?
A: Lenovo laptops are consistently among our best laptops rankings due to their strong performance, good battery life, and overall quality. ThinkPads, in particular, shine among our best business laptops due to their enhanced durability and security standards. They can make good laptops for almost anyone, but they're often the cream of the crop for business users, especially if portability and battery life are top priorities.

Q: Lenovo ThinkPad vs ThinkBook: What's the difference?
A: Lenovo's ThinkPad and ThinkBook laptops sound alike, so they're easily confused. They're similar, but ThinkPads are generally more powerful and premium, while ThinkBooks are more affordable. Both can make good business laptops, but if you want the best performance possible, you would probably be better off with one of the best ThinkPads rather than a ThinkBook.

Q: How long do Lenovo ThinkPad laptops last?
A: How long a Lenovo ThinkPad lasts depends on various factors, such as daily usage intensity, durability, and an individual user's needs. In general, it's a good idea to replace your laptop every 5 years or so. A good laptop can last 7 years or more, but if you are a power user, you may need to replace your ThinkPad more often to ensure you have the latest hardware for running resource-intensive apps, in addition to battery life dropping over the life of any lithium-ion powered device.

Q: Can a Lenovo ThinkPad run games?
A: ThinkPads can typically run casual and lightweight games, but they're not gaming laptops. Most rely on integrated graphics, so they can't deliver the gaming performance you'd get from a laptop specifically designed for gaming. Some more high-end ThinkPads include dedicated GPUs, which offer better gaming performance, but if gaming is your top priority, you would be better served with one of the best gaming laptops.

Q: Who makes ThinkPads?
A: Lenovo. The iconic ThinkPad brand started in 1992 under IBM, but the company's entire PC division was purchased by Lenovo in 2005, and 20 years later, it remains one of the most recognizable and consistently excellent laptop brands under Lenovo's stewardship.

How we test the best ThinkPads

In order to make our best ThinkPads list, each laptop needs to score at least 4 out of 5 stars on our reviews and deliver on the factors consumers care about most. When it comes to ThinkPads, business users' needs are a top consideration.

On top of our thorough lab testing, our expert reviewers also test each product to see how it looks, feels, and performs in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of what to expect and which models deliver the best value and experience for your money.

When we bring a laptop into our lab, our goal is to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use a number of industry-standard benchmarks, such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. To judge pure processing power, we use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of games, like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Metro: Exodus, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption, just to name a few.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on how we test laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Following these tests, the laptop is given to our expert reviewers for extensive hands-on testing. Our reviewers will spend days using the laptop as part of their typical workflow to get a sense of the real-world performance and live with the laptop to come away with a thorough understanding of the hardware and software experience. This blended lab testing and hands-on approach allows us to offer you a clear and comprehensive view of every laptop that comes through Laptop Mag.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The best business laptops in 2025 will help you get more done faster, whether you work from home, an office, or are often on the road. Modern business laptops can deliver powerfully productive performance in thin-and-light chassis.

I've reviewed laptops for over seven years now, so consider me and the rest of the Laptop Mag staff your outsourced team of dedicated laptop experts. We review and test over 100 laptops annually to help you find the best laptops in a wide variety of categories.

What's different about finding the best business laptops? You can't shortchange security and durability: The best business laptops typically come with fingerprint sensors, IR cameras, and security chips, and many have military-grade durability.

These are key components that differentiate business laptops from typical consumer laptops. We rigorously test the best business laptops from every major manufacturer to judge their blend of portability, performance, battery life, and more.

The Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405) is our current pick for the best business laptop. It ticks all of the boxes above and offers a bright 144Hz display, solid performance, over 14 hours of battery life, and an excellent 3-year warranty. If you need maximum battery life, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is the answer, lasting over 21 hours in our testing. If your work supports macOS, the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 is an intriguing option with solid performance and over 15 hours of battery life in a durable build.

That's just a small sampling, here are my 6 top picks for the best business laptops in 2025.

The Quick List

The best business laptops in 2025

Best Business Laptop Overall

The Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405) is the best business laptop we've reviewed in 2024, thanks to its unique 144Hz display, long-lasting battery life, included 3-year warranty, and affordable price. It edged just beyond 14 hours in our Laptop Mag Battery test, which should cover even your busiest day at work. This impressive resume earned its placement at the top of the business laptop charts.

Sean Riley reviewed this laptop for us, and he said, "Overall, the ExpertBook P5 is one of the most compelling thin-and-light business laptops that I've reviewed..." After writing and editing hundreds of reviews on Laptop Mag over the last 5 years, some great business laptops have crossed his desk, so that's not to be taken lightly.

With 32GB of RAM and the Intel Core Ultra 258V chipset, performance is good enough for motivated multitaskers. It scored 11,259 on the Geekbench 6 test, which comes in just behind some of its competitors, the HP EliteBook Ultra (Snapdragon X-Elite, 12,717), MacBook Air 13 M3 (Apple M3, 12,087), and HP Elite x360 1040 G11 (Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, 12,857). However, the 32GB of RAM and the outstanding SSD speed of the ExpertBook help to make up the minimal performance gap.

If you run your own business or are in a small business, you'll particularly appreciate the outstanding 3-year warranty and 1-year Accidental Damage Protection plan that comes standard with the ExpertBook P5. It's not that these options aren't available for other laptops, but they are typically upgrades from a 1-year warranty, which is all the more astounding at the sub-$1,300 price point for the ExpertBook. The combination of features and warranty could easily land you above $2,000, which is why our reviewer said, "The pricing on the ExpertBook P5 almost feels like a tax loophole..."

Lest you think Asus skimped to hit this price point, it still features enterprise-grade security from its discrete Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and secure login via its IR camera or fingerprint reader.

A business laptop that is feature-rich and affordable is a rarity, and that's why it earns my pick as the best business laptop in 2025.

See our full Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405) review.

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Best Budget Business Laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 delivers fantastic value for a budget-conscious business. I'll get the caveat out of the way right at the top, the battery life is its weakness at 7 hours and 48 minutes in our testing. So regular travelers will need to look elsewhere, but if you are at a desk or typically have access to an outlet this is a worthwhile tradeoff for the rest of what you get.

Our reviewer was particularly impressed by this laptop's laundry list of security features: "the ThinkPad E14 comes with features like a discrete trusted platform module (TPM) 2.0, an optional FHD hybrid IR camera required for Windows Hello, and Smart Power On." In many industries, this level of security is a must, so it's great to see it on a budget business laptop.

The ThinkPad E14 beat out the mainstream laptop average in both our Geekbench 6 testing (8,000 vs. 7,812) and our SSD transfer test (1,257MBps vs. 924.18MBps), a notable feat for a business laptop typically found for around $750. It nearly matched our previous overall pick, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11's Geekbench score, while outscoring the vastly more expensive HP Dragonfly Pro on the SSD transfer test.

As you would expect from Lenovo, the keyboard is a super responsive chiclet style that should allow you to type quickly and comfortably all day. Lenovo also boasts MIL-STD 810H certification on this affordable laptop, so don't worry that you're getting a cheap build due to the low cost.

While you can find a laptop for under $500, most business users will be better served by stretching that budget to reach the ThinkPad E14 Gen 5.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 review.

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Best Long-Lasting Business Laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is part of a second wave of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops this year, and they continue to amaze. This laptop delivers the same incredible performance we saw in the first round of these new ARM-based Windows laptops this summer, but it sets a new high mark for battery life at 21 hours and 3 minutes in our testing.

Microsoft's Copilot+ PC messaging dominated some conversations around the Snapdragon X Elite's initial launch earlier this year, but the combination of performance and battery life remains astounding.

If you are unconvinced by AI right now, that's fine; the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is a fantastic business laptop, even if you never use a single AI feature. At the start of this year, a business laptop with 12 hours of battery life was doing quite well; now, we're regularly seeing results in the 14-18-hour range. But as our reviewer, Stevie Bonifield, said of its over 21 hours, "The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has enough battery life to easily get you through a full day of work, maybe even two."

What's more, it doesn't cost you anything in terms of performance, with the T14s scoring 14,486 in the Geekbench 6 overall performance test. That's almost 4,000 higher than the category average of 10,785. That's enough to outpace a high-performance laptop like Apple's MacBook Pro 14 M3 (11,968). It even did a solid job in the HandBrake video conversion test at 5 minutes and 34 seconds, beating the category average by 40 seconds if you need to do occasional video work.

The ThinkPad T14s display is a slightly mixed bag. Its stellar brightness of 451.8 nits is enough to remain usable in anything but direct sunlight, while its DCI-P3 color gamut of 70.7% is a bit disappointing. If you are doing creative work, that is a dealbreaker, but for typical productivity work, it won't matter.

Lenovo's ThinkShield and hardware security, like the fingerprint reader and IR camera for facial recognition sign-on, all add to the package for the ThinkPad T14s. You also have MIL-STD-810H durability certification to give you and your company peace of mind that the laptop will hold up to commuting, traveling, or just being hauled around your home or office.

As long as you aren't using proprietary software that may not support the ARM-based Qualcomm chip inside the ThinkPad T14s and you aren't reliant on a vivid display, the ThinkPad T14s belongs on the shortlist for your next business laptop. If those are applicable to you, consider something like the HP Spectre x360 14 instead, which is a bit more expensive, but offers a more standard Intel processor and a more creator-focused feature set.

Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review.

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Best Work-from-home Laptop

The MacBook Air M4 is a rare 5-star laptop; it's our current choice for the best laptop overall. However, when considering it for work, it takes a backseat to some of the more purpose-built business laptops. That's why it makes an excellent choice for a work-from-home laptop; as long as your business supports macOS, it's the ideal laptop for business and personal use.

In my review, I wrote, "It's an undeniable value that will give you years of excellent performance, even if you pick up the base model." I stand by that statement months later. We've seen strong competition over the last year, but the Air remains tough to beat for overall productivity performance.

The MacBook Air 13 M4 is more than a match for the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors, with only the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips outperforming it in some tasks. While Qualcomm and Intel are finally putting up a fight in the battery life department, the Air M4 delivers almost 16 hours in our testing, so it's not something that you'll have to worry about.

Taking a closer look at performance, the Air 13 M4 easily outpaced strong competitors like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x on Geekbench 6 (14,849 vs. 13,750) for multi-core performance while simultaneously offering over 4 hours of additional battery life. If you want more battery life than the Air M4, you'll need to look at the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, which delivered over 21 hours in our testing.

One of the only knocks against the MacBook Air is that it only offers a pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports along with the MagSafe charging port. If an HDMI or USB Type-A port is critical to your setup, you will need to pick up a USB-C hub or a docking station. If it's just the HMDI port or an SD card slot, you could also opt for the MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024), which adds both, along with a third Thunderbolt 4 port (sadly, still no USB-A).

See our full Apple MacBook 13-inch M4 review.

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Best for Travel

The MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo 2-in-1 is a small and stylish laptop, perfect if you are a frequent business traveler or have a long commute with your laptop daily; its 2.9-pound weight and almost 17-hour battery life may make it sparkle like a diamond in your eyes.

Our reviewer, Madeline Ricchiuto, says, "There are plenty of reasons to recommend the Summit 13 AI+ Evo. It offers almost 17-hours of battery life, dependable performance, a bright display, a satisfying keyboard, sturdy hinges, and it comes with 2TB of storage space and a stylus for just $1,599." That's high praise for a thin-and-light business laptop. Thankfully, it also boasts MIL-STD 810H certification for durability, meaning that if it encounters bumps, drops, cold, heat, and dust as it travels with you, it will continue to power up every time you need it.

The 13.3-inch display has a 16:10 aspect ratio, giving you 120 extra vertical pixels to work with compared to a typical 16:9 display, so you'll get a few extra rows of that spreadsheet or another paragraph of that report you're working on. The display is reasonably bright at 366 nits, which should be enough for most lighting conditions.

It won't replace your gaming laptop or video editing laptop, but performance is sufficient for productivity apps, web browsing, and most typical business applications with a score of 10,895 on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test. That only beats our budget pick, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (8,000), but isn't far behind our top choice or the M3 MacBook Air. There's a performance trade-off for portability and battery life, but it's not a massive sacrifice.

Travelers will appreciate the port offerings on the Summit 13 AI+ Evo as a thin-and-light laptop often means scant connectivity options. The TravelMate gives you a full HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack.

Finally, the Summit 13 features a bouncy and responsive Chiclet-style keyboard and a 4.7 x 2.3-inch trackpad. Again, this is a smaller laptop, so if you have large hands, it may feel cramped. You may at least want to consider picking up the best wireless mouse to free up a little space on the deck.

It won't be the perfect match for everyone, but if you are looking for the best business laptop for travel, the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo 2-in-1 is the right choice in 2025.

See our full MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo A2VM review.

Best for graphic design

The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 isn't the most powerful workstation in the world, but that's part of what makes it the best workstation for business users. Its Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and Nvidia RTX 1000 Ada Generation GPU offer solid workstation performance while retaining a reasonably portable form factor and excellent battery life.

Madeline Ricchiuto writes in our review, "While it may not be the most powerful workstation we’ve ever seen here at Laptop Mag, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 has enough power and performance to handle photo and video editing, 3D rendering, or heavy data analysis you’d want out of a workstation machine."

It's a workstation, so performance can't be ignored. In our lab tests, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 has a Geekbench 6 multicore average of 12,974, a file transfer rate of 2,071 MBps, and it compressed a 4K video to a 1080p 30fps format in just 4 minutes and 22 seconds. Those metrics won't beat workstation powerhouses like the HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 or Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024), but it is well beyond the performance of the typical business laptop.

The ThinkPad's display reproduces 78.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E color accuracy of 0.29. It would be great to see the DCI-P3 somewhat higher, but the color accuracy is excellent and the more crucial metric for design work. The average brightness of 386 nits is enough to perform well in most lighting conditions.

I mentioned the excellent battery life, but to put a number to it, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 lasted 17 hours and 23 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test. That's in the conversation with the laptops with the best battery life overall, let alone a workstation.

Now, if you see the retail price of $3,369, you may get scared off, but don't worry, it's virtually always heavily discounted to below $2,000. If you are a business user with high-performance needs, this is the workstation to buy.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 review.

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Benchmark comparisons

Recently Reviewed Laptops

Not every laptop can make the best business laptop page, we wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case. We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly, so here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault or simply because it isn't a business laptop.

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How To Choose a Business Laptop

Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing the right model of business laptop for you or your company.

• Do you need Intel vPro or AMD Pro? Many business laptops are available with CPUs that have Intel vPro technology, which lets a support person log in remotely, even if the computer can't boot. However, unless you have a large IT department and a huge fleet of laptops that you need the ability to service remotely, you probably won't use this feature.
• How fast do you need it to be? While the kind of blistering performance you need in a gaming laptop isn't necessary, business users don't want to be bogged down while multitasking. RAM is one concern here, opting for at least 16GB and 32GB isn't ridiculous if you are a power user who likes to keep numerous apps and browser tabs open. For your CPU, most will be fine with an Intel Core Ultra 5 or AMD Ryzen or higher. On the MacBook side, stick to the M3 or higher in 2025.
• Long battery life: Nobody wants to run out of juice in the middle of a long workday or a cross-country flight. Unless you're getting a giant workstation or a budget laptop, look for a laptop that gets at least 11 hours on a charge.
• The right ports: Nobody likes to carry a bag full of dongles. Consider which kinds of connections you or your employees will need the most. If you connect to a wired network a lot, make sure the laptop has an Ethernet port. If photography is a key part of the job, choose a laptop with a memory card reader. No matter what your needs are, a Thunderbolt 4 port is a huge advantage because it will allow you to connect to high-speed peripherals, universal chargers, and powerful laptop docking stations.
• A great keyboard: It almost goes without saying that every laptop should have a good keyboard. However, with business systems, a comfortable typing experience is even more important. Look for snappy feedback, deep travel and absolutely no flex.

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FAQs

• Q: What makes a good business laptop vs. a home laptop?
  A: While there is substantial overlap in the qualities that we look for in the best business laptops as opposed to simply the best laptops, security is one of the biggest features that separates them. We want a fast, reliable, and secure login method, whether it's a fingerprint reader or an IR camera, for Windows Hello support.
  
  Durability is another critical feature for a business laptop; your job may depend on your ability to bring this laptop everywhere with you, and not having it break down at an inopportune moment is mission-critical.
  
• Q: Why are business laptops so expensive?
  A: Some of this comes down to the two features referenced in the answer right above this one: security and durability. Business laptops often feature additional security features at a chip level that aren't included in consumer laptops, which drives up the costs and, in turn, the price. A more durable laptop means more robust components, and the added cost of those pricier parts is passed on to the business laptop buyer.
  
  Another factor to keep in mind is that while retail price listings for business laptops can often sound outlandish, this isn't typically the price you should expect to pay for them. Whether a business gets a discount for purchasing these laptops in bulk or you just have to wait for a discount, you should almost never be paying the original stated MSRP for a business laptop.

How We Test Business Laptops

Every business laptop that comes into our labs is put through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they are handed off to our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

Those first two garner particularly high scrutiny for business laptops. Depending on your work, you may need a more vibrant or bright display, but everyone needs solid performance from their laptop to perform at their peak for work. Battery life isn't crucial to every worker, but it's vital for frequent travelers or if you have a long commute and depend on getting work done while making your way to and from the office.

For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including GeekBench 5 and 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests. To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 25GB multimedia file.

Our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 10 hours is considered a good result, but the latest generation of chips is driving that up, with the longest-lasting laptops now pushing to 16 hours and beyond.

For our display testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of the laptop's display. Unless you work with graphic design, photos, or video or just use your work laptop to watch content in your downtime, the color gamut likely isn't a big concern for you. Brightness, however, can be crucial if you work in less-than-optimal lighting conditions to ensure you can see your screen.

If you are a regular commuter or traveler, you should also pay careful attention to our heat tests. We play a 15-minute full-screen video and measure temperatures in different areas of the laptop. If you ever truly use your laptop in your lap, you don't want to see it get above our 95-degree comfort threshold in this test.

Following these tests, the laptop is given to our expert reviewers for extensive hands-on testing. Our reviewers will spend days using the laptop as part of their typical workflow to get a sense of the real-world performance and live with the laptop to come away with a thorough understanding of the hardware and software experience. This blended lab testing and hands-on approach allows us to offer you a clear and comprehensive view of every laptop that comes through Laptop Mag.

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Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

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Lenovo ThinkPad keyboards are the stuff of legend; they dominate any discussion of the best laptop keyboards. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium earned a place in my bag for years, in no small part due to its luxurious typing experience. However, there is one feature on every single ThinkPad keyboard that can start an immediate war with laptop keyboard enthusiasts: the TrackPoint pointing stick.

Even if you've never used a ThinkPad and aren't familiar with the term, you almost certainly will know what it is when I describe it. The TrackPoint is a small red nub nestled between the G, H, and B keys on a ThinkPad keyboard. It was invented in 1992 by IBM and has been a fixture on ThinkPads for 32 years. It's a pointing device without equal to many a ThinkPad fan. To others, it's a useless red blot on an otherwise amazing keyboard.

On Tuesday at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Lenovo announced a pair of ThinkPads sure to spark many an argument: the ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition and its 14-inch sibling. They are the first ThinkPads to eliminate the TrackPoint pointing stick, and Lenovo views these laptops as a key component in expanding its already dominant position as the largest PC manufacturer in the world.

The engine driving the ThinkPad X9

While the lack of the TrackPoint nub will be a lightning rod for attention, it's doing this laptop a disservice to focus on what's going away rather than what's been added. The "engine hub" is the key element to this new design-- a narrow bar that runs along the bottom of the laptop toward the back, unlocking far more capabilities than would otherwise be possible in a laptop this thin.

The engine hub houses all of the ports for the ThinkPad X9, allowing for smooth, rounded edges on the rest of the laptop. It also gives Lenovo the room to drop an impressive 80Wh battery inside this laptop, which should deliver solid battery life even with its powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) vPro chipset.

Viewed from the bottom, you can look through the engine hub to see the fans and other internal elements of the laptop. Another benefit of the engine hub is that it makes the laptop far more serviceable, music to the ears of business buyers; you can easily access the battery and SSD through it. After spending a little time with the ThinkPad X9, I also noted that the engine hub gives the laptop a slightly better angle for typing.

The ThinkPad X9 is a high-performance business laptop looking to win over a new segment of buyers to the ThinkPad lineup. While plenty of the familiar Lenovo DNA is there, this isn't a simple evolutionary design step; it's a revolutionary change for the ThinkPad series.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition specs

What's next?

Lenovo tells Laptop Mag that the ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition and X9 15 Aura Edition will be available starting in February 2025. Prices will begin at $1,399 for the 14-inch model and $1,549 for the 15-inch.

While I enjoyed my brief hands-on time with the ThinkPad X9 to get a feel for the new design, I can't wait for us to get this laptop in for review so our lab can put it through our full benchmark testing and we can spend some real time working with it.

While I have no doubt there will be ThinkPad fans that want nothing to do with the X9, this is a far bolder design swing than I would have anticipated for ThinkPad, which could be exactly what Lenovo needs to win over entirely new customers and push ThinkPad's market share even higher.

More from Laptop Mag

• Laptop Mag at CES 2025: The latest laptop news, reviews, and analysis direct from Las Vegas
• My favorite gaming laptop is back at CES 2025 — will the Asus Zephyrus G14 earn a perfect score?
• Razer's new Blade 16 will be its thinnest, most powerful gaming laptop yet

Black Friday is the rearview mirror, and Cyber Monday is here to take the wheel. But that's a double-edged sword, while we're seeing some of the best laptop deals of the long weekend you've only one more day to take advantage of them.

That's why you're going to want to strike while the iron is hot, and while stocks last, on this fantastic laptop deal that sees you saving $2,080 on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12), now available for just $1,379!

ThinkPad laptops are some of the best business laptops on the market. To many, they are the best business laptops, period, and for good reason. Packed with powerful security features and backed by Intel's powerful AI-ready Evo platform, the X1 Carbon is a fantastic pairing of performance and power.

This configuration offers an Intel Core 7 165U vPro CPU, integrated Intel Graphics, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, a 1080p FHD IR+RGB webcam with privacy shutter, and a striking 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200, 60Hz, 400 nits) touchscreen display. Not to mention the ThinkPad's lauded keyboard, trackpad, and iconic red pointer.

At this price, there's no arguing that the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (gen 12) is one of the best Cyber Monday laptop deals you'll see all day, but it is only here for one day. In other words, act fast!

Today's best Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) Cyber Monday deal

Lenovo's updated Black Friday prices are now LIVE! Meaning, for a limited time you can grab this impressive ThinkPad E14 (Gen 6) laptop for only $739!

When anyone mentions a business laptop, there are a few models that immediately spring to mind, and all of them are ThinkPads.

During Black Friday, and hopefully carrying over into Cyber Monday, you'll be able to secure some excellent savings on ThinkPad laptops throughout Lenovo's impressive lineup. Just one of those is the ThinkPad E14 (Gen 6).

You can currently bag yourself this business beauty for a shockingly low sum. The ThinkPad E14 (Gen 6) is now just $822 at Lenovo's online store. That's a saving of $647 off of its usual $1,469 asking price.

Laptop Mag reviewed last year's ThinkPad E14 (Gen 5) model, granting it a well-earned four-star victory in the process. It has all the hallmarks of a fantastic ThinkPad laptop; an excellent build with a sleek design, smooth performance across demanding workflows, a bright display, and a decent webcam to boot.

The new Gen 6 model takes things further, entering the AI PC market by adopting Intel's newer Core Ultra 5 processor and bringing with it improved efficiency and performance.

It's a killer saving on one of the best budget business laptops. However, while you're free to snap up this deal, in the immortal words of D:Ream: "Things can only get better" — and at the stroke of midnight, they will.

Catch this deal from 12 a.m. at the dawn of Black Friday proper and you'll save even more. $83 to be precise, as the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 (Gen 6) drops to just $739 (Now live!).

Don't forget to check out our round-ups of the best Black Friday deals to catch great savings elsewhere, or our best Black Friday laptop deals selection if you're still looking for the perfect notebook.

Today's best Lenovo ThinkPad E14 (Gen 6) deal

The 13-inch laptop is a wonder of modern design.

It's often so light you'll barely notice it in your bag while still delivering plenty of performance. Students breeze through campus with these lightweight wonders, while pros tuck them into briefcases for on-the-go productivity (or just conquering emails from the couch). You'll love the convenience and portability they bring, making them the perfect companion for busy, on-the-move individuals.

But just because they're small doesn't mean you should underestimate their bite. These aren't the underpowered thin and light laptops of yesteryear; 13-inch laptops are available to handle almost any workload. They make for the best travel-friendly laptops available, with a sturdy chassis, enchanting display, and long battery life. So ditch the bulk and embrace the possibilities — 13-inch laptops are where extreme portability meets powerhouse.

If you want the thinnest and lightest laptop possible while still offering enough power to handle most tasks easily, a 13-inch laptop is the answer.

If you need a laptop today, these are the best 13-inch laptops based on our extensive testing and reviews.

The Quick List

Best 13-inch laptops in 2024

Best 13-inch overall laptop

Apple's MacBook Air M3 is staggering, asserting itself as one of the best overall laptops. If you need a 13-inch, most people would not go wrong with it, as its excellent performance and miraculously long battery life are impossible to deny.

The MacBook Air M3 towers above the premium laptop's average performance with its Geekbench 6 overall multi-core score of 12,087. Its SSD speeds are also hyper-fast, hitting an average of 3,031 megabytes per second in our file transfer test. Plain and simple, there are very few scenarios in which you can go wrong with the MacBook Air M3.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits, The MacBook Air M3 lasted 15 hours and 13 minutes. No, you didn't misread that. Its battery life goes above and beyond reason, and it is one of the longest-lasting laptops you can buy today.

It's also impressive that this is a whole hour longer in longevity when compared to the M2 MacBook, meaning there's no better time to invest in the latest model. MacBooks are also famous for their great-feeling keyboards, and if you want a springy and quiet one to keep your fingers happy while typing the day away, look no further.

Otherwise, its 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display is crisp enough to perform in-depth work. Its 77.8 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut is solid, but what sets it apart is an average brightness of 476 nits. The brightness is enough to handle even the sunniest days, as there's nothing worse than intense glare, making it impossible to see what's happening on-screen.

See our full MacBook Air M3 review.

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Best 13-inch business laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 is the perfect business laptop for those who need a quality ultraportable. Its total weight of 2.2 pounds is as light as a feather, and if you need something truly capable with solid performance and a bright display, look no further.

Our configuration costs $1,599, and Lenovo built it with an Intel Core i7-1360P processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage space, and a 13.3-inch 2K IPS touchscreen. While it's important to remember that it's using a last-generation processor, its Geekbench 5.5 multi-core performance of 9,268 is good enough to handle a heavy workload.

We were pretty disappointed by its longevity, though. In the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits, its subpar 8 hours and 28 minutes of battery life is enough to sustain an entire workday. Still, depending on how demanding your workflow is, you might need an outlet nearby. This is also worse than the original's 12 hours of battery life and is significantly below the 9-hour and 45-minute ultraportable average.

The laptop can also get bright enough to survive blinding sunlight, with an average brightness of 483 nits. That's even higher than the MacBook Air M3, which hits 476 nits. However, its color depth leaves much to be desired, coming in at a 70.9 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

We also wish it had more ports, but considering it's a thin and lightweight laptop, it's typical for these products to have a small selection. At the very least, its two Thunderbolt 4 ports will allow for the best laptop docking stations to be attached. You also get an audio jack, so there's that.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 review

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Best 13-inch 2-in-1 Laptop

Counting the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i as a 13-inch laptop might be cheating, as it features two 13.3-inch 2,800 x 1,800-pixel displays, but this adds to the diversity of its use cases. How does it work, you ask? Pop the lid open and use it as a standard laptop, but detach its Bluetooth keyboard and get to work when you want to use two screens at once. You can even use an included external mouse and Lenovo Digital Pen.

It is absolutely worth considering its price, though, as you'll be paying $1,999 for this beast. Beyond just its incredible foundation, its 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U is solid, with a Geekbench 5.5 score of 7,765. While this is slightly below our 7,767 premium laptop average, it's not drastic enough of a drop for us to avoid recommending the product.

The dual OLED displays are also a glorious sight, covering 136.5 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut on the top display and 136.7 percent on the bottom display. This isn't a surprise, as they're identical panels, and it pulls ahead of competitors like the MacBook Air M3 (77.8 percent) without issue.

It also sports battery life within our recommended range, lasting 9 hours and 18 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits. While that's not quite as impressive as the MacBook Air M3's 15 hours, it's still great for a 2-in-1 laptop.

The brightness could be better, though. It is 335 nits on the top display and 344 nits on the bottom display, which is lower than the 392 nits average for this category.

See our full Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review.

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How to choose the best 13-inch laptop

Do your intensive daily workloads require more RAM than the average Joe? Are you a video editor who needs extra storage? Are you a gamer who wants a powerful GPU? Sorting through the best laptops to fit your lifestyle is a tricky business.

Budget: What you get for your money

You can find decent Windows laptops and high-quality Chromebooks for under $500. However, better mainstream laptops usually cost more than $700 and premium Ultrabooks can run over $1,000. The best gaming laptops can cost $2.000 and up, but you can play the latest titles at decent frame rates on gaming laptops under $1,000.

Design: 2-in-1 or clamshell?

More and more of today's laptops are 2-in-1s with screens that either bend back 360 degrees or detach so you can use them as tablets. If you like the idea of using your laptop in slate mode for drawing, media consumption, or just standing up, a 2-in-1 could be for you. However, you can often get better features or a lower price by going with a traditional clamshell-style laptop.

Battery Life: 9+ hours for portability

Battery life matters unless you plan to use your laptop only on your desk. Even in the home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work on the couch or at the conference table without being chained to the nearest outlet. We recommend getting a laptop that lasted over 9 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test for the best portability. The longest-lasting laptops endure anywhere between 10 and 15 hours.

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How we test the best 13-inch laptops

Over the course of a year, we review over 150 laptops covering every price point and use case. Whether you’re looking for a productivity workhorse, a badass gaming system, or a multimedia machine to kick back and watch a movie or two, we can help you find your ideal match.

In order to make our list, the system needs to score at least 4 out of 5 stars on our reviews and deliver on the things shoppers care about most. In our evaluations, we focus on design and comfort, display quality, the keyboard and touchpad, performance, battery life, and especially value.

Our expert reviewers also use each product to see how it looks, feels, and performs in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it stacks up to the average laptop in its price band.

When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, our goal is to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use a number of industry standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. To judge pure processing power, we use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of games including Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Metro: Exodus, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption just to name a few.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on how we test laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

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Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

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We’ve seen some wild designs throughout the years, and Lenovo shoving e-ink displays in laptops is nothing new, but the company has yet to nail it down — and with the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4, it still hasn’t.

For a whopping $2,976, the ThinkBook Plus offers a gorgeous 13.3-inch OLED display, solid speakers, and decent performance packed into a neatly designed chassis. However, that ridiculous price also gets you an e-ink display on the lid. It’s wild and fun to play with… if you have the patience of a saint — I do not.

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 is a decent attempt at a 2-in-1 laptop with an e-ink display, but it hasn’t filtered out the flaws enough for it to make it on our best 2-in-1 laptops or even best Lenovo laptops pages.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 price and configurations

Lenovo sent me the $2,976 model, which comes with a Intel Core i7-1355U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, an Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip, and a 13.3-inch, 2880 x 1800 OLED display. So why is it so expensive? Well, that’s thanks to the 12-inch, 2560 x 1600 colorful E-Ink screen on the lid.

You can get this laptop with a 1TB SSD ($3,094) or a Core i5 CPU ($2800). If you’re already paying nearly $3K, you might as well jump in for a fully decked out product.

If you’re way out of your budget, consider checking out our best cheap laptops.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 design

I was already preparing my rant about silver and gray notebooks when I pulled the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 out of the box, but then I was shook by a full display on the lid. “Uh oh,” I muttered under my breath, realizing that this would not be a simple review. Yep, that’s a 12-inch e-ink screen for a lid, paired with a sensor atop its thick bezels.

Opening the laptop reveals the main 13.3-inch display with some relatively thin bezels and a webcam at the top attached to the lip of the lid. The deck features an edge-to-edge keyboard along with a smallish touchpad.

Okay let’s get to the interesting part — this is not your typical 2-in-1 laptop. The hinge that connects the deck to the lid is a small centerpiece that swivels. Using this hinge, you can make either display your lid, which is a much sturdier design choice over the typical 2-in-1 design. Since it has a display on either side, you can even use it in tent mode. 

I have some concerns about the hinge’s durability and longevity, but I’m not going to throw it against a wall to see if it stays together — so just don’t drop it. And the hinge only swivels 180 degrees, which I’m also concerned about because it’s easy to accidentally put too much pressure in the wrong direction. Lenovo claims that it features MIL-SPEC durability, but I’m not testing my luck. I hear a snapping sound in someone’s future. 

Despite its wild design, the ThinkBook Plus is relatively slim, coming in at 3 pounds and 11.7 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches. Meanwhile, its predecessor, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3, was actually a 17-inch laptop, weighing in at 4.4 pounds and 16.1 x 9.0 x 0.6~0.7 inches. We’re also pitting the latest ThinkBook Plus against the HP Dragonfly Folio G3 (3.1 pounds, 11.7 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches) and Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (7620) (4.6 pounds, 14.1 x 9.9 x 0.6~0.7 inches).

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 ports

Ports, where art thou? No where.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 has three ports: One Thunderbolt 4 and a headphone jack on the left, and one Thunderbolt 4 on the right. You can even find the power button on the right side as well, which we’ve complained about in the past (but this is one of the few laptops it makes sense for).

Do you find yourself in need of more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 display and e-ink

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4’s 13.3-inch, 2.8K OLED display is the drop-dead gorgeous beauty at the ball that you could only dream of dancing with. Well, I’ve had the pleasure, and damn.

I watched The Little Mermaid, and outside of being bombarded by terrible CGI, there are some lovely establishing shots of the coast and the castle that popped beautifully at night and in the crispy blue dusk. Halle Bailey’s locs were sharper than ever on screen, and despite how dark the night shots got, especially during the storms, I  saw every detail on and off the ship.

According to our colorimeter, the ThinkBook Plus G4 covered 137.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which crushed the premium laptop average (97.6%). It even bested the ThinkBook Plus G3 (108.6%), Dragonfly Folio (80.5%), and Inspiron 16 (69.5%).

At 360 nits, the ThinkBook Plus G4 is bright, but not the brightest, outshined by the category average (426 nits). It beat the Dragonfly Folio (332 nits) and Inspiron 16 (307 nits), but it couldn’t overcome its predecessor, with the G3 model hitting 382 nits.

Let’s move to the 12-inch, 2560 x 1600 E-Ink screen. I won’t get too deep into it since we’re using it only for note taking and reading (I would not recommend it for drawing, which I’ll get into later). You can adjust the brightness and contrast in the settings as well as the type of display mode, Dynamic or Reading. The former is more reactive to your input, while the latter is meant for a stagnant screen. Despite being an e-ink panel, it is in color, although it’s not nearly as colorful as the normal display. Everything looks washed out, but it’s just colorful enough to give an idea of what the colors are.

As far as benchmarks go, the e-ink averaged 46 nits of brightness and covered a whopping 0.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Yeah, I wouldn’t rely on this information to judge the e-ink side of things.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 keyboard, touchpad and e-ink

I feel like I’m typing on a MacBook. The keys are desperately shallow, but there is a clickiness to them, so it’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not for me. I need some travel.

I hit 80 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is above my usual 78-wpm average. The clicky keys got me across that finish line, not to mention the decent spacing and size of the keys.

The 4.1 x 2.7-inch touchpad is too sticky, making it hard to glide across its surface with my fingers, but it does offer a meaty click. Windows gestures like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing work fine.

I have mixed feelings about the e-ink display. On one hand, it’s super neat to have an e-reader and note-taker ready to go and built into your laptop. But it has issues. First off, it’s slow — it lags when I’m navigating from program to program. The laptop does not register my input quick enough with the stylus for me to reliably take notes or even draw. Outside of using this as an e-reader, I see this display being a frustrating experience for people trying to work on it. It’s got neat settings and a feature that lets you reset the ghosting that happens, but if the tech isn’t quick enough, then it might as well be a paperweight.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 audio

Color me… play me…impressed? I am impressed. The ThinkBook Plus G4’s bottom-lip-firing speakers are full of life and sound.

I listened to “Challenging a Queen” on the Stray Gods soundtrack (yes, I’m obsessed), and the speakers capture the cymbals subtly raising the tension as Persephone sings. When Grace makes her come back, the vocals are rich and poppy alongside the elusive electric guitar riff. The horned instruments that are featured throughout the song benefited from the extra bass provided by the speakers.

Lenovo provides the Dolby Atmos app, which offers Dynamic, Game, Music, and Movie settings. There are custom settings and different balance settings as well, which helped with rounding out the audio.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 performance

Packed in the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 is an Intel Core i7-1355U processor and 16GB of RAM that powered through a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos without issue. However, there’s some serious lag when switching between displays. This thing is always LOADING — I have no patience for it.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the ThinkBook Plus G4 scored 7,766, which doesn’t quite meet the 8,059 premium laptop average. While it did speed past the Dragonfly Folio’s Core i5-12500H (6,879) and the Inspiron 16’s Core i7-1265U (6,757), it actually failed to surpass its predecessor. The ThinkBook Plus G3 scored 9,977 with a Core i5-12500H.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 transcodes a 4K video to 1080p in 12 minutes and 11 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which is slower than the 8:08 category average. It found itself lagging behind the ThinkBook Plus G3 (6:40), Dragonfly Folio (11:16), and Inspiron 16 (11:27).

Lenovo provides a 512GB SSD with a transfer rate of 1,488 megabytes per second, which is speedy compared with the premium laptop average (1,320 MBps). The 512GB SSDs in the ThinkBook Plus G3 (1,292 MBps), Dragonfly Folio (675 MBps), and Inspiron 16 (802 MBps) couldn’t keep up.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 graphics

I didn’t expect much out of the Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip in the ThinkBook Plus G4, and neither should you.

On the 3DMark Fire Strike synthetic graphics benchmark, the ThinkBook Plus G4 scored 4,326, which doesn’t put a dent in the premium laptop average (8,414). The integrated graphics in the ThinkBook Plus G3 (4,282), Dragonfly Folio (4,357), and Inspiron 16 (3,869) didn’t do any better.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 averaged 28 frames per second on the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, which doesn’t make it to the 30-fps playability threshold. Neither did the Inspiron 16 (19 fps), but the ThinkBook Plus G3 (30 fps) and Dragonfly Folio (40 fps) were up to the task.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 battery life

With two displays, I’m not surprised that the ThinkBook Plus G4 couldn’t get in a word before its battery life died. On the Laptop Mag battery test, the ThinkBook Plus G4 lasted 6 hours and 50 minutes, which falls flat on its face against the 10:28 premium laptop average. Its predecessor, the ThinkBook Plus G3 had a similar battery (6:52). But if you’re looking for something with longevity, then the Dragonfly Folio (9:36) and Inspiron 16 (13:28) are solid choices.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 webcam

The 1080p webcam is trash, and that’s normal.

My face was hazy and my hair looked like it was drawn on by my one-year-old. The poor contrast blew out my entire ceiling and window behind me. However, the colors on the posters behind me were decently poppy, but I’ll attribute that more to the OLED display than anything else. Do yourself a favor and get a discrete webcam — take a look at our best webcams page.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 heat

To my surprise, the ThinkBook Plus G4 didn’t get as hot as I anticipated. The underside reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit, which is just slightly over our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 93 and 80 degrees, respectively. Meanwhile, the hottest it got was 107 degrees on the underside near the vents.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 software and warranty

Every Lenovo comes with Lenovo Vantage. That’s where you’ll find system settings, warranty information, visual and audio settings, and much more. Lenovo minimizes the bloatware to that one app. However, there are some more apps in this laptop because of the nature of it, like Lenovo Pen Settings and Lenovo Reader, which are self-explanatory.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Lenovo performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 is great in concept, but falters in execution. You’d think that the design would be the problem, but it’s not — it’s the performance. And for $3K, I expect both panels to feel silky smooth when I use them.

If you can move to a more normal 2-in-1 laptop, we highly recommend the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (7620), which offers double the battery life at half the price.

Overall, the ThinkBook Plus G4 is a solid laptop, but between its price and sluggish e-ink display, it’s hard to recommend to people who want to draw professionally on e-ink.

Dell's sitewide sale currently slashes up to 50% off select business laptops. Now is a great time to save big on pricier configuration Dell Latitude notebooks. 

One standout deal is the Dell Latitude 7430 Intel vPro i7 Laptop for $1,279. Previously priced at $2,553, that's a massive $1,274 in savings. This is the lowest price we've seen for this 2-in-1 business laptop and one of the best Dell deals of the season.

If you're on a smaller budget, consider the Intel i5 Dell Latitude 5430 Intel i5 Laptop for $921 ($910 off). 

Today's best Dell Latitude 7430 deal

Released in 2022, the Latitude 7430 caters to business pros and college students. It does so by perfectly balancing power, security, and reliable performance. The laptop on discount packs a 14-inch (1920 x 1080) 300-nit display, Intel Core i7-1265U vPro Enterprise 10-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Iris Xe Graphics and 512GB SSD. For Zoom meetings and secure logins, it has a built-in 1080p IR camera with privacy shutter. 

We didn't get to test this exact model, however, its previous-gen sibling, the Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 review, earned a 4.5 out of 5-star rating from us. It won us over with its lightweight, sturdy build, colorful display, solid performance and battery life. Latitude 7430 reviews from Dell customers average 4.3 out of 5-stars. The overall consensus among owners it's that it's a fast, competent, lightweight, quality-built laptop with sturdy hinges. Others praise the laptop's travel-friendly size, crisp display, and comfortable keyboard. Overall, it's a solid personal computer for traveling professionals, remote workers, and scholars.

With a weight of 3 pounds and measuring 12.7 x 8.2 x 0.7-inches, the Dell Latitude is fairly portable for a 14-inch laptop. It's lighter than the 2023 Apple MacBook Pro 14 (3.5 pounds, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches) and slightly heavier than the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 Gen 11 (2.4 pounds, 12.42 x 8.76 x 0.6 inches).

Now 50% off, the Dell Latitude is a no brainer if you're looking for a powerful, rugged and secure Windows 11 Pro laptop.

Lenovo's Labor Day sale extended deals slash up to 77% off ThinkPad laptops. Here's your second chance at snagging end-of-summer clearance savings on the PC maker's business laptops. Plus, save up to 50% on select gaming laptops, tablets, monitors, and accessories. What's more, MyLenovo Rewards members will earn extra rewards points for use on future purchases.

Right now, you can get the convertible Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2 for $741 via coupon, "THINKLABORW1". That's a massive $2,348 in savings which is 76% off its regular price.  This is one of the best Labor Day laptop deals still available. 

In our Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2 review, we liked its impressive performance, great battery life and productivity-boosting keyboard. Although we thought it's SSD could be faster, it makes up for it with competition-beating video transcoding.

The ThinkPad X13 Yoga in this deal packs a 13.3-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 300-nit anti-glare display for a stunning viewing experience. Powering the laptop is a powerful Intel Core i5-1145G7 vPro 4-core CPU coupled with 8GB of RAM and Intel Iris Xe graphics. Rounding out its specs is a 512GB M.2 SSD which provides ample storage for important files.

That's just one of the best ThinkPad deals you can get during Lenovo's sale. See more of our favorite discounts below. The Lenovo Labor Day sale ends Sunday, Sept. 10, stock permitting. 

Lenovo Labor Day deals 2023 — Quick links

• Laptops: save up to 77% on select ThinkPad laptops
• Tablets: save up to 50% on Lenovo tablets
• Gaming: save up to 50% on Legion laptops, PC games, accessories
• Monitors: save up to 46% on productivity, gaming, portable displays

Lenovo Labor Day sale 2023 — extended deals

Lenovo unveiled the 16-inch Legion 9i today, one of its new gaming laptops advertised as the world's first with AI-tuning and a self-contained liquid-cooling system. This of course puts it in the same line-up as the Legion 5 Pro, hardware I highly recommend and called the best gaming laptop under $1,500.

But while that may have been a solid midrange budget laptop, the Legion 9i is designed for gamers with premium taste. Built with one of the most powerful processors and graphics cards out there and adorably referred to as "the king of cool," lets take a deeper dive and see whether or not it's worth being excited for.

Lenovo Legion 9i specs and information

The Lenovo Legion 9i can be built up with an Intel Core i9-13980HX processor, Nvidia RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, up to 2TB of SSD storage, 64GB of 5600Mhz DDR5 RAM and a 16-inch Mini-LED 3.2K display with a 165Hz refresh rate. It's no understatement that these specs will ensure it can handle anything you throw at it, as its graphics card and processor make it among the most powerful gaming laptops out there.

And if you're a big fan of stunning displays with high nits of brightness, we cannot wait to test the laptop's Mini-LED display. While it normally can't reach peaks as colorful as OLED can, it still often looks phenomenal. We also know it'll have an RJ45 ethernet connector, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1, audio jack, SD card reader, two USB Type A and a USB Type C.

The laptop is also built with a triple-fan air-cooling system that's been tuned by AI, which we hope will manage to simmer down that powerful GPU. It's no secret that gaming laptops get scalding, so we'll see if this Lenovo laptop can be the exception.

The Lenovo Legion 9i with Intel processors is starting at $4,399 in North America and is expected to be available starting in October. We're excited to get our hands on this absolute beast and running it through rigorous tests. Will its 99.99Whr battery last in the face of these intense specifications, and will the display hold up to our expectations? Only time will tell.

OK, Lenovo. Let me get down on my knees and prostate you in praise because you made one hell of a laptop with the Slim Pro 9i. This bad boy packs a scrumptious mini-LED screen, which may sound like marketing mumbo jumbo to you, dear reader, but just wait ‘til you see the benchmark figures this screen tech delivers in the “display” section.

Plus, I’m a keyboard snob, so I will stick my nose up at one that fails to meet my standard — and there have been too many this year that failed my inspection. However, the keyboard on the Slim Pro 9i is snappy, flinging your fingers from one symbol to the next, giving you the dexterity of a piano player.

And let’s not forget that this 14.5-inch notebook packs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, making this Lenovo laptop an ideal pick for on-the-go photo and video editors, as well as casual content creators. Plus, the discrete graphics mean you can work during the day and game to your heart’s desire at night. 

However, the Slim Pro 9i has some stiff competition in rivals like the XPS 15, and looking at our test results that pit the Lenovo notebook with the Dell laptop, all I can say is that I hope that the Slim Pro 9i is comfortable with settling with the silver medal when it comes to performance and graphics.

Still, the Slim Pro 9i can still carve itself a spot on our best laptops page. Read on to find out why.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) price and configurations

My Lenovo Slim Pro 9i review unit costs $1,869.99 via Best Buy. (You can get it at Lenovo, too, but as of this writing, it’s pricier at $1,900.) It comes with the following specs: 

• Intel Core i7-13705H CPU
• 32GB of RAM
• 1TB of SSD storage
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU
• 14.5-inch, 3070 x 1920-pixel, 165Hz, mini-LED display
• Windows 11 Home

If a $2,150 price tag doesn’t faze you (I see you big spender), you can upgrade your specs to an Intel Core i9-13905H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 16-inch, 3,200 x 1,800-pixel, 165hz, mini-LED display with the same memory and storage space. You can get this configuration at Best Buy, too. (We happened to review this laptop, too: Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch) 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) design

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i, at its core, is not a boring laptop, but its design is a total snoozefest and completely uninspired. It has a “Storm Gray” chassis — you’re yawning already, aren’t you? — and it has the pizazz of a Wall Street financier with a stiff upper lip. 

The upper-left side of the lid has a silver Lenovo stamp while the lip has a gleaming, argent, popsicle-shaped design with the words “5MP, f/2.0, Quad Mic Array.” Fascinating stuff, eh?

Open the lid, and you’ll find relatively slim bezels on all four sides, save for the protruding lip that houses a 5-megapixel webcam.

The keyboard isn’t remotely exciting either, but that’s a good thing, right? Keyboards should be boring and have everything placed in their traditional positions — and that’s the case here with the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i.The only thing that threw me off is that I initially expected the power button to be on the deck, but it sits subtly on the right side of the laptop, near the dual USB Type-A ports.

The underside features three feet: an elongated one and two short ones. A large vent runs the length of the Slim Pro 9i’s hinge.

The Slim Pro 9i is packed with hefty components, including discrete graphics, so I wouldn’t say it’s thin-and-light. It has dimensions of 12.9 x 9.7 x 0.9 inches and a weight of 3.7 pounds. In this review, we’ll be facing off the Slim Pro 9i with the Dell XPS 15 (4.2 pounds, 13.6 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (4 pounds, 14 x 9.9 x 0.7 inches), which are certainly heavier than the Lenovo notebook. I’ll also be throwing in a third rival, the LG Gram 17 (3.2 pounds, 14.9 x 10.2 x 0.7 inches), which is lighter than the Slim Pro 9i.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) ports

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has a sweet mix of legacy and modern ports.

On the left side, you’ll find an HDMI port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and an SD card reader. On the right side, you’ll find two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a headset jack, and an e-shutter switch.

I don’t see how it wouldn’t, but if the Slim Pro 9i’s varied port selection doesn’t suit your needs, check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) display

Lenovo boasts that the Slim Pro 9i has a miniLED touchscreen display (you can also find this on the high-end iPad Pro). This relatively new technology uses tinier light-emitting diodes compared to traditional LEDs. Consequently, these displays have more dimming zones, which leads to better contrast, richer blacks and higher brightness.

And boy is this laptop bright! No, it’s not the brightest laptop we’ve tested, but it’s up there. According to our display testing, the Slim Pro 9i climbed to a whopping 710 nits, crushing the average laptop (422 nits), the Dell XPS 15 (371 nits), the LG Gram 17 (438 nits), and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (378 nits).

Sorry, I got so excited about the Slim Pro 9i’s ultra-bright miniLED display that I forgot to mention the display specs. It’s got a 14.5-inch, 3K, 165Hz, 0.2ms response-time display with a 115% DCI-P3 color gamut that is great, but unfortunately, there’s some stiff competition out there. This beats the average premium laptop (97%) and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (87%), but it got outpaced by the Gram 17 by a hair (115.4%). The XPS 15, on the other hand, outcolored the Slim Pro 9i by a landslide (138%).

The only disappointment I have with the Slim Pro 9i is that Lenovo claims that it has a Delta-E score of less than one, but according to our testing, it has a color accuracy of 0.26. If it’s any solace to Lenovo, its competitors aren’t any better. The XPS 15 (0.24) and Gram 17 (0.26) have similar scores, but the Galaxy Book Ultra excelled in this area with an attractive score of 0.15 (closer to zero is better).

To see how well these numbers align with my personal experience, I watched The Hunger Games 5 trailer on YouTube, and I was blown away by a weather-worn, two-story edifice with regal Roman columns that loomed over a verdant campus. As a young tribute curtsied in one scene, the picture was sharp, I could spot the tiny rhinestones on her dress’ puffy sleeves. The scarlet red uniforms of the cast are striking, emanating a crimson hue that it is so vivid, it’s almost blinding.

I also love that I had the opportunity to take this laptop outside and not have to worry about a dim display. If you’re an on-the-go pro  who loves working outdoors, this is the laptop to get.

As mentioned, this is a touchscreen display, which quickly responded to my scrolling and zoom-in gestures as I sped read long-form articles on some of my favorite journalism outlets.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) keyboard and touchpad

Snappy! That’s how I’d describe the Slim Pro 9i. Just as you press down on a letter, the shield-shaped keys on this keyboard snap right back, flinging you from one letter to the next. This island-style keyboard is flanked by two speakers.

On the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I reached 87 words per minute, which hovers around my 87 to 89 wpm average. 

Under the spacebar sits a surprisingly large, 5.5 x 3.3-inch touchpad. It has the perfect balance of friction and resistance, and smoothness and ease of use. I performed Windows 11 gestures such as three-finger swiping, two-finger scrolling, and pinch-to-zoom without any issues.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) audio

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has a quad-speaker system on board (two woofers and two tweeters) — these speakers sound good AF. The four speakers all work together to construct a well-rounded, full, balanced, and rich sound. 

I fired up the “Top Songs - USA” playlist on Spotify, which launched SZA’s “Kill Bill.” The dreamy, atmospheric R&B song seemed to tickle my ears and spine as the tetrad of speakers delivered lush, textured layers of synths, drums, and guitars. This floaty song sounded intoxicating on the Slim Pro 9i. 

Just when I thought the speakers couldn’t sound any better, I pulled up the Dolby Access app and played around with the five presets: Dynamic, Game, Movie, Music, and Voice. With the Dynamic profile turned on, SZA sounded even more divine.

One thing I don’t like about the speakers, however, is that they’re too quiet. For some of my favorite YouTube videos, even at max volume, the audio failed to fill my medium-sized testing room.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) performance

The Slim Pro 9i comes with an Intel Core i7-13750H CPU and 32GB of RAM, and I decided to see whether these stacked internals would fold under pressure with my memory-heavy workload. I fired up Google Chrome and attempted to clog the system with 50 tabs, two were playing YouTube videos simultaneously. In the background was the Adobe Premiere Elements app and I began working on a few casual video edits. The Slim Pro 9i continued to chug on like a savage.

Now let’s see whether the numbers align with my anecdotal experience. On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the Slim Pro 9i, delivering a multi-core score of 12,382, almost crushed the Intel Core i7-13700H CPU inside the XPS 15 (12,478), but it just couldn’t eclipse the Dell laptop. On the plus side, it beat the Gram 17’s Intel Core i7-1360P CPU (9,945), the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra’s Intel Core i7-13700H processor (12,212), and the average premium laptop (7,693).

On the file-transfer test, the Slim Pro 9i’s 1TB SSD took just 14 seconds to duplicate 25GB of multimedia files for a file transfer rate of 1,965.94 megabytes per second. This outpaces the Gram 17’s 1TB SSD (1,393.24 MBps) and the average premium laptop (1,323 MBps), but not the 1TB SSDs inside the XPS 15 (2,061 MBps) nor the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (2,076 MBps).

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i kicked some serious butt on the Handbrake video-editing test. After transcoding a video from 4K to 1080p, it took 7 minutes and 10 seconds to complete the task. This is faster than the average premium laptop (10:29), the XPS 15 (8:58), the Gram 17 (12:02) and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (9:03).

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) graphics

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is packed with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU — just like Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra. The Dell XPS 15 and LG Gram 17 also have discrete graphics, but they sport 4070 and 3050 graphics, respectively. The Slim Pro 9i targets content creators, but thanks to its graphics card, you can Photoshop by day and game at night.

On the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, the Slim Pro 9i climbed to 121 frames per second, smoking the average premium laptop (54 fps), the XPS 15 (115 fps), the Gram 17 (50 fps), and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (95 fps).

We also ran the 3DMark Time Spy test, which tests for DirectX 12 performance prowess, and the Slim Pro 9i delivered a decent score of 6,608, which overshadows the average premium laptop (3,531), the Gram 17 (2,987), and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (6,208), but not the the Dell XPS 15 (7,016)

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) battery life

The Slim Pro 9i taps out way too early when it comes to battery life.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Slim Pro 9i lasted 7 hours and 10 minutes on a charge. This is worse than the average premium laptop (10:29), the Dell XPS 15 (8:58), the LG Gram 17 (12:02), and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (9:03).

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) webcam

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has a 5-megapixel camera, which is better than the sea of 720p and 1080p webcams that currently dominate the market, but truth be told, I wasn’t particularly blown away by this shooter.

On one hand, I love how much background it captures — it’s got a pretty wide angle. However, there is a little bit more noise than I expected. It’s also not very sharp and crisp, but perhaps that may be a good thing. It failed to pick up some of my acne scars, and I’m not complaining.

Want something better for your videoconferencing needs? Check out our external webcam page.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) heat

We tested the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i’s thermals after playing a 15-minute, 1080p video, and while the touchpad (80 degrees Fahrenheit) and the keyboard center (88 degrees) hovered below our 95-degree threshold, the underside matched it.

The hottest area on the Slim Pro 9i was somewhere on the underside’s rear center, right in front of the vent, climbing to 99 degrees.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) software and warranty

It’s a breath of fresh air to not see silly bloatware apps pre-installed in this machine (e.g., Hearts Deluxe, Spider Solitaire Collection, Candy Crush Saga, etc.). You’ll find your standard fare of Windows 11 apps, though, including Calculator, Mail and Calendar, Microsoft 365, OneNote, and more.

The most useful app may be the Lenovo Vantage app, which gives you easy-to-access details about your laptop. Plus, it gives your information about your warranty, battery health and temperature, and system update availability. Plus, you can manage your fan speeds by toggling between several different modes.

The Slim Pro 9i ships with a one-year warranty. See how the brand fared in our Tech support showdown and Best and worst brands special reports. 

Bottom line

Who is the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i for? On-the-go content creators and professional artists who are sick and tired of dim displays. Thanks to the mini-LED display, this Slim Pro 9i climbs over 700 nits of brightness where other laptops are stuck between the 300 and 400 range. The screen is also colorful and total eye candy for all your entertainment needs.

And no, 7-hour battery life isn’t very attractive (the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra delivers 9 hours despite its power-guzzling internals), but the Slim Pro 9i has a clicky, comfortable keyboard and a divine sounding, quad-speaker system that sends chills down your spine.

It also has ultra-fast video transcoding and high-performing graphics, beating the mighty Dell XPS 15. Congratulations, Lenovo. The Slim Pro 9i has earned a spot on our best laptops page. 

Lenovo back to school savings slash up to 72% off sitewide. One ongoing standout deal is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 for $1,215. via coupons, "BYOTHINK2023" and "BUYMORELENOVO" at checkout. When not on sale, this notebook would set you back a smooth $2,319, so that's $1,104 in savings. Students save an additional 10% with ID.me which knocks up to 50% off. Among today's best back to school laptop deals, this sets a new price low for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11.

Looking for a laptop under $1,000? Lenovo offers the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 for $983 ($756 off) via coupons, "THINKAUG" and "BUYMORELENOVO".

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 business laptop is great for college students and educators. Configurations start with a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) 400-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U 10-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and 256GB SSD. 

Lenovo lets you build your own ThinkPad with customizations up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 vPro chip, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to a 2TB SSD. Choose from 14-inch non-touch anti-glare displays up to (2880 x 1800) with 400 nits of brightness. Or, you can go for the 1920 x 1200-pixel 500-nit anti-glare touch display if you prefer an interactive screen. For video conferencing, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 equips you with up to a 1080p IR hybrid webcam with privacy shutter.

In our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 review, we liked its lightweight design, fast SSD, and great battery life. Following real-world and performance tests, we gave it a solid rating of 4 out of 5-stars. Logins are fast and secure thanks to Windows Hello face recognition and the laptop's integrated fingerprint reader.

Built tough to military specifications, ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 can withstand heavy everyday use. So whether you need a reliable laptop for school, home office or business, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11is highly recommended. 

Lenovo ThinkPad laptops are up to 75% off for back to school season. One standout deal knocks hundreds off the 2023 Lenovo ThinkPad T14.

Right now, you can get the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 for $943 when you apply discount codes, "BYOTHINK2023 and BUYMORELENOVO" at checkout. Traditionally priced at $1789, that's a massive $846 in savings. This is the lowest price we could find for this particular Lenovo machine. 

In fact, it's one of the best laptop deals we've seen all month.

Lenovo's 4th generation ThinkPad T14 brings the latest Intel processor to the series. Students and work professionals will benefit from the laptop's multitasking performance, durability and security. This machine packs a 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 300-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U 10-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, Intel UHD graphics, and 256GB SSD.

While we didn't test it, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 has an average customer review rating of 4.4 out of 5-stars. Happy owners like its sleek, portable design which easily fits in small backpacks. Others like the laptop's top tier performance and beautiful matte display.

For security and privacy, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 features an optional fingerprint reader built into the power button. Facial recognition unlocks the laptop via the optional IR camera whereas human-presence detection automatically locks the laptop when you move away from it.

For under $950, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen ticks all the right boxes if you prioritize durability, performance, and security.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i is our top pick for best 2-in-1 laptop for good reason. It has a gorgeous OLED display, solid productivity performance, and great battery life. 

Currently, the excellent Lenovo Yoga 9i is on sale for $1,349 at Lenovo. Typically priced at $1,649, that's $300 in savings. Even better, it drops to $1,289 when you use Lenovo coupon codes, "BBYDEALS" and "BUYMOREOFFER" at checkout. That's a total of $360 off and the lowest price ever for this Lenovo laptop. 

If you want to beat the back to school rush, it's one of the best college laptop deals you can get now. 

Lenovo's Yoga 9i OLED is the best 2-in-1 laptop for most people and has everything you could ever want in a laptop for school, work and creativity. This machine on sale packs a 14-inch OLED (2880 x 1800) 90Hz touch screen, 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1360P 12-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Iris Xe graphics, and 1TB SSD. Plus, it includes a stylus for taking notes, sketching, and marking up documents on the fly.

In our Lenovo Yoga 9i review, we gave it a solid rating of 4.5 out of 5-stars and Editor's Choice award for its stunning 2.8K OLED screen, top tier performance, and crazy-fast SSD. We also liked its loud, impactful speakers and thought its battery life was decent. 

We tested the laptop's might in the real world and it handled everything we threw at it. Even with dozens of YouTube, Twitch, Google Docs, and Sheets pages running simultaneously while working and zipping between tabs, the laptop didn't stutter. That said, the Yoga 9i's Intel Core i7-1360P processor and 16GB of RAM hardware is more than adequate for day-to-day tasks for school or work. 

Design-wise, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is sophisticated and minimalist. It features a shiny all-aluminum chassis with rounded reflective edges at the base. Putting the final touch to its sleek look is Lenovo's signature and YOGA spell-out logos on the lid, placed at opposite corners. The laptop's surfaces are smooth to the touch.

Measuring 12.5 x 9.1 x .6 inches and with a weight of 3.1 pounds, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is fairly portable for a 2-in-1 laptop. It's significantly lighter than the Dell Inspiron 16 (14.1 x 9.9 x 0.6 inches, 4.6 pounds) and on par with the HP Spectre x360 13.5-inch (11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches, 3 pounds). 

Ports on the Lenovo Yoga 9i are decent. Its left side is outfitted with a USB Type-A 3.2 port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with Power Delivery 3.0. On the right, there's a USB Type-C 3.2 port and audio combo jack.

Now $360 off, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is at its best price yet. It's a wise choice if you're looking for a versatile 2-in-1 laptop that comes with its own stylus. 

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 is massively discounted in today's Lenovo laptop sale. Lenovo continues to knock up to 75% off select laptops from the Lenovo ThinkPad, Yoga, IdeaPad, and Legion family of machines. Stack extra savings when you use coupon code, "BUYMOREOFFER" at checkout.

During the sale, you can get yourself the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 for $1,215 . Apply coupon codes, "BYOTHINK2023" and "BUYMOREOFFER" at checkout to reflect this deal price in your cart. It normally costs $2,319, so that's a massive $1,104 in savings. It's the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11's lowest price ever and one of the best laptop deals of the summer. 

Looking for a flexible 2-in-1 laptop instead? You can get the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6 for $959 ($2690 off) via codes, "THINKPADCLEARANCE202" and "BUYMOREOFFER".

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 business laptop is great for college students and work professionals alike. It features a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) 400-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U 10-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and 256GB SSD. If you require more oomph and storage, you may customize it up to a 13th Gen i7 chip, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to a 2TB SSD. 

In our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 review, we liked its lightweight design, fast SSD, and great battery life. Following real-world and performance tests, we gave it a solid rating of 4 out of 5-stars. 

Powered by Windows 11 Home 64 to start, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 equips you with a 1080p IR hybrid webcam with privacy shutter. Logins are fast and secure thanks to Windows Hello face recognition and the laptop's integrated fingerprint reader.

Built to military specs, ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops are rugged and can take a beating. Lenovo engineers its ThinkPad family of machines to withstand everyday wear and tear of heavy use and travel. 

If you're looking for a reliable and secure laptop for school, home office or business, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a wise choice. 

Looking for the best cheap laptop deals — all under $1,000 — for Prime Day 2023? You've come to the right place!

As your laptop expert, I'm here to tell you about all the best budget-friendly laptops you can get for prime day. I'm extremely picky and I'm very judicious about which laptops I recommend (and Laptop Mag reviewed them all), so here are the laptops under $1,000 that will keep buyer's remorse at bay:

• Asus Zenbook 14 Q409ZA - $750, $669 @ Amazon
• Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 - $1,800, $932 @ Amazon
• Acer Swift Go 14 - $849, $779 @ Amazon

1. Why I recommend the Asus Zenbook 14 Q409ZA as the best Prime Day laptop deal

This laptop has an MSRP of $750, but it's now $669 for Prime Day (whether you have Prime or not). I have repeatedly shouted from the mountains that the Asus Zenbook 14 is the best cheap laptop you can get for less than $1,000. Why? It's packed with the following:

• A touchpad that instantly launches the Calculator app and doubles as a digital numpad
• A striking, 2880 x 1800-pixel OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate
• Nearly 11 hours of battery life, according to your in-house testing (a typical laptop only lasts 10 hours on a single charge)
• A satisfying mix of both modern and legacy ports
• A beautiful design inspired by Japanese kintsugi art style
• Lightweight and portable

Check out my full review of the Asus Zenbook 14.

2. Why I recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 as the best Prime Day laptop deal

As a laptop reviewer, I can't figure out why everyone is gushing about the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon nor the Dell XPS 15. They're good business laptops, but are they the best? Not at all.

The best business laptop is the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16. And it's only $932 for Prime Day (down from $1,800). Let me breakdown why I recommend it as the best Prime Day laptop deal:

• It delivers a whopping 15-hour battery runtime (the average laptop lasts 10 hours)
• It outpaced all competitors in processor performance, according to our in-house testing
• It beat all of its rivals in graphics performance, according to our in-house testing
• It has military-tested durability, which means you can get away with dropping it a couple of times

Read my full review of the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16.

3. Why I recommend the Acer Swift Go 14 as the best Prime Day laptop deal

When the Acer Swift Go 14 came through to Laptop Mag's lab, were were blown away by its amazing performance scores, incredible performance, and stunning display. It runs so well, we called it a "MacBook Air killer." And it's only $779 for Prime Day (down from $850).

Here's why the Swift Go 14 is the best cheap laptop you can get on Prime Day:

• One of the most vivid displays of all time
• A satisfying, tactile keyboard
• Performance scores that blows competitors out of the water
• An eye-catching, silver aluminum design
• A portable, slim design
• A nice variety of ports 

Check out our full review of the Acer Swift Go 14.

Prime Day is here and we're seeing great deals on some of the best laptops, but if you're looking for a real steal, you need to look at those percentages and see which deals are actually giving you the most bang for your buck.

If you're looking to get your money's worth on Prime Day, here are 5 great laptops that are over $1,000 off that I would buy.

5 laptops that are over $1000 off for Prime Day

In our Asus Zenbook Pro 16X OLED (UX7602Z) review, we compliment the device for its solid content creator-centric specs, a stunning 16-inch display and awesome sound.

Looking at our MacBook Pro 14 review, we made it clear that this MacBook offers portability, power, endurance with plenty of ports, but at a high price point. With this deal, it makes it that much more valuable albeit dated.

In my Razer Blade 17 review, I loved that the Razer packed strong performance, great speakers, and decently long battery life. However, its dim display and egregiously expensive price point gives us pause. But like the MacBook, this deal can make up for that price con.

And in our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 review, we wrote that the Gen 11 has many great aspects, including a compact form factor, featherweight heft and decent speakers, but its other highly praised features are arguably overhyped.

Finally, in our HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 review, we found that the G9 is a thick stunner with more than enough power to handle any and all workflows while delivering a gorgeous display and excellent audio.

All these products have one thing in common -- they're expensive as hell. But for Prime Day, that changes. Well, a little bit. Don't overspend, but it is better.

Everyone's favorite business laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, is 40% off on Lenovo's official website as Prime Day deal mayhem takes over Amazon.

However, there's a catch.

Before you can slash a whopping $1,328 off the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, you'll have to use a special coupon code: THINKJULY. You can insert the code after adding the ThinkPad X1 Carbon to your cart and progressing with the transaction @ Lenovo.

Looking for more discounts? Check out our Prime Day laptop deals page as well as our best cheap Prime Day laptop deals page.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon series is considered one of the best business laptops on the market by many, and it's now 40% off at Lenovo's official website. Using the coupon code ThinkJuly, you can slash $1,328 off the latest model of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 11)

When we reviewed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, we were impressed with its shockingly lightweight form factor, its ultra-fast SSD, incredible speakers, and 14-hour battery life. 

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon in this deal comes with the following specs:

• 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1365U vPro CPU
• Intel Iris Xe graphics
• 16GB of RAM
• 1TB SSD
• 14-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel touch display
• Windows 11 Pro

Like all ThinkPad laptops, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen has military-tested durability. This means that you can drop it as many times as you want (within reason), and it will still continue to function. This ThinkPad X1 Carbon also has great variety of ports: 2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 1 x HDMI port, Nano SIM slot, and a headset jack.

Sift through our Prime Day 2023 hub for more savings beyond this incredible Lenovo deal.

Update July 13 at 5:23 p.m. ET: This popular deal is still available among other after Prime Day deals.

Amazon isn't the only one dishing out deep discounts for Prime Day 2023, and Lenovo is pulling out all the stops for their Black Friday in July sale. 

Right now, you can pick up the 14-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 on sale for $1,937 on the company's website, which'll save you $1,291 off the original price. Good gravy! Thanks to a speedy 13th Gen Core i7 CPU and zippy Intel Iris Xe graphics under the hood, it's one of the best laptops deals we've seen of late. 

Not quite what you're looking for? We'll be rounding up the best Prime Day laptop deals all week! Stay tuned.

If you're on the prowl for a powerful laptop that's portable enough to toss in your backpack, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 might be among the best business laptops you'll find on the market today, and it's 40% off right now. The laptop in this deal is configured with a 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 400 nit anti-glare touch screen, 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1365U vPro CPU, 32GB of RAM, Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, and a 512GB SSD.

In our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 review, the laptop earned a high rating of 4 out of 5-stars. We were impressed by its sleek, lightweight design, bright, vivid display and incredible keyboard. We also loved the surprisingly strong speakers and solid 12th Gen Intel performance, and we expect even better benchmark scores from the 13th Gen version of this CPU.  

Like all ThinkPad laptops, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen is rugged built to military specs. This means it can withstand daily wear and tear of heavy use. For a 14-inch laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 has plenty of ports and slots, too. You can count on 2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 1 x HDMI port, Nano SIM slot, and headphone/mic combo.

For even more epic summer savings, browse our Prime Day 2023 hub for the best deals on must-have tech. 

 The HP Dragonfly G4, the fourth-generation entry of the beloved Dragonfly line, is diving into 2023 with its crosshairs set on one rival: the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11.

Lenovo has convinced the masses that the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is one of the best business laptops you can get. However, if you read my review, you’ll see that I haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid. The Lenovo laptop’s long list of imperfections leave enough room for HP to swoop in and snatch the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s crown. But the question is, did it manage to do it with its new-gen G4 model?

Stick around to find out whether the Dragonfly G4 earned a spot on our best HP laptops and best business laptops pages.

HP Dragonfly G4 price and configuration options

The review unit I have has an MSRP of $2,279 and you can purchase it at HP’s official website (check to see if it’s on sale — it usually is!). It comes with an Intel Core i7-1365U CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280-pixel touchscreen display.

The cheapest configuration is $1,769. It keeps the 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and 13.5-inch, 1280p screen, but your processor gets downgraded to an Intel Core i5-1335U.

HP Dragonfly G4 design

The Dragonfly G4 continues the traditional design language of its forefathers, sporting a futuristic, lustrous HP insignia on the lid. The Slate Blue hue that wraps around the HP notebook is rich, urbane and slick — it’s the type of color you’d see on any well-dressed, dapper young professional. 

The G4 is a sustainability queen. The lid, as well as the palm rest and underside, is made of 90% recycled magnesium. (Interestingly, the keycaps consist of recycled plastic from DVDs.)

After opening the lid, I wished that the top cover featured a lip to make it easier to lift, but it’s a negligible, miniscule shortcoming. On the deck, you’ll see more of that lustrous detail subtly framing the large touchpad. The contrast on the keys is easy on the eyes, thanks to the white letters and symbols stamped onto the Slate Blue keys.

Above the function keys, you’ll find an up-firing speaker that runs the length of the keyboard (we’ll discuss how well they sound later). The 13.5-inch display is wrapped in thin bezels, save for the top frame that houses the 5MP webcam and two microphones.

The Dragonfly G4 is a 2.2-pound notebook with dimensions of 11.7 x 8.67 x 0.64 inches. The HP laptop is lighter, but thicker than its rivals: the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 (2.48 pounds, 12.4 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches) and the Acer Swift Go 14 (2.87 pounds, 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.59 inches).

HP Dragonfly G4 ports

The HP Dragonfly G4 has a sweet mélange of modern and legacy ports. On the left side, you’ll find an HDMI 2.1 port, a nano SIM slot, and a Thunderbolt 4 port. The right side features another Thunderbolt 4 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a drop-jaw USB Type-A port, and a Kensington lock slot.

Need to squeeze out some more I/O ports to suit your workflow? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs page. 

HP Dragonfly G4 display

The HP Dragonfly G4 comes with a 13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280-pixel touchscreen. Like its predecessor, it sports that 3:2 aspect ratio, allowing you to take advantage of more vertical screen real estate while reading long-form articles and content-heavy websites. However, it’s not as useful for watching YouTube, Netlfix and other streaming sites (they work best with 16:9 displays). Black letterboxing will flank your videos to fill out the excess space, but this isn’t something that bothers me personally.

I watched the Five Nights at Freddy’s trailer on YouTube. I was particularly taken aback by a scene with Matthew Lillard sitting in an office. As he held a phone to his ear, I was surprised that I could spot subtle, barely perceptible features on his face, from his faint forehead wrinkles to the ultra-tiny papules near his salt-and-pepper beard.

No, it’s not one of the most vivid displays I’ve seen, but it’s not designed to be. Its color rendering is just right. It’s not washed out, but it’s not oversaturated, either. This is proven by the bright-red eviction notice that appeared on the door of Josh Hutcherson’s character — it’s striking enough to catch your eye, but it manages to not be garishly vivid.

Now, let’s take a look at the actual display test results to see if they match my anecdotal experience.

According to our colorimeter, the Dragonfly G4 covered 80.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut (the same exact figure we got for the G3 last year). This is better than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 (69.8%), but slips behind the average premium laptop (93.7%) and the spectacular Acer Swift Go 14 (175.7%).

The Dragonfly G4 is elite when it comes to color accuracy. With a Delta-E score of 0.14 (closer to 0 is better), the HP laptop demolished all rivals in its path, including the average premium laptop (0.22), the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (0.22), and the highly inaccurate Swift Go 14 (0.32).

HP says that the Dragonfly G4 can output 400 nits of brightness, and according to our testing, its luminance gets pretty close to that — 391 nits to be exact. This is slightly dimmer than the average premium laptop (394 nits) and the Swift Go 14 (395 nits), but beats the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 11 (327 nits).

HP Dragonfly G4 audio

The Dragonfly G4 is packed with four Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers: two are top-firing while another two are bottom-firing. I launched the Hot Hits USA playlist on Spotify, which played “Mojabi Ghost” by Tainy and Bad Bunny.

The futuristic-sounding song, thanks to the funky synthesizers, sounded rich and full on the G4’s audio system. The drums were punchy and driving, but never overpowered Bad Bunny’s smooth, vibey vocals. As a cherry on top, these speakers can get super loud at max volume — you could host a small party with this laptop if you wanted to.

I opened the HP Audio Control app to see if it could sound better (even though it sounds totally fine). There are four presets: Auto, Music, Movie and Voice. My favorite, of course, is Music, providing a perfect balance between the vocals, baseline, and funky synthesizers. 

HP Dragonfly G4 keyboard and touchpad

Cue the wedding bells! I’m a keyboard snob, and man, I love the Dragonfly G4’s keyboard so much I could marry it. HP has always been masterful at delivering satisfying keyboard experiences (I adore the keyboard on the HP Envy 13, for example), and this 13.5-inch notebook proves that its expertise hasn’t wavered.

The island-style keyboard has a white backlight that delivers three levels of brightness, and you’ll find a fingerprint reader between the ALT key and the left arrow. (This is something I appreciate because I’m not a big fan of the current trend of OEMs integrating fingerprint sensors into power buttons).

On the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I reached an 89 word-per-minute average, which aligns with my typical typing speed. It’s tactile, delivers great travel, and super clicky — it’s as if the keys intuitively know when I’m about to touch them and immediately launch me onto the next letter in nanoseconds. 

The Dragonfly G4’s 4.7 x 3.1-inch touchpad is spacious and, on top of that, it has a smooth-as-silk texture that’s damn-near addicting. At the same time, it’s not too slick that it feels like you need to exert a lot of effort to move the cursor — it has the perfect balance of friction and gloss. Plus, Windows 11 gestures, including three-finger tabbing and two-finger scrolling, worked like a charm.

HP Dragonfly G4 performance

Under the hood, the Dragonfly G4 sports an Intel Core i7-1365U vPro CPU and 16GB of RAM. I tried to overwhelm RAM-hungry Google Chrome with 50 tabs, three of which were playing YouTube videos simultaneously, but the HP laptop, if it were personified, giggled and said, “That’s all you’ve got?” I experienced zero slowdowns nor lag.

On the Geekbench 6 overall performance benchmark, Dragonfly G4 achieved a multi-core score of 7,408. Unfortunately, this lags behind the average premium laptop (7,877) and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 (8,979), which shares the same processor as the HP laptop. The unstoppable Acer Swift Go 14, packed with an Intel Core i7-13700H CPU, delivered a jaw-dropping score of 11,815. (Interestingly, the Go 14 is cheaper than the G4 and the X1 Carbon, but blows its pricier competitors out of the water with its H-series chip, however, the battery life section reveals that this power comes with a price.)

The Dragonfly G4 took 12 minutes and 41 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, which is slower than the average premium laptop (8 minutes and 33 seconds). It’s also more sluggish than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (9 minutes and 5 seconds) and the Swift Go 14 (5 minutes and 35 seconds).

On the file transfer test, the Dragonfly G4’s 512GB SSD took 37 seconds to copy 25GB of data, which translates to a rate of 735.7 megabytes per second (MBps). Sadly, this is slower than the average premium laptop (1,306.2 MBps), the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s 512 SSD (1,703.8 MBps), and the Swift Go 14’s 512GB SSD (1,481.1 MBps).

HP Dragonfly G4 graphics and gaming

The HP Dragonfly G4, like its rivals, is outfitted with integrated graphics (Intel Iris Xe). No, it’s not ideal for gaming, but let’s see how well it can handle casual titles like Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. On this test (Medium, 1080p), it produced 25 frames per second. This failed to surpass the average premium laptop’s 50-fps average, but to be fair, laptops with discrete GPUs skew this figure. The HP managed to outdo the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (19 fps), but not the Go 14 (27 fps).

On the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, which tests for DirectX 12 prowess, the Dragonfly G4 delivered a measly score of 1,590, which is worse than the average premium laptop (3,176), the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (1,684) and the Swift Go 14 (2,025).

HP Dragonfly G4 battery life

Compared to the G3, it looks like the Dragonfly G4 took a two-hour hit in battery life. The last generation lasted a glorious 14 hours and 20 minutes. The current generation, however, according to the Laptop Mag battery life test (which involves surfing the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness), has a runtime of 12 hours and 44 minutes.

Don’t get me wrong. Considering that the average premium laptop lasts 10 hours and 39 minutes, this is still great — the G4’s U-series chip is showing off its marvelous power efficiency here. Conversely, the Acer Swift Go 14, packed with a more power-hungry chip, can only last a measly 8 hours and 5 minutes. However, the Dragonfly G4 couldn’t beat the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s 14-hour runtime (13 hours and 45 minutes).

HP Dragonfly G4 webcam

HP gets it. This OEM appears to be one of the few laptop manufacturers that is aware of users’ need for decent video conferencing equipment. I mean, hello, most of us either work remotely or do the whole hybrid thing, so why not pack the laptop with a good webcam?

HP’s Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, for example, has one of the best laptop webcams I’ve ever seen with a dazzling 8MP webcam. The last-gen Dragonfly had a great shooter, too, and the current-gen model,, is no different.

The G4’s 5MP webcam picked up on the tiny, barely there freckles on my cheeks that often get lost on other less-sharp webcams. Color rendering is great, too, accurately recreating the burgundy and rich-red hues emanating from my curtains and pillows.

But is it as great as an external webcam? Not really. Be sure to peruse our best webcams page to snag something even better for video calls.

HP Dragonfly G4 heat

HP could have done a better job at finding a way to dissipate heat that keeps hot air away from your fingers. While diving into intensive workflows, I felt some warm air blowing from the upper-right quadrant of the keyboard. It’s not a dealbreaker — just a nuisance.

We streamed a 15-minute, 1080p video on the HP notebook, and the touchpad and keyboard climbed to 81 and 91 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively, which is below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The underside couldn’t keep its cool, however, climbing to 100 degrees. 

HP Dragonfly G4 software and warranty

 The Dragonfly G4 runs on Windows 11 Pro and comes with a slew of HP-branded apps, including HP Easy Clean (lets you temporarily disable your keyboard so you can clean it), HP Power Manager (offers info regarding your battery status, temperature and capacity), and HP Support Systems (runs system diagnostics and provides guided troubleshooting). 

You won’t find the G4 fattened with bloatware, fortunately. You’ll find your standard fare of Microsoft apps, including Solitaire Collection, Weather, Phone Link, Paint, Sticky Notes, and more.

The HP Dragonfly G4 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how HP performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Laptop Brands ranking. 

Bottom line

 The Dragonfly G4 gets the following right: 

• Excellent keyboard
• Nearly 13 hours on a charge
• Great webcam
• Compact and portable
• Decent speakers
• Good display

The Dragonfly G4 is ideal for both worker bees and students, particularly those who frequently commute and hate the thought of being shackled to an outlet for hours on end. 

However, the HP laptop struggled to outpace its rivals when it comes to performance. In other words, there are cheaper laptops (e.g., the Acer Swift Go 14) that offer better performance, but you may have to compromise battery runtime.

Overall, the G4 is still an excellent 13.5-inch laptop for on-the-go professionals and pupils who don’t necessarily need a powerhouse, but will thrive with a clicky, tactile keyboard, a sweet 5MP shooter for videoconferencing, and a great display and speakers for late-night entertainment. 

Amazon Prime Day 2023 is almost over, but there are still hundreds of deals available, including many that don't require shelling out hundreds of dollars.

We've gathered up 11 of our favorite Prime Day deals under $50 to try to help you score some of the last great savings without breaking the bank. One popular Prime Day deal laptop owners are snapping up is the BoYata Laptop Stand for just $25. This nifty accessory typically costs $45 so that's $20 off and brings the BoYata Laptop Stand to its lowest price yet. 

This top-rated multi-angle stand is stylish, durable, and practical. It has a ventilated design to prevent your laptop from overheating. It supports laptops up to 17 inches and is a must-have accessory for laptops like the MacBook Air and Pro, HP Envy 13, Dell XPS 15, and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, just to name a few. 

Another wildly popular  Prime Day deal is the Fire Stick TV 4K Max for just $24 (55% off). It plugs directly into your laptop via your TV's HDMI port. The included Alexa-enabled remote makes navigating your streaming services easy with voice commands or stick to the traditional intuitive buttons on board.

These are just a couple of the deals for you to snag in the waning hours of Prime Day, but here are 11 of the best Prime Day deals under $50.

Best Prime Day deals under $50

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 9) is one of our most highly rated laptops to date, receiving an outstanding five stars from our review and an Editor's choice award. Lenovo's previous-gen revision of this fantastic laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 is equally as laudable and can be yours today for just $1,877 during Lenovo's Spring sale.

Multiple configurations are available, though the model we've highlighted is normally $3,129, meaning you net an enormous saving of $1,251 off of the best business laptops we've reviewed to date.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon didn't earn a glowing review from us without cause. As one of the best ThinkPad notebooks you can buy today, the X1 Carbon is the ideal business laptop solution for the office, home, and everywhere in-between.

Our highlighted deal features an X1 Carbon with an Intel Core i7-1260P processor and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, providing a sizable level of performance to take on even the most demanding of workloads. You'll be able to juggle dozens of browser tabs while multitasking without a hitch, with all of your data safe and rapidly accessible thanks to a speedy 512GB M.2 Solid State Drive.

As with any good business laptop there are a great many security features also available. Keep your sensitive files locked up tight with a built in fingerprint scanner and facial recognition software and feel safe wherever you go thanks to a Kensington lock slot and Now Tile support that lets you track your device from a smartphone, even while powered off.

The X1 Carbon's selection of USB-C Thunderbolt 4, USB-A 3.2, and HDMI 2.0b ports allow you to connect to external displays, projectors, storage, or peripherals with ease, making it an ideal companion for your on-the-go business needs.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 is not to be scoffed at, as its performance metrics are solid while bolstered by long-lasting battery life –– which is music to the ears of mobile professionals. I was also surprised by its crisp and loud speakers. The design, while muted, is durable making it ideal for commuting and the keyboard upholds the company’s reputation in that arena. It also has a pretty good webcam and a host of security features.

However, $2,099 is a bit steep for a business laptop. Especially when the display lacks color depth and brightness. And the SSD is a bit sluggish.

Surface level complaints aside, this is a good business laptop with long-lasting performance and performance that will not disappoint. Read on to see everything the Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 can offer.

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 pricing and configuration options

Our model of the ThinkPad T16 has a retail price of $2,099 (it’s available B&H) and is packed with an Intel Core i7-1270P processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, Intel Iris Xe Graphics and a 16-inch, 1920 x 1200 IPS display.

Lenovo has an alternate version of the ThinkPad T16 that cuts more than $1000 off the price tag. At the cost of $1,056, this model comes with an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, Intel UHD graphics, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 256GB of SSD storage and a 16-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS display. 

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 design 

The ThinkPad T16’s design is as exciting as any other ThinkPad, featuring its signature dark gray color coat, an embedded ThinkPad logo in the lid’s corner, a plain deck with the occasional red accent in the trackpad buttons, and another ThinkPad logo in the bottom right of the deck. And of course, ThinkPads are one of the few laptops that still include a trackpoint in between the G, H and B keys.

If you like the familiarity of this design, you’ll probably enjoy the way this ThinkPad looks as much as any other ThinkPad. Personally, it is far too reminiscent of the plain hardware I’d recall being assigned in middle school and high school. If I’m purchasing a personal laptop, especially one at this price, I’d prefer getting something a little sleeker or with actual personality. 

I wouldn’t want to spend $2,000 on a homogenous carbon copy of most ThinkPads, but if you don’t care about design (or just simply like how these look), you’ll get by fine with the ThinkPad T16.

The ThinkPad T16 measures 14.2 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches and weighs 4.4 pounds, making it the largest and heaviest when compared to the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro (3.4 pounds, 14.0 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches) and Acer Swift 5 (2022) (2.7 pounds, 12.2 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches).

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 durability and security 

The Lenovo ThinkPad T16 boasts plenty of security and durability features, including MIL-STD 810H certification, which means it has been tested under rigorous conditions throughout various environments.

Security features include a TPM 2.0 chip, which protects your laptop from cybersecurity threats, alongside a fingerprint reader on the power button. Other features include human presence detection software, a camera shutter, an IR camera and Glance by Mirametrix (which can protect your display from prying individuals through eye-tracking technology).

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 ports 

The ThinkPad T16 has a pretty decent port selection, but you will often find one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports used up when needed to charge the laptop, which is a little inconvenient.

On the left side, there is a RJ45 port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI, USB 3.2 Type-A port, and an audio jack.

On the right side there’s only one USB 3.2 Type A port.

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 display 

Considering the ThinkPad T16’s steep price puts it over $2,000, I was expecting the 16-inch, IPS, 1920 x 1200-pixel display to be competent. However, the screen’s color depth is on a par with laptops I’ve tested for less than half the price. This is admittedly a business laptop, so the focus is more on performance rather than looking visually stunning, but we’ve seen similar laptops with a far more appealing screen.

I watched the Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer on the ThinkPad T16 and was swiftly put off by the lack of depth. One moment has actor Paul Rudd’s face looking as pale as milk as the darkness of the background appears a light gray rather than black. 

Another scene has the camera coming close to actor Michelle Pfeiffer as she overlooks scenery with a complex cave structure depicting distinct blues present in the background. The laptop turned every hue into a homogenous nightmare, while swapping to my PC display completely fixes this issue, bringing the color back to her face and giving the background a deep satisfying darkness.

We measured the ThinkPad T16’s display with a colorimeter, and it only covers 45.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is shockingly low when compared to the 88.1% category average. Competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro (87.3%) and Acer Swift 5 (93.3%) knock it out of the park.

The Lenovo laptop didn’t do much better on our brightness tests, scoring an average of 318 nits. This is pretty substantially worse than the 393-nit category average. While it wasn’t as badly outclassed in this category, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro (377 nits) and Swift 5 (457 nits) do beat it. 

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 audio 

The ThinkPad T16’s up-firing speakers are phenomenal, offering loud, clear audio quality whilst managing to balance the levels of each individual instrument to keep the sound dynamic and immersive.

I started testing the speakers by playing “Haunted” by Laura Les, and was immediately enraptured by the chaotic synths and percussion of the hyperpop track before Laura’s jumbled screaming overpowered the sound in a balanced, satisfying way. This was perhaps an unfair track to put the ThinkPad T16 up against as its first test, but these speakers absolutely killed it, keeping the quieter hi-hats and synthesized melody intact even while the potent vocals envelop the foreground.

I moved onto “Hollywood Baby” by 100 gecs and as soon as the track opens, I was impressed by how loud the guitar in the introduction is without the sound quality faltering. It actually made me consider lowering the volume, which isn’t something I’ve felt when testing a laptop’s speaker (this is a good thing). As the song progresses, the chorus is constantly at its utmost power without a detriment to the sound and no crackling is audible. 

I was equally impressed when watching the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer as the voices of the narration did not sound flat, and the backing music intermingled well with the explosive sound effects.

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 keyboard and touchpad 

The ThinkPad T16’s backlit edge-to-edge full keyboard is just the right size. And of course, a staple of ThinkPad products is the trackball stashed between the G, H and B keys. I will never understand why these things exist, but the people who love them seem to really love them, so I won’t complain.

I took the 10fastfingers typing test on the ThinkPad T16’s keyboard and achieved 104 words per minute with 93% accuracy. That’s quite a bit lower compared to the 122 words per minute and 97% accuracy I got on my mechanical keyboard. But even with these scores, I felt quite comfortable tapping away swiftly at the keys on the ThinkPad T16 thanks to their decent size.

The ThinkPad T16’s top half of the trackpad isn’t fully clickable, which makes it difficult to click and drag from bottom to top without deregistering the action. Outside of this issue, the trackpad is silky smooth and allows me to zoom across the screen without feeling held back by friction. There’s also a left, right and middle button above the trackpad that gives the user an alternate way to click without using the trackpad, so if that’s your speed, you’ll love this thing.

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 performance 

Our ThinkPad T16 features an Intel Core i7-1270P processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, which is pretty good for running many programs at once and handling severe tasks such as video and photo editing.

I had 20 YouTube tabs open alongside half a dozen Twitch pages and other tabs on Spotify, Metacritic and HDMovieTrailers, yet the laptop did not falter. I didn’t notice any performance stuttering or lag, which isn’t surprising considering this laptop’s specs. I was especially surprised that the fan didn’t kick in and everything remained completely quiet.

During our Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the ThinkPad T16 managed a multi-core score of 7,815, which is moderately better than our 7,068 average. While this is definitely good performance, competitors like the Galaxy Book 3 Pro (Intel Core i5-1340P, 9,746) and Swift 5 (Intel Core i7-1260P, 9,859) are undeniably superior.

On the Handbrake video transcoding test, our Lenovo took 8 minutes and 33 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p. In some bizarre twist of fate, this is identical to the current 8:33 category average. Congrats, Lenovo! This laptop’s transcoding performance is perfectly middling! Competitors Galaxy Book 3 Pro (6:41) and Swift 5 (7:36) dominate Lenovo’s average attempts.

The ThinkPad T16 in our file-transfer test by duplicating a 25GB multimedia file in 33 seconds at a rate of 825.4 megabytes per second. This is quite a bit slower than the category average (1,194.7MBps), but competitor Galaxy Book 3 Pro (436MBps) completely missed in this category. The Swift 5 left everything else in the dust with 1,673MBps, managing a speed more than twice our Lenovo.

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 battery life 

The ThinkPad T16’s battery life is stellar, which is great news if you plan to take this thing on the go. On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, it lasted 11 hours and 46 minutes. This is nearly two hours over than the 9:54 category average.  Although the Swift 5 (11:24) didn’t last quite as long, it got pretty close. Unfortunately, however, the Galaxy Book Pro 3’s battery life is incredibly disappointing at 6:51. 

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 heat 

The Lenovo ThinkPad T16 didn’t do terribly in our heat test, which involves playing a 1080p video for 15 minutes, keeping its touchpad at a cool 76 degrees Fahrenheit. The G and H key stayed at 88 degrees, but the rear underside hit 106 degrees, which is far above our 95-degree comfort threshold. 

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 webcam 

Surprise! Surprise! The ThinkPad T16 has a 1080p camera, which instantly puts it leagues above most webcams out there. And perhaps even more shocking is that the colors actually pop, with the dark green of my shirt and deep pink of my room coming across decently. It’s far from perfect, as a dedicated webcam will look way better, but this is a pretty decent alternative.

Unlike most built-in laptop webcams out there, you won’t need to buy one of the best webcams out there in order to get the most out of your laptop experience. 

Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 software and warranty 

The ThinkPad T16 features the bloatware you’d expect from Windows 11, but alongside it comes a slew of dedicated Lenovo and Intel software. Intel offers applications like Management and Security Status, Connectivity Performance Suite, and Graphics Command Center.

Lenovo Commercial Vantage is the company’s hub congregating plenty of information and settings in one place. Here you can see the laptop’s serial number, product number, warranty information, check for system updates, clean up the device, change settings for power, microphone, display and input, utilize Wi-Fi security, and scan the hardware.

The ThinkPad T16 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Lenovo did in our 2022 Tech Support Showdown! 

Bottom line 

If you need a quality productivity laptop that you can bring with you on long trips, the Lenovo Thinkpad T16 Gen 1 will absolutely satisfy you. Thanks to its 12th Gen processor and integrated graphics, the laptop delivers excellent overall performance outside of a sluggish SSD. And the excellence continues on the battery life with almost 12 hours of battery life. The speakers are impressive especially for a business system and a comfortable keyboard and a host of security features are just icing on the cake. 

But for the $2,099 Lenovo is asking, I expect better from the display and the SSD. If you’re looking for a system that brings those to the table with comparable battery life and performance, I recommend the Acer Swift 5 (2022). But if you’re looking for solid business laptops for mobile professionals, the Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 deserves a closer look.  

Lenovo's Memorial Day sale is slashing prices left, right and center, and it's now taking off a whopping $1,750 on the brilliant Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga. That's right, now it's well under $1,000.

Right now, you can grab the 2-in-1 business laptop for just $900. That's an incredible saving for one of the best 2-in-1 laptops for business users, especially with its great performance, world-class keyboard, long battery life, and stylus. That's one of the best Memorial Day deals we've seen, so if you're looking for a 2-in-1, don't miss out. 

• Shop: Lenovo's entire sale 

Originally priced at $2,649, seeing this 2-in-1 laptop drop to under $1,000 is an exciting deal. In our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5 review, we gave it a coveted Editor's Choice award with a 4 out of 5-star rating. We even called it one of the best business 2-in-1 laptops around.

This 2-in-1 laptop delivers everything we loved about Lenovo's Yoga models, including great 1080p and 4K displays, a world-class keyboard, tons of business features and a useful garaged stylus. It was considerably expensive before, but at just $900, it's now a no-brainer.

Under the hood, expect an Intel Core i5-10210U processor, Intel UHD graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB for storage, along with other handy features including a ThinkPad Pen Pro, fingerprint reader, and more. As for the display, it sports a 14.0-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS panel that features anti-reflective, anti-smudge, and touchscreen support.

So, what are you waiting for? Nab this Memorial Day 2022 deal while it's still around!

The best Black Friday Lenovo ThinkPad deals shave thousands of dollars off the latest business-friendly laptops, which are packed with plenty of power for productivity.

Sporting stellar build quality, refined aesthetics and industry-leading keyboards with that classic pointing stick, ThinkPads are an awesome portable solution for business users or anyone else needing to get things done on the go. 

Currently, there are over a dozen ThinkPads you can choose from and, thanks to some deep discounts, they are all seriously affordable.

If you’re looking for our recommendations, check out the Best ThinkPads in 2021 list, then head back here and find the deal that is right for you.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon Black Friday deals

As you can see in our 5-star Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review, we like this laptop a lot! Changes to the design and display come paired with impressive endurance to make for a great all-in-one productivity machine. Now, thanks to a truckload of doorbuster deals, practically all configurations of this laptop are heavily discounted.

ThinkPad X1 Nano Black Friday deals

For the ThinkPad approach to the MacBook Air, have a read of our ThinkPad X1 Nano review and you’ll see why this is a great ultrabook for those who need to get stuff done on the move.

ThinkPad X1 Yoga Black Friday deals

Do you need something a little more versatile than your traditional laptop? That’s where the convertible ThinkPad X1 Yoga comes in. The latest Gen 6 just released in July, but already we’re seeing steep savings on the range.

ThinkPad X1 Extreme Black Friday deals

The 4.5-star rated ThinkPad X1 Extreme takes the Lenovo business laptop formula to the (yep, you guessed it) extreme. The ultra-durable design sports a carbon weave cover on the top, an ultra-slim chassis, a super right audio/visual experience with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and even the latest dedicated graphics.

ThinkPad X13 Black Friday deals

Read our Lenovo ThinkPad X13 review and you’ll see why this is an ideal ultraportable for those who need a small workhorse that gives you all of the best productivity parts of the X1 Carbon (including that great keyboard) without the big cost.

ThinkPad Black Friday deals: Best of the rest

Black Friday deals 2021: Where to shop

Black Friday is right around the corner. There's no escaping these epic deals. We've got you covered from the best Black Friday laptop deals to the best Black Friday gaming laptop deals. 

If you're looking for something on the smaller side, check out our Black Friday tablet deals or the best Black Friday Chromebook deals. If you want something more specific, like an Apple product, see our Black Friday iPad deals or Black Friday MacBook deals.

Of course, if you're looking for a general branded product, that's easy too. We have a best Samsung Black Friday deals page, a Lenovo Black Friday deals page, a Dell Black Friday deals page and Apple Black Friday deals. 

If you're more concerned about shops themselves, we also have a best Walmart Black Friday deals page, an Amazon Black Friday deals page, and a Best Buy Black Friday deals.

Looking for products other than laptops? Check out our Black Friday monitor deals and Best Black Friday headphone deals.

Black Friday deals officially kick off Friday, November 26.

Lenovo laptops are well-known to be built for professionals, and the rumored Lenovo ThinkBook Plus is expected to join the ThinkPad ranks as the go-to laptop for artists and designers thanks to a strangely-placed second screen.

Unlike the previous ThinkBook Plus we saw at CES 2020 with a built-in e-Ink display on the lid of the laptop, the rumored 17-inch ThinkBook Plus will have a second screen placed on the right side of the keyboard. According to the leaked image, it acts as a built-in drawing tablet. 

• Best laptop for photo editing in 2021
• Best video editing laptops in 2021
• Best laptop deals in 2021

Spotted by reputable leaker Evan Blass, the image also shows a stylus placed next to the second display, indicating that the screen can be used to write or draw on. Other than this, the ThinkBook Plus has a seemingly regular keyboard, touchpad and 17-inch display.

This isn't the first creator-targeted laptop we've seen this year. The Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 also offers a design catering to artists and designers with a funky dial and a touchpad that doubles as a drawing board.

Asus' laptop offers a 16-inch, 4K OLED, HDR display along with up to an Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU and an AMD Ryzen 5000 H-series processor. Creator laptops need discrete graphics and high-performing processors, which gives us an idea of what Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus will feature. Potential price and release dates have yet to be announced or leaked, but we hope to see the ThinkBook Plus be officially revealed soon.

If Lenovo is due to release the ThinkBook Plus, it would not only make a fine addition to our list of best laptops for photo editing, but also the best Lenovo laptops on the market today. Speaking of, the recently reviewed Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4  is a laptop built to make its rivals sweat — definitely check it out. 

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 improves on what was already a winning formula with the original ThinkPad P15 with upgraded performance and stellar battery life for the 1080p model.

The laptop’s 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11950H CPU, Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU and 32GB of RAM make it an absolute workhorse of a workstation. If raw performance is your goal, it will be hard to beat the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2, after you screw up the courage to hit the buy button with that daunting price tag above it. The one concern for creatives will be the display, but if that’s crucial for you consider the OLED panel option or perhaps an external display.

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 easily earns a spot among our best workstation laptops and best ThinkPad pages with performance that outclasses the competition and the few missteps aren’t likely to impact most users. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 price and configuration options 

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 starts just shy of $3,000 for the base configuration, hardly outlandish in the realm of workstations. That $2,949 model will get you an Intel 11th Gen Core i5-11500H processor with vPro, Nvidia T1200 GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 512GB PCIe SSD and a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display. 

In another workstation tradition, things can escalate quickly, the top-end model comes in at a double-take inducing $8,769. For that princely sum, you jump up to an Intel 11th Gen Xeon W-11855M processor with vPro, Nvidia RTX A5000 Max-Q GPU, 128GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD and a 15.6-inch UHD IPS display.

My review unit at $5,109 lands slightly closer to the base model, but is still quite robust with an 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11950H with vPro processor, Nvidia RTX A5000 with Max-Q, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB SSD and an FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS display. 

As is almost always the case with Lenovo there is a significant asterisk on all of that pricing as there are perpetual steep discounts running on all of these laptops. At the time of writing the base model is available for $1,709, or 42% off the retail price and the top-end configuration is $5,089, or 41% off the retail price. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 design

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 is not a laptop you could ever forget to put in your laptop bag as you would immediately notice that the bag was not being strained at the seams by the 6.2-pound weight of this behemoth. The matte black finish and overall design are very traditional ThinkPad –– just imagine that a ThinkPad X1 popped a quarter into the Zoltar machine and made a wish to be big.

The expanse of matte black is only broken up on top of the laptop by the Lenovo logo carved into a small silver rectangular in the top left corner and the ThinkPad logo angled at the bottom-right corner with the blinking red LED dotting the “i.” I was thrilled to find that, unlike the previous ThinkPad P15, the matte finish did its job here and completely shed fingerprints. The bottom of the laptop is dominated by venting with large rubber strips at the front and back to give those vents some room to work.  

Lifting the lid of the laptop and the familiar ThinkPad keyboard greets you with a full number pad, the red TrackPoint nub, and a touchpad with three buttons above it. I’ll address the performance of the keyboard later, but it looks wonderful as always with clear large lettering and generally excellent spacing, although I do find the cursor cluster is a little cramped.

The fingerprint sensor is located directly below that cursor cluster and just like on the previous model, I find myself wishing it were either above the keyboard or closer to the touchpad. That way it’d be more easily accessible without having to reposition my hand, but it doesn’t come up enough to be a serious irritation.

The area above the keyboard is dominated by what looks to be a speaker grille, but closer inspection will reveal that the pattern extends considerably beyond the speakers themselves. As a design touch, it is nice, but it does instill a bit more confidence in those speakers than is warranted as I’ll cover later.

Given its 6.2-pound weight, its 14.7 x 9.9 x 1.2-inch frame is actually slightly smaller than I would have guessed. It’s a laptop that you will want to consider your grip on carefully on the likely rare occasions that you pick it up off the desk to avoid dropping it. With its MIL-STD 810G certification, the laptop would be fine, but you could lose a toe if you drop this beast on yourself.

While a workstation isn’t meant to be thin and light, the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 is certainly bucking the more recent trend of workstations shrinking down a bit. Nearly all of its 15.6-inch workstation competitors like the HP ZBook Create G7 (13.9 x 9.3 x 0.7, 4.3 pounds), MSI WS66 10TMT (14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches, 4.6 pounds) and the Asus ProArt StudioBook 15 (14.2 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches, 4.4 pounds) are considerably smaller and lighter. Admittedly they drop the number pad, but it’s worth questioning whether the number pad is worth the extra nearly 2 pounds. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 security and durability 

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 proves its business class workstation mettle with an abundance of security features onboard and the aforementioned durability certification.

This includes an optional IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition and the fingerprint scanner. Working in tandem they can really streamline your login process and save you a reasonable amount of time over the course of the day. A nano security lock on the right side of the laptop will help you secure it to a desk if you need to lock it down physically as well as digitally.

The ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 also includes a TPM 2.0 chip for encryption and of course is a necessity for the update to Windows 11. 

Again, durability is not the slightest concern with this laptop. Its certification means it can handle drops and shocks, extreme temperatures, high-altitude, sand and dust exposure, humidity, fungus, solar radiation and more. If you aren’t taking it out of the office then you will likely find the spill-resistant keyboard to be the most important of the laptop’s durability claims.

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 ports 

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2’s expansive frame is ringed with ports that should be enough for just about anyone’s needs. 

Starting from the left side you have a combo headphone/mic 3.5mm headset jack, an optional Nano-SIM card slot, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port (always-on), and an HDMI 2.1 port.  

The back features a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-C port, a charging port and an RJ45 Ethernet port.

Finally, the right side includes a full SD card slot, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and the nano security lock slot.  

If that doesn’t cover all of your needs, the Thunderbolt 4 ports guarantee that you can add anything else via a USB Type-C hub. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 display 

My review unit features a 15.6-inch, FHD (1,920 x 1,080-pixel) display with Dolby Vision HDR support. This is the second-tier screen for the P15 Gen 2, if your work depends on visuals you may want to consider the top-end 4K (3,840 x 2,160-pixel) OLED HDR500 touchscreen display option.

It feels like the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 should have considered bumping up to a 16-inch display to help minimize its bezels, which are far larger than any modern laptop should feature. However, if you can get past the bezels, the display itself is not bad at all.

Watching the trailer for Marvel’s Hawkeye, the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 display does a solid job with what is a largely dark trailer, but the 1080p image stretched across that 15.6-inch display isn’t as sharp as it could be and lacks some of the colorful punch of its competitors. A foggy scene on the rink at Rockefeller Center shows some of these weaknesses with the lights on the Christmas tree not popping on the otherwise dim background and the following shot of Hawkeye and Kate Bishop losing detail in their wardrobe and bows.

Our colorimeter backed up these feelings with the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 panel only delivering 71% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That comes in slightly behind the MSI WS66 10TMT (78%), but feels like it is participating in a different event than the ZBook Create G7 (148%), the ProArt StudioBook 15 (121%), and the workstation laptop average of 141%.

Brightness testing on the other hand was a clear win for the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 peaking at 489 nits. That beat the category average of 409 nits, as well as all of its nearest competitors, like the ZBook Create G7 (357 nits), the WS66 10TMT (346 nits) and the ProArt StudioBook 15 (339 nits).

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 keyboard and touchpad 

Lenovo hasn’t changed anything from the original ThinkPad P15 and that’s a great thing in this case as that was one of the most comfortable laptop keyboards that I’ve ever used. Once again I find the relatively deep and bouncy key travel is just right and the pleasantly clicky sound gives good feedback without being too noisy.

My one complaint is that the TrackPoint is a source of occasional misfires for me when trying to type the letter “B” given its location at the top center of that key. I got better over time and I suspect after a couple of weeks this would not be an issue at all, but I find it interesting as the same placement causes me no problems on the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga.

Testing my typing speed, I averaged 83 words per minute with 95% accuracy on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, just behind my average of 86 wpm. I suspect this is attributable to the slight hitch as I consciously reposition my fingers to avoid the “B.” But a little more time with the keyboard and I’d be fully up to speed on this keyboard.

The 3.9 x 2.8-inch surface of the touchpad on the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 isn’t exactly luxurious, but it’s large enough to carry out Windows 10 gestures and easily navigate the 1080p display. The TrackPoint is of course there for its loyalists and remains as mystifying a navigation tool as ever for me personally. I wish Lenovo would extend the width of the touchpad slightly given the vast expanse of laptop available to them, but it doesn’t rise to the level of being a problem. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 audio 

I tipped my hand in the design section, but the speakers on the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 are a disappointment overall. Despite what appears to be a very large speaker grille running the length of the top of the keyboard, there are actually just two small openings for the speakers there. They were able to easily fill my 18 x 12-foot listening space, but there is absolutely no bass present and it ends up coming across as distant despite the reasonable volume.

I listened to “For Tonight” by Giveon and the vocals lack any of the rich tonality that should be present. The entire song has a tinny sound quality that will leave you disappointed even if you are just watching a video. Basically for anything more than just a video call or a quick YouTube video you will want to invest in some wireless headphones and avoid the onboard speakers. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 performance 

Performance is the name of the game for any workstation and the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 came to play. The Intel Core i9-11950H processor with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD were more than equal to any task that I could throw at them. 

Simulating a typical day for me I loaded up 40 Google Chrome tabs, including three YouTube videos running and a pair of Twitch streams, and unsurprisingly everything ran smooth as silk, although the fans did hit harrier jet levels at times. Turning to more applicable tasks for a workstation, I fired up Adobe Creative Cloud and launched into some Premiere Pro projects and then scrolled through my Lightroom library. Again, nary a slowdown to be seen. Similarly, a dip into Blender showed that this workstation is able to handle far more than I can throw at it.

It crushed the Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, with the highest score that I’ve seen at 9,306. That obliterates the category average of 6,575 and came out well-ahead of the ZBook Create G7 (8,003, Core i9 10885H), the WS66 10TMT (6,735, Core i9-10980HK), and the ProArt StudioBook 15 (6,076, Core i7 9750H). 

Our Handbrake video transcoding test requires the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and once again it delivered one of the best results we’ve seen completing the transcode in 6 minutes and 27 seconds. That’s almost a full minute faster than its nearest competitor in the ZBook Create G7 (7:21) and considerably faster than the WS66 10TMT (8:28) or the ProArt StudioBook 15 (10:25).

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2’s 1TB SSD performed well, but didn’t score the decisive victory that it did in other categories. It completed our 25GB file transfer test with a 1,204 megabyte per second transfer rate. That was much better than the HP Z7 (640MBps) or the MSI (727 MBps), but just behind the Asus (1,254 MBps).

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 graphics 

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 features an Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU with 16GB of VRAM. This was good enough to lay waste to our 3DMark Fire Strike synthetic graphics benchmark shows with a score of 21,668. That easily tops its competition with the HP ZBook Create G7 (14,260, RTX 2070 Max-Q), the MSI WS66 10TMT (16,788, Quadro RTX 5000), and the Asus ProArt StudioBook 15 (13,767, GeForce RTX 2060). 

While if gaming is your primary focus you should definitely peruse our best gaming laptops page. I wouldn’t recommend the 60Hz display, but for occasional gaming the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 has you covered. It hit 98.8 frames per second on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, decisively beyond our 30fps playability threshold and the 58fps category average.  

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 battery life

The battery life on the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 is stellar for a workstation, delivering 10 hours and 40 minutes in our battery test that involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. That is going to come down considerably if you are pushing it with more appropriately intensive tasks for the laptop, but it’s an excellent mark for any workstation.

It crushed all of its 4K competitors with the ZBook Create G7 (5:57) almost a full five hours behind and the Asus ProArt StudioBook 15 (3:39) at over seven hours less. It’s also considerably ahead of the workstation average of 6 hours and 23 minutes.

The MSI WS66 10TMT (10:10) was understandably the closest as it also features a 1080p display, but regardless the more powerful ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 still claims the top spot. 

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 webcam 

The 720p webcam in the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen won’t surprise you in either direction. It delivers the same kind of slightly grainy results as most laptop webcams do, even in my office, where I have extensive lighting controls. It’s not the sort of thing that will make you avoid taking a video call, but it’s not going to be putting your best foot forward either.

As I almost always find myself saying with laptops, if you do a lot of video conferencing or video chat and care about image quality, you need to pick up an external webcam. 

The optional IR camera may not help the image quality, but it does give you Windows Hello support, which is awfully convenient.

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 heat

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 is ready for the considerable heat output that is inevitably going to come from cramming these high-end components into even a laptop form factor this large. The bottom of the laptop is dominated by vents and there are four additional large vents located on the sides and back of the laptop. 

Even with all of that it still doesn’t manage to completely offset the heat buildup inside, but it does it where it counts. Our testing involves playing a 15-minute, 1080p video and taking temperature readings on various parts of the laptop, which is plenty to spin those fans up. The bottom of the laptop shot up to 99.3 degrees, just beyond our 95-degree Fahrenheit comfort threshold. However, the touchpad and keyboard managed to keep their cool at just 79.3 and 86 degrees. The hottest spot on the bottom of the laptop was in the back center and it peaked at 102.9. 

Considering the size and weight of this laptop, I don’t think many would opt to actually use it in their laps, so the underside getting hotter than is comfortable shouldn’t be an issue.

Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 software and warranty 

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 ships with Windows 10 Pro and just like its predecessor it steers clear of most bloatware. This should be the expectation with a workstation this expensive, but it’s not always the case.

Lenovo Commercial Vantage is the primary system management tool that comes pre-installed on the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2. It’s worth checking out as it offers a glanceable system health dashboard and monitors for any necessary updates to your system. This includes BIOS and Lenovo-specific updates, some of which I had when I first fired up the laptop, in addition to any Windows 10 updates. You can also enable Lenovo Wi-Fi Security from Commercial Vantage which will analyze your network for any security threats in real-time, again a nice touch for the presumably professional audience for this laptop.

Commercial Vantage also displays your current warranty status with links to either utilize your warranty or upgrade it. The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen comes with a three-year limited warranty. You can see how Lenovo fares in general on this front in our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands special reports.  

Bottom line

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 may as well be dropped into the dictionary as the definition of a workstation. The bulky and heavy frame isn’t going to win any laptop beauty pageants, but it delivers performance that is unmatched by virtually anything on the market.

The comfortable keyboard, durable build, and solvable display concerns make this laptop an easy recommendation for a wide variety of users. The size of the laptop and the pricing are reasonable complaints to have with this laptop, but in the end both can be reasonably dismissed considering the performance you are getting and the actual use case for a workstation laptop.

You could absolutely spend less on a workstation laptop and still have a solid experience, but if you are using this laptop for work where saving minutes or even seconds on every task makes a meaningful difference for you then the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 is likely the choice for you.

There will be no shortage of laptops unveiled at CES 2021, but brand new models aren't all that common. Fortunately, that's what Lenovo has for us with the powerful and versatile ThinkPad X12 Detachable.

While it certainly has taken some cues from other detachables on the market, the X12 Detachable brings the well-loved and rugged ThinkPad design to the equation and an impressive array of specs, including up to an Intel 11th Gen Core i7 vPro processor and Intel Iris Xe graphics.

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Lenovo was kind enough to send us a pre-production unit of the ThinkPad X12 Detachable. Our brief hands-on time with the detachable left us eager for more. The tablet has a gorgeous display, fast performance and that ThinkPad design and durability we all know and love.

Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable price and release date

The ThinkPad X12 Detachable will be available later this month starting at $1,149. And, don't worry, the detachable keyboard is included. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable specs

The Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs have been impressing us since their release last fall, particularly when paired with the new Intel Iris Xe graphics, so it's great to see these options on the ThinkPad X12 Detachable. Given the performance we've seen from other thin and light options, this tablet should be capable of handling pretty significant workloads.

The rest of the internals are similarly impressive with up to 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM and NVMe SSD storage up to 1TB. The 42Whr battery will deliver up to 9.98 hours of battery life according to Lenovo, and can recharge to 80% in one hour. Those are solid specs considering the tablet itself is just 1.67 pounds (2.42 pounds with the keyboard). 

Speaking of mobility, the ThinkPad X12 Detachable also features a NanoSIM slot and an LTE Cat9 modem for connectivity on the road and WiFi 6 to deliver the fastest connection possible when at your home or office. Combined with the "always-on" ability to wake in less than a second it should be an outstanding option for travelers.

Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable design

The detachable 12.3-inch FHD+ touchscreen is the primary focus of the ThinkPad X12 Detachable. It uses a productivity-focused 3:2 aspect ratio and looked great in my dimly-lit room thanks to its 400 nits of brightness.

The tablet features a built-in kickstand and despite its slim 9mm thickness, it offers MIL-SPEC 810G certification, meaning it will hold up to rugged work environments without a problem. Security features include a built-in IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition support along with a fingerprint scanner and ThinkShield Security.

The 5MP front-facing camera is joined by an 8MP rear-facing camera for greater flexibility with video conferencing or capturing images or video. Given its size, the ThinkPad X12 Detachable offers a reasonable array of ports with a Thunderbolt 4, a USB 3.2 Type-C port and a combo headphone/mic jack. If you need more ports the ThinkPad X1 USB-C Port Replicator adds two additional USB-A ports, a USB-C port, an HDMI port and both micro and standard SD card readers.

For those that need more precision than your finger can provide on the touchscreen, the Lenovo Precision Pen is compatible with the X12 Detachable. It attaches magnetically, but there is also a loop available for a more secure attachment. The pen offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and two function buttons.

Bottom line

While it isn't exactly breaking new ground, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable is a welcome addition to that market with the inclusion of the Intel 11th Gen CPU and superior durability. The familiar ThinkPad keyboard layout may also be enticing to longtime fans that were without a direct Surface Pro 7 competitor from Lenovo previously. 

For road warriors and those that enjoy more versatile form factors, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable could be a compelling new option when it launches later this month.

Let me set your expectations. Lenovo's ThinkPad X13 ($683 starting, reviewed at $974) is not a 13-inch version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. We're still waiting on that notebook, which could arrive in the recently leaked ThinkPad X1 Nano. So, what is the ThinkPad X13? Ignore the branding, the laptop feels more like a T-series ThinkPad. And that's not a bad thing.

Where the ThinkPad X1 Carbon blends style with substance, the ThinkPad X13 leans more heavily on the latter. It trades thin bezels and portability for a utilitarian design with a generous feature set. The keyboard is as fantastic as ever, there are plenty of ports, and the chassis is tested to military-grade durability. But all that is expected of a ThinkPad.

What stands out about the ThinkPad X13 comes courtesy of AMD, not Lenovo. A powerful Ryzen Pro 4000 CPU gives the ThinkPad X13 a performance advantage over competing business laptops, including much pricier models. The ThinkPad X13's excellent performance and competitive price do just enough to help me forgive an uninspired design and below-average battery life. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) price and configuration options 

With a starting price of $683, the ThinkPad X13 is one of the most affordable business laptops and much cheaper than any other ThinkPad X-series laptop. That base model comes with one serious drawback: a 13.3-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel display. The other specs, an AMD Ryzen 3 Pro 4450U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, are fine for most uses but you'll want to upgrade the screen. 786p should be extinct in 2020.

Lenovo was generous enough to make that upgrade on our $974 review unit, which has a 13-inch, 1080p touchscreen, a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. For $1,535, you can load the X13 up with a Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 13.3-inch, 1080 display with 500 nits of brightness.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) design 

This feels like a wasted opportunity. Instead of taking advantage of a first-gen laptop to modernize the signature ThinkPad design, Lenovo took the easy way out by reusing the ThinkPad X390 mold. The X13 looks almost identical to its spiritual predecessor except that the lid is reinforced with carbon fiber while the deck is magnesium alloy.

It feels sturdy and has all of the traditional ThinkPad accouterment, including a rubber pointing stick, discrete touchpad clickers with red accents and an illuminated "i" on the ThinkPad lid branding. Add the fingerprint sensor, a 180-degree folding hinge and webcam cover, and it makes for a rather practical design.

What bothers me about the ThinkPad X13 is how it looks. The bezels above and below the display are massive by today's standards, resulting in a laptop with a larger footprint than its competitors. Beyond its size, the chinky bezels make the ThinkPad X13 appear outdated and a detective could ID me using the fingerprints I've left on the lid. 

If there's one benefit of the extra space, it's that the X13's power button is on the deck instead of on the side, a small concession all things considered. I can't criticize Lenovo too much for failing to move the X13's design forward; while this is a ThinkPad X-branded laptop, it's more affordable than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon or X1 Yoga. Perhaps the company is holding back for the rumored ThinkPad X1 Nano.

Now, about its size. At 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches and 2.8 pounds, the ThinkPad X13 is thicker and heavier than the 14-inch Asus ExpertBook B9450 (0.6 inches, 2.2 pounds) and less portable than the Apple MacBook Air (0.6 inches, 2.8 pounds). The 14-inch Dell Latitude 9410 (0.8 inches, 2.9 pounds) is chunkier than its rivals. 

 Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) durability and security 

No matter the materials Lenovo uses, if it's a ThinkPad, it has military-grade durability. In this case, the ThinkPad X13 has passed 12 MIL-STD-810G tests for various extreme conditions, including high altitudes, freezing temperatures and dust storms. 

If you're cooped up inside doing remote work insteading of braving the outdoors, then you'll appreciate the spill-resistant keyboard for those inevitable early-morning coffee spills.

Protecting the files stored inside of the X13 is a fingerprint sensor and optional IR camera for secure and quick login. Our unit didn't come with an IR camera but the fingerprint sensor was reliable. I stopped using a password once I had set it up in the Windows Hello settings. 

Now a standard feature on business notebooks, the ThinkPad X13 also has a webcam cover (or ThinkShutter) so you can ditch the strip of tape. You can also opt for a ThinkPad PrivacyGuard, a display option with a built-in privacy filter that intentionally limits viewing angles. Your sensitive files are protected by dTPM 2.0, a chip that ensures all data transfers are encrypted. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) ports 

There is a generous assortment of ports lining the ThinkPad X13 so you won't need a dongle to connect peripherals or upload photos.

On the right side are a USB 3.2 Type-A input and a Kensington lock slot. 

Turn to the left side and you'll see two USB-C inputs, an Ethernet extension port, a second USB 3.2 Type-A connector, an HDMI and a headphone/mic jack. As a reminder, Thunderbolt 3 is an Intel technology so you don't find it on this AMD-powered laptop.

On the spine of the laptop is a microSD card slot, which you'll no longer find on the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and X1 Carbon. I'm happy to see it return although you need those easy-to-lose PIN ejector tools that come with your smartphone to access the microSD.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) display 

The 13.3-inch, 1080p display on our review unit hits all of our recommended scores, making it great for productivity work and multimedia consumption alike. It's a good display, but what really helps it stand out is the anti-reflective finish, which can often be a detriment to picture quality.

The panel passed the eye test. The lavish interior of a dance hall was enriched by magnificent gold molding, the smallest details of which were visible on this FHD panel. Red velvet dresses were a vibrant scarlet, but I suspect they would have popped more on a glossy panel. Regardless, I enjoyed using the X13's accurate, colorful display.

Our colorimeter showed the X13's display is capable of covering 72% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It's a good result, but it means the panel is less colorful than those on the MacBook Air (80%), ExpertBook B9450 (83%) and the Latitude 7310 (77%). The category average tops all of these laptops at 83%. 

I'm more concerned by the maximum brightness, which peaks at just 278 nits. The Latitude 7310 (277 nits) is equally dim while the ExpertBook B9450 (302 nits), MacBook Air (386 nits) and the category average (382 nits) shone above our 300-nit preference. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) keyboard, touchpad and TrackPoint 

I have nothing to add that I haven't already said in previous ThinkPad reviews. Put simply, the ThinkPad X13's keyboard is fantastic. Every key pouch was countered with a tactile bump that sprung my fingers from one letter to the next. Those concave keys we've praised for years have what feels like an impossible amount of travel for a laptop this thin. 

My only complaint with the keyboard is the layout. To accommodate the smaller chassis, Lenovo shrunk the arrow keys and the neighboring Alt, PrtSc and Ctrl keys. I'm on Team Left Ctrl, but I know a few Laptop Mag staffers who would take offense to these shrunken right-sided keys.

I typed at 116 words per minute with a 98% accuracy, falling a few words short of my 119-wpm average, but with fewer errors than my usual 5% typo rate. 

The 4 x 2.5-inch touchpad gets the job done but those with larger hands might have trouble executing Windows 10 gestures. My sausage fingers scraped the edges of the rectangular surface as I used pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipes to swap Windows.

If you cherish home row, the red rubber nub (aka pointing stick) can be used as a touchpad without forcing you to move your hands off the keyboard. I'm not a member of its cult-like following, but the nub responded as I expected — the cursor moved in whichever direction I applied pressure.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) audio 

The dual speakers on the ThinkPad X13 sound fine, but their downward trajectory can be problematic. Glass Animals' "Tangerine" was crisp and full of energy when the laptop was placed on my wooden desk.

Those sweet tunes were smothered when I placed the laptop on my thick cotton workout sweats or, to a lesser degree, my leather couch. The vocals sounded hollow and the blend of electric guitar and synth became muddled when the volume was above 70%. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) performance 

AMD set the bar for mobile with its Ryzen 4000 CPUs and the Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U paired with 8GB of RAM in the ThinkPad X13 is further proof. The "Pro," by the way, means this chip is designed specifically for business laptops. Think vPro but from AMD, meaning IT admins get manageability features not found in the standard CPUs. 

If you're assigned a ThinkPad X13 by your employer, all you need to know is that this notebook flies. I loaded various websites on 25 tabs in the new Microsoft Edge browser without noticing a hint of lag. In fact, I couldn't even punch in a URL on a new tab before the previous one had finished loading. I didn't notice any slowdowns even with four 1080p YouTube videos and two Twitch streams playing in the background.

The ThinkPad X13 flexed its muscles on the Geekbench 5 overall performance test notching an outstanding score of 4,935. That crushes the ExpertBook B9450 (2,830), the Dell Latitude 7310 (3,464) and the premium laptop average (4,060). Close your eyes Apple fans, the MacBook Air (2,738) was embarrassed on this test. 

If Geekbench was a homerun, the ThinkPad X13 hit a grand slam on our Handbrake test, needing only 10 minutes and 45 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p. The competition didn't get anywhere close; the Latitude 7310 came in second place with a time of 19:39 while the MacBook Pro (27:10) and ExpertBook B9450 (28:24) really struggled. 

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The 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD in our review unit didn't disappoint, either. It duplicated a 5GB multimedia file in 7 seconds for a rate of 745.1 megabytes per second. That puts it in the same ballpark as the ExpertBook B9450 (771.1 MBps) and the Latitude 9310 (877 MBps) while the MacBook Air (1,301.9 Mbps) remains ahead of the pack. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) graphics 

Oh, how the tides have turned. Where AMD chips now have a performance edge on Intel, the Iris Xe graphics in Intel's 11th Gen chips seem destined to break new barriers in graphics. Until then, integrated graphics are only good for casual gaming and light editing work. 

The Radeon graphics in the ThinkPad X13 played Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at 29 frames per second, a frame off our 30-fps threshold. That's playable, but not ideal.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) battery life 

Well, this is a bummer. With a runtime of 7 hours and 53 minutes on our battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits), the ThinkPad X13 fell short of the 10-hour premium laptop battery life average.

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It's also well short of the runtimes put up by competing laptops, including the Dell Latitude 7310 (12:18), Asus ExpertBook B9450 (16:42) and the MacBook Air (9:31)

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) webcam 

I wouldn't feel embarrassed using this 720p webcam during our morning staff meetings. My rosy complexion was a tad pale and there was a layer of visual noise in a selfie I snapped. However, the details in my face were sharper than what I've come to expect from integrated webcams.

I could see individual strands of hair in my beard and each ring of color in my eyes, details other laptops fail to capture. My Logitech HD Pro C920 still delivers much better image quality, but ThinkPad X13 owners don't need to run out and buy one of the best external webcams. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) heat 

The ThinkPad X13 runs a mild temperature under a heavy workload. The bottom of the laptop reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit after we played a 15-minute, 1080p video. That might feel warm against your bare thighs but is otherwise a non-issue. More importantly, the trackpad and center of the keyboard maintained a comfortable 84 degrees and 94 degrees, respectively. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) software and warranty 

Lenovo is good about keeping its first-party programs tidily packaged within one app. That app is called Vantage and it's where you can find the latest BIOS, check for system updates or contact support. Navigating the program's clean, colorful interfaces led me to system info and answers to common questions, like how to reset Windows 10 or monitor battery usage. 

AMD throws in a diagnostics app aptly named Bug Report Tool to go with a handful of stock Windows 10 Pro apps, including the Xbox Console Companion, Your Phone, and for the eight or so people who use it, Groove Music. 

The ThinkPad X13 ships with a one-year warranty. See how Lenovo fared in our Best and Worst Brands and Tech Support Showdown special reports. 

Bottom line 

To be blunt, my initial impressions of the ThinkPad X13 were unfavorable. The bezels are chunky and the laptop is less portable than most 13-inch models competitors. And when I saw the ThinkPad X13 had lasted less than 8 hours on our battery test, I figured it was DOA. 

But the more I used the laptop, the more I appreciated it. Like most AMD Ryzen 4000-powered notebooks, the ThinkPad X13 delivers outstanding performance at a reasonable price when you compare it to business laptops running on Intel 10th Gen vPro chips. Office users will have no issues loading multiple spreadsheets or creating media-heavy PowerPoint presentations. 

On top of its fast performance, the X13 offers all the usual ThinkPad goodies — a comfortable keyboard, military-grade durability, and plenty of ports — along with a handful of useful business features, including a webcam cover, fingerprint sensor and optional IR camera. That's a lot of laptop for around $1,000.

The ThinkPad X13 strips away all of the X1 Carbon's seductive qualities and leaves the practical bits. If the subpar battery life is a deal-breaker, we recommend splurging on the Asus ExpertBook B9450 or Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (8th Gen). Otherwise, the X13 is a great option for small businesses that need fast performance in a portable package without breaking the budget.

It's a long-held belief at Laptop Mag that Lenovo's ThinkPads have some of, if not the best, keyboards. Not only because of the rubber nub but because the keys themselves are supremely satisfying to type on. So it only makes sense for Lenovo to give the cult-like fanbase for its keyboards an external solution. That's where the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II comes in. 

As the name suggests, this isn't the first version of its kind; The new version is very similar to the ThinkPad Compact Bluetooth Keyboard with TrackPoint but with a new design and improved connectivity. I've been using the TrackPoint Keyboard II for the last week and it has lived up to the billing with snappy keys, an ultraslim design, and a reliable Bluetooth or 2.4-GHz USB connection. And yes, you pointing stick diehards will appreciate the familiar rubber nub and center click button. 

Despite a comfortable typing experience and sleek design, the TrackPoint Keyboard II isn't for everyone. There are some inherent limitations to its ultraslim design, including the lack of a wrist rest and backlit keys.

Thinkpad TrackPoint Keyboard II design

The ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II looks like it was extracted from the deck of a ThinkPad laptop. Not just any ThinkPad, but something as sleek as the X1 Carbon. I say that because this thing is seriously thin and compact, at 12 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches and 1.4 pounds. 

Those who already love the ThinkPad keyboard will enjoy the familiarity of this external version. Signature red paint trims the left-and-right discrete buttons and the rubber pointing stick -- that rubber nub in the middle of the keyboard. On the bottom-right is a diagonal ThinkPad logo and a black Lenovo tag is faintly visible on the opposite corner. 

On the top edge of the keyboard is a housing for the USB dongle, a USB-C charging port and two switches for moving between operating systems and connectivity methods. On the right side is a power switch. 

The ThinkPad TrackPoint II has a very low profile so using it on a flat surface can put a strain on your wrists. For a better typing angle, you can flick down the legs beneath the keyboard. 

Unfortunately, one of the legs on my unit was very loose, and when I gently fiddled with it, it broke. ThinkPads have a reputation for being durable, so I was startled when this happened. I haven't come across similar reports, so it's possible this unit sustained damage in transit or was defective. I wouldn't let it deter you from buying the TrackPoint Keyboard II, but it's definitely something to watch out for. 

Despite using standard ABS plastic (sorry, no carbon fiber), the rest of the keyboard feels pretty stable and Lenovo claims it has a lifespan of 10 million key clicks. 

There is no wrist rest and not enough room to place your entire palm underneath the keys, so consider investing in an external pad. 

Thinkpad TrackPoint Keyboard II connectivity and setup 

Connecting the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II to your laptop or phone is a breeze. You first need to turn the keyboard on by flipping the switch on the right side. On the top are two more sliders for switching between Windows 10 or Android, and Bluetooth or USB. 

I opted for a USB connection so I could keep the dongle -- which can be stored neatly in a slot on top of the keyboard -- connected to my computer and not worry about fiddling with a Bluetooth connection. Words appeared instantly after I input the 2.4-GHz USB dongle and started typing. I haven't run into any connection issues over the week I've been using the keyboard.

I switched over to Bluetooth when I needed to plug in an external webcam to one of the precious USB-A ports on my Dell XPS 15, and the keyboard performed just as well. When I moved the knob on top of the keyboard over to Bluetooth, my laptop alerted me that a new device had been found. I finished the setup process by hitting "connect" on the notification and punched in a code on the keyboard. 

Thinkpad TrackPoint Keyboard II keys and TrackPoint

ThinkPad owners will feel right at home typing on this chiclet-style keyboard. It has those gently curved scissor-style keys and the snappy, tactile feedback we've come to love over years of reviewing Lenovo laptops. My fingers effortlessly bounced from one key to the next as I wrote this review. It's not only the springiness of these ergonomic keys, but also the decent amount of travel they provide that makes this so fun to type on. 

Those who haven't typed on a ThinkPad before might need to get used to the high actuation force -- these keys have a weightiness to them. I find the pronounced bump to be very satisfying, as it rewards my fingers with a slight pat each time I complete a keystroke.  

It's because of that hefty bump that I can't type my fastest on the ThinkPad keyboard. I ran up 108 words per minute with a 93% accuracy on the 10FastFingers.com typing test. Those are decent results, but I couldn't hit my 119-wpm average or 95% accuracy. 

While I'm not one of the cult followers who use the rubber nub, aka the TrackPoint, I had no issues using it as an alternative to a touchpad or mouse. It's the same dimpled red rubber circle popularized on ThinkPad laptops. If you've used one before, then you know that, as far as pointing sticks go, this one is the best. 

Accompanying the TrackPoint is a center button for scrolling through or zooming in on a page. Again, everything worked as expected -- I scrolled around articles written in Google Docs by using the center button. 

Although everything works as advertised, I wish Lenovo sold a version of this keyboard with a touchpad. Until then, I'll have to settle for using a wireless mouse. 

Thinkpad TrackPoint Keyboard II keyboard layout

The TrackPoint Keyboard II has a pretty standard layout. The 84-key keyboard doesn't have a numpad, but you do get shortcut keys for adjusting volume, screen brightness and second-screen projection modes. The arrow keys are very small, but the inverted-T shape makes them easy to use. Above those arrow keys are miniature PgUp and PgDn buttons that are difficult to press without accidentally hitting a nearby key. 

My biggest gripe with the keyboard, and, for that matter, the layout of most Lenovo laptop keyboards, is that the Ctrl key is located to the right of the Fn key. It's much easier to use the Ctrl key for shortcuts like copy (Ctrl+C), paste (Ctrl+v) and select all (Ctrl+A) when it's the bottom-left most key. On the TrackPoint Keyboard II, I had to remember to move my pinkie one key to the right. 

Thinkpad TrackPoint Keyboard II features

Apart from the TrackPoint nub and some useful connectivity options, the ThinkPad TrackPoint II doesn't have many features.

The keys aren't backlit. There is no headphone jack or USB port. You get discrete left-and-right click buttons, but there is no touchpad and the palm rest is too small for my hands (you can forget about your wrists a break). Also, the USB-C port is for charging only -- not connecting peripherals or charging other devices. 

The one noteworthy feature of the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II is support for 6-point entry for the visually impaired.

Thinkpad TrackPoint Keyboard II battery and charging 

Hooray for USB-C! There aren't many peripherals using the standard so I'm happy to see Lenovo bring it to the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II. Of course, this is a wireless keyboard, so you'll only need to use the USB-C port every two months when the battery dies.

Bottom line

The ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II is perfect for slipping into your bag during travel or using on the couch as you take a much-needed break from your home office. It has a slim design, reliable Bluetooth and USB connectivity options and, in typical ThinkPad fashion, excellent key comfort. 

That said, there wasn't enough space in this portable keyboard for certain features. There are no wrist rest or ports and the keys aren't backlit. I also had some durability issues with my particular unit, so be sure to read user reviews before adding it to your cart. 

Overall, the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II is a sleek keyboard with comfortable keys and a reliable pointing stick. It's great for using with a tablet or when you're traveling or lounging around the house, so long as you're aware of its limitations.

I don't often have the opportunity to review business laptops. But when I do, I want them to be like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED. Priced at $2,399 ($1,199 starting), the laptop serves up a lot of the things I love in a notebook: power, bumping audio, an excellent keyboard and OLED, all on a captivating, aluminum platter. Plus, since it's Lenovo, you get a host of security features and plenty of durability to boot. However, the battery life leaves much to be desired and might give true road warriors reason for pause. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED pricing and configurations

You can purchase the base model of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga for $1,199. It comes with a 1.6-GHz Intel Core i5-8265U processor with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD and an Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU. However, the 14-inch touch screen is only 1920 x 1080 and decidedly not OLED.

If it's OLED goodness you seek, you're going to pay a premium price for the privilege on this machine. Pay $2,399 for the more-premium configuration, and that bumps you up to a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i7-8665U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB PCIe SSD, an Intel UHD Graphics GPU and a 3840 x 2160 OLED touch panel. I had the pleasure of reviewing the top-tier model, which offers double the storage and goes for $2,549.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED design

From now on, this is how I want every ThinkPad to look. I am simply loving the Iron Gray aluminum chassis for this line. It's a welcome change from the ink-black carbon-fiber and magnesium frame that's synonymous to this line of notebooks. This latest design is like wearing a red dress to a black-and-white party. Outside of the material change, this is still very much a ThinkPad, but for some reason, the laptop's few accents, such as the black-and-red X1 emblem in the bottom left corner, just seem to pop more. That's doubly so with the glowing red dot in the "i" in the ThinkPad logo in the top right corner.

You'll see another ThinkPad logo to the far right palm rest when you open the Yoga, albeit without the backlighting. A fingerprint reader sits directly to the right of the touchpad, which has the ThinkPad line's trio of discrete mouse buttons. The keyboard sits in a slight recess above the touchpad, with a bright red pointing nub located in the center.

As the name suggests, the X1 Yoga is a convertible. Its pair of 360-degree hinges allows it to gracefully transition from a traditional laptop to a tablet to presentation mode and back. I appreciated the sturdiness of the hinges as they kept the display securely in place in laptop mode; I had to jostle the system fairly hard to get the display to fold forward or back.

At 2.9 pounds, the 12 x 8.5 x 0.6-inch X1 Yoga is on a par with the 3-pound, 12.6 x 7.9 x 0.6-inch Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 for size. And as a 14-inch system, it's lighter and smaller than both the Dell XPS 15 (4.5 pounds, 14.1 x 9.3 x 0.5~0.7 inches) and the HP Spectre x360 (4.5 pounds, 14.2 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches).

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED durability and security

Rest assured that the ThinkPad X1 Yoga can take just about anything that you throw at it. The notebook has passed 12 Mil-Spec 810G tests, showing that it meets the U.S. military's standard for withstanding extreme temperatures, altitudes, humidity, shocks, vibrations and drops. Still, it would be a shame to damage such a handsome-looking system.

Lenovo's outfitted the X1 Yoga with a host of security features, some of which are more readily visible than others. There's the ThinkShutter, a physical sliding switch to block the webcam to guard against prying eyes. You also have the fingerprint reader, which uses a self-contained system-on-a-chip to analyze and record your fingerprint. Lenovo claims that this is more secure than previous iterations, which stored this information on the host machine. The laptop also features dTPM 2.0 technology, which works to protect any unencrypted passwords being used on the laptop. The chip also checks to ensure the BIOS hasn't been compromised by malware.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED ports

The X1 Yoga comes with a good amount of ports, some a little more niche than others. On the right sits a USB 3.1 Type-A port, a secure lock slot, the power button and a slot for the included stylus. 

Along the left, you'll find another Type-A port and two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one of which is connected to a port that can act as an Ethernet adapter or a point of contact for a docking station. The left side also holds a full HDMI 1.4 port and a headset jack.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED display

If your job issues you a laptop with an OLED display, consider it an executive perk. Watching the Tenet trailer on the X1 Yoga's 14-inch, 4K OLED panel was a joy. Not only could I see individual strands of actor John David Washington's jet-black beard hair, but I could also see the stubble signaling that it might be time for a touch-up. And while his warm brown skin looked great in the trailer, I was more captivated with how red and blue lights danced across his face, turning it into a handsome, yet otherworldly vista.

Since the display's color is that vivid, I wasn't surprised to learn that the Yoga's sRGB color gamut reached 139%, beating the 122% premium laptop average and the Latitude 7400's score (113%). However, both the XPS 15 and Spectre x360 were even more vivid, at 239% and 258%, respectively.

Measuring for brightness, the Yoga's screen averaged 423 nits, easily outshining the 367-nit average and the Latitude's 280. But the Spectre (483 nits) and XPS 15 (626 nits) were significantly brighter.

The Yoga's 10-finger capacitive touch screen is extremely responsive, keeping up with my spastic doodles in Paint. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED audio

The Yoga's bottom-mounted speakers sound better than they have any right to, especially when slapped to the bottom of a business laptop. I was really impressed with the depth the speakers, paired with Dolby's Atmos Speaker software, conveyed on H.E.R.'s "Something Keeps Pulling Me Back." The Dynamic setting on the software gave the illusion of surround sound, which really assisted in boosting the etherealness of the instrumentals, such as the drum machine and the synthed-out keyboard. The artist's strong alto cascaded through my smallish living room. 

The next best setting is Music, as it gives you fullness with a slight volume boost on the highs and mids. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED keyboard and touchpad

Why can't all island-style keyboards be like this? With the company's trademarked smile-shaped keys, the Yoga's keyboard is an absolute joy to type on. The keys are well-spaced and springy, with great travel. I easily reached 77 words per minute on the 10FastFinger typing test, surpassing my regular 70 wpm. If I have one gripe about the keyboard, it's that Lenovo placed the Fn right next to the left Ctrl key, which messed with my Windows shortcuts.

At 3.9 x 2.2 inches, the Yoga's touchpad is a bit smaller than those on competitors, but it still gets the job done, smoothly performing Windows 10 gestures like pinch zoom and summoning Action Center. Since this is a business laptop, there are three discrete mouse buttons instead of two. It's fine, I guess. I've never felt the need to use the center button. Same thing goes for the bright red pointing stick in the center of the keyboard. It definitely works. The tiny, raised dots rested gently against my fingertip, ensuring a firm grip as I awkwardly navigated webpages. It's really an acquired taste.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED pen

Now, you could interact with the Yoga's touch screen with your fingers, but why get smudge marks on that lovely OLED display? Instead, just use the ThinkPad Pen Pro cleverly stashed in the right side of the laptop. I wish there were a pop-out function to get the pen out, as not everyone has long enough nails to dislodge the stylus from its home. 

But once you get the Pen Pro in hand, it works beautifully, gliding across the screen like the skinniest ice skater. At 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, it's not as accurate as some other styli, but I didn't have any problems drawing a few flowers in a meadow on a sunny day. The pen strokes were smooth, and I didn't experience any lag.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED performance

Armed with a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i7-8665U processor and 16GB of RAM, the X1 Yoga is not to be taken lightly on the work front. The notebook handled 20 open Google Chrome tabs while streaming an episode of Fleabag on Amazon Prime Video. 

The laptop also performed well on our synthetic tests, starting with Geekbench 4.3, which measures overall performance. Hitting 17,319, this notebook beat the 16,513 premium laptop average. The Latitude, which also has a Core i7-8665U CPU, reached 17,087 while the Spectre x360's Core i7-8565U CPU scored 17,185. Sporting a Core i9-9980HK processor, the XPS 15 produced 28,882.

When we ran the HandBrake test, the Yoga took 18 minutes and 49 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That's faster than the Latitude and the Spectre, which clocked 19:09 and 21:13, respectively. Still, the Yoga's mark is nowhere near the XPS 15's blistering 8 minutes. 

The Yoga (1TB PCIe SSD) finally overtook the XPS 15 (1TB PCIe SSD) on our file-transfer test, with the former duplicating 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 7 seconds, for a rate of 782.9 megabytes per second. The former achieved 508 MBps. The Specter x360's 1TB SSD had a transfer rate of 424 MBps, while the Latitude (512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD) blew the competition away, with 848MBps.

An integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU is the last graphics card you want to game on, as evidenced by the Yoga's 13 frames-per-second score on the Dirt 3 benchmark. The 1080p version of the notebook notched 31 fps, which is just above our 30-fps threshold. Stil, neither score came close to the 58-fps premium laptop average. The Latitude (UHD Graphic 620 GPU) did a little better, at 46 fps. With their discrete GPUs, the XPS 15 (Nvidia GeForce 1650 GPU) and Spectre (GeForce MX150 GPU) scored 80 and 118 fps, respectively.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED battery life

Alas, as pretty as 4K OLED is, the associated battery life leaves much to be desired. The Yoga lasted only 4 hours and 57 minutes on our battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits). That's well below the 8:38 premium average. The Spectre and XPS 14 lasted much longer, at 7:46 and 8:07. The Latitude, with its non-OLED screen, lasted 13:08.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED heat

We ran our heat test (15 minutes of streaming a full-screen 1080p video) on the Yoga and measured strategic points on the laptop. The touchpad measured 81 degrees Fahrenheit, while the middle of the keyboard hit 94 degrees. The hottest part of the laptop is the bottom, which registered 98 degrees. That's slightly above our 95-degree threshold, but I still comfortably used the notebook in my lap while typing the majority of this review. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED webcam

If only the Yoga's webcam could produce images worthy of being shown on that beautiful display. Unfortunately, the 720p shooter blew out the white wall and made my bright neon-green sweater look dull. And the camera failed to capture any of the purple in my hair. Additionally, while the Yoga showed some of the knit pattern in my sweater, my couch looked like a weirdly colored blob, as the camera missed the detail in the black-and-white fabric pattern. I highly recommend investing in an external webcam for any video conferencing needs. 

• Best business laptops of 2020

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED software and warranty

Lenovo packaged the Yoga with several helpful, branded utilities, such as the Lenovo Display Optimizer, which allows you to change the color temperature using several presets. There's also Vantage, which displays system health and warranty. This tool also allows you to set power, display sleep profiles and check how safe nearby Wi-Fi networks are. 

The laptop also has Glance, an eye-tracking software used for system logins. Or when the laptop is connected to an external monitor, you can snap windows with a glance; if you're working on one screen, the other will blur to protect your sensitive information. 

And if Lenovo's Display Optimizer isn't enough for you, don't worry; the laptop also has Dolby Vision, which has its own presets to choose from. 

There is, of course, some bloatware thanks to Windows 10 Pro, including Candy Crush Friends and Farm Heroes Saga.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED ships with a two-year standard warranty. See how Lenovo fared in our annual Tech support showdown and Best and worst brands reports. 

Bottom line

If not for its battery life, the $2,399 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED would be breathing that rarified air of a 4.5-star, Editor's Choice inductee. Simply put, the Yoga is stacked. You get serious power from its Core i7 processor and integrated graphics. And there's the ThinkPad's world-renowned keyboard, effortless versatility, surprising durability and trustworthy security measures. There's also that breathtaking OLED display to consider. 

Yeah, there's a lot of win in them there hills, but that battery life is a mood killer, especially since both the Dell XPS 15 and HP Spectre x360 have longer battery lives with OLED panels and discrete graphics. Pound for pound, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga OLED is an excellent business laptop, with a major albatross on its neck. 

With the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, Lenovo has made a statement to Dell and Apple: The company won't let the XPS 15 and MacBook Pro own the 15-inch laptop segment. Last year's maiden X1 Extreme did a lot of things right, offering speedy performance and a gorgeous display in a lightweight package. But it was ultimately plagued by poor battery life. 

Lenovo's second bite at the apple (pun intended) is more of the same. With a similarly attractive and portable design, blistering-fast performance and a gorgeous 4K HDR display option, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 is a great choice for content creators and business users alike. It's also one of the best ThinkPads around. Unfortunately, poor battery life is, once again, the undoing of this otherwise-fantastic machine.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme price and configuration options

With a starting price of $1,721, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme is one of Lenovo's most expensive laptops. At that price, you get a 1080p, anti-glare display along with an Intel Core i5-9300H CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU graphics.

Upgrading to a 1080p configuration with a Core i7-9850H CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a GTX 1650 GPU runs the price up to $2,659. Our $3,066 review unit is equipped with the same specs but flaunts a 4K HDR display. 

I had some fun customizing the ThinkPad X1 Extreme on Lenovo's website, getting the price up to $3,769 by opting for a Core i9-9880H CPU, 64 GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 4K OLED display. The XPS 15 with those same specs and 2TB of storage goes for less than $3,000.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme design

My first laptop had a 15-inch display, and as much as I appreciated the screen real estate it offered, that thick brick of a device was too heavy to haul around. When it was time to upgrade, I, like so many, rode the wave of small-screened laptops that had become popular over the last decade.

Now, my friends, it's time to return to the big screen, because 15-inch laptops like the ThinkPad X1 Extreme prove that a large display doesn't mean a big chassis. Yes, the X1 Extreme has a much larger footprint than something like the XPS 13 or even the 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but at 0.7 inches thick, it's thin enough to slip into a handbag or backpack. I'm even more impressed by its weight; a 15.6-inch laptop weighing 3.8 pounds would have been unheard of just a few years ago. 

Lenovo didn't make any major changes to the design of this sophomore effort. This machine's sleek, thin-and-lightweight chassis remains the best presentation (alongside the X1 Carbon) of Lenovo's iconic ThinkPad aesthetic. 

You're probably familiar with the look by now, but we'll go over the basics: On the X1 Extreme's lid is a blackout ThinkPad logo illuminated by a glowing red "i" opposite some stylish X1 branding. Open the lid, and you'll find the signature red ThinkPad trim on the touchpad buttons and pointing stick. There's more branding on the deck and display bezels, but it's all discreet and doesn't take away from the X1 Extreme's stealthy, minimalist appearance. 

New to this year's model is a carbon-fiber weave on the X1 Extreme's lid. This same pattern, introduced on the latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon, accentuates the X1 Extreme's plush, carbon-fiber material and gives the laptop the same aggressive edge as those carbon-fiber decals on sports cars.

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is an attractive laptop, but I have a few quibbles with the design. For one, the X1 Extreme hasn't embraced thin display bezels like other premium laptops have done. The bottom bezel is especially chunky and detracts from an otherwise-streamlined design. I also wish the fingerprint sensor were more pronounced and the power button weren't so recessed. Oh, and the matte-black, soft-touch surfaces attract fingerprints like no other.  

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is larger than the XPS 15 (14.1 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches, 4.5 pounds) and even the 16-inch MacBook Pro (14.1 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches, 4.3 pounds). The HP Spectre x360 15 (14.2 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches, 4.6 pounds) is about the same size as the Lenovo, but that will change when HP releases the redesigned 2020 model. You should note, however, that despite being on the larger side of this category, the X1 Extreme is significantly lighter than its competitors.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme ports

Business users who keep the ThinkPad X1 Extreme docked at the office won't have any problems connecting to monitors, smartphones or other peripherals at home.

On the right side of the ThinkPad X1 Extreme are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, an HDMI 2.0 input and an RJ45 Ethernet dongle (which requires an adapter).

Move over to the left side of the laptop, and you'll find two USB 3.1 ports, an SD card reader, a Kensington lock and an optional smart card reader.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme durability and security

The X1 Extreme proves that a laptop doesn't need to feel like an anvil to survive a drop. Reinforced with four layers of carbon fiber and an aluminum-alloy bottom cover, the X1 Extreme is tested to 12 military-grade durability standards, including high altitudes, excessive humidity and challenging temperatures.

This is still a $3,000 laptop, so you should do everything humanly possible to avoid dropping it, but it's nice to know that the X1 Extreme lives up to the name. 

The X1 Extreme's hardware protects not just what's on the outside, but also the sensitive data contained within the machine. An IR camera on the top display bezel allows for fast and secure login via Windows Hello. Worried about that camera getting hacked? The X1 Extreme has a webcam cover that shuts you out with a simple slide to the left. You can then use the fingerprint sensor as an alternative login method. 

Other security measures are housed within the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, including a discrete TPM 2.0 chip and Intel vPro technology.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme display

The 15.6-inch, 4K HDR display on our ThinkPad X1 Extreme is colorful, bright and sharp. The anti-glare panel might not have the same picture quality as the new OLED display option, but it's an excellent choice for business users or content creators who get annoyed by reflections.

The 3840 x 2160-pixel panel was so sharp that I could see the stitching in Harley Quinn's hat when I paused a close-up scene in Birds of Prey. Vivid colors burst off the screen when the Ace Chemicals plant exploded and billows of turquoise, scarlet and lime erupted into the air. Those saturated tones didn't pop quite as much as they did on the Razer Blade 15 Studio's glossy OLED display that my colleague was viewing next to me, but at least the X1 Extreme's anti-glare screen didn't reflect my face back at me. 

Our colorimeter measured an excellent 163% of sRGB coverage when we placed the device on the ThinkPad X1 Extreme's display. That means the laptop's panel is more saturated than those on the 16-inch MacBook Pro (114%) and the HP Spectre x360 15 (157%). Only the XPS 15's 4K panel is more colorful (210%). All of these laptops, except for the MacBook Pro, top the category average (122%). 

Reaching 384 nits, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme's display is very bright, although it was outshined by the XPS 15's 4K screen (418 nits) and the MacBook Pro's 16-inch panel (429 nits). The Spectre x360 15's display (247 nits) was disappointingly dim and well below the category average (367 nits).

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme performance

I threw everything I could at the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, but the Intel Core i7-9850H CPU with 32GB of RAM inside this beastly machine didn't break a sweat. I didn't notice a hint of lag as I loaded 15 Google Chrome web pages, four of which played 4K videos in the background. Even when I streamed a Carabao Cup match between Aston Villa and Leicester City, the X1 Extreme was so unbothered by the workload that its fans didn't even kick on.

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme did an excellent job on our benchmarks, crushing file-transfer, computing and graphics tests. This second-generation model scored a 23,533 on the Geekbench 4.3 overall-performance test, falling just short of the XPS 15 (28,882) and MacBook Pro (31,178), both of which were configured with Core i9-9980HK processors. Last year's Spectre x360 15 (21,889; Core i7-8750H) couldn't keep up, although it beat the category average (21,889).  

Content creators should take note of our video-transcoding test, which tasks a laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme finished that task in 10 minutes and 19 seconds, just edging out the Spectre x360 15 (10:45). The blazing-fast pace of the XPS 15 (8:00) and MacBook Pro (8:00) illustrate how much more power a Core i9 CPU brings over the Core i7 chip. 

Finally, we have a Windows PC with a hard drive that rivals the speed of a MacBook Pro. The 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe Opal2 SSD inside the ThinkPad X1 Extreme duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia files in 2.5 seconds, for a blistering rate of 2,035.7 megabytes per second. Competing laptops that get close or top the premium laptop average (1,023.4 MBps) — including the Spectre x360 15 (565.5 MBps, 1TB SSD), MacBook Pro (2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD; 1,017.9 MBps) and XPS 15 (1TB PCIe SSD, 508 MBps) — don't come close to the Lenovo.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme graphics

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme wasn't made for gaming, but this machine's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics chip with 4GB of VRAM is a big upgrade over an integrated card.

On our 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test, the Thinkpad X1 Extreme landed a 175,005, falling just short of what the XPS 15 (177,158) netted. Both of those scores trounce the premium laptop average (99,248). 

On our real-world gaming test, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme zoomed through Dirt 3 at 170 frames per second. That's twice as smooth as the XPS 15 (80 fps, GTX 1650) and outraces the Spectre x360 15 (61 fps) and the premium laptop average (58 fps). 

Our Hitman benchmark results weren't quite as resounding a success, but the ThinkPad X1 Extreme did a good job nonetheless, hitting 47 fps. The Spectre x360 15 (46 fps) performed about the same, but neither laptop reached the category average (63 fps).

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme audio

The four bottom-firing speakers on the ThinkPad X1 Extreme pump out decent sound. While they weren't quite able to fill a medium-size lab, the quality of the audio produced was above average. There was a nice meatiness in the midrange of The Killers' "Run for Cover" that kept the up-tempo rock/alternative song from sounding thin. Don't expect miracles in the lower range, but a nice bass kick gave Juice Wrld's "Lucid Dreams" the depth it deserves.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme keyboard and touchpad

Lenovo's ThinkPad keyboards are simply the best in the business, in the same way Apple's iPads are the best tablets or Logitech's C920 is the only webcam worth mentioning. The Extreme's gently scalloped keys hug your fingertips, and their generous travel is seemingly deeper than the laptop itself. It's the combination of a strong tactile click that bounces your fingers from one key to the next and a plush landing when you actuate the keys that makes the X1 Extreme's keyboard such a pleasure to type on.

Lenovo deserves props for resisting the temptation to create a new low-travel key switch as so many other brands have done. These keys aren't broken; please don't try to fix them.  

I typed at 110 words per minute, with an accuracy rate of 97% on the 10FastFingers.com typing test. That result is slower than my typical 119-wpm speed average but with fewer typos than my typical 5% error rate. 

Under the keyboard is a 3.9 x 2.7-inch touchpad, which is smaller than those on most 15-inch laptops. I didn't mind the smaller size, because the square-shaped surface has enough vertical and horizontal space to execute Windows 10 gestures, like pinch to zoom and three-finger swipe to change windows.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme battery life

Something had to crash the party. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme lasted a meastly 5 hours and 28 minutes on our Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits.

We expect short runtimes from gaming laptops and workstations, not laptops made for creators and business users. In comparison, the XPS 15 with a 4K display lasted 8 hours and 48 minutes, a bit longer than the 4K Spectre x360 (8:09). If the MacBook Pro (10:55) had endured for 1 minute longer, it would have doubled the ThinkPad X1 Extreme's runtime. The X1 Extreme also falls woefully short of the category average (8:38). So much for extreme.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme webcam

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme's 720p IR webcam captures colorful photos and videos, but my face looked blurry in a selfie I snapped in our dimly lit office. I couldn't make out much detail in my face, and there was an unpleasant haziness to the picture. The webcam is fine if it's all you have, but you'll need a proper external webcam if you want to impress a new boss or long-distance girlfriend.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme heat

Poor cooling was one of the few complaints we had with the first-gen ThinkPad X1 Extreme. Fortunately, the new model did much better in our heat test, topping out at 99 degrees Fahrenheit. That's still above our 95-degree comfort threshold but nowhere near the 123 degrees the Gen 1 version reached on the same test (playing a 15-minute, 1080p video).

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The 2nd Gen ThinkPad X1 Extreme's touchpad (82 degrees) and the center of the machine's keyboard (92 degrees), two places you often rest your hands, were only warm to the touch.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme software and warranty

Lenovo does a good job packaging utilities, tools and support into one clean, easy-to-use program called Vantage. There is all sorts of information to rummage through in the app, from warranty information to support documents and system specs. It's not a bad idea to visit the Vantage app every now and then to ensure your system has the latest updates. 

The only other Lenovo-branded app preinstalled on the X1 Extreme is Lenovo Display Optimizer, which you can use to quickly cycle display modes to get the picture that best suits your needs and preferences. Alongside the default Native setting are Photo, Video and Blue Light modes. 

The X1 Extreme runs Windows 10 Pro, but even this business-focused OS comes with bloatware, including Candy Crush Friends and Farm Heroes Saga apps. 

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme ships with a one-year warranty. See how Lenovo fared in our Best and worst brands and Tech support showdown special reports.

Bottom line

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 is one misstep away from being the best 15-inch laptop on the market. That fault, once again, lies with poor battery life as compared to other 4K rivals. If a long runtime is important to you, then you can opt for a 1080p panel, but you'll miss out on the gorgeous 4K HDR display option. 

Apart from disappointing battery life, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen is almost a perfect laptop for content creators and business users. Its sleek design looks great, and it's surprisingly durable yet portable. Performance is also impressive thanks to a Core i7 CPU and GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics. You can even equip the X1 Extreme with 64GB of RAM, although storage maxes out at only 1TB. 

We recommend Dell's XPS 15 over the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because the Dell has a longer battery life and a lower price. You should also consider the Spectre x360 15, although we'd wait for the redesigned model with 9th Gen processors. Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro is another good option if you're not on a budget; it has long battery life and epic performance, but it's considerably heavier than the X1 Extreme and has a less colorful display. 

All things considered, the 2nd Gen ThinkPad X1 Extreme is an excellent laptop with one glaring flaw that many customers will find hard to overlook.

If you thought you couldn't get more extreme than the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, think again. Lenovo is launching the second generation of the ThinkPad X1 Extreme laptop and it's packed full of new goodies, including an optional 4K OLED display as well as a 9th Gen Intel Core i9 processor and a GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU.

Lenovo plans on launching its latest Extreme laptop sometime in July 2019 and it will start at $1,499, which is a cheaper starting price than the previous model.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 Price and Specs:

All we know so far is that you can configure the X1 Extreme with up to a 9th Gen Core i9 H-series CPU, a GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 64GB of RAM and a 4TB PCIe SSD.

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 sports the same black, business-like design as its predecessor, so if you're a fan of the classic ThinkPad look, it's not going away anytime soon. It's also basically the same size and weight, at 3.76 pounds and 14.2 x 9.67 x 0.72 inches.

This generation will also feature the same ports as the last one, with two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, an optional Smart Card reader, a Kensington lock, a headphone/mic jack and Lenovo's propriety Ethernet port.

The most exciting feature is the X1 Extreme's 15.6-inch 4K OLED HDR touchscreen display, which looked ridiculously vivid albeit somewhat saturated in person. However, there are a few other options, like a non-OLED 4K HDR version (500 nits) as well as a 1920 x 1080 HDR panel (500 nits) and a non-HDR 1920 x 1080 (300 nits) panel.

When we tested the keyboard in person, the keys had deep travel and felt pretty clicky, remaining consistent with Lenovo's last X1 Extreme. This system is also military-durable and has the same security features as well, including a Match-on-Chip fingerprint reader, an optional Smart Card reader, an IR camera with a privacy shutter, a dTPM 2.0 encryption chip and Intel vPro for remote management.

In regards to audio, Lenovo is boasting that the X1 Extreme has a Dolby Atmos Speaker System. We thought that its predecessor's speakers were average, so we're hoping this is delivers that much needed oomph.

Lenovo rates the latest X1 Extreme for 14 hours of battery life, which is wild, especially for a system with a discrete GPU. Also, the previous generation only lasted 6 hours and 7 minutes in our tests. If Lenovo's rating holds up on our test, we'll be incredibly impressed.

We're excited to get Lenovo's latest Extreme machine through our lab and see how it performs under pressure, so stay tuned for the full review and benchmarks of the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2.

• Which ThinkPad is Right For You?

Lenovo's ThinkPads are some of the best business laptops, but their high price is tough to overlook. Enter ThinkBook, a new line of laptops designed for small businesses and privacy-conscious consumers on a budget.

The ThinkBook 13s and ThinkBook 14s will be available in late May. The 13-inch version will start at $729 while the 14-inch model will cost a bit more, at $749. One reason to buy a ThinkBook over an IdeaPad is for Lenovo's enterprise-level support, which includes optional upgrades for next-day onsite repairs and an extended 5-year warranty. 

Lenovo ThinkBook 13s and ThinkBook 14s Specs

The ThinkBook 13s and 14s are powered by up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7 CPUs and come with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM. For storage, you can choose a 128GB SSD on the base model or go up to 512GB of space. Equipped with a mid-range AMD Radeon 540X GPU, the ThinkBook 13s and 14s should be able to run graphics intensive programs and even some games at low-to-medium settings.

MORE: Best Lenovo Laptops

The ThinkBook 13s has a 13.3-inch, 1080p anti-glare display with up to 300 nits of brightness, while the ThinkBook 14s has a 14-inch, 1080p anti-glare display that tops out at 250 nits.

The ThinkBook 13s and ThinkBook 14s serve as a middle ground between Lenovo's consumer IdeaPads and the flagship ThinkPad line. As such, this duo comes with several familiar features from Lenovo's business and mainstream laptops, including an edge-to-edge display and a webcam cover.

Aesthetically, the ThinkBook 13s and 14s are more similar to Lenovo's midrange IdeaPad laptops than the black carbon fiber ThinkPads (although a metal ThinkPad is on the way).

Both are made of anodized aluminum for durability (though they lack MIL-STD certification) and flaunt a slim chassis that reminded me a lot of the IdeaPad 530s. While they won't stand out among all the other silver laptops on the market, the ThinkBook 13s' and ThinkBook 14s' nondescript chassis are perfectly suited for office use.

If there's one standout design feature, it's the ThinkBook 13s and 14s' thin bezels, which result in a screen-to-body ratio of 80%. This keeps the size of the laptops to a minimum so you can slip them into your bag when you're traveling.

The ThinkBook 13s weighs 3.1 pounds and is 0.6 inches thick while the ThinkPad 14s weighs 3.3 pounds is about as slim. And with an estimated 11 hours of battery life on the 13-inch version and 10 hours on the 14-inch version, you can get plenty of work done on those undersized airplane trays during a lengthy international flight.

Port selection on both of these laptops is good, but they lack a Thunderbolt 3 port for fast transfer speeds and connecting to multiple 4K monitors. Both models have a USB-C port, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, an HDMI and a headphone/mic jack. 

Along with a webcam cover, these laptops offer small businesses plenty of crucial security features, including a fingerprint reader for fast and secure login, along with a TMP 2.0 chip.

So far, the ThinkBook 13s and 14s are shaping up to be a compelling pair of affordable business laptops. We'll see how they hold up when we receive review units later this year. 

• Which ThinkPad Laptop is Right For You?
• Best Business Laptops - Ultrabooks - Laptop Mag
• Lenovo's New ThinkPad X1 Extreme Boasts Stunning 4K OLED Display

When it comes to the best Lenovo laptops, it's hard to compete with the company's ThinkPad line. Stylish and powerful, they're some of our favorite business laptops in the market.

For a limited time, Lenovo has a wide range of ThinkPad and ThinkPad X series laptops on sale. These laptops are excellent multimedia machines that suit a variety of needs. Noteworthy deals include:

• ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th Gen for $1,134.69 via coupon "THINKEASTER10" ($126 off)
• ThinkPad X1 Extreme for $1,388.67 via coupon "THINKEASTER10" ($154 off)

The sale includes the current-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th Gen, which after coupon code "THINKEASTER10" drops to $1,134.69. That's $126 off and one of the best price we've seen for this machine. The Editor's Choice laptop features a 14-inch 1080p touchscreen LCD,  1.6GHz Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD.

Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme is on sale for $1,388.67 ($154 off) via coupon code "THINKEASTER10". It packs a 15.6-inch IPS LCD, 2.5GHz Core i5-8400H CPU, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and GTX 1050 Ti graphics.

Lenovo's sale ends April 24.

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LAS VEGAS—The ThinkPad is going aluminum.

At CES 2019, we got a hands-on look at refreshed versions of some of our favorite business laptops, including the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Along with some new features and updated internals, the convertible X1 Yoga received a dramatic visual overhaul while the X1 Carbon flaunts more subtle design changes.

 Both devices will be available in June 2019, with the X1 Carbon starting at $1,709 and the X1 Yoga going for $1,929.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga

It's hard to tell the new X1 Yoga is related to last year's model. That's because the 2-in-1 shed its carbon fiber for aluminum, a first for the ThinkPad lineup. The Iron Gray chassis is more compact and lightweight this year, coming in at 0.6 inches thin and just 3.1 pounds. Lenovo says the new version is 17 percent smaller and that the display bezels were reduced by 11 percent.

Port selection on the X1 Yoga is good for such a slim device. You'll find two USB 3.1 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, an HDMI and a headphone jack. The side of the laptop also has a stylus slot.

MORE: Best Laptops: Top Rated Notebooks, Chromebooks, 2-in-1s

Several different displays will be offered on the ThinkPad X1 Yoga starting with a 1080p touch screen. From there, you'll be able to upgrade to a WQHD panel (2560 x 1440 resolution) or an 4K HDR screen rated at 500 nits of brightness.

Privacy is a major concern among business users. To give them peace of mind, Lenovo is offering what it calls an ePrivacy display. Similar to HP's Sure View tech, the display has a built-in privacy filter that greatly reduces viewing angles to protect your sensitive info from snooping eyes. On top of that, the X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga have a ThinkShutter to block the standard IR camera when it's not in use.

The X1 Yoga comes equipped with the components you'd expect from a premium laptop: the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, Up to 16GB of RAM, up to 2TB of SSD storage and UHD graphics.

One change I'm really excited about is the X1 Carbon's improved audio. Lenovo added two tweeters to its deck to go along with the dual speakers on the laptop's undercarriage. The new X1 Carbon sounded notably crisper and clearer than its predecessor in a brief demo Lenovo gave us.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon -- one of few laptops to earn our 5-star rating -- has long donned a carbon fiber chassis. Now it will flaunt that material with a weaved finish. Lenovo essentially stripped the matte black paint off the laptop's lid to reveal an interlacing texture underneath. If you're familiar with the Dell XPS line, which has a carbon fiber deck, then you've seen the texture before.

Lenovo trimmed down the X1 Carbon's chassis, bringing the thickness to just 0.58 inches (compared to the 0.62-inch 2017 model). While that size reduction didn't have a major effect on the laptop's weight, the 2.5-pound ThinkPad X1 Carbon remains extremely portable.

MORE: Best College Laptop - Laptops by Major - Laptop Mag

Despite its slim chassis, the X1 Carbon still offers two USB 3.1 (Type-A) ports along with two Thunderbolt 3 inputs, an HDMI and a headphone jack.

The 14-inch X1 Carbon will also be available with numerous display options, including a 1080p (non-touch or touch) panel, a 2560 x 1440-pixel (non-touch) display, and a new 4K HDR display for pixel-peepers. Like the X1 Yoga, the X1 Carbon features a 1080p ePrivacy display and comes standard with ThinkShutter to cover the IR camera from snooping eyes.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon also has a four-speaker setup this time around, so it should sound a lot better than its predecessor. Unsurprisingly, the keyboard on the prototype I demoed felt fantastic, which is par-for-the-course with ThinkPad laptops.

Professionals who need to run demanding programs will appreciate the new 8th Gen Core i7 CPU powering the latest X1 Carbon. Other components inside the X1 Carbon include either 8GB or 16GB of memory and up to 2TB of PCI SSD storage.

Last year's X1 Carbon floored us with its exceptional 11 hours of battery life. Lenovo rates the latest model at 15 hours, however, you should take that ambitious claim with a grain of salt.

Of course, we won't know for sure how the laptop performs until we get in a review unit. Until then, stay tuned for more CES 2019 coverage.

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Lenovo is updating its budget business laptop line with the latest Intel processors. The company revealed the ThinkPad L390 and ThinkPad L390 Yoga today, a few weeks in advance of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where companies will show off their gadgets for the new year.

The new models will be available in silver and black when they launch later this month. The L390 will start at $659 while the base model of the L390 Yoga will go for $889. Lenovo will bundle a garaged Active Pen stylus with the Yoga for taking notes and drawing in tablet mode.

When they become available, the duo will be the first ThinkPads armed with the latest 8th Gen Intel Whiskey Lake processors. These new chips should give the L390 and L390 Yoga a solid performance boost over their predecessors, the ThinkPad L380 and L380 Yoga.

Both devices will come with an FHD (1080p) display and can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Graphics are limited to integrated Intel HD Graphics on the L390 and Intel UHD 620 GPU on the convertible model.

Following the example of their predecessors, the ThinkPad L390 and L390 Yoga are slimmer and lighter than most business laptops. At 0.7 inches and 3.2 pounds, the clamshell L390 is a hair slimmer than last year's L380. The 3.5-pound and 0.7-inch thick Yoga L390 is similarly portable, but its flexible design adds a bit of weight.

Lenovo rates the battery life of the ThinkPad L390 at 14 hours, while the touch screen convertible is expected to last 12 hours on a charge. We'll get a better idea of real-world runtime once we bring these machines into our lab.

Positioned below the T-series and X-series in Lenovo's business laptop tier, L-series laptops are geared toward business professionals who want enterprise features at a reasonable price. To that end, the Mil-Spec tested L390 and L390 Yoga feature IR cameras for Windows Hello facial recognition login, fingerprint sensors, dTPM 2.0 chips, and a Kensington lock. You also get a wide range of connections you'd expect from an enterprise machine, including two USB-C ports, two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI, a microSD card and Lenovo's mini Ethernet input.

We expect to see more from Lenovo and other laptop makers when CES kicks off on January 8 in Las Vegas.

Lenovo unveiled a slew of Yoga and ThinkPad laptops today at IFA 2018. The diverse lineup features a range of consumer products, from premium Windows 10 machines to budget Chromebooks with ARM-based CPUs.

The new ThinkPad X1 Extreme steals the show. The 15.6-inch machine, a direct competitor to the MacBook Pro, is loaded with features and promises all-day battery life. Other highlights include the Yoga C930, a sleek ultrabook with a sound bar hinge, and the Yoga Book C930, a unique 2-in-1 with a secondary 10.8-inch E Ink display. Chromebooks and Snapdragon-powered ultrabooks make up the low-end of Lenovo's new offerings.

Here are the best Lenovo laptops unveiled at IFA 2018.  

With discrete Nvidia graphics and 8th Gen Intel H-series CPUs, the new 15-inch ThinkPad X1 Extreme is Lenovo's answer to the immensely popular Dell XPS 15 and Apple MacBook Pro. The premium laptop features a 4K HDR display, up to 64GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, making it an intriguing option for creators and gamers alike. Lenovo claims the X1 Extreme gets 13 hours of battery life; if that holds true, it would be one of the longest-lasting 15-inch laptops on the market.

The carbon fiber-clad X1 Extreme is remarkably lightweight for its size, weighing in at just 3.75 pounds. The laptop's bezel-less display minimizes its footprint down to 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches. Despite such a slim chassis, the X1 Extreme offers a solid selection of ports, including two USB 3.1 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, an SD card slot and an HDMI.

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme starts at $1,899, and will be released in September.

The Lenovo Yoga C930 is meant for everyday consumer who wants a premium 2-in-1 that can handle a heavy workload. The laptop's standout feature is a new 360-degree hinge that doubles as a soundbar for providing clear audio in clamshell and tablet mode.

Starting at $1,399, the Yoga C930 isn't cheap, but it comes equipped with some powerful internals, including 8th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 U-series CPUs, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage. Unlike the X1 Extreme, the Yoga C930 has integrated Intel HD 620 GPU, so it's not as good for gaming.

Like the Yoga 920 before it, the C930 has a thin and lightweight design. The laptop also comes with a "garaged pen," so you can slip the stylus in a built-in slot when you're not using it.

The Lenovo Yoga C930 will be available in October.

Is the death of the physical keyboard imminent? If the Yoga Book C930 is a success, it very well could be. The new 10.8-inch dual-display laptop replaces a physical keyboard with an E Ink display that doubles as a notepad, digital keyboard or e-reader. Designed for artists and designers, the Yoga Book C930 ships with a Wacom Active Pen that connects via Bluetooth.

The secondary E Ink display comes at a price. For $999, the Yoga Book C930 is equipped with an aging 7th Gen Y-series processor, only 4GB of memory and up to 256GB of SSD storage. The main LCD touchscreen display has a resolution of 2560 x 1600, while the secondary E Ink panel is 1080p.

Don't let the name fool you — the Yoga S730 is a traditional clamshell laptop. It comes equipped with Intel Core i5 or i7 Whiskey Lake CPUs, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage.

The S730 is just 0.47 inches thin, making it slimmer than the 12-inch MacBook. And at 2.6 pounds, the S730 is as lightweight as the recently redesigned Dell XPS 13. Unfortunately, the only ports offered are two Thunderbolt 3, one USB 3.1 Type-C and a headphone jack.

The Yoga S730's 1080p display is bordered by narrow bezels, a design trend Lenovo has wholeheartedly embraced. Lenovo rates the Yoga S730's battery life at a respectable 10 hours.

The laptop starts at $999, and will be released in November.