Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2012: Hands-On

Lenovo has announced the Lenovo X1 Thinkpad Carbon, which is the world’s thinnest 14″ laptop at this time. We’ve had some hands-on time with it, and it is an extremely interesting laptop. Clearly, thinness is nice it itself, but we’re pretty much reaching the limit of how thin laptops can be, and this one is about “two iPhones thick”. Fortunately, being slim isn’t the only quality of the Lenovo X1 Carbon. As you may have guessed by its name, it is also very light (3 lbs) and solid.

We’ve had some hands-on time with it, and the Lenovo X1 Carbon does feel very sturdy. According to Lenovo, it is “ThinkPad tough”, which is a way to say that users should expect the same type of durability than Lenovo laptops have been traditionally known for, including some resistance to scratches, spills and drops. We haven’t run some tests, but it certainly feels like it.

The design also incorporates an improved version of the backlit Lenovo precision keyboard that we praised so much in our previous Lenovo X1 (model 2011) review. Here, Lenovo has made some tweaks, including larger arrow keys. In terms of battery life, Lenovo has again included a rapid-charge battery. Although no precise information was given, previous generations of rapid-charge batteries could go from 0% to 80% in about 30mn, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

Finally, the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 14″ 1600×900 display reclines to 180 degrees, which is great to adjust the screen orientation just right when using the laptop on the lap or other places that aren’t a typical desk. The Lenovo X1 Carbon loses the optical drive, but it seems to be a great upgrade from the original Lenovo X1, and is better in pretty much every way.