Lenovo Refreshes ThinkPad X1 Series at CES

CES is the traditional time at which Lenovo resets a significant portion of its portfolio, and that’s the case again this year. The ThinkPad X1 series is one of the most popular, so we pay particular attention to it, and this update is worth a look.

First, Lenovo is upgrading upcoming ThinkPad X1 laptops to Intel’s new 12^th generation “Alder Lake” Core processors (and chipsets) for mobile. We’ve previously talked about the Alder Lake architecture and reviewed the desktop CPUs.

Some Intel Gen 12 mobile CPUs were just launched at CES and will carry all the advantages induced by Intel’s latest architecture, including performance, but more importantly, power efficiency. That means potentially much better battery life, and we expect reviews to demonstrate it later this year.

The X1 Carbon 10th Gen, X1 Yoga 7th Gen and X1 Nano 2nd Gen are all getting new Intel processors, which is pretty exciting since they showed outstanding performance in 2021. If you’re not familiar with these excellent designs, read our ThinkPad X1 Carbon 9^th Gen review, X1 Yoga 6^th Gen review, and X1 nano 1^st Gen review.

These new X1 laptops will feature Intel’s Core P-Series and U-Series, which are lower-power processors than the H-Series fully launched at CES 2022.

CPU aside, another aspect of the system update is the arrival of DDR5 high-performance memory and PCIe Gen 4. Both can bring substantial performance to memory and storage workloads.

Looking at the technical specifications, I like the 3K and 4K OLED display options. Many IPS LCDs are excellent, but when it comes to entertainment image quality, OLED is almost always the best option.

At the top of the display, Lenovo uses a new camera module with a higher-performance camera sensor. The 1.4-micron sensor pixel size is exciting as it might bring smartphone selfie quality to the laptop market. Lenovo had committed to having better video communications, and this is happening.

Talking about the camera, Lenovo’s ThinkShield security platform includes a Human Presence Detection that can spot if you’ve left to lock the laptop. Also, you can be alerted if someone peeks at your screen from behind. It is also intelligent enough to dim the screen if you’re looking away to save energy.

There are 4G CAT16 or 5G Sub-6 connectivity options for the road warriors. If you use a portable WiFi hotspot, I’d recommend having integrated communications because they tend to work a lot better, and you won’t have to manage, carry and charge your hotspot.

We’re looking forward to experiencing these next-gen ThinkPad X1s in the real world. According to Lenovo, the new X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga will arrive around March with starting prices of $1639 and $1749, respectively. The new X1 Nano is expected to ship in April at a $1659 starting price.

		X1 Carbon 10th Gen	X1 Yoga 7th Gen	X1 Nano 2nd Gen
Performance	Processors	Latest Intel 12th Gen Core with Intel vPro options including U15 and P28 processors		Latest Intel 12th Gen Core with Intel vPro options including P28 processors
	OS	Up to Windows 11 Pro
	Memory	Up to 32GB LPDDR5
	Storage	Up to 2TB Gen 4 Performance PCIe NVMe SSD		Up to 1TB Gen 4 PCIe NVMe SSD
	Graphics Options	Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
	Display	14-inch Narrow Bezel, up to WQUXGA, 500nit, Touch AOFT option, and 2.8K OLED option	14-inch Narrow Bezel, up to WQUXGA 4K OLED, 500nit, AOFT Touch option	13-inch Narrow Bezel, up to 2K, 450nit, AOFT Touch option
	Audio	Dolby Atmos Speaker System with Dolby Voice and quad-array 360-degree Microphones
	Camera	Up to FHD+IR MIPI Computer Vision camera with shutter
	Battery	57 Whr		49.6 Whr
Security	Chip	dTPM 2.0
	Physical	Match-on-Chip Power-on Fingerprint Reader (X1 Carbon & X1 Yoga) Fingerprint Reader (X1 Nano) Camera Shutter Kensington™ lock slot (X1 Carbon & X1 Yoga) Tile App Ready MIL-STD 810H
Connectivity	Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4
		2 x USB-A 3.2
		1 x HDMI 2.0b
		1 x 3.5mm audio jack
	Wireless	WLAN Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 AX (2×2)
		Bluetooth® 5.2
		5G sub-6 (CAT20), 4G LTE (CAT16), 4G LTE (CAT4) for PRC (X1 Carbon & X1 Nano) eSIM and Nano SIM
Design	Dimensions (W x D x H)	315.6 x 222.5 x 14.95mm 12.42 x 8.76 x 0.59in	314.4 x 222.3 x 15.53mm 12.38 x 8.75 x 0.61in	From 293.2 x 208 x 14.47mm 11.5 x 8.19 x 0.58in
	Weight	1.12kg 2.48lbs	1.38kg 3.00lbs	970g 2.13lbs

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Computers
Tags: CES, ces 2022, Lenovo, Lenovo Laptops, Lenovo ThinkPad, _breaking