Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Laptop Review

The Gorilla Glass Screen on the Lenovo X1 is capable of taking in much abuse without cracking and covers the lid of the laptop edge-to-edge. Lenovo likes to call this Infiniti display. The actual screen though is 13.3 inches in size and has a resolution of 1366×768 which I think is a bit on the lower side. Lenovo chose a glossy display which I’m not sure is the best option for a notebook that is targeted towards the business sector. Luckily, even at low brightness, the screen isn’t very reflective.

Speaking of brightness, Lenovo deservedly calls the screen on the X1 SuperBright with its 350 NITS specification. Combining that glossy screen with the Dolby Home Theater v4 stereo speakers makes for one hell of a multi-media experience- ironic for a laptop targetted mainly towards the business segment. Pun aside, the Lenovo X1 arguably produce better audio than any laptop I have looked at recently.

The X1 I received for review had a pretty beefy configuration. It packed the latest Intel Core i5 2520M CPU capable of running at 2.50GHz along with 4GB DDR3 RAM. Add to that the 160GB Solid State Drive and you have all the right ingredients for a machine that boots up and opens applications really fast. Lenovo uses the Intel HD integrated GPU which is good enough for business use but not for much above and beyond that and the benchmaks below will show you that.

On the heat side, the Lenovo X1doesn’t get really hot but warm enough to notice when its on your lap. The exit grill is located on the left side and you can feel the hot air being blown out when the fan kicks in which is pretty much anytime you’re using the GPU for anything such as running a 3D benchmark or games. At lower speeds, the fan is barely audible but on my unit, there was a faint but high pitched sound when the fan was working at higher levels which is a bit surprising as all previous Lenovo laptops that I’ve looked at have managed noise levels really well.

Finally, the battery on the X1 is decent but not the best. I managed to get a little over four hours from each recharge when using the laptop for browsing, emailing surfing etc. Something a bit more taxing like watching hi-def videos or running a benchmark indicated the battery life close to three hours. While the battery life could be more impressive, Lenovo does a great job at getting the laptop charged fast. Within a matter of half hour, I had the the battery level go up from 10% to almost 70% which is awesome if you are someone who is always on the go with short times at your desk.

So although the Lenovo X1 is not without faults, it is still a PC that you easily fall in love with based on what it has. Priced around AED 5,499, the ThinkPad X1 is slightly on the higher side, however considering the quality and components you get, it is well worth it.