The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds
  • print
  • alert

Juice bar

Lenovo claims five hours for the X1's four-cell internal battery. It registered 1hr 45mins in Reg Hardware's aggressive battery rundown test; looping PCMark continuously. With more typical usage – with the screen brightness turned to max – the X1 managed around 2hrs 20mins. This improved by up to an hour, with the display set to medium brightness, but it’s markedly inferior to recent models.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 laptop

You can tack on an extra battery if you need more juice, but it'll cost ya

Not surprisingly, this review model comes equipped with the “39+”, 36Wh battery slice, an investment that at £200 that adds 600g to the ThinkPad. This six-cell booster buys a some extra time, but if this was a slice of cake, you’d be asking for more. Mitigating this a little, the RapidCharge tech can revive a battery from expired to 80 per cent in around half an hour.

If this sounds repetitively carping, there are valuable parts of the ThinkPad legacy which have survived intact. Most importantly the magnesium alloy matte case and the roll cage, which instantly elevates it the X1 above the less robust competition. Indeed, it’s solid and uncluttered with demoware junk, yet retains the excellent ThinkVantage utilities.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 laptop

Built to last, but is it worth the extra?

The Lenovo X1 doesn't try and compete with the ultra-thin, but slower premium devices such as Apple's 13in MacBook Air and Samsung's 9 series, but it has far greater selection of expandability and I/O options. Here, Lenovo has offered some of the rich features of the old ThinkPad X301, but at a lower price point. But if you need some extra speed, another £167 will buy you the quad-core 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-2620M CPU build-to-order option. Going from 4GB to the 8GB of Ram that was installed on the review model will add yet another £324 though.

Verdict

Despite the less than glorious screen resolution, in practice, I found the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 was really a pleasure to use. I’m simply a veteran ThinkPad user, there’s always been (at least) one in my Apple household, and I’m the sort of user who disables the TouchPad in the BIOS, preferring to use the TrackPoint. Because, as you know, TouchPads are for wimps. ®

More Notebook Reviews

Dell
Vostro
V131
Acer
Timeline X
5830T
Sony
Vaio
SB
Apple
MacBook
Air 13in
Lenovo
ThinkPad
Edge E420s
80%
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 laptop

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 13.3in Core i5 notebook

Robust, sleek and stylish notebook for business and pleasure.
Price: £1800 list price (4GB + SSD), £1342 (current on-line offer), £2140 list price (8GB + SSD), £1666 (current on-line offer) RRP More Info: Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 page

Damn right on the TouchPad comment

I'm similarly stuck with ThinkPads because of the TrackPoint; why has everyone else stopped doing them? Is there anyone else still doing them?

That flap on the side would like about 30 seconds if I bought one.

7
0
Anonymous Coward

non-removable battery on a thinkpad? really?

I'm all for going with the times, but thinkpads are meant to be workhorses, not show horses.

There is much to be said for the convenience of having a thick extended battery (or two) in the backpack, thereby having extra juice for 10-15 straight hours.

The low resolution is worrying too. Means less text and icons on screen, more cramped workspace and more scrolling. If I only wanted to watch movies there are cheaper alternatives out there, not to mention tablets.

6
0

Useless Battery

Non-removable battery, but power doesn't last anywhere near the length of a transatlantic flight plus check-in, let alone LHR-HKG or SIN-SYD? Yet supposedly this is a thinkpad for business? Utter fail.

6
1

If you can't change the motherboard in 45 mins using one screwdriver...

... it's not a ThinkPad.

3
0

It's a thinkpad

You are paying for the armour-plating and 50 year lifespan :)

3
0

More from The Register

Microsoft reveals Xbox One, the console that can read your heartbeat
Upgrades Live service – and no always-on requirement
 breaking news
Review: Sony Xperia SP
The new mid-range marvel? Oh yes.
US boffin builds 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster
Beowulf cluster built for the price of a single PC
Dell's PC-on-a-stick landing in July: report
Wyse up, suckers, could this be a new set-side-stick?
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
HTC woes prompts 'leave now' tweet from former staffer
Chief product officer latest to bail from sinking mobe-maker
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner