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I mention those two units as a transition to what we have for review today, the new ThinkPad X1. As the thinnest ThinkPad ever, the X1 seemingly takes the best features from the X220 and the U260 and merges them into one. The result is an extremely thin and sleek 13.4” notebook that is a real follow-up model to the X300 series that many came to own and love a couple of years ago.
The ThinkPad X1 packs a ton of features and powerful hardware in a thin frame, but it's interesting to note that the X1 lets go of a few key characteristics of the X300. Namely, Lenovo has transitioned to an internal non-removable battery and got rid of the optical drive. In true Thinkpad fashion though, the X1 maintains a rugged design and internal roll cage. For the first time Lenovo has also added a chiclet-style keyboard that is both spill-resistant and backlit.
The ThinkPad X1 unit we were sent is equipped with a dual-core Core i5-2520M clocked at 2.5 GHz. This is the same four thread capable processor we saw on the X220 which also features Intel HD 3000 graphics for a max TDP of 35W.
Additional hardware includes 4GB of DDR3, a Hitachi 320GB 7200 RPM hard drive, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 wireless, Bluetooth, a 6-cell internal battery (38.92 Wh) and a 13.4” TFT display running at 1366 x 768 that is covered with Corning Gorilla glass. Our weight as tested is 3.73 pounds with dimensions of 13.26” x 9.1” x 0.65” – 0.84”.
Except for the internal battery, hardware specs are virtually identical to the X220 although you can configure the processor, memory and hard drive to your exact specification. We were also provided with the optional external slice battery, a 6-cell (35.5 Wh) unit for additional runtime
The exterior lid is solid black with a speckle-style black rubber-like finish complete with the Lenovo and ThinkPad nameplates. On the right side of the notebook is a switch to enable / disable all radios, a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDHC and SDXC) and the hard drive port.
The majority of ports are on the back of the system which include, from left to right: Network jack, what appears to be a non-functional SIM card slot, a USB 3.0 port, HDMI port, Mini DisplayPort port, a powered eSATA / USB 2.0 combo port, power connector and a Kensington lock slot.
On the left side of the system we find the CPU fan exhaust vent as well as a rubber plug that covers the headphone / mic jack and an additional USB 2.0 port.
There are four rubber feet on the bottom of the system as well as multiple vents to exhaust system heat. We can also see slots designed to drain liquid from the keyboard area in the event of a spill. Two of the smaller slots hide the dual downward-firing Dolby Home Theater v4 capable speaker system.
The hard drive can be taken out by removing a single screw, popping off the cover and pulling the drive out. Accessing the memory, however, is more difficult and would require the removal of no less than 10 screws.
The six row keyboard on the X1 looks and feels great. New features here include an LED backlight keyboard, a new spill resistance drainage design and what Lenovo has coined as a “legacy reduced layout” – a fancy term which simply means they have removed less frequently used buttons like Scroll Lock and SysRq.
This being a ThinkPad, the requisite TrackPoint pointing device is present between the G, H and B keys as is the dedicated mouse click buttons just below the space bar. Additionally we see that Lenovo has retained their Fn / Ctrl key placement which is a staple among ThinkPads.
Just to the right of the slightly concave chiclet style keyboard is a small media panel featuring the power button, ThinkVantage button and dedicated volume control buttons. A fingerprint reader sits to the right side of the touchpad for added login security.
The touchpad on the X1 measures roughly 3” x 2.5” and features integrated mouse click buttons. If you recall in my X220 review, I was not happy with Lenovo’s implementation of this. I am happy to report that this system works much better than what I used on the X220. I would still prefer Lenovo’s near-perfect physical click buttons, but this is the next best thing.
The 13.4” SuperBright LCD display features glossy Corning Gorilla glass for added scratch resistance with a low-light HD webcam and microphone centered above. Lenovo has implemented what they call an “infinity” design with the display and surrounding bezel. Much like an infinity pool, the glass covering the display extends out past the edge of the screen and covers nearly the entire display bezel. This results in a very elegant look and is something I would like to see other manufacturers adopt when using non-matte screens.
ThinkPads have traditionally been light on pre-installed software and the X1 follows the same trend. Aside from an installation of the Bing Bar, there wasn’t any other questionable software to bog the system down. Trial versions of Microsoft Office 2010, Skype and Norton Internet Security are provided, but Lenovo leaves it up to the end user to decide whether or not to install these.
Lenovo installs plenty of their own software such as the ThinkVantage Toolbox, which is a suite of programs that cover things like system health, security, networking and diagnostics. Lenovo's custom power management program, Power Manager 3, is also included and set to a medium power / energy saving profile by default. Fresh out of the box, the X1 takes roughly 45 seconds to boot into a ready-to-use state of Windows.
Intel's Turbo Boost 2 is also part of the new second generation Core series chips and is designed to better manage workloads by dynamically adjusting individual core speeds depending on the processing power is needed. The Core i5-2520M in our unit is clocked at 2.5 GHz and should ramp up to 3.2GHz as needed.
Below we've included our standard suite of benchmark numbers tests run on the ThinkPad X1 to give you an idea of how the system performs under load.
- 13.4" TFT 1366 x 768 display (covered with Corning Gorilla glass)
- Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
- Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
- Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
- 12.5" Premium HD LED-backlit IPS 1366 x 768 display
- Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 4GB PC3-10700 DDR3 SDRAM
- Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
- Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
- 12.5" HD AntiGlare 1366 x 768 display
- Intel ULV Core i5-470UM (1.33GHz, 3MB L2 cache)
- 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM
- Intel HD Graphics
- Hitachi 320GB 5400RPM hard drive
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
- 14.5" HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display
- Intel Core i5-450M (2.4GHz - 2.66GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
- 4GB DDR3 system memory
- 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
- Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200RPM
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
| Synthetic Tests | X1 | X220 | U260 | Envy 14 |
| 3DMark 06 | ||||
| 3DMark Score | 3750 3DMarks | 3786 3DMarks | 1148 3DMarks | 6866 3DMarks |
| PCMark Vantage | ||||
| PCMark Suite | 7607 PCMarks | 7201 PCMarks | 3557 PCMarks | 6840 PCMarks |
| Application Tests | X1 | X220 | U260 | Envy 14 |
| iTunes Encoding Test | 01 min 15 sec | 01 min 14 sec | 02 min 39 sec | 01 min 34 sec |
| File Transfer Test | ||||
| Small files | 1 min 23 sec | 1 min 20 sec | 1 min 42 sec | 01 min 20 sec |
| Large file | 1 min 2 sec | 56 sec | 1 min 31 sec | 01 min 14 sec |
The iTunes encoding tests consist of converting 14 MP3s (119MB) to 128Kbps ACC files and measuring the operation's duration in seconds. For the file transfer test, we measure how long it takes to copy two sets of files from one location to another on the same hard drive. On the small files test we transfer 557 MP3s, totaling 2.56GB. For the large file, these same MP3s were zipped into a single file measuring 2.52GB.
| Gaming Performance | X1 | X220 | U260 | Envy 14 |
| Far Cry 2 | ||||
| 1024x768 Medium Quality | 26.59 FPS | 27.56 FPS | -- | -- |
| Native Resolution, High Quality | 17.94 FPS | 18.46 FPS | -- | -- |
| StarCraft 2 | ||||
| 1024x768 Medium Quality | 15.23 FPS | 15.60 FPS | -- | -- |
| Native Resolution, High Quality | 10.42 FPS | 10.21 FPS |
The keyboard on the X1 is one of the best I’ve seen on a ThinkPad. It starts with the chiclet keys that feel great as you type. Lenovo has managed to work in a backlit keyboard in addition to the spill-resistant design carried over from previous iterations. Key layout is good as well with Lenovo implementing their “legacy reduced” key delete and typical Fn / Ctrl placement.
I can also report that the touchpad is much improved over the X220’s implementation. The problem I found on the X220 is that Lenovo integrated the mouse click buttons into the touchpad. The implementation was pretty bad and difficult to use. Lenovo has corrected that issue with on the X1 and although it’s still not as good as dedicated click buttons, you can use it without becoming frustrated.
For those looking to forego the touchpad completely, the TrackPoint and its dedicated click buttons are a viable option, especially for ThinkPad veterans.
Intel’s Core i5-2520M performed as anticipated. We had an idea of what to expect from the X1 since our X220 sample came equipped with the same processor, memory and hard drive. 1080p full screen videos on YouTube only taxed the CPU around 15%. The 4k resolution video that we tested with on the X220 also taxed the X1 for roughly the same amount of cycles, around 80% CPU utilization.
The downward-firing speakers are up to the task as well. Audio can be played pretty loud and sounds just fine when bouncing off of a hard surface. Playing music with the system on a bed or sofa will result in less noise as the cushion below it will undoubtedly absorb some of the sound.
Heat generation and fan noise are both kept to a minimum even under full load. The system is very quiet at idle and just marginally louder under full load. At full load, the bottom back and left side do get warm but again, not overly so. The cooling fan seems to do a respectable job and keeping things under control, while part of the credit also goes to Sandy Bridge and its 32nm power-conscious architecture.
Connectivity options have also been improved on the ThinkPad X1. Noticeable additions include a USB 3.0 port, eSATA port and HDMI out. This is one of the few notebooks I have used that doesn’t have a VGA port, however.
I conducted a few different battery tests using the internal 6-cell battery. Our video playback test consists of looping a 720p rip of one of my favorite movies (Inception) in Windows Media Player at full screen with max screen brightness and Wi-Fi disabled. This is a taxing test that resulted in 2 hours and 43 minutes of usage with the single battery.
Our endurance test is run with five Firefox windows open with the Reload Every add-on refreshing each page every 5 minutes to simulate real-world browsing. Max screen brightness is used and Wi-Fi is enabled. This test resulted in 3 hours and 23 minutes of life. We anticipate that decreasing the screen brightness to the default setting will likely meet the 5 hours Lenovo claims the X1 is capable of on normal use. The X1 also has the external slice battery option similar to the X220's, but we had issues testing our unit with it. If it's anything similar to the X220, this will result in doubling the battery life at the expense of additional weight and thickness.
Lenovo advertises that the X1's RapidCharge feature can charge the laptop's battery up to 80% in 30 minutes. In the single test we performed we had a completely dead system in hibernation when we started, then unplugged at 30 minutes and booted up to find 85% battery life. Seems spot on with their claims. This can be handy if you need a quick refill between connecting flights or while waiting between classes or during lunch.
If you can live without the fabulous IPS display found on the X220, the new ThinkPad X1 is a great notebook. The hardware under the hood is plenty powerful to keep the system relevant for some time to come. The thin frame, infinity display, backlit keyboard, Trackpoint and trackpad are all positives on this system. An SSD upgrade on the X1 would really wake the system up and ensure a snappy computer for the long haul, granted you can afford the upgrade cost and sacrifice disk space. Battery life, however, was lower than expected.
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