Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 3 - Premium, Lightweight Business Ultrabook
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,526 words · ~7 min read
0:00
I can't remember who it was and I'm actually not sure where this particular
0:04
viewer got the idea from but someone got
0:07
it in his or her head that I'm somehow professional enough to review a business
0:11
laptop and suggested that I take a look at the Lenovo X1 Carbon gen 3 a premium
0:17
lightweight business Ultra Book by the way if you enjoyed our cherry and
0:21
Sennheiser factory tours stay tuned because assuming this video gets posted
0:26
on schedule I just got back from touring the Omron Factory in Japan and that's
0:30
coming very
0:40
soon The Cooler Master Nova touch tkl is
0:43
powered by toer hybrid capacitive switches for the ultimate typing
0:47
experience and is now available for a reduced price click my face to learn
0:53
more now the specs of Ultrabooks aren't really that variable so when I went on
0:58
lenovo's site and saw that my CPU choices ranged from a coree I5 dual core
1:03
with hyperthreading to a slightly faster Core i5 to a slightly faster than that
1:07
core i7 dual core with some extra cash to go along with its hyperthreading with
1:12
the only performance differences being slightly different clock speeds I wasn't
1:16
surprised what did surprise me was the completely unnecessary limitation on the
1:21
5200 U equipped model where it can only
1:25
be configured with 4 gigs of RAM with a $100 5300 U option being required to
1:32
upgrade it I mean first of all 4 gigs is pathetic for any modern computer and
1:36
second of all those CPUs literally cost
1:40
the same with the 5200 U having no place
1:43
in a business grade laptop anyway since aside from being the same as the 5300 U
1:48
or Worse across the board it lacks business grade features like vpro and
1:52
trusted execution technology so the entry level starting at $199 model is a
1:58
total laugh anyway way this is what Apple does right instead of offering
2:03
their customers stupid options that make no sense just to have a lower advertised
2:08
starting price point they build computers that will please their
2:11
customers and slap a price tag to match on them but that's not to say that Apple
2:16
does everything right either and Lenovo didn't send me one of the asinine
2:20
configurations of the X1 anyway so let's take a look at what we do have in front
2:24
of us today it's got a core i5 5300u 8
2:28
gigs of RAM HD graphics 5500 clocked at 900 MHz a 256 gig solid state drive
2:34
Intel 7265 AC Wireless with Bluetooth
2:37
4.0 a 50 W battery that managed about 4
2:41
and 1/2 hours in my standard PC Mark test although it should be noted that
2:44
when you're not pushing it really hard it can run a lot longer than that but of
2:49
course people don't buy think pads for their specs um since there's lots of
2:54
portable Computing devices that offer great battery life and specs they buy
2:58
them for the legendary quality something that Lenovo hasn't seemed to mix up
3:02
since buying IBM's computer Division and the back to business Basics style
3:08
something that the last generation X1 Carbon actually did kind of mess up with
3:13
those bizarre adaptive capacitive buttons along the top but the Gen 3x1
3:18
carbon features none of that nonsense the screen lid which is surprisingly
3:23
strong for being so thin by the way is plain scratch resistant black with a
3:27
single red LED dotting the eye and the think pad logo and the underside is
3:32
pretty much the same with only the intake for the single cooling fan which
3:36
is satisfactorily quiet even under heavy load and kept my CPU under 65° C by the
3:41
way and the shockingly bad bottom mounted speakers they actually get
3:45
reasonably loud but I had to double check if there was an audio control
3:49
panel with like an auditorium preset enabled or something since music had
3:53
this distance sound as if it was being played on a super loud Bluetooth speaker
3:57
from the other end of a football field I/O is fairly run-of-the-mill with the
4:02
right side consisting of a vent a proprietary mini Ethernet port and a USB
4:06
3.0 port with the left side having power
4:09
and Dot connectors side by side HDMI and
4:12
mini DisplayPort another USB 3.0 and a
4:15
four-pole audio jack but things get more
4:19
interesting once we flip the screen up on this puppy because it's 2560 by 1440
4:24
matte IPS touchscreen display is unlike
4:28
any that I've ever used before I've seen some reviews online say it's not the
4:32
brightest display on the market and this is true but it's brighter than I needed
4:36
in any situation where I used it and I really liked both the resolution Choice
4:41
1440p looks great at the size and requires less dramatic text scaling
4:45
which makes the issues associated with it less noticeable than some of the 3K
4:49
displays on the market and the matte finish that feels nice on my fingertips
4:55
and helps reject fingerprint smudges from using the touchscreen as much as it
4:59
helps produce glare from nearby light sources so Kudos on the display Lenovo
5:03
and while we're singing this notebook's Praises holy crap this keyboard rocks
5:09
the key caps are a little bit slipperier than I prefer but considering how thin
5:14
this thing is like 1.8 cm they have an
5:18
astonishingly long travel and typing on the rounded chicklet keys on the X1
5:23
Carbon is the second best typing experience I've had on a notebook with
5:27
the one notable exception being the MSI gt80 Titan with its full-size mechanical
5:32
keyboard and the layout is with the exception of the why on Earth did you do
5:36
that swapping of the functioning control keys very good too with full size up and
5:42
down arrow keys dedicated page up and down and print screen keys and some
5:46
useful Windows 8 shortcuts from f8 to F12 so they're a fingerprint reader
5:50
along the right hand side which is super handy and fast to use by the way I've
5:53
never had a PC with one before and the function control swap that I mentioned
5:58
before are pretty much the only on un usual thing oh sorry did I say only
6:01
unusual things I guess I forgot to mention the big red swollen nipple in
6:05
the middle of the keyboard the young kids might not remember the days when
6:08
trackpads were unusual partly because they totally sucked and the mouse nubbin
6:13
rained supreme but this laptop and I guess this leads pretty well into the
6:16
conclusion for this product was made for people who want high-end performance in
6:20
a super light carbon fiber design but do
6:24
remember the days of nubbin with dedicated buttons for them positioned
6:28
right below the keyboard and unfortunately no one else the touchpad
6:32
on the X1 Carbon is so close to being awesome but has one deal breaking flaw
6:38
for me the glass surface feels great and it tracks very accurately but right and
6:43
left click rely on having a finger pressed down on the top surface of the
6:48
trackpad so my casual leaning against the bottom of the touchpad use would
6:53
cause frequent misclicks it's the kind of thing I could get used to but I feel
6:58
like I shouldn't have to dedicated right and left switches under the pad next
7:02
time please Lenovo and while we're at it where the actual heck is the 16 gig
7:07
configuration option it's like you and Dell got together in a back room
7:10
somewhere with cigars and decided the best way to sell the 2016 models of the
7:15
X1 Carbon and XPS 13 was to this
7:18
year's with 8 gigs of RAM Max so I guess
7:22
that's pretty much it for the X1 Carbon thanks for watching guys like the video
7:26
if you liked it dislike it if you thought it just plain sucked leave uh uh
7:30
comment on in the Forum link that is linked in the video description if you
7:34
have feelings that are more complicated than either of those things also down
7:37
there is a link to our merchandise where you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one
7:40
a place where you can give us a contribution if you like our content and you want us to keep on eating and a link
7:46
where you can change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate codes so if you're going to buy one of these
7:49
or something else please do click through our affiliate link because we
7:53
get a small Kickback and it costs you nothing other than a little bit of your time which I know is precious so that is
7:58
actually asking a lot but we appreciate it when you do it and as always don't forget to subscribe and follow and all
8:02
that good stuff if you want to see more of our
8:14
videos