Don’t rock the boat. That’s Lenovo’s strategy for the 12th iteration of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Rather than tinker with a winning formula, the company employed minor tweaks throughout the laptop, delivering a system that’s even thinner and lighter than its predecessor. The keyboard has seen some updates with a larger touchpad.
The biggest changes are under the hood, though, as the X1 Carbon features the latest 14th-generation Intel processors and integrated graphics. The laptop also offers expanded display options. In short, the changes are fairly gradual, but sometimes all it takes is a few tweaks and improvements to get the job done right.
The design of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon
The 12th-gen X1 Carbon looks pretty similar to its predecessor. It sports a matte black finish that, much to my chagrin, is very susceptible to fingerprints. If you’re familiar with the line, you know the laptop is made from carbon fiber, but this time around there’s recycled aluminum and magnesium in the mix along with some post-consumer materials. Honestly, the biggest design change you’ll notice is the brushed aluminum console on the top of the lid that houses an infrared (IR) camera with a physical shutter.
Lenovo
The 12th Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the latest in Lenovo's excellent work laptops, and it's solid as expected, though it does need some tweaking.
- Lightweight and durable design.
- Excellent battery life
- Comfortable keyboard and trackpad
- The performance is uneven
- Power button located on the side of the laptop.
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Weighing in at 2.4 pounds with a 0.6-inch profile, the X1 is thinner and lighter than previous models, which for a 14-inch system is always a good thing. The 2.6-pound ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED is only slightly lighter, at 0.58 inches. And despite its lightweight form, the X1 Carbon is actually durable, able to withstand drops, spills, dust, and extreme temperatures, as designated by its MIL-STD-810H certification.
Another nice thing is the 14-inch display. The 1,920 x 1,200, 16:10 panel is a matte touchscreen, so unlike its chassis, it actually resists fingerprints. The finish virtually eliminates any reflection, and doesn't bleed out color like I've seen on some similar displays. Is the color as vibrant as you'd get on a glossy screen? Not necessarily, but it's not a deal-breaker.
Lenovo made the trackpad bigger, increasing the size of the glass touchpad to 4.7 inches. Aside from some minor tweaks to the spill-proof keyboard, this is your typical Lenovo chiclet keyboard, with its iconic bright red pointing stick. I'm not a huge fan of Lenovo moving the power key to the right side of the keyboard. It makes sense for a 2-in-1, but it's not necessary on a regular flip-top laptop, and I'd prefer it on one of the company's many Yoga series notebooks.
While we're talking about the sides of the X1, there are a good number of ports here, including two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, two Thunderbolt 4, an HDMI 2.1 port, a headphone jack, and a Kensington lock slot.
Located above the display, the ThinkPad X1’s 1080p webcam takes still photos and works well in video conferencing sessions. It delivered really clear images on the Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls I made, so much so that I received some compliments on my new hair color and style. Unsurprisingly, things were overexposed when I sat in my garden midday. But I was pleasantly surprised by how well the camera adjusted to a low-light environment, maintaining color vibrancy and a good level of detail.
The pair of speakers cleverly hidden beneath the keyboard did a good job of transmitting the voices of my meeting mates. However, if you're listening to music or watching a movie, you'll want to bring a pair of headphones, as the bass isn't very strong despite the pre-installed Dolby Access software.
In use
Next-gen laptops mean next-gen chips. For the 12th Gen X1 Carbon, that chip is a 1.7GHz 14th Gen Intel Core Ultra 7 165U processor with 12 cores and 14 threads. According to Intel, that's faster than last year's silicon. In action, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is plenty fast and powerful. I put my usual workload on it, which means about 70 open Google Chrome tabs with a mix of G-Suite apps, social media, news, and tech sites with a couple of YouTube videos thrown in for good measure. I even edited a video and played a few rounds of Hades IIbut the laptop never lost speed.
The Lenovo laptop didn’t fare as well against similarly specced laptops. My test unit, with its Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU and 32GB of RAM, beat out the Zenbook OLED 14 and XPS 14 in the PCMark 10 benchmark, but couldn’t quite outpace this year’s model of the 14-inch HP Spectre x360 or the Surface Laptop 6. The outlook wasn’t as rosy on the Cinebench R23 test, however, where the X1 Carbon fell short against all of the systems.
The X1 Carbon's integrated Intel GPU isn't really designed for gaming, but if you can find older or indie games that aren't as demanding as today's AAA titles, you can play for a while. For example, I got 30 frames per second while playing. Hades IIwhich is a smooth enough speed to run most titles..
The X1 Carbon’s 3DMark Wild Life Extreme score of 3,777 isn’t comparable to any of the competing systems. Keep in mind that those laptops have more powerful chips under the hood: The XPS 14, Zenbook OLED 14, and Surface Laptop 6 all have Intel Arc graphics. The XPS 14 also has an integrated discrete Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU.
Like most laptops this year, the X1 Carbon has an integrated NPU (neural processing unit) that’s there to take the load off the CPU and GPU when it comes to apps and ai tasks. For example, Windows Studio Effects during my video calls perfectly blurred my background, keeping me in the frame and ensuring it looked like I was maintaining eye contact, all without a hitch.
When it comes to keyboards, Lenovo ThinkPads are the gold standard, offering a firm, springy response. The 12th Gen X1 Carbon continues the tradition. I spent hours using this super-comfortable keyboard, and throughout that time, my fingers never sank. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the new tactile markings on specific keys (Fn, F, H, Insert, Down Arrow, Enter, and Volume Up/Down). to act as a guide. And of course, there’s the Copilot button if you want to try out Microsoft’s ai. The white backlight is bright enough to use in dark environments, like when I used it in bed while my boyfriend was sleeping.
The touchpad, which is 9.1 percent larger than last year's, has excellent palm rejection and didn't send the cursor soaring into the stratosphere. The glass surface was responsive and smooth to the touch, with near-instant results, whether browsing a web page or zooming in on an image.
The best thing about the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is undoubtedly its battery life. The laptop lasted 13 hours and 2 minutes on the PCMark Modern Office battery test. That was more than enough time to beat the Zenbook OLED 14 (12:43). During my regular use, I managed to get the X1 Carbon to last almost 10 hours before I had to plug it in.
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Price and Competition
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 12th starts at $1,449, which is about what you’d expect for a high-end business laptop. That configuration includes an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U processor with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Intel integrated graphics. You’ll need an additional $474 to upgrade to a Core Ultra 7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. If you want a configuration similar to my review model, that’ll set you back $2,285 since it has Intel’s vPro technology, which is more geared toward IT admins and businesses.
For nearly $500 less, the ASUS Zenbook OLED 14 outperformed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in performance while offering comparable battery life and a stunning OLED display. But the Zenbook lacks the security features you'll find on the business-focused X1 Carbon.
Consumers looking for more power, including a discrete GPU, should consider the Dell XPS 14. However, the laptop's starting price is $250 higher than the X1 Carbon, and it gets more exorbitant as you add more features, such as the Nvidia GPU, vPro, RAM, and storage.
Summary
The 12th Gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon still reigns as the king of business laptops for now, but the gap is definitely narrowing. While there are definitely more powerful alternatives out there, the X1 is one of the few that offers the same level of security, durability, and longevity for a relatively reasonable price.
