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The Lenovo's goal with the X1 Carbon has always been simple: to make the
ultimate 14-inch business ultraportable. But the last couple of editions
have produced mixed results. The 2013 touch-screen version didn't last
long enough on a charge, and the keyboard on last year's model didn't
live up to the ThinkPad pedigree. With the third generation of the X1
Carbon (starting at $1,079; $1,754 as tested), Lenovo has made several
enhancements, delivering a long-lasting, comfortable and durable
workhorse that road warriors will want to own.
As svelte, sturdy and classically handsome as ever, the X1 Carbon is
an all-black ultraportable with a bottom made of magnesium and aluminum.
The display cover uses carbon-fiber and glass-fiber reinforced plastic,
and the hinges are reinforced with carbon fiber. The design isn't
flashy, but it's tough and does a good job of resisting fingerprints.
The gently pulsating red dot above the "i" in the ThinkPad logo and the
red TrackPoint add small dashes of color. Why so much carbon fiber? Lenovo says it's as strong as aluminum but a
third of the weight. Lenovo also claims that the Carbon passes eight
MIL-Spec tests (MIL-STD 810G) for everything from low and high
temperatures to humidity, sand and shock.
This is in addition to Lenovo's own drop, flex and spill tests. For
instance, Lenovo spills 500 cc (or close to 17 ounces) of water on the
X1 Carbon. The X1 Carbon is among the lightest 14-inch laptops we've tested. It
weighs just 3.07 pounds, compared to the aluminum-clad EliteBook Folio
1040's 3.4 pounds. The newer, 12.5-inch EliteBook Folio 1020 is 2.7 pounds. The Dell XPS 13 2015,
which has a touch-screen display, weighs 2.8 pounds. Measuring 13 x 8.9
x 0.73 inches, the Lenovo is a little thicker than the EliteBook 1040
(0.63 inches) and the XPS 13 (0.68 inches).
the Lenovo has made two big changes to the X1 versus the previous edition:
It ditched the innovative but confusing Adaptive Function Row for a more
traditional Function row and added dedicated mouse buttons for the
TrackPoint. I'm happy to say that both changes add up to a much better
ergonomic experience. Gone are the capacitive Function keys above the QWERTY layout, which lit
up with different symbols depending on the app you were using. Now,
there are more traditional shortcut keys for things such as volume,
brightness, settings, task switching (very handy) and displaying all of
your apps. The result is something that's less ambitious but more
practical. I'm glad to see that Lenovo enlarged the Backspace key on
this X1 Carbon, too. Based on our measurements, the X1 Carbon's backlit keyboard delivers
1.86 mm of travel, paired with an actuation force of 58 grams. Both of
these numbers compare favorably to the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 (1.65 mm,
60 grams) and the Dell XPS 13 (1.2 mm, 60 grams). More travel usually
means a more desktoplike feel.
Source : Laptopmag
