Lenovo has announced its next generation of ThinkPad X laptops. Called the X13 and X13 Yoga, the new machines replace the previous X390 generation of machines and lives alongside the company’s existing X1 series. These new laptops don’t do anything drastic to their designs, but there are various changes under the hood.
Right off the bat, the X13 and X13 Yoga both ship with 13-inch displays, hence their names. Both ship with Full HD resolutions, while the X13 Yoga is available with a 4K OLED screen. As you can imagine, I’ll be doing my best to get my hands on that specific model whenever Lenovo seeds review units. Follow me on Instagram to find out when I get it in house.
The laptops’ screens also come with up to 500 nits of brightness, optional Dolby Vision support, PriacyGuard ePrivacy coatings to hide your display from people looking over your shoulder, ThinkShutter camera covers, and touch input (obviously).
Under the hood, Lenovo includes Intel’s 10th-generation Core i5 and i7 processors. Some models are available with i5 vPro and i7 vPro chips, with the top-tier X13 Yoga shipping with a six-core i7 vPro. The vPro models won’t be shipping until later in 2020, so if that’s the configuration you want, you’ll have to wait a few months.
For the first time, Lenovo is also including AMD mobile processors with the X13 series. Both machines will be available with AMD Ryzen Pro 4000 processors. However, it isn’t clear when these specific models will be available.
Paired to the processors are up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2TB of SSD storage, and Intel integrated graphics. The X13 ships with a 48Whr battery, while the X13 Yoga gets a slightly larger power pack at 50Whr. You also get decent mixtures of IO on both laptops with Thunderbolt, USB-A, microSD slots, and headphone jacks on each. For security, you get fingerprint scanners on both.
Lenovo is also advertising a new set of features under its “Smarter Technology for All” initiative aimed at improving minute details in the PC experience. In the case of the X13 series, buyers get Modern Standby (essentially smartphone standby with an “always-on, always-connected” experience), faster wake times with the ability to wake your computer up with your voice, and Wi-Fi 6. Small improvements like these should deliver a more refined UX and make using ThinkPads feel more natural to average consumers.
Finally, both machines use mainly carbon fiber for their builds, while the X13 uses plastic for its lid and aluminum for its base.
The ThinkPad X13 starts at $849 and the X13 Yoga starts at $1,099. Both will be available in the second quarter of 2020.
