Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Generation/2017) Review

Now in its 5th generation, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon continues to be Lenovo's elite Ultrabook offering. This notebook manages to fit a 14-inch screen into a sleek chassis that’s just 0.6 inches thin, and weighs only 2.5 pounds. Almost every aspect of this notebook proved to be first-rate in our testing, from its keyboard and touch pad/track point setup, to its IPS display, and even good port selection. It produced some of the best battery life we've seen to date, as well. Starting at $1,329, it's certainly not an inexpensive purchase, but we can say for the money that you're getting the very best of just about everything with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

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Here's a viewpoint from a daily user:

I got my first Carbon X1 as a corporate refurb, as a lightweight alternative to my usual Samsung Chronos, to take on an extended trip. When I got back, I found myself oddly reluctant to go back to the Samsung, despite its far higher disk capacity, and it's more-or-less been relegated to an office server role (ironic, as it had displaced my previous HP Pavilion machine in like manner: I can't believe I used to lug around a machine that now seems the size of a grand piano).
Anyhow, my X1 was a Gen2 model, with the daft dynamic key feature that crashed every few days, but was otherwise a delight. It managed a flawless performance being dragged around South East Asia in a backpack, and never faltered, tough as old books. If Panasonic hadn't snapped up the "Toughbook" brand, this would surely be a candidate.


So, when I got a lucrative new contract this year, I decided to upgrade, and went for a fully-loaded brand-new X1: i7, 16GB, 1TB SSD, WLAN.

I love it, I've just bought it a Thunderbolt dock as a Black Friday present.

The machine is quiet except when the fan briefly runs, and the battery life is exemplary - which is useful when I'm visiting clients and there aren't always enough outlets.

The performance is storming by comparison even with the Samsung, which itself kicked sand in the face of the HP: 16GB and SSD make the difference, I guess, and it's a later i7 generation.
On the subject of memory, I think 16GB is plenty in a machine this size (I suspect I'd have got by with 8 if I'm honest, but I wanted the top of the range, as this machine will have to do me for a few years). The answer is, spec what you want when you buy it. If you need more than 16, you need a workstation, not an ultrabook.

There are, however, a couple of niggles.


1) I'm thrilled that it has 2 USB-C ports, but it would have been better, surely, to have one on either edge of the machine? The power source isn't always convenient to come in from the left.

2) The illuminated keyboard is great- but it won't stay on. Stop using it for a short while, even while plugged in, and it switches off. There seems to be no way to keep it on permanently, even while docked.

3) Again, with the keys: I've had this machine a scant 5 months. and some of the keycaps are wearing noticeably. I know one of the keys says "PgUp", but you can't really tell by looking at the keyboard. I know illuminated keys are faster-wearing than standard ones (I had the same issue with the Samsung, which eventually needed a new keyboard from eBay), but this is to my mind an unacceptable level of wear even for my daily workhorse.

4) The matt-black finish is very smart and corporate, but it does show fingermarks terribly, needing daily cleaning. And as with the keys, there's some wear showing on the left hand side of the machine where my palm tends to rest - at this rate, I'll have a silver (or at least white) machine before they're released.

5) I've never managed to get the WLAN working, still in discussion with Lenovo.

So I'd have to give it 4.5 stars- even though you'd have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.