I Love Lenovo’s Latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon but Was Shocked at the Cost of Upgrades

8.3/ 10
SCORE

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition

$2,474 at Lenovo

Pros

• Exceptionally lightweight yet sturdy build
• Lengthy battery life
• Stellar 2.8K OLED display
• Best-in-class ThinkPad keyboard

Cons

• Upgrades are pricey, particularly the OLED display
• Aura Edition features aren’t likely to be of any interest or use
• 1080p webcam is disappointing given the price

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is Lenovo’s flagship business ultraportable, and with the 13th generation, Lenovo has made strides in two key areas: system weight and battery life. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 is significantly lighter than last year’s model and offers more than twice the battery time. And despite the appreciable decrease in weight, the X1 Carbon Gen 13 looks and feels nearly identical to previous models, serving up the familiar ThinkPad look with an exceptional keyboard and the twin input devices of the venerable pointing stick and more commonly used touchpad.

For 2025, Lenovo also slapped an Aura Edition label on the X1 Carbon to show off its partnership with Intel for a few added «smart» features, the most useful being an Apple AirDrop-like ability to share files and photos between your phone and the laptop. I can take or leave the Aura Edition add-ons, and I’m glad that they didn’t result in an overhaul of the X1 Carbon’s design. I commend Lenovo on its adherence to the traditional ThinkPad DNA. Even in its 13th year, there’s no mistaking the X1 Carbon for a run-of-the-mill ThinkPad.

Judging by its price, there’s also no mistaking the X1 Carbon as the top dog in Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup. It starts at a reasonable $1,655, but the price can quickly escalate. With only a few upgrades, my test model costs $2,474, making it a fit for only the most well-heeled business execs. As much as I like the X1 Carbon Gen 13, the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i remains my pick for the best business laptop because it can regularly be found for hundreds less for roughly the same configuration.

The baseline model of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 costs $1,655 and features an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 1,920×1,200-pixel IPS display. My test system costs $2,474 as configured with upgrades to the CPU, memory, display and OS. It features a Core Ultra 7 258V and double the RAM at 32GB. The display also gets a bump to a 2.8K-resolution OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and the OS goes from Windows 11 Home on the baseline model to Pro on my test system.

The biggest upgrade charge is an outrageous $490 for the OLED display on my test system, and that’s not the most expensive OLED offered. Mine is an OLED rated for 400 nits of brightness and a 60Hz or 120Hz refresh rate. There’s also an OLED option that adds $550 to the price that’s rated for 500 nits and has a variable refresh rate between 30Hz and 120Hz. Neither offers touch support. Upgrading the CPU isn’t cheap either, starting at a hefty $289 for my test system’s Core Ultra 258V chip.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 starts at 2,250 in the UK and AU$2,498 in Australia.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 performance

I’ve seen the Core Ultra 7 258V processor in many laptops recently, including the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 14 Gen 10, the Acer Swift 14 AI and the Asus Zenbook S 14. The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i has a nearly identical Core Ultra 7 268V chip with slightly higher max CPU and GPU frequencies, along with a couple more GPU TOPS. Both the 258V and 268V processors have eight physical cores (four performance and four low-power efficient cores) and lack Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology that allows a physical core to act as two virtual cores.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 performed as expected for an Intel Lunar Lake laptop, delivering stronger single-core performance than multicore performance because of the lack of Hyper-Threading. It also had decent-enough graphics performance for having an integrated GPU and competitive AI performance among modern AI laptops.

The highlights of its benchmark results were its stronger-than-expected score of more than 7,000 on PCMark 10 and its lengthy battery life. It lasted nearly 18 hours on CNET’s YouTube streaming battery drain test — that’s more than four hours longer than the EliteBook Ultra G1i, which features a Lunar Lake chip and a 2.8K OLED display. And it’s more than twice the battery life of last year’s X1 Carbon Gen 12. The Acer Swift 14 AI illustrates the added battery life you get with a lower-resolution IPS display; it has the same Lunar Lake CPU as the X1 Carbon Gen 13 and lasted more than 22 hours on the same test.

Same familiar look with less weight

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 looks no different than last year’s Gen 12 model, which looked very similar to the X1 Carbon model that preceded it, and so on. The ThinkPad DNA remains a comforting constant through the years. This year’s Gen 13 model features the boxy, matte-black ThinkPad look with red accents, with which you’re likely familiar.

Despite the recognizable design, this year’s model becomes strikingly different than those of previous years as soon as you pick it up. It’s incredibly — shockingly — light. It’s the lightest 14-inch laptop I can recall reviewing. It weighs a hair under 2.2 pounds, putting it in the rare company of 14-inch laptops that weigh less than a kilogram.

Last year’s Gen 12 weighed 2.4 pounds, which was ever-so-slightly lighter than the 2.5-pound Gen 11 model. So, the jump from 2.4 pounds to 2.2 pounds is a big one. If your job has you on the road a lot, then the X1 Carbon Gen 13 makes a great travel companion. With the tiny USB-C charger, the total travel weight is just 2.7 pounds. This isn’t a light and flimsy laptop either — it feels just as rigid and sturdy as the previous two models I looked at. And according to Lenovo, it passed a series of MIL-STD 810H tests to prove its ability to withstand drops, vibration, shock, dust, extreme temperatures and more.

To put the X1 Carbon Gen 13’s extreme lightness in perspective, the EliteBook Ultra G1i weighs 2.6 pounds, and the Acer Swift 14 AI weighs a touch less than 3 pounds — that’s the usual range for a 14-inch laptop. The only other laptop that comes close is the Asus Zenbook A14, whose unique Ceraluminum chassis is 0.01-pound heavier than the X1 Carbon Gen 13.

What’s amazing is that the weight loss doesn’t change the feel of the keyboard. The keys offer the plush response that ThinkPad fans have come to love over the years, and you also get the little red pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard with its own mouse buttons above the touchpad. The only change to the keyboard is the addition of the Microsoft Copilot key, which takes the place of the right Ctrl key in the bottom row.

If you plan on using the touchpad more than the pointing stick, you can swap out the mechanical touchpad for one with haptic feedback. I enjoyed the soft, quiet clicks of the mechanical touchpad on my test system, but the haptic touchpad will do away with the diving-board effect of clicks feeling firmer near the top and squishier near the bottom of the touchpad while also offering the ability to customize the intensity of the click response. The haptic touchpad also gives you a bit larger touchpad surface area because it integrates the mouse buttons for the pointing stick into a narrow strip at the top.

The 2.8K OLED panel is excellent. It boasts deep black levels, vibrant colors and crisp text and images. Its color performance was great, covering 100% of the sRGB and P3 color spaces and 97% of AdobeRGB on my tests with a Spyder X colorimeter. It also hit a peak brightness of 423 nits, which exceeded its 400-nit rating. The matte finish was very effective at combating glare and reflections, and the 120Hz refresh rate resulted in smooth movement. All that said, the $490 that Lenovo charges to upgrade from the base IPS display is outrageous.

The 1080p webcam above the display is also a bit disappointing. Given its position as the top ThinkPad laptop and the accompanying premium price, the X1 Carbon Gen 13 ought to have a 1440p webcam so you can appear sharper on Zoom and other video calls. The 1080p cam will get the job done, but you’ll just look a little pixelated. If you spend a lot of time on video chats, I recommend configuring it with the optional 8-megapixel webcam.

The port selection is great, even if both Thunderbolt 4 ports are located on the left side. The pair of USB-A ports is split, but that’s less usual than being able to use the USB-C charger from either side of the laptop. It offers Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity, and you can get optional 5G for an extra $200.

Now, about the Aura Edition bit: It’s largely useless. There’s a smart sharing feature that lets you swap files between the X1 Carbon and your phone if you install the Intel Unison app on your phone. And there are smart modes for setting a timer to focus or a wellness mode that reminds you to take a break to rest your eyes, as well as a creepy posture warning you can enable that uses the webcam to track how you’re doing at sitting up straight and not slouching in front of the laptop. You also get increased device support — virtual and live agent — for one year.

Is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 a good business laptop?

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 is an excellent business laptop if you’re willing to spend a premium for it. The OLED display is great, but the exorbitant upcharge to get it is a tough pill to swallow. With or without the OLED upgrade, the X1 Carbon Gen 13 is particularly well suited for those who travel regularly for work or have a daily commute because of how light and long-running it is. And then there’s the sturdy build quality and fantastic keyboard that’s a part of nearly every ThinkPad.

If you want an OLED laptop for work and want to spend less than $2,000 on it, then look to pick up the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i when it’s on sale. It’s heavier than the X1 Carbon Gen 13 but can usually be found at a discount of $1,899 or $1,999, which is significantly less than the nearly $2,500 that my X1 Carbon Gen 13 costs.