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Swappable parts in the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 include its battery, M.2 2230 wireless card, and M.2 2280 PCI Express storage drive. The RAM is soldered-down LPDDR5 that can’t be changed out, so configure the laptop with as much as you need from the get-go. The key sacrifices you’d be making in opting for an X13 over more expensive competitors would be the screen and the battery life - but those are two of the most important parts of a business notebook. The X13’s display (at least the 300-nit model we tested) is unfortunately dim and less vivid than all of its competitors (save for the X1 Carbon having a slightly narrower color spectrum), and the laptop also scored 2 hours less battery life than its nearest competitor on our benchmark. The webcam is also unflattering, though the audio quality is much higher than expected. Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (0.6 by 12.4 by 8.8 inches, 2.48 pounds) is only marginally larger despite using a 14-inch screen. Both it and the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 are thinner than the X13, too. I find the basic FHD+ non-touch version to be well suited for most people just going about regular work. I measured with my SpyderX Pro colorimeter 100% sRGB, 79% AdobeRGB, and 81% DCI-P3 color reproduction, all solid results. Colors are full and good contrast helps remove any washed appearance. I had no issues using it for photo editing, and for standard productivity work it will be more than enough. If you foresee a lot of work outdoors, something with more brightness is recommended.
The X13 ThinkPad has two bottom firing speakers that, despite the laptop’s small size, get quite loud and have robust sound quality to match.
The Core i7 chips in the others have 96 execution units running at 1.25GHz for U-class or 1.45GHz for P-class chips. Nonetheless, the 30.8 frames per second the X13 can muster in Aztec Ruins indicates it should be able to play some basic modern games at reduced settings. (See our feature: Can You Play Today's Biggest Games on Laptop Integrated Graphics?) Battery and Display Tests As for wireless connectivity, you get the cutting-edge Wi-Fi 6E standard as well as Bluetooth 5.2. There are also optional 4G and 5G LTE modems, compatible with either a nano SIM or an eSIM. And IT departments with strict user access control protocols can outfit the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 with an optional SmartCard reader or a fingerprint reader built into the keyboard.
Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular tasks ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better). The AMD-powered ThinkPad X13, like most ThinkPads, has plenty of customization options. Our configuration has a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U with integrated Radeon graphics, 8GB of DDR4-3200 MHz memory, a 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD and a 1920 x 1080 IPS touchscreen. If you don't like the results we got from our screen, there's also a 500-nit, 1080p screen option. The ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 universally trails in graphics performance, unfortunately. Though all these laptops use Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics silicon, it’s configured differently depending on the processor. The Core i5-1240P in our X13 has the weakest implementation, with 80 execution units running at 1.45GHz. Pricing changes and discounts will play a big role in how well the X13 (Gen 2) sells. With that out of the way, I can say it's a ThinkPad through and through. The new aluminum build is far more solid and doesn't add enough weight to not be extremely portable. The top-firing speakers remain unmuffled and audio gets loud enough for most use cases. Optional 4G LTE and 5G connectivity will keep you up to date wherever you go, and stellar battery life will keep you from searching for an outlet.
Display - Full HD with strong colors
Creature comforts are something the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 has in limited supply. Unlike the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10, it doesn’t offer UHD or OLED screens or Dolby Atmos-tuned speakers. That said, its standard 1,920-by-1,200-pixel touch panel has a vivid picture and a practical anti-glare surface. Its speakers, projecting above the keyboard, also produce enjoyable if not room-filling sound.
Limits: Limit 5 per customer. Offers valid from Lenovo in the US only. Lenovo may increase or decrease these limits, from time to time, for certain offerings.I've appeared on CBS News, in USA Today, and at many other outlets to offer analysis on breaking technology news. The ThinkPad X13 comes in either traditional clamshell or 2-in-1 convertible (X13 Yoga) varieties. We liked both versions of the first-generation X13, but we noted that it was essentially a rebadged version of 2019's ThinkPad X390, so it wasn't as fresh as its moniker might suggest. The X13 Gen 2, equipped with Intel's latest 11th Generation "Tiger Lake" processor and the newly fashionable 16:10 instead of 16:9 screen aspect ratio, is more modern. The ThinkPad X13 gets somewhat warm during use, though its touchpoints didn’t reflect this during my testing. After streaming YouTube videos for 15 minutes, the underside registered 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit (36.9 degrees Celsius), which made it the hottest area. The second hottest area was the center of the keyboard (between the G and H keys), which was 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit (34.2 degrees Celsius). The touchpad was the coolest area we measured, only hitting 83.5 degrees Fahrenheit (28.6 degrees Celsius).
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