Lenovo’s 2020 ThinkPad X1 Carbon & Yoga: Wi-Fi 6, New Keyboard, & Security Features
by Anton Shilov on January 3, 2020 12:00 PM EST
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ThinkPad X1 Yoga are perhaps the company’s best known laptops in the west. The company puts tremendous amounts of effort to make its flagship PCs stand out from the crowd in terms of features and performance, which is why it typically introduces updated versions every CES. This year is not an exception, so Lenovo is rolling out its 8th Generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon as well as 5th Generation ThinkPad X1 Yoga, which are receiving a new keyboard, additional security features, and Wi-Fi 6 support.
The upcoming Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Lenovo X1 Yoga will borrow a lot from their direct predecessors, the 7th Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the 4th Gen ThinkPad X1 Yoga. The systems share chassis and therefore retain weight and thickness of previous-generation models (1.09 kilograms/14.9 mm and 1.3 kilograms/15.25 mm, respectively). Furthermore, they are based on the same Intel’s 10th Generation Core processor platform (Comet Lake) with up to six cores that is paired with up to 16 GB of soldered-down LPDDR3 memory as well as an up to 2 TB SSD.
Instead, Lenovo had made three major improvements elsewhere to differentiate the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Lenovo X1 Yoga systems from their predecessors. The first one is the new keyboard that still uses scissor mechanism, but now has a set of buttons for instant Voice-over-IP access. Considering that services like Skype are used widely these days, the special buttons will make life of many people easier.
The second improvement for the new ThinkPads is Wi-Fi 6 support, with the latest Wi-Fi standard starting to gain serious traction.
The final new feature that will be optionally available on select 8th Generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon as well as 5th Generation ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a new Full-HD display with 500 nits maximum brightness. The new display is also available with Lenovo’s PrivacyGuard screen filter, which helps to protect against prying eyes by giving the screen a narrow viewing angle. In addition, select machines will come with ThinkPad PrivacyAlert software technology that warns users when someone is staring at their screen and turns on PrivacyGuard on supporting LCDs. Meanwhile, flagship models of both mobile PCs will come equipped with an Ultra-HD display featuring 500 nits luminance and Dolby Vision support.
Rounding out the package, the new ThinkPads use a 51 Wh battery that offers 10 – 15 hours (Yoga) or 10 – 18 hours (Carbon) of battery life depending on exact configuration. Furthermore the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is once again part of Intel’s Project Athena program, meaning it meets Intel's performance and battery life standards there.
Lenovo will start sales of its 2020 ThinkPad X1 machines later this year. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop will start at $1,499, whereas the ThinkPad X1 convertible will start at $1,599.
Related Reading:
- Lenovo Launches ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7: Thinner, Lighter, Comet Lake Inside
- Lenovo’s 2019 ThinkPad X1 Yoga: An Ultralight Convertible with Comet Lake
- Lenovo at CES 2019: 7th Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gets Thinner
- Lenovo: Foldable ThinkPad X1 to Launch in 2020
Source: Lenovo
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evilspoons - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
Didn't we try function keys for stuff like IM and web browsers in the '00s? And they all went away?I suppose having a 'hang up' function might be nice.
Mothertrucker19 - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
At least they didn't take away the home and end keys like HP.RSAUser - Sunday, January 5, 2020 - link
All my external keyboards still have them and most laptops?PeachNCream - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
Soldered LPDDR3 and a misguided reassignment of Fn keys (hopefully possible to reconfigure in the BIOS) make these rather unappealing.Rookierookie - Saturday, January 4, 2020 - link
Is this the first time you've seen a ThinkPad?jvl - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
Seems like a weird product at a weird time.But hey, seeing the thermal cluster***k that is my T470s (work-administered), I won't touch another ThinkPad anyway. Or another Intel CPU, seeing what the patches did for performance, and what the i915-train-on-fire-on-modern-linux-kernels did for my confidence in Intel GPUs. I'll just wait for AMD's big announcement I guess...
Retycint - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
Thermal performance of different models will always be different, even from the same manufacturer, or from the same line but different generations. It is quite short-sighted to write off an entire brand because of one bad experience with one model, thermal-wise.jvl - Saturday, January 4, 2020 - link
Oh *please*.I've owned an T42, an x60 Tablet, serviced a friend's X220s, experienced the T450s, T460s, T480s, own a T470s and witnessed various Yogas (from entry-level three years ago to a present-day 3 k€ stupidity). All recent lines had thermal issues, the kernel logs are full of not only throttling (that'd be normal), but actually package sensor readout errors.
I'm quick for anger to flash, but mainly that's because I feel cheated since they rather clearly didn't do proper quality testing. From 60 T470s in the group, three are defective. They'll be repaired, for sure, but WTH. I just feel sorry for people actually paying for this..
TL;DR: my prior is informed.
Valantar - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
Still on 16:9 displays, sadly. Not good enough when the X1 tablet has a far superior display.danielfranklin - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
No Ice Lake, no real upgrade.Putting an extra 2 cores in a 15w TDP that already bursts to 45w is just a joke.
The GPU and men bandwidth are a joke at this point. Plug a 2nd monitor into it and see it drop frames clicking the start menu.
Not going with a new thermal design and Ice Lake is a slap in the face for the price they charge for these. They are no doubt doing the work anyway for the Tiger Lake platform later in the year, they are just lazy now.
Never thought I’d be more interested in what HP are doing with business laptops then a Thinkpad, NEVER...