Lenovo ThinkPad Z13: Exclusive AMD ThinkPad targets young generation with new design

[Redaktion]

With the ThinkPad Z series, Lenovo is creating a completely new product line that aims at revamping the design of the business laptop line. The compact Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 includes premium materials, a new touchpad and a better webcam as well as an exclusive AMD Ryzen chip.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Z13-Exclusive-AMD-ThinkPad-targets-young-generation-with-new-design.589009.0.html

[Thinkpad Fan]

Since when does a business notebook need to appeal to any generation? It's a work tool.

[Dan Ridenhour]

Thinkpads are productivity machines, creators machines...  yet they see fit to saddle it with that useless 'afterthought' cursor arrangement with 1/2 height up/down keys.   Its not a thinkpad...   

[Anonym]

So we finally have a Thinkpad that default to the standard Ctrl/Fn position, and no longer has the dumb placement of the Page Up/Page Down keys where it was very easy to accidentally hit them while using the left/right arrows to move the cursor. THANK YOU LENOVO, AT EFFIN LAST!

I am far less excited about the "port selection" (shall we call it that, two USB-C ports and no HDMI, seriously!?), but it may not be a deal breaker just yet. I am definitely very (VERY) grateful that AMD finally has first class citizen treatment in a Thinkpad flagship.

[MarkC]

I hope this CPU has a better GPU to where it can play YouTube videos and you don't see fans spinning and CPU hearing up like on most all other windows laptops using Intel CPU's. iPhones,iPads and other smartphones can play videos with no heat and fans spinning up so why can't a $2K windows based laptop these days?

[RicoViking9000]

I think this is Lenovo trying to compete with the Dell XPS 13 lol
I think it'll be a very attractive buy for those who wanted more performance with some of the ThinkPad DNA

[vertigo]

Agree about the arrow keys. ThinkPads, for a while now, have been one of very, very few options remaining with real arrow keys, which is one of the also few reasons to even bother with a Lenovo over other options, and they're ditching that, as well as the TrackPoint buttons, another of the few reasons to get a Lenovo. It's also still too early, IMO, to completely abandon USB-A, and I fail to see how they wouldn't be able to include at least one. My current laptop has two and I still sometimes find myself needing another, whereas I rarely need an additional C port despite using one for charging.

I'm guessing this isn't going to do well, since their target audience are the type that aren't going to generally look at, or even be very aware of, a Lenovo. The people they're going after are going to keep buying Apples and Dells and HPs, meanwhile they're going to lose the customers that want traditional Lenovo qualities. And this seems to be a common trend with Lenovo these days, as I've said this same exact thing not that long ago about another of their new laptop designs.

[Steve W]

Looks like someone in the Lenovo organization wants the Thinkpad line to evolve beyond its corporate, productivity image.  But I thought that was what the Thinkbook was for.  Whoever is leading Lenovo's brand management and marketing organization doesn't seem to know what they're doing.  If they'd streamline the product offering with fewer laptop models and brands, keep what's good about these laptops (keyboard, build quality, serviceability and connectivity), then the Thinkpad line should do quite well.  But who knows, maybe Thinkpad sales have been eroding and they are trying to save it with these new, but crappier variations every year.  But I don't think it's working.

[Hunter2020]

I have 5 ThinkVison desktop monitors.  Lenovo is the only brand monitor I ever owned.  My impression of ThinkPad is generally they're for suckers who were/are stuck in the IBM brand era and failed to move on...  But this new Lenovo laptop made my head turn.  It seems to actually want to make me get one.  But I will let ppl be the guinea pigs and wait for 2nd 3rd edition to come out after they identified and fixed the flaws in the 1st ed...

[Alan K]

Whoever is leading Lenovo's brand management and marketing organization doesn't seem to know what they're doing. If they'd streamline the product offering with fewer laptop models and brands, keep what's good about these laptops (keyboard, build quality, serviceability and connectivity), then the Thinkpad line should do quite well.  But who knows, maybe Thinkpad sales have been eroding and they are trying to save it with these new, but crappier variations every year.  But I don't think it's working.

Slow death of the functional keyboard with every iteration, getting rid of 7 row keyboard with properly sized functional keys and decreasing the amount of key travel, will certainly further erode the customer base dependant on the heavy keyboard use. Apple had to admit defeat on its keyboard "inovation" and revert back to their previous one which was usable for the most part. If Apple( or any other well known laptop manufacturer like Framework ;D) would go further to put some effort in getting the key travel and feedback right to be comparable to what "former" Thinkpads had to offer then this would be yet another large nail to lenovo's coffin. Same as you I do wonder who runs this company, is there any focus at all? Even just entering their website makes me wonder what were they trying to achieve with it, it is a utter mess! Keyboard functionality and feedback, reliability, upgradeability and repairiability. Focus on these dear lenovo!

[bansheedriver]

If this is a business laptop then why the keyboard lacks dedicated PageUp/PageDown keys? Why functional keys are so small?

Why there are no mousepad buttons ? Are we back to t440 failed design?

This one I would not buy.

[Anonym]

If this is a business laptop then why the keyboard lacks dedicated PageUp/PageDown keys?

Because the current layout is beyond frustrating when editing large documents, it's far too easy to press the PageUp/PageDown keys when trying just to use the ArrowLeft/ArrowRight to adjust the typing cursor, causing a jarring movement that leaves you cursing whomever the eff made the stupid decision of placing those keys there. You still have the PageUp/PageDown keys, just press Fn+ArrowUp/Fn+ArrowDown -- IMHO this is a far better solution than the current Thinkpad keyboard and a major reason the prefer this model for productivity.

[Saars]

This laptop should fail. "Targets young generation"... Why do they think the young generation hates functionality and good design decisions? Or is their strategy to make it different for the sake of being different? Or copying Apple because they aren't confident in their ideas? Copying Apple isn't necessarily a good thing, they routinely downgrade functionality of their products and it's a non-sensical trend and has nothing to do with what the younger generation wants... Voting with your wallet also is not a thing, the manufacturers make these decisions and use sales to artificially confirm their bias that "this is what people want".

- It has no ports. Whoever thought it was a good idea to rely on dongles and hubs for everything need to stop designing laptops. The entire point of a laptop is to be functional, not something you put on a shelf on display and not use.

- The keyboard layout is downgraded. No Page Up and Page Down above arrows. No rounded key-faces.

- No trackpad buttons. ThinkPads (and various other laptops) had a great advantage putting the trackpad buttons above the trackpad, the ergonomics of this is so much better.

- Memory is soldered to the board...

- No ECC even though the support is already there. We are 99 % there, just do the extra 1 % and make laptops so much more better.

- Serviceability thrown out the window?

They waste such a good chipset and CPU platform on such a silly laptop which only looks like a bad MacBook Pro immitation. One USB port, as the only IO port, is an atrociously bad and backwards design.

Why do they insist on downgrading new laptops? Technology should become better, not worse!