Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G3 laptop review: Alder-Lake makes business convertible worse

[Redaktion]

The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G2 was one of our top-rated ThinkPad laptops last year. The ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 3 successor, with its Alder Lake CPU, still does many things right, but some things have also become worse in the business convertible.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X13-Yoga-G3-laptop-review-Alder-Lake-makes-business-convertible-worse.726536.0.html

[davidm]

This is confusing. I was excited to see this review because I'm considering the X13, but then I realized it's for last year's model. The X13 Yoga Gen 4 can be ordered today, and it has been redesigned, so I can't even use this incrementally. 

Notebookcheck has the best reviews on the web, but not if they're a year out of date...

[Not]

In short, the usual lenovo disappointment. The only benefit is low weigth (relatively), but that's not due to any particular efforts by lenovo, but simply because the screen and thus chassis and components are smaller and lighter.
Typically poor webcam, poor port layout, poor speaker placement (seem their fantastic 'speaker bar' from consumer yoga 9i never made it to the thinkpad line). Poor (thin) pen since at least yoga x1, around... 2014 (!). Repairability, which was one of the flagship features, is GONE. No word on whether keyboard retracts, I guess not, they killed off this feature around yoga x1 gen 3 (alongside sd card reader). And it's ironic how the keyboard is described as great. Perhaps it is, when compared to all current 'keyboards', but it's EXTREMELY poor in comparison to 'the' keyboards (and you'll know, if you're a long-term thinkpad user).
And then, colour - it's all very well to write about 'high quality' appearance when you review a fresh out of the box slab, but I've seen quite a few used x1 yogas over the last year, and the grey (or stormgrey) looks fugly (scratched, paint flaking off the edges, etc). Then I'm looking at my SERIOUSLY used x220, and sure scratches are there, but it's all black on black.
I think Lenovo just got lazy, they have exhausted all the ideas they inherited from IBM laptops, and they're just happy to be a 'metoo' herd follower rather than a leader of the pack. This is ok, stable revenue, etc, but from my perspective, lenovo has lost the edge over other brands, and they're no longer attractive to me.

[Neenyah]

poor port layout

What's wrong with it? Most users are right-handed so that side is mostly free, the headphone jack is on the right spot (because when it's on the left your headphone's cord keeps going over/around/everywhere your left hand and when it's on the right you don't even touch it once), everything but the (micro)SD reader is available... I'm using almost identical layout on my X1 Carbon and I love it so what am I missing here?

Edit: I'm not a fan of convertibles, never used any for more than couple of minutes, so no idea if the layout is bad because of that.

[kek]

Until Framework starts eating into their lucrative IT market, they wont get their sh*t together and design a proper product.

[LL]

I prefer the ports on the back plus 1 common  usb or thunderbolt in each side.

[Neenyah]

But ports on the back would mean disconnecting everything out when rotating the screen to get this: notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Lenovo/ThinkPad_X13_Yoga_G3/DSC_0611.JPG

🤨

[Mr Majestyk]

For something called the Thinkpad, you'd have expected more thought to go into the design. Lenovo is way over-rated and their QC is really poor. Frequent complaints of having to take a laptop in 3-4x with issues to get one working correctly. Also loo at security issues and Lenovo is always near the top of the list of issues.

[n.]

poor port layout

What's wrong with it?

re. poor port layout:
1. it's a mobile device for travelling, where wall plugs are in various... locations. If it happens to be on your left - lucky! If it happens to be on your right, well, tough, so:
2. usb-c port is the ONLY power source, and both of them are located on one side only. Wouldn't it not make sense to position one port on EACH side (let alone, God, who would have thought - at the back?!) Well, perhaps it would, but hey, it's lenovo, they buy the cheapest off-the-shelf motherboard solution there is.
3. plus the fact that usb-c cable design as power-supply is extremely poorly implemented solution, as those cables come with LONG, stiff tips. This significantly increases the risk of port damage when the cable is pulled / tugged violently - this is not unlikely in public places (typical settings: airport lounge, cafe, etc.).

[Neenyah]

re. poor port layout:

Makes sense n., fair points 👍 Although I would add that I really don't see a benefit of back/rear ports here in this case because it's a convertible so flipping that screen around would mean unplugging everything out, then plugging back in... For a normal laptop - definitely. It's probably something with "must be so smol!!" obsession because larger gaming laptops (Legion 5/5 Pro as example) have no issues with having useful stuff on the back.

And yeah I'm definitely with you on about how easy is to break type C ports when charging, it's really unnecessary to use that option as the only option when there is so many superior alternatives (like Surface Connect or MagSafe; while they are proprietary no one is stopping other manufacturers to make their own version of it). But hey, it would last longer for many more less-careful people, meaning them less often buying a new device, equals to less $$$$ for OEMs.