Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2019 WQHD Live Review: Still the reference among business laptops?

[Redaktion]

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is Lenovo's flagship business laptop and primarily convinced us with its portable chassis in recent years, without sacrificing ports or performance. The 7th generation is even more compact and gets new display options. Is the 2019 ThinkPad X1 Carbon with the WQHD screen as successful as the previous models or is the 2018 model the better choice?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2019-WQHD-Live-Review-Still-the-reference-among-business-laptops.427853.0.html

[Hector]

So which one is better worth our money? The 6th or 7th generation?.

The 6th model will come cheaper by now and it seems the only advantage of the 7th generation is the 8th gen CPU which won't really show a big difference against the 7th in terms of performance...

[Filip]

firstly, thanks a lot for the review! Finally something tangible to base our opinion on!

I second Hector's question - which one to choose? I am seldomly watching movies and listening to spotify while working, are those speakers night and day? I am thinking for me even these might be reason enough...

Finally, any ETA on the 4k model for review? And any idea what processor it will have? This is my second biggest concern, if X1C7, will the battery life be half with the 4k compared to WQHD? The reviewed drop is somewhat acceptable, but another 20% is not cool at all...

Thanks!

[wisdomfrees]

So which one is better worth our money? The 6th or 7th generation?.

The 6th model will come cheaper by now and it seems the only advantage of the 7th generation is the 8th gen CPU which won't really show a big difference against the 7th in terms of performance...

6th gen also has a 8th gen CPU. The only difference would be the good speakers on gen 7 sacrificing the battery life but we should see how well they fair. Hopeful to see the sound review soon.

[Aahil]

Is the battery glued in? Is it user replaceable?

[Anonym]

Is the battery glued in? Is it user replaceable?

Not glued in, you can easily replace it by unscrewing the bottom (and then unscrewing the battery). Parts are also readily available from Lenovo, so no issues there.

[Anonym]

6th gen also has a 8th gen CPU. The only difference would be the good speakers on gen 7 sacrificing the battery life but we should see how well they fair. Hopeful to see the sound review soon.

In turn, the 6th gen allows upgrading the Wi-Fi card to Wi-Fi 6 (ax), while you'll be stuck to whatever is soldered from factory in the 7th gen. That alone in making me switch to the AMD machines, which still have replaceable Wi-Fi cards -- but are yet to have TB3. Once USB 4 becomes a thing the portable AMDs will truly become a force to be reckoned with, until then the Intels that still allow to replace the Wi-Fi card are likely the best option.

[Filip]

is that seriously something you would do? with the lifespan of these machines 4-5 years as a primary and then you move it onto someone who uses it as a secondary "holiday" machine, swapping the wifi doesn't make much sense to me...

on the other hand having exponentially better sound a slightly lower weight - or for someone this might be the 4k screen - seems like something you can enjoy every day. Not to mention X1C7 is cheaper in Europe than X1C6 was and therefore you can get i.e. double the SSD for similar amount of money...

Of course everyone has his/her own priorities

[Anonym]

Yes, but I do reckon that being a network engineer may be an influencing factor. A major upgrade such as Wi-Fi 6 is much more important (to me) than better speaker (I use Audio Technica heaphones 99.99% of the time) or a 4K screen (WQHD is already more than enough to write code at 14").

Great machines like this should not be hindered by a part that costs less than 20 euros... Besides, offloading the computer after 4-5 years to a family member does *not* ease my pain of having to manage it.

[Dunco]

Fantastic to have some reliable information on this unit, when can we expect the full review?

Can anyone comment on the trackpad compared to the 6th Gen? I have read they moved to an elan from a synaptic trackpad.Bad trackpad would be a near deal-breaker for me, especially with a worse feeling keyboard as well.

Would the trackpad be interchangeable with the 6th gen trackpad? possible to swap?

Bad decisions here to hit battery life by 10% to fit subwoofers in. Placing the speakers on top would have been enough to address the issue with sound. surely nobody expects amazing sound from a device like this. . .

Also, messing with the keyboard again for an imperceptible reduction in weight and thickness is a really annoying choice and seems insane to me, especially when the device must already be thin and light enough for 99.9% of users.

I would buy a t480/s or t490/s which is obviously where they expect someone with my preferences to go, except that the X1 seems to be the only unit that has the WQHD matte display (which is excellent) and thinkshutter in my region!! can't have it all  ;D

[woooooo]

t480s with i5 still the fastest. 700 points sustained load.

[Velan]

Pease review the 400 nits screen. I'd like to know if PWM is present.

[william blake]

lenovo, in general, means
-best design
-best keyboard
-lowest noise
but man i cant stand 16/9 in a small sized laptops and at this pricepoint
this combo is straight up dumb

[Junqiao Zhao]

How can you install xtu on 8665U platform? My latitude 7200 2in1 with the sku cannot support xtu。

[looking to buy it]

I'm looking forward to the upcoming Linux review - thank you in advance for this!