Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Tablet 2nd Gen

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2

MSRP $1,449.00

"Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Tablet is a workhorse 2-in-1, but it's too expensive."

Pros

• Solid productivity performance
• Splendid detachable keyboard
• Unique expansion options
• Fanless design
• Strong build quality test for MIL-SPEC 810G

Cons

• Not as sleek equally Surface Pro
• Can go hot when working hard
• Brandish doesn't measure upward for the cost
• Battery life is only ok

Microsoft wanted Windows 2-in-1s to happen then badly that it stopped waiting for the OEMs and built its ain. Later years of mixed results, devices like the Surface Pro and the Surface Book are widely regarded today, showing the world but how useful a Windows tablet tin can be. That has left computer manufacturers in the odd position of trying to take hold of up with Microsoft, their longtime partner – and increasingly, they're succeeding.

Lenovo's latest Surface competitor, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet, is currently in its second generation, and could be one of the recent success stories. The device, which comes consummate with a ThinkPad keyboard and ThinkPad Pen Pro, starts at $1,449 with a 7th-generation Intel Core i5-7Y54 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128G SSD. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet review unit we received, priced at $one,689, was upgraded to Intel's Cadre i5-7Y57, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. That places information technology at nigh $130 less than the price of the similarly equipped Microsoft Surface Pro.

Tin can the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 manage to be a tablet and a ThinkPad, all at once? And is in that location any reason to get this over a Surface Pro?

Effective, though disruptive at commencement

The ThinkPad make has had a particular look since the 90s, and Lenovo has ever been careful to respect that aesthetic. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 brings that wait to the tablet market, with some obvious influence from the Surface Pro line thrown in. The result is exactly what y'all'd expect when you lot hear the words "ThinkPad tablet," right down to the defined corners and the iconic face of the keyboard, consummate with the obligatory ruby dot.

When nosotros kickoff picked up the ThinkPad X1 Tablet, we were slightly puzzled. The keyboard attachment and the tablet were easy to identify, and putting them together isn't rocket science by any means. A secure magnetic latch snaps into place and holds business firm. Merely to sit everything on a desk or table, the user needs to unlock the metal kickstand on the back of the tablet that serves every bit a sturdy counterweight. The mechanism's workings aren't obvious at a glance.

Once you lot piece of work this out, using the ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 is easy. To conform the angle of the screen, users must avoid the urge to tilt the screen itself and instead adapt the kickstand. The hinge is solid, and its presence ways the keyboard doesn't have to serve equally counterweight to the tablet, which saves both space and weight. Overall, the blueprint is merely as solid equally typical for the ThinkPad line, with the machine tested to run into MIL-SPEC 810G requirements for durability.

This otherwise top-heavy tablet works comfortably docked on a desk, or even your lap. The Lenovo too differs from the Surface Pro and like machines in that the kickstand swivel is at the lesser rather than the heart of the chassis. The kickstand therefore levers downwards to lay flat on a surface — which does tend to brand it a more comfortable laptop feel than Microsoft's pattern.

The tablet is 11.45 by 8.24 inches, and weighs 2.four pounds with the keyboard attached, dimensions that are the same as the original model. The tablet itself is .33 inches thick, which is the same every bit the Surface Pro and slightly thicker than the iPad Pro'south .27 inches. The ThinkPad X1'southward keyboard attachment is .twenty inches thick, and so everything is just over a one-half inch thick when docked and closed.

These dimensions make the ThinkPad X1 Tablet relatively large and heavy for a two-in-1. However, a total thickness of a half-inch with keyboard isn't massive, and the size never bellyaching us. Overall, the ThinkPad X1 manages to be similar a tablet and a ThinkPad all at once, which isn't easy to pull off.

All the input devices, please

Our ThinkPad X1 Tablet came with five distinct input devices. In that location's the touchscreen, the optional ThinkPad Pen Pro, and the keyboard zipper, which in addition to its keys offers a touchpad and a trackpointer.

The touchscreen felt nifty in our tests. The surface was smoothen and consistent, equally you'd expect, and gestures were all correctly identified. And if you lot want more precision than your greasy fingers tin offer, the ThinkPad Pen Pro delivers. It makes stylus input quite natural, and works well with the Windows 10 desktop thanks to its built-in buttons for right and left clicking. Hover a fleck above the screen and you lot'll come across a arrow, which makes it piece of cake to avoid accidentally tapping a button or icon. Naturally, the Pen Pro supports all of the usual Windows ten Ink functionality.

The design is just as solid as usual for the ThinkPad line, highlighted past MIL-SPEC 810G immovability testing.

While the ThinkPad X1 Tablet keyboard doesn't quite mensurate upwardly to the keyboard on a ThinkPad laptop, it comes close. The keys are what y'all'd expect from a ThinkPad. They're well-spaced, and give enough feedback for bear on typists to develop a flow. Of form, certain compromises had to exist made to fit a keyboard into a pocket-size encompass, so don't wait the full ThinkPad keyboard experience. The depth of each keystroke is noticeably shorter, which dampens the tactile feel. Having said that, this is the closest thing to a ThinkPad keyboard available for any tablet, and is amongst the nicest tablet keyboards we've used.

The keyboard is backlit with ii brightness levels and an ambience light sensor for automatic brightness, though backlighting is disabled past default. To enable it, you'll need to concur "Fn" and hit "Infinite," which are easy plenty keys to find in the nighttime. Speaking of the keys, some were in odd places, such equally the left Fn and Ctrl keys that are reversed and take some real getting used to.

Some magnets placed in the keyboard cover snap onto the bezel, giving you a pleasant bending for typing. Typing is easier at an angle, just this system does create some keyboard flexing that makes typing a bit louder. That could be a trouble if y'all're using the tablet abreast a sensitive neighbor.

Nib Roberson/ Digital Trends

Nib Roberson/ Digital Trends

The touchpad is quite small, two past three and a one-half inches. Input was accurate, and the texture is pleasant. As with most ThinkPad touchpads, it's smaller than information technology could be because of the need to offer buttons to trackpointer users. Speaking of, there'due south the trackpoint, the longtime staple of the ThinkPad line. It honestly seems similar an anachronism on a tablet, merely nosotros're sure longtime ThinkPad fans volition savour its inclusion. It works well, every bit usual, with smooth tracking that offers some other efficient control choice.

Users hoping to login to their tablet without a touchpad volition enjoy the Windows How-do-you-do uniform fingerprint reader. It's located next to the brandish on the correct-paw side, so it's readily attainable no matter how you're using the 2-in-ane device.

Not many ports, simply you tin can purchase attachments for more

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet offers one USB iii.0 port on the side of the tablet itself, aslope a USB type-C port for connecting the tablet to a power supply. A mini-DisplayPort makes it possible to connect external displays, and a headphone jack works with external speakers. There'south as well a microSD port.

Battery life was improved over the previous model simply could certainly exist amend.

At that place are no ports whatever on the keyboard, but Lenovo has left room for more with a unique module system. You lot can snap attachments between the keyboard and the tablet, giving you actress features.  A $150 productivity module gives you an HDMI port, a Onelink+ Port for docking, some other USB three.0 port, and a two-cell battery rated for five additional hours of usage. Another attachment offers a built-in projector. Nosotros weren't able to try whatsoever of these attachments out, but they're interesting in concept.

Wireless capabilities are handled past the Intel 8265AC+BT menu, which provides ii×2 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity. In that location'due south as well a NanoSIM port for adding in cellular connectivity.

The display gets the chore done

The 12-inch brandish offered by the ThinkPad X1 Tablet offers a resolution of 2,160 by 1,440, which is generous. The display is unchanged on the updated version. Despite being relatively small, there always seems to be room to work.

At total effulgence, the ThinkPad X1 puts out 389 nits, which is infrequent. Using this device exterior shouldn't be a trouble. The contrast was 740:one at max brightness, which is fairly average today and nowhere close to the absurd 381,430:1 rating of the Samsung Milky way Book 12 (which has an OLED display), and too considerably behind others like Microsoft's Surface Pro at 1180:1.

Color is more than of an issue. Our results showed the Tablet X1 Gen 2 hit only 69 percent of the AdobeRGB standard, which isn't terrible, but is one of the lower results we've seen among high-end devices lately. The sRGB calibration rating was 93 percent, which is also below average for the class. Microsoft'southward Surface Pro hit 71 percent and 96 percent, and Samsung's Galaxy Book 12 hit 98 and 100 pct, respectively. Color accuracy wasn't bad, however, at 1.99, although scores less than 1.0 are considered splendid in this exam.

Nib Roberson/ Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/ Digital Trends

Numbers are ane thing. Experience is another. While the X1 doesn't quite measure upward on newspaper, information technology's even so skillful enough to deliver an enjoyable experience, and it's certainly a great productivity feel with its sharpness and solid — albeit slightly muted — colors.

Moving on to live action, we watched the trailer for Star Trek Beyond. It was piece of cake to make out every detail of the unnecessary chaos and carnage, even in darker scenes with a lot of shadow. The spirit of exploration and hopefulness that one time divers this franchise could not be detected, merely that is no fault of the display.

If annihilation, the ThinkPad X1'southward lackluster showing is testify of how far mobile PC displays take come. You lot might think information technology'due south fine if information technology'south all yous ever saw. When placed adjacent to a Surface Pro or Samsung Galaxy Book, though, its flaws are like shooting fish in a barrel to discover.

Grab your headphones. Seriously.

Sound is a different matter. Everything is articulate and like shooting fish in a barrel to make out, but bass and midrange tones are muddled. You lot tin can't really rock out to these speakers, merely you'll be able to make out music or podcasts from across the room. External speakers or headphones are highly recommended.

Of class, many small PCs suffer speaker woes. Yet we've noticed some improvement in this area. The Samsung Galaxy Book was very strong, and Huawei'south super-sparse Matebook X laptop delivers incredible volume for its size.

A powerful mobile processor

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 is at present powered by a seventh-generation Intel Core i5-7Y57 processor. The Core Y-Serial (which used to be labeled with the G designation) isn't equally powerful as the better-known Core i5 and i7, as it seeks to residue functioning with amend bombardment life.

In Geekbench iv, the ThinkPad's single core rating was 3,837 and the multi-core score was 7,163, which are both competitive with the comparison group, excluding the excellent score posted by the new Surface Pro and it'due south full-speed Core i7. The ThinkPad X1 tin keep upward with nigh Windows 10 tablets on the market right at present, at least in this benchmark.

Performance was skilful enough that we forgot this entire machine was crammed into a tablet form factor.

Our more enervating Handbrake test, however, which encodes a 420MB video file to H.265 format, tells a unlike story. In this test, The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 took 1,810 seconds to complete the run, which is 2d only to the Dell XPS 13 ii-in-1 that, surprisingly, uses the somewhat faster Cadre i7-7Y75. Other Intel Core-based systems posted much stronger scores, demonstrating that there's a reason why the Core Y-Series is reserved to thin systems.

In solar day-to-24-hour interval usage, however, performance was good plenty that nosotros forgot this entire machine was crammed into a tablet course gene. Browsing the web and writing were no problem, and neither were more than demanding productivity tasks. We only wouldn't suggest you consider the machine if you need to perform more than processor-intensive tasks such as video encoding. For that kind of work, the Surface Pro is a much better tablet pick.

Some other important annotation is that this version of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet is fanless, just like the previous version. That means information technology stays completely silent no matter the workload. The back of the motorcar does become hot, yet. That's not as much of a business with this class of machine when it's upright on your lap, but it tin get uncomfortable when y'all're holding it in your hands.

Very solid country performance

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen two stepped up to the excellent Samsung PM961 solid-land disk (SSD), which is an comeback over the previous model's Samsung 1000.2 2280 SSD. Our review unit was equipped with the 256GB version of this drive, which is of import, because the 128GB model uses the much slower SATA connection.

How fast is the bulldoze? Simply put, information technology's a meaning comeback over the previous model. Our CrystalDiskMark benchmark showed a read speed of 1,478 megabytes per second, which is a very good score, although a petty low for this SSD. Write speed came in at i,237 MB/south, which is but an excellent score. That places the ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 on solid footing compared to its competition.

In exercise, the machine was just as fast equally expected. Information technology boots rapidly, and opening and saving files was quick and efficient. You won't detect storage speed to exist an upshot with this detachable tablet.

Not much for gaming

There'southward not a lot of room for defended graphics cards within tablets, and so they're powered by on-board graphics. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen ii uses Intel Hard disk drive graphics 615, which isn't a powerhouse.

Not surprisingly, the Lenovo met our very low expectations. Its Fire Strike score of 688 is nigh what you'd expect, and slightly below the typical tablet. The Surface Pro's Intel Iris Plus graphics were far more than powerful in this test, equally was the detached Nvidia GeForce 940MX GPU in the much larger HP Spectre x360 xv 2-in-1.

To meet how this 2-in-i handles real-globe gaming, we fired up Civilization Half-dozen. We started at Total Hard disk (i,920 x 1,080) resolution and Medium graphics options and not resolution, and proceeded to watch what was substantially a slide show. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen two could only manage seven.seven frames per second (FPS) on these settings, which dropped to a little more than half when we ran the criterion on Ultra graphics settings.

Apparently, detachable tablets aren't meant for running modern games, and Lenovo'south latest version is no different. You lot tin play some coincidental games and older titles if you like, simply certainly don't take hold of a tablet if hardcore gaming is anywhere on your horizon.

Light on its feet

This tablet weighs two.4 pounds when docked with the keyboard, and is just over a half-inch thick total. Information technology can easily fit in your bag, and is light enough that you'll wonder multiple times during a long trip whether you've forgotten information technology somewhere. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 retains the 37 watt-hour bombardment of the previous model, which was a bit underwhelming in terms of longevity.

Lenovo'southward upgrade to Intel's more efficient seventh-generation CPU did better battery life. On our Peacekeeper bombardment benchmark, which runs several browser-based tasks on a loop until the battery ultimately dies, gave the states 5 hours and two minutes, a stronger score than the last version's three hours and four minutes of bombardment life. That puts the machine in a much more than competitive position.

The new model fell off a bit in our web browsing loop, during which a number of pop websites are loaded automatically until the battery dies. It lasted simply v hours and 20 minutes, compared to the previous model's five hours and 46 minutes. The Gen 2 model battery redeemed itself a bit while looping a movie trailer, lasting eight hours and xvi minutes compared to the first generation's seven hours and 40 minutes.

Bill Roberson/ Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/ Digital Trends

The improvements put the ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 in somewhat better standing against its competition. The Surface Pro, for example, ran for five hours and 21 minutes in our Peacekeeper test, merely nineteen minutes longer than the Lenovo, with an nigh identical difference in our web browsing test. And the ThinkPad X1 Tablet surpassed the Samsung Galaxy Volume 12 on both tests.

The Lenovo did autumn short in our video looping test, however. Both the Surface Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Book 12 exceeded 10 hours, while the ThinkPad X1 Tablet barely bankrupt the viii-60 minutes mark. That's not a terrible score simply it does fall short of its main competition.

Overall, battery life was improved over the previous model, merely could certainly be ameliorate, which is probably why Lenovo is selling an attachment with an extra battery.

Software

Lenovo didn't overburden the ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2, a Microsoft Signature Edition unit, with much extraneous software. In improver, to the usual Microsoft first-party Windows x apps and handful of games, at that place are a couple of useful Lenovo utilities. The Lenovo Settings app, in detail, is handy for getting at specialized settings like the Intelligent Cooling office that tin go on things from getting too hot and the microphone settings to suppress keyboard racket while recording and optimize for voice communications.

Warranty

Lenovo offers a one-year warranty for the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen ii, which is standard for laptops and tablets.

Our Accept

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet is not a perfect 2-in-ane, but it is a good one. It offers a robust build that's more resistant to dings and dents than well-nigh tablets, and its detachable keyboard is superior to well-nigh. It'south held dorsum, all the same, by a mediocre display and so-so battery life, two traits important to every tablet.

Is there a better alternative?

The most obvious competitor to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen ii is Microsoft'due south new Surface Pro. They're both priced similarly, for example. Our X1 review unit with an Intel Core i5-7Y57 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD came in at $1,689. A similarly equipped Surface Pro with a faster Intel Cadre i5-7200U CPU goes for $1,299. However, Lenovo includes the keyboard and pen, while Microsoft'south Signature Type Encompass is $160 and Surface Pen is $100. That means the ThinkPad X1 Tablet is simply $130 more.

The Surface Pro wins out in terms of operation and battery life, however. It'south significantly faster, particularly in more processor-intensive tasks, even though it uses a full-power processor, it also lasts longer on a charge thank you to its larger bombardment. And, its brandish is significantly ameliorate than the i used on the ThinkPad X1 Tablet — really, information technology'south not even close. Unless you demand the ThinkPad's more robust design, then it's difficult to recommend over Microsoft's offering.

A 360-caste ii-in-1 is also a viable alternative to a detachable tablet today, and they tend to be a footling more than reasonably priced. The HP Spectre x360 13, for example, is one our favorites, and it runs a more compelling $i,090 with the same components and a 4K UHD (3,840 10 2,160) display. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-i is some other neat option, and information technology too is a bit more attractively priced at $1,400.

How long will it last?

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 benefits from its USB Blazon-C port, generous connectivity add-ons, and durability. Its functioning and battery life are enough to keep you going for years, at least in today's and tomorrow'due south productivity tasks. All in all, the automobile is a solid long-term investment.

Should yous purchase it?

Only if you demand a MIL-SPEC tested tablet with numerous connectivity options. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 2 is durable, and has many useful add together-ons that most competitors don't even try to offer. All the same, the X1 falls behind the Surface Pro in key areas, and it's incredibly expensive.

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Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Tablet 2nd Gen,

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-tablet-review/

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