The worse the product, the easier the review. In that regard, Lenovo has been making it difficult for everyone for years with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon series of notebooks. Although the combination of powerful hardware in a stylish lightweight design is not unique in the top segment of notebooks, Lenovo often manages to keep the competition just a little behind. But whether that also works when the new version is again just an evolution of the predecessor?
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9
Price € 2049,-
Processor Intel Core i7-1165G7
RAM 16GB
Graphic Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Screen 14 inch ips (1920×1200)
Graphic Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Storage 1 TB SSD (tested with 512 GB SSD) (NVMe 3.0 x4)
OS Windows 10 Pro
webcam 720p camera with PrivacyShutter
Dimensions 31.5 x 22.2 x 14.9 cm
Weight 1.15 kg
Battery 57 Wh
Connections 2 x USB 3.2 (Gen 1), 2 x Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack,
wireless Intel Wi-Fi 6 802.11 AX, bluetooth 5.2, NFC
Website www.lenovo.com
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- design
- Hardware
- Windows Hello webcam
- Webcam Switch
- Weight
- Negatives
- Price
- No LAN port
- No touch screen
The time when a notebook could be inferior to a desktop PC is behind us and will not return due to hybrid working. Everyone works mobile and everyone expects to be able to do so undisturbed for a day without having to worry about battery life or lower performance. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon fits here just fine. The tasteful black housing is, as the type name suggests, made of carbon with a caption attached to the bottom, internally with a magnesium chassis. The notebook is remarkably small and above all extremely lightweight. Excluding the power supply, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon weighs just over a kilo. Deal equally lightweight and especially pleasantly small power supply of 9 x 5 x 3 centimeters and 188 grams only makes the picture more complete. In weight and size, this is the dream of every mobile worker and student.
Specifications
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is available in multiple versions. The tested version is equipped with an Intel Core i7 1165G7 processor from the Tiger Lake series. It has 4 cores, 8 threads and runs at 2.80 GHz with a boost to 4.70 GHz. There is also a version with an Intel Core i5-1145G7 processor with also 4 cores, 8 threads and slightly lower clock frequencies. As usual with a business notebook, an integrated graphics processor is used, in this case the Intel Iris Xe. The notebook has a non-expandable amount of 16 GB DDR4 memory, but it is possible to choose 32 GB for an additional cost of 110 Euros for the online assembly. There is also a variant with 8 GB of RAM. This also applies to the storage, which is available in different sizes. The notebook features a 14-inch anti-glare IPS display with a modest resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. The screen is less suitable for gamers or graphics professionals, but it works perfectly for business use. The image is sharp and remains legible even without increasing the size of text, apps and other items.
Above the display is a 720p webcam with support for Windows Hello. The user can log in password-free to Windows, for example, by having his face scanned. Next to the webcam, in the narrow base of the screen, there is a small slide with which the webcam can be switched off. A nice privacy option, especially because given the design of the laptop, you don’t want to stick a sticker or other blockage of the webcam on the edge of the screen. In addition to biometric login via the webcam, it is also possible with the fingerprint scanner integrated in the on/off button. Windows 10 Pro is included as operating system. The TPM 2.0 module required for Windows Hello is included and, along with the rest of the system’s specifications, guarantees an upgrade to Windows 11 later this year.
High deployability
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a keyboard with the Lenovo well-known light touch and rounded keys. For some unknown reason, the Fn key and the Ctrl key have swapped places on the left. You don’t get used to it, although that will be personal. In the BIOS it is possible to virtually put the keys back in the right place. The backlighting of the keys can be switched off or on in two positions as required. In the middle of the keyboard between the letters G, H and B is the Lenovo typical red TrackPoint. With this small rubber button, a kind of mini-joystick, the mouse can be controlled and in combination with a few keys it is also possible to scroll with it or, for example, activate the magnifying glass. There is no software to further adjust the TrackPoint functionality. However, Lenovo Quick Clean is present. This blocks the keyboard input, but also the TrackPoint and the mouse for a time that you can choose from 1 to a maximum of 10 minutes, which makes it possible to thoroughly clean these devices or to quickly wipe them with a disinfecting cloth. In front of the keyboard is an 11 x 5.5 centimeter touchpad with three buttons above it. The service feels good.
Two upward-facing speakers and two downward-facing woofers are placed on the left and right of the keyboard for the sound. Depending on the musical preference, the sound is sufficient to good, light music and pop score better than blues or rock with heavier basses. Carbon is less suitable as a sound box than the materials used in less-premium notebooks. In addition to the webcam, a microphone is available for collaboration, although a headset remains the better solution, especially for online sessions.
Performance
The performance of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is good, but not outstanding. In PCMark 10, the Lenovo scores 5117 points, making it a great business notebook. In Cinebench R23, the ThinkPad scores 1449 and 4800 points respectively on the single and multicore test. The notebook is equipped with an average 57 Wh battery. In the battery benchmark Modern Office 4 hours and 33 minutes is achieved, but as practice proves, you can quickly work for six hours or more in normal business use. Charging for half an hour also turns out to be enough to continue working for several consecutive hours. The Samsung SSD achieves a score of 2345 in the Full System Drive Benchmark of PCMark 10. The read and write speeds of 4068.68 and 2693.28 MB/s are fine. In the gamers benchmark 3DMark Time Spy, this laptop scores 4799 cpu points with a graphics score of 1596 points. This confirms that this is not a gamers notebook, but is well suited for business use.
Conclusion
Normally we distinguish between luxury horses and work horses, but this Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is both. The hardware leaves little to be desired. Even if the scores are never the highest, they are more than adequate for their intended use and guarantee years of use. At most, more memory or a larger SSD would be a nice adjustment, for example when heavier applications are also going to be used, such as 3D or virtualization. The best time for such adjustments is directly at the time of purchase. Together with the beautiful and especially ultra-compact design, the extremely low weight and the battery life required for a working day, this Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon remains one of the most desirable notebooks, even in its ninth evolution.
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