Lenovo ThinkPad 14" X1 Carbon Gen 13 Review

The Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition is a stunningly portable laptop that's built for the road, not the render farm. The one thing you need to know is that this is a premium ultraportable for business and media, and it nails that brief with a gorgeous OLED screen and a sub-1kg frame. It's not trying to be a gaming rig or a video editing workstation, and that's perfectly fine.

The 32GB of RAM and 2TB SSD are fantastic, landing in the 81st and 93rd percentiles respectively. You'll never feel cramped. The real surprise is the Intel Arc integrated graphics. With 16GB of VRAM, it punches above its weight for an iGPU, hitting the 59th percentile. That means you can do some light photo editing or even play older games, but don't expect miracles. The CPU is solidly mid-pack, which is fine for office work and streaming.

Is it worth it? That depends entirely on the price you find. With vendors listing it anywhere from $1949 to over $2500, you need to hunt for a deal. At the lower end of that range, it's a compelling premium ultraportable. At the high end, you're paying a lot for the OLED and the ThinkPad name.

The most direct competitor is the ASUS Zenbook Duo. It's also a super-portable with a great screen, but its dual-screen gimmick is for a different kind of user. If you want raw power in a similar size, the Apple MacBook Pro 14" with an M4 chip will run circles around this Lenovo in CPU tasks, but you lose the OLED and Windows. And if gaming is any concern, skip this and look at the MSI Vector or Gigabyte AORUS, which are in a completely different performance league.

If you're a business traveler or a commuter who wants the best possible screen in the lightest possible package, and you don't care about gaming, this ThinkPad is an easy recommendation. Just make sure you find it on sale. If you need serious horsepower or plan to game, look elsewhere.