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X1 ThinkPad Yoga Gen 5 Review

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  • Beautiful 4K touch screen
  • Exemplary keyboard
  • Stylus pen onboard
  • Top-quality construction
  • Great connectivity

LENOVO THINKPAD X1 YOGA GEN 5 SPECS

Laptop ClassConvertible 2-in-1, Business
ProcessorIntel Core i7-10610U
Processor Speed1.8 GHz
RAM (as Tested)16 GB
Boot Drive TypeSSD
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)512 GB
Screen Size14 inches
Native Display Resolution3840 by 2160
Touch Screen
Panel TechnologyIPS
Variable Refresh SupportNone
Screen Refresh Rate60 Hz
Graphics ProcessorIntel UHD Graphics
Wireless Networking802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), Bluetooth
Dimensions (HWD)0.59 by 12 by 8.5 inches
Weight3 lbs
Operating SystemWindows 10 Pro
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)7:47

The 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Yoga is Lenovo’s flagship 2 in one Hybrid laptop for business, the convertible cousin of the multiple-award-winning ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It features impeccable engineering and design, plus all the manageability an IT department could desire. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5 seen here upgrades from 8th to 10th Generation Intel silicon and from Wi-Fi 5 to 6.

This machine has a quad-core, 1.8GHz (4.9GHz turbo) Core i7-10610U vPro CPU, 16GB of memory, a 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) IPS Dolby Vision HDR 400 touch panel with 500 nits of brightness. Two in-between screens are available, one a 1080p privacy screen and the other with WQHD (2,560 by 1,440) resolution, as is a 1TB drive. Windows 10 Pro is standard, mobile broadband is optional. 

Specs are here: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_X1_Yoga_Gen_5/ThinkPad_X1_Yoga_Gen_5_Spec.PDF

Like other ThinkPads’, the X1 Yoga’s machined aluminum chassis has survived MIL-STD 810G torture tests for shock, vibration, sand and dust, and temperature and humidity extremes. The screen barely wobbles when tapped in laptop mode, and there’s virtually no flex if you grasp its corners or press the keyboard deck. At 3 pounds, the Lenovo is relatively light for a 14-inch convertible, though heftier than the 2.4-pound ThinkPad Carbon clamshell. It measures 0.59 by 12 by 8.5 inches.

Two Thunderbolt 3 ports, either suitable for the USB Type-C power adapter, are on the left, along with USB 3.2 Type-A and HDMI ports, an audio jack, and a connector for a proprietary Ethernet dongle ($35). The right edge holds a Kensington lock slot, an always-on USB-A 3.2 port, the niche for storing and recharging the provided pen, and the power button. A fingerprint reader and a face-recognition webcam give you two ways to access Windows Hello logins.

ThinkPads have the finest keyboards in portable computing, and the X1 Yoga is no exception. The backlit keyboard has a snappy typing feel, with cursor arrow keys in the proper inverted T and dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys, as well as handy top-row keys for controlling brightness, volume, microphone mute. You have a choice of the embedded TrackPoint pointing stick, with its three buttons south of the space bar, or a buttonless touchpad. Both glide smoothly and navigate easily.

The 4K touch screen is a highlight, with plenty of brightness, good contrast, and nicely white backgrounds. Colors are rich and well saturated (Lenovo says the display covers 90% of the DCI-P3 gamut), and fine details crystal clear. Viewing angles are broad. A tiny sliding shutter covers the 720p webcam. Speakers on the bottom front of the machine have an excellent loud sound. Battery life gets just shy of 8 hours which isn’t bad for a laptop with a 4K display.

There’s a lot to like about the ThinkPad Yoga Gen 5, and its keyboard and screen are simply as good as it gets among business convertibles. It is a desirable 2-in-1 laptop for the enterprise.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 AMD Gen 3 Further Testing

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I thought it was time to do a little testing on the Power Management, Temps, and speed of this machine. It is built to deliver speed, reliability, and quality. I wanted to see what would happen if I stressed the machine. It handled everything very well.

I mentioned this in the first look, but it deserves more credit. Lenovo replaced the dedicated port for the Ethernet adapter with a standard USB-C 3.2 port, which allows much more usage. It shows that Lenovo does listen to the user feedback. Anything that isn’t covered in this write-up should have been included in the First Look Write-up which is here:

https://topmahof.com/2022/08/07/thinkpad-x13-amd-gen-3-first-look/
Power in on the left, USB-C 3.2 next to it.

The first thing I did was take a reading of everything at idle, one browser window open and OneDrive downloading in the background.

At idle.

The next thing to do was to stress it. This is it being stressed within 10 minutes of starting the test.

Temps at 60C, Fan still slow, not noisy at all.

This image is of running the stressing for 40 minutes. At no time did the temps get above 70C. There was some throttling of the CPU.

After 40 minutes of stressing.

This last image is the machine back to idle.

At the end.

It looks to me like Lenovo and AMD have figured out the Power Management issues that plagued early AMD machines. There was no lagging, throttling, or freezing while this was going on. Hardly any fan noise at all, there was heat coming out of the vent, but the fans didn’t make much noise at all.

With everything considered, this is a very powerful cool running computer in a small form factor. So much power in such a small machine. I would like to see how the Intel version stacks up against this one. I ran this test on battery only to see what the battery draw would be and it lost about 10% during the hour of testing. So, battery life for this machine should be very long even if you are stressing the machine.

ThinkPad X13 AMD Gen 3 First Look

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The new ThinkPad X13 is designed to deliver speed and reliability. This AMD version has excellent cooling and very good battery life. This computer can be configured in many different ways. This machine has the following specs:

AMD Ryzen 7 6000 Pro

Windows 11 Pro

Integraded Radeon 600M Graphics

FHD IR camera with webcam privacy shutter and HPD (Human Presence Detection)

32GB LPDDR5 Dual Channel RAM

54.7Wh Battery

XQXGA 16:10 Display (2560×1650) Low Power IPS

Datasheet is below:

It came with a USB-C to Ethernet adapter and the USB-C Power supply. (65 Watt)

As for ports, on the left side is from left to right: USB-C 4.0, USB-C 3.2, Full size HDMI 2.0b, USB-A 3.2, and 1x Audio (headphone and microphone combo jack)

On the right side is a USB-C 3.2 port and a Nano Kensington lock slot.

This machine supports Windows Hello, the IR camera supports Facial Recognition, (1080p) and the start button incorporates a Fingerprint Reader. It has ThinkPad PrivacyGuard.

It also has a backlit keyboard.

The following image shows the differences between the Generation 2 and the Generation 3.

This comes with a User Facing Dolby Audio Speaker system and 2x FarField Microphones. The Microphones are at the top of the display on either side of the camera.

There is no screen wobble, no chassis flex, this machine feels sturdy for how thin it is. At no time do the screen colors look like anything except the colors that they are. You can order this in Black or Storm Grey. Battery life on this machine is great, I was able to get 10 hours while running 3 YouTube movies and having about 25 tabs open in Chrome. At no time did the temps go over 65 degrees C while doing this.

AMD has come a long way from their early days, it looks like they have gotten it down to a science. The only thing I see lacking is Thunderbolt support for the USB-C ports. The temps and power work together nicely, this is an excellent machine.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 i

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The new ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 i is built to deliver speed and reliability while maintaining very good battery life and extreme portability. There are many great improvements this year and one of the best ones is the move to 16:10 panels. This machine can be configured in many different ways. This unit has the following specs:

  • 11th gen Intel i7 vPro CPU
  • 13.3″ XQXGA Low Power IPS (400 nit, 100%sRGB, Low Blue Light Display
  • 16GB RAM LPDDR4x (4266Mhz)
  • 1TB SSD PCIe Gen 4
  • WQXGA display
  • FHD IR hybrid camera with webcam privacy shutter
  • Wifi 6E
  • 5G Wireless
  • Larger 55WHr battery
  • Backlit (Optional) keyboard with 1.5mm stroke

The X13 offers many ways to customize components. Between processor, memory, storage, and display options, the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 i gives you nearly limitless configurations to help build the ideal machine.

Side viewing angles on the screen are very good, even with direct light shining on it. The added real estate to the screen from the 16:10 is excellent.

Other hardware that came in the box with this were the 65 Watt USB-C Power Adapter and the cable adapter for the Ethernet.

Ports on the left side of the X13 from left to right include: USB-C Thunderbolt 4 Power, Thunderbolt 4, Ethernet port for the adapter, HDMI, USB-A, and a microphone headphone combo jack.

Port on the right side is a USB-A. The heat exhaust is next to it. There is a micro kensington lock slot to the right of the exhaust.

This comes with a User Facing Dolby Audio Speaker system and 2x FarField Microphones. The Microphones are at the top of the display on either side of the camera.

This comes with a 115 x 61mm TouchPad and it also has the optional backlit keyboard with 1.5mm stroke.

If you are looking for the Fingerprint reader, you won’t find it. It is incorporated into the start button, that should give you almost instant login potential. I found that the Infrared camera with the facial recognition also gives an almost instant login. This one also came with the optional human presence detection that locks the PC when you step away.

There is no screen wobble, no chassis flex, this machine feels sturdy for how thin it is. At no time do the screen colors look like anything except the colors that they are. You can order this in Black or Storm Grey.

Docking systems that are compatible with this machine are the Thunderbolt 4 dock, USB cable dock, and the side mechanical dock.