Lenovo ThinkBook 13x review: All-day battery life

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x (Gen 4) is a 13-inch business laptop designed for portability. The ThinkBook line of laptops is a more affordable alternative to Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPad laptops. But this laptop doesn’t just beat a top-of-the-line ThinkPad on price — it beats it on battery life, too.

The value is definitely here: At $1,106, this ThinkBook is much less expensive than Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It lacks the high-end touches of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it’s an incredibly practical machine for getting work done on the go — or at your desk.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Specs

The ThinkBook is a capable “ultraportable” business laptop. It’s branded as an “Intel Evo” laptop and features a Meteor Lake-based Intel Core Ultra CPU with Intel Arc graphics. Our review model included an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU, but Lenovo also offers this machine with a Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor for another $432. That upgrade seems overboard for a laptop at this price point, and it would make more sense if Lenovo offered this machine with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor as an upgrade instead.

This laptop includes 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM that’s soldered to the motherboard. That’s fine for many purposes, but you can’t get 32GB of RAM without also upgrading to that Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU. This unfortunately isn’t a good machine for you if you need or want 32GB of RAM.

Our review unit also included a 512GB SSD. For an extra $89, you can upgrade that to a 1 TB SSD — that’s reasonable, at least.

While Intel’s Meteor Lake platform includes a neural processing unit (NPU,) Intel’s first-generation NPUs aren’t powerful enough for Windows 11’s upcoming AI features. This laptop won’t get those AI features Microsoft just announced, which are exclusive to Copilot+ PCs. If those features are important to you and  you want an Intel-powered PC, you’ll want to wait for Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware.

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 125H
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X-8400MHz
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc graphics
• Display: 13.5-inch 2880×1920 IPS display with 120Hz refresh rate and touch screen
• Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p webcam with physical webcam shutoff switch
• Connectivity: 3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 1x combo audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello
• Battery capacity: 74 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Weight: 2.7 pounds
• MSRP: $1,106 as tested

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Design and build quality

Lenovo’s ThinkBook 13x has a smart all-metal design, all grays and silvers. The edges are slightly rounded so you don’t have hard metal edges pressing into your hands. The “ThinkBook” name appears on the laptop’s lid and the “Lenovo” brand name appears both below the bottom right area of the laptop’s keyboard and on the lid.

Build quality feels excellent whether you’re holding the laptop in your hand or opening and closing the laptop’s hinge. At the top of the display, the area with the webcam and IR camera sticks out a bit. This reduces the bezel around the display and gives you a good handhold to use while opening the laptop.

At 2.7 pounds, the laptop feels nice and light — but not quite as light as a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, naturally. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is also a more ruggedized design, so it will likely do better in extreme environments. But the ThinkBook will be more than sufficient for the average business traveler.

The ThinkBook 13x has one trick up its sleeve: A “Lenovo Magic Bay” connection at the top of the lid, behind that webcam bar. This lets you connect “Magic Bay” accessories magnetically. Lenovo bundled a Lenovo Magic Bay Light which is designed to provide extra lighting for video calls and other recordings. However, I don’t see Lenovo offering any other Magic Bay accessories for this laptop on its online store, and Lenovo told me available accessories vary between regions.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Keyboard and trackpad

The ThinkBook 13x’s keyboard is a good keyboard and is a pleasure to type on. It’s a good size and the key travel feels reasonably snappy — in other words, the keys don’t feel “mushy” to me.

That said, this definitely isn’t the most premium keyboard I’ve used — Lenovo’s more expensive ThinkPad X1 Carbon definitely offers a snappier and more premium typing experience. But this is a solid keyboard.

The keyboard also has all-white LED keyboard backlighting so you can see the keys in a dark room. However, there’s no red “nub” for controlling the mouse in the middle of the keyboard, as there is on ThinkPads.

Like the keyboard, the trackpad feels response and smooth. It’s not quite as smooth to the touch as the touchpad on that high-end Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it’s definitely something I could be happy using regularly. The click-down action feels right, too.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Display and speakers

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x’s 13.5-inch display is exactly the kind of thing you’re looking for on a portable business laptop. You’re getting a 2880×1920 IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3:2 aspect ratio. That 3:2 aspect ratio is an excellent choice that offers a lot of vertical space for getting work done.

The display also offers up to 500 nits of brightness, which is great to see. It does have a fairly glossy display that’s prone to reflections — which you can see in some of the photos in this review. It’s probably not the best option for use outdoors in direct sunlight, but the high brightness can help compensate.

This display is also a touch screen, which is convenient for scrolling documents and navigating the Windows operating system.

It’s a good-looking screen with a solid resolution, refresh rate, and brightness, along with a good aspect ratio and a touch screen. Sure, this isn’t a beautiful OLED display like the one the ThinkPad X1 Carbon offers — but that’s probably part of why this ThinkBook beats that ThinkPad when it comes to battery life.

The speakers are good for a business laptop, too. Lenovo says they’re Harman Kardon speakers, and you’ve got the Harmon Kardon logo on the laptop. It also supports Dolby Atmos audio. You won’t be replacing your home theater system with this laptop, but you’ve got a good volume and clarity here. I took this laptop on a weekend trip and watched some videos in a hotel room with a noisy air conditioner running a few feet away, and it offered a great watching-videos-in-a-hotel-room experience — a common task for any business laptop!

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x’s webcam looks great for a laptop webcam: It’s a 1080p webcam that puts 720p webcams to shame. You’re probably only going to do better if you hunt down an external 4K webcam. You’ve also got a physical switch for turning off the laptop’s webcam on the right side of the machine, which is a common privacy feature on business laptops.

This machine has a trick up its sleeve with that magnetically attaching Magic Bay Light, too. It offers customizable lighting so you can record videos in a more natural light. I’ll be honest, though — it’s a little fatiguing staring at the laptop’s screen while the Magic Bay Light is shining brightly just above it, so you probably won’t want to use this all the time.

The four-microphone array also offers good, clear sound quality. Between the webcam, microphone, and speakers, this laptop will offer a great experience for online meetings and video calls without any extra accessories.

The ThinkBook 13x includes an IR camera that supports facial recognition with Windows Hello, and it speedily logged me into Windows with my face in a variety of lighting conditions.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Connectivity

Connectivity options on the ThinkBook 13x are a little limited, which is a problem for a business laptop. You’re getting three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports: one on the left side of the laptop, and two on the right. One of them is used for charging the laptop.

Also, you’ve got a combo audio jack on the left side of the machine. That’s it: You won’t find any classic USB Type-A ports here, nor will you find an HDMI port or an SD card reader. For anything even a little off the beaten path, you’ll need a dongle.

Whether this is a big deal is up to you. If you don’t plug in devices much, a thin-and-light laptop with a total of three USB-C ports may be perfectly fine — along with a dongle for when you need it.

For wireless connectivity, the ThinkBook has Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.3 hardware built in. Wi-Fi 7 routers aren’t very widespread yet, so it’s no surprise to see a laptop like this one choose Wi-Fi 6E hardware. But, if future-proof Wi-Fi 7 is a priority to you, this is the wrong machine for you.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Performance

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x handled everyday desktop tasks — web browsers, office applications, and more — with snappy performance. That’s no surprise with the hardware in this laptop. Of course, we ran the Lenovo ThinkBook 13x through our standard benchmarks to measure its performance.

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. This particular benchmark is a little more focused on the CPU, but it tries to measure general system performance. The ThinkBook 13x turned in a great result for an ultraportable laptop, with an overall score of 6,911 — just a little bit behind Lenovo’s much more expensive ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ahead of many other similar laptops in its class.

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage.

The ThinkBook 13x with its Core Ultra 5 CPU delivered a score of 5,117. That’s a stronger result than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and other systems with Core Ultra 7 CPUs.

We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period of time. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.

The Lenovo ThinkBook took 1,174 seconds — that’s about nineteen and a half minutes — to complete the encode process. That’s faster than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, once again. The ThinkBook seems to deliver better cooling than the somewhat smaller and lighter ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which is no surprise. Of course, we also see the larger HP Pavilion Plus deliver great performance here thanks to its cooling ability.

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

The Intel Arc graphics in this machine are faster than previous-generation Intel Iris Xe graphics. But they delivered a higher performance score the Arc graphics in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon — again, this laptop seems to punch above the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s performance in a variety of ways. Cooling is likely a huge factor.

Overall, the ThinkBook 13x’s performance is excellent for a business laptop. Earlier, I wrote that I would like to see Lenovo offer this machine with a Core Ultra 7 CPU as an option. But, seeing how the Core Ultra 5 hardware here is beating so many other Core Ultra 7 systems, there may be no point in that!

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Battery life

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x includes a 74 Watt-hour battery, which is a good size for an ultraportable system. It also delivers excellent battery life in the real world.

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmark. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x lasted for 783 minutes on average. That’s over 13 hours of battery life during video playback — notably better than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Of course, machine will definitely not get 13 hours of battery life under normal use when you’re using web browsers, office applications, and everything else you use. But it should reliably deliver all-workday battery life, which is a huge deal. That’s something the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and a lot of other business laptops can’t reliably deliver, which is a shame — but this machine can.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Conclusion

The ThinkBook 13x is an excellent ultraportable business laptop: It’s a great price and offers high performance along with good keyboard, display, and excellent all-day battery life. The webcam, microphone, and speakers are great for business meetings.

While a machine like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon offers more premium touches with an OLED display and snappier keyboard, I’d say the ThinkBook 13x offers a better overall package with its all-day battery life and better performance benchmarks in a variety of scenarios — not to mention the much lower price.

There are still some catches: If you want more connectivity than three USB-C ports and an audio jack, you’ll need to look elsewhere. If you want more than 16GB of RAM on your laptop, you can’t get more without spending a lot of extra money to also upgrade the CPU.

Still, some people will prefer a lighter laptop with a more beautiful OLED display and snappier keyboard — even if it can’t necessarily deliver all-day battery life under many workloads. The ThinkPad Carbon X1 is still compelling.

But the ThinkBook 13x is a better ultraportable business laptop for most people.