Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 (2023) Review

Eleven months ago, we gave the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 not only an Editors' Choice award but an ultra-rare five-star rating and the heading, “All right, we'll say it: the world's best laptop.” The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 (starts at $1,391.40; $2,085.99 as tested) is the same superlative business notebook with a 13th instead of 12th Generation Intel processor—and yes, we'll say it again, the best laptop for anything short of demanding workstation apps or hardcore gaming. The Carbon isn't cheap, but it's not overpriced considering its stellar build quality, speedy performance, and feathery portability. It easily repeats its Editors' Choice win in both the business and ultraportable laptop categories.

Only One Component Changed 

Except for the new CPU, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 is the same 14-inch slimline—at 2.48 pounds, it's slightly lighter than the 13.4-inch Dell XPS 13 and 13.6-inch Apple MacBook Air. Crafted from partly recycled magnesium, aluminum, and carbon fiber, it's passed MIL-STD 810H torture tests against travel hazards like shock, vibration, and extreme temperatures.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Its cost on Lenovo.com (and hence its star rating) fluctuated wildly during my work on this review, with the base model plunging from a price-gouging—and I hope mistaken—$2,319 to $1,391.40. That version has an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive, Windows 11 Home, and a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel IPS display.

Our review unit (model 21HM000JUS) is $2,085.99 at CDW, a bit higher or lower at other online sellers, and apparently lower still at Lenovo's online configurator. It steps up to a Core i7-1355U chip (two Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 12 threads), a 512GB SSD, a touch screen, and Windows 11 Pro.

The laptop's memory and storage ceilings are 32GB and 2TB respectively. A third 1,920-by-1,200-pixel screen option provides a built-in privacy filter; other display choices include a slightly dimmer 2,240-by-1,400 IPS panel and touch and non-touch OLED screens with 2,880-by-1,800 resolution. The two 3,840-by-2,400-pixel displays available with the Gen 10 have disappeared. Since 4K resolution is arguably too squinty on a 14-inch laptop, the cut is understandable, but I'm still sad to see them go.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

A fingerprint reader built into the power button and a face recognition webcam with privacy shutter provide two ways to skip typing passwords with Windows Hello. The 0.6-by-12.4-by 8.8-inch ThinkPad has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, either suitable for the AC adapter's USB-C connector, plus USB 3.2 Type-A and HDMI ports on its left side.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

You'll find a second, always-on USB-A 3.2 port, an audio jack, and a security lock slot on the right. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 come standard; if you often roam away from Wi-Fi, 4G or 5G mobile broadband is optional.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This 

The lid attracts fingerprints (and my kitten's paw prints), but the Carbon feels sturdy, with almost no flex if you grasp the screen corners or press the keyboard deck. The display bezels are medium-thin, and the screen barely wobbles when tapped.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Lenovo's webcam records in 1080p resolution and captures slightly soft-focus but well-lit and colorful images, though a bit of static showed in the pattern of my shirt. The included Lenovo View software can enhance the video's brightness and contrast, alert you or blur the screen if someone looks over your shoulder, nag if it sees you slouch, or put a slightly eerie headshot of you in the corner of your PowerPoint presentation or other app.

The display's 16:10 aspect ratio gives you a fractionally larger vertical view compared with older 16:9 laptops—another row of a spreadsheet, say. Regardless, if the screen isn't enough for you, Lenovo provides Mirametrix Glance software to help manage apps on an external monitor. The base-resolution display isn't super-sharp for image editing but fine for office apps, with no pixelation around the edges of letters, wide viewing angles, decent brightness, and fine contrast. Colors are rich and well saturated, and the screen's white backgrounds are clean instead of dingy, helped by the ability to tilt the screen as far back as you like.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Upward-firing speakers (two woofers and two tweeters) flank the keyboard. They pump out fairly loud and clear sound, not tinny or harsh even at top volume though predictably short on bass. Highs and midtones are clear and you can make out overlapping tracks. Dolby Access software provides music, movie, game, voice, and dynamic presets and an equalizer.

ThinkPad keyboards are basically the best in the business, and the Gen 11's is no exception, with bright backlighting and a shallow but snappy typing feel. Keystrokes are quiet and comfortable, and except for the Fn and Control keys in each other's places at bottom left (you can swap them with the supplied Lenovo Vantage software) the layout is faultless, with dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys and cursor arrows in the proper inverted T instead of a row. The top-row function keys include two to place and end Microsoft Teams calls.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Also part of ThinkPad tradition is a choice of dual pointing devices, a somewhat small but smooth, easy-to-click touchpad, and Lenovo's TrackPoint mini joystick embedded in the keyboard with three mouse buttons below the space bar. Both work perfectly. Lenovo Vantage also handles system updates, miscellaneous preference settings, Wi-Fi security, and a function to freeze keyboard and touchpad input for a minute or two while you clean the system.

Testing the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon: Exemplary Productivity 

The Lenovo's traditional archrival for the title of ultimate ultraportable, if not ultimate laptop period, is the Dell XPS 13, whose current model 9315 we reviewed in October 2022. HP sells a powerful corporate-focused competitor, albeit one half a pound heavier, in the HP EliteBook 840 G9. 

Our remaining two spots in our benchmark comparison charts go to laptops even lighter than the X1 Carbon at 2.2 pounds each: the 14-inch Asus ExpertBook B9 and the HP Elite Dragonfly G3, which costs more but has a spiffy, squarer 3:2-aspect-ratio 13.5-inch display.

Productivity Tests 

The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage.

Three other benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while HandBrake 1.4 is an open-source video transcoder we use to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better). Geekbench 5.4.1 Pro by Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. 

Finally, we test for content creation chops with PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Systems, an automated extension to Adobe's Creative Cloud image editor that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated tasks ranging from opening, rotating, and resizing an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

Last year's Carbon actually topped this one in our CPU tests because our Gen 10 unit had a 28-watt (W) Intel P-series rather than 15W U-series processor, but the Gen 11 proved competitive in PCMark 10 and Photoshop. All five laptops proved fine performers for office work and light content creation, though the Core i5 Dell was at a disadvantage against Core i7s, and the Asus something of an underachiever. The ThinkPad put on a decent show here, but we would recommend looking into desktop replacements if you need more power.

Graphics Tests 

We test Windows PC graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). 

Finally, we run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests, rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions, exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.

With their Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, all five of these lightweights emphasize everyday productivity, so their scores here would be blown away by gaming laptops with discrete GPUs. The Lenovo finished in the middle rear, which means it's fine for media streaming but out of its element with most modern mainstream PC games. Likewise, you should seek a creator laptop with a discrete GPU if you need one for editing multimedia.

Battery and Display Tests 

We test laptop battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel(Opens in a new window)) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. 

Additionally, we use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

The Asus ExpertBook showed the most stamina in our battery rundown, with the EliteBook and this ThinkPad not far behind. All five notebooks had displays that proved more than bright and colorful enough for mainstream apps, though not quite ideal for creative pros.

Verdict: Same Old Story Is Still a Thriller

In the Carbon, we continue to be dazzled by how much notebook Lenovo can fit into a 2.48-pound package. While Dell and Apple provide smaller screens (though the latter's is sharper than the ThinkPad's base panel) and only a couple of Thunderbolt ports apiece—with the XPS 13 even lacking an audio jack—the X1 Carbon adds two USB-A ports and an HDMI monitor port, as well as one of the best keyboards on a laptop of any size.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

As we said, the ThinkPad is priced more for enterprise IT buyers than cash-strapped freelancers or small offices. (Lenovo steers the latter toward the ThinkBook line.) It may be worth looking for a deal on a Gen 10 model since the newer processor improves real-world performance only modestly, and it's definitely worth keeping an eye on Lenovo.com's frequent sales and specials. But, if you can get your hands on an X1 Carbon at any price, you're fortunate. It remains the finest all-around laptop available and an Editors' Choice award winner yet again.