Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (Intel) Review

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (starts at $1,151.40; $1,337.40 as tested for the Intel version) is a decent ultraportable business laptop. Productivity is what this 13.3-incher is all about, with a 16:10 touch screen, a first-rate keyboard, and the best pointing solutions in the business. Its high-quality magnesium shell also makes it quite strong. Unfortunately, middling battery life demerits this would-be road warrior, for which the standard low-capacity battery shares much of the blame. But even had it lasted longer off the plug, our 5-star-rated ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 surpasses it, and that Editors' Choice ringer isn’t necessarily much more expensive depending on Lenovo’s rollercoaster sales. Also consider the Dell XPS 13 Plus as a more stylish option.

Classic ThinkPad X Series on the Outside

Lenovo occasionally tampers with the squared-off ThinkPad formula on special models, like the ThinkPad Z13, but not with a core classic, like the ThinkPad X13. This quintessential X-series has a 13.3-inch screen, a 2.6-pound travel weight, and top-notch input devices for maximum productivity.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

We’re reviewing the clamshell model, but you can also get the X13 as a 2-in-1 convertible in the ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 3. There’s also the ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 with a Snapdragon chip, but its design isn’t closely related to the rest of the X13 line. The Gen 3 unit we purchased has an Intel Core i5-1240P processor, 16GB of memory, a 512GB solid-state drive, and Windows 11 Pro. AMD CPUs are also available. The standard one-year warranty includes onsite service.

Creature comforts are something the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 has in limited supply. Unlike the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10, it doesn’t offer UHD or OLED screens or Dolby Atmos-tuned speakers. That said, its standard 1,920-by-1,200-pixel touch panel has a vivid picture and a practical anti-glare surface. Its speakers, projecting above the keyboard, also produce enjoyable if not room-filling sound.

The FHD 1080p webcam with a privacy shutter above the display has a sharper, better balanced picture than the 720p cams that have plagued laptops for so long. An infrared sensor for facial recognition is optional. (It’s not present on this model as tested.) A helpful biometric fingerprint reader is built into the power button.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

At 0.71 by 12.04 by 8.56 inches (HWD), the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 is similar to the EliteBook 830 G9 (0.76 by 11.81 by 8.46 inches, 2.8 pounds) and has more depth than the 16:9-screened Dell Latitude 7330 (0.66 by 12.07 by 7.87 inches, 2.67 pounds for its aluminum-bodied model).

Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (0.6 by 12.4 by 8.8 inches, 2.48 pounds) is only marginally larger despite using a 14-inch screen. Both it and the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 are thinner than the X13, too.

A Strong and Practical Build

Strong build quality is an X-series hallmark. The ThinkPad X13 Gen 3’s magnesium shell feels cool to the touch and makes an enticing scratchy sound when you run your fingertips across it. No parts of the chassis flex, and the lid is extra stiff. It should stand up to travel and other abuse well.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

This ThinkPad also delivers on input devices. The light tactile feel of its keyboard inspires confidence and encourages accuracy. It has two levels of white LED backlighting for good visibility in the dark. The layout leaves no room for complaints, either, with a separated arrow-key cluster and dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. The left Fn and Ctrl keys are interposed by default, but the included Lenovo Commercial Vantage app lets you swap them. The app also lets you assign your own shortcut to the F12 key.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

No diehard ThinkPad is complete without the iconic UltraNav eraser-head pointing solution, which you won’t find on the Latitude 7330 or the EliteBook 830 G9. The X13 also has a nicely sized buttonless touchpad with a smooth anti-glare surface. My only nitpick is that pressing the pad to produce physical clicks takes more effort than I expected.

Port selection on the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 satisfies for a 13.3-inch ultraportable. There are two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) on the left edge, the leftmost of which is used to charge the laptop with its 65-watt adapter. The AMD ThinkPad X13 has a USB 4 and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port in their place.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

The left edge also holds HDMI 2.0b video output, an audio combo jack, and a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port supporting device charging when the X13 is turned off. Meanwhile, the right edge holds another USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a Kensington Nano security slot, and the optional SmartCard reader. Having two USB-A ports on a laptop this size shouldn’t be taken for granted; the Latitude 7330 has just one, and the ultra-slim ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 has none.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

There are no rear connections unless you order the ThinkPad X13 with 5G WWAN connectivity, in which case you’ll find a SIM card slot back there. (WWAN must be ordered from the factory; it can’t be added later.) Standard wireless connectivity is an Intel AX211 card supporting Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1.

Swappable parts in the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 include its battery, M.2 2230 wireless card, and M.2 2280 PCI Express storage drive. The RAM is soldered-down LPDDR5 that can’t be changed out, so configure the laptop with as much as you need from the get-go.

(Credit: Charles Jefferies)

This view also shows the ThinkPad’s single large cooling fan, which ran frequently and audibly throughout testing. I can only speculate, but perhaps the fan wouldn’t run so much if the X13 is equipped with a less powerful Intel U-series processor, which should produce less heat. Either way, even with the P-series chip, the X13 doesn't get too warm for general use. Using it in your lap shouldn’t be a problem.

Testing the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3: ‘X' Marks the Spot

As a refresher, the $1,337.40 ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 tested here has a Core i5-1240P CPU (four Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 16 threads, up to 4.4GHz Turbo), Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Windows 11 Pro.

The Dell Latitude 7330 (see our review of the Ultralight model) rang up at a lofty $2,449, and the HP EliteBook 830 G9 is $1,999 as of writing, but those are the single-unit prices. Enterprises can expect fleet discounts that should make them competitive with the ThinkPad. Either way, if you’re buying as an independent contractor, the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 has economics on its side. (That assumes you get it during one of Lenovo’s ever-fluctuating sales. If it’s not on sale, try waiting a week or looking for coupons.)

The ThinkPad X13’s other advantage over those two laptops is that it can be configured with more powerful Intel P-class CPUs instead of the lower-wattage U-class. The X13 and the HP can be had with AMD silicon, but the Latitude 7330 is Intel-only.

For our benchmark comparisons, we pitted the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 against the Dell XPS 13 Plus ($1,949 as tested) and three featherweights: the Dell Latitude 7330 Ultralight ($2,276 as tested), the HP Elite Dragonfly G3 ($2,686 as tested), and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 ($2,147 as tested). They all use 12th Generation Intel “Alder Lake” processors. The Latitude 7330 and the Elite Dragonfly G3 stick with U-class chips, which have only two Performance cores. The X13’s Core i5-1240P has four Performance cores, while the beefier Core i7s in the XPS 13 Plus and the X1 Nano have six. That said, performance differences among ultraportable laptops often comes down to cooling capacity and tuning, so the results you’re about to see may not be predictable.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive. We look for 4,000 points in the main test as a sign of competency for the tasks that test simulates.

Our other three 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 Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular tasks ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

Our final productivity test is Puget Systems' PugetBench for Photoshop(Opens in a new window), which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

The ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 hits 5,206 points to land mid-pack in PCMark. The 1,421 points the laptop earns in the storage test suggest its 512GB SSD is a middling performer. Processor performance is where the X13’s P-class chip shows its strength, only falling short of the XPS 13 Plus and its stronger P-class i7.

The X1 Nano proves faster in Geekbench, but that test takes only a few minutes to run. The Nano falls behind the X13 in the long-running Cinebench and Handbrake tests despite its theoretically stronger Core i7, suggesting the X13 has a more effective cooling system.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

For Windows PCs, we run both synthetic and real-world gaming tests. The former includes two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Also looped into that group is the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to gauge OpenGL performance.

The ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 universally trails in graphics performance, unfortunately. Though all these laptops use Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics silicon, it’s configured differently depending on the processor. The Core i5-1240P in our X13 has the weakest implementation, with 80 execution units running at 1.45GHz.

The Core i7 chips in the others have 96 execution units running at 1.25GHz for U-class or 1.45GHz for P-class chips. Nonetheless, the 30.8 frames per second the X13 can muster in Aztec Ruins indicates it should be able to play some basic modern games at reduced settings. (See our feature: Can You Play Today's Biggest Games on Laptop Integrated Graphics?)

Battery and Display Tests

PCMag tests laptops' battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with screen brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100% until the system quits. Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting are turned off during the test.

We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its 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 brightness in nits (candelas per square meter) at the screen's 50% and peak settings.

Eight hours of battery life is shorter than we prefer in this category. The Latitude 7330 doesn't offer much better, but its screen is much brighter at the 50% brightness we use for testing (210.6 nits versus the 87.6 nits for the X13). No doubt, the X13’s small (but standard) 41WHr battery hurt its time. The optional 54WHr battery ought to be good for another two hours or so, though we weren’t able to test it.

Screen-wise, the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 holds its own. It’s not the brightest but is close enough to the 400 nits we like to see in this class. Its color coverage is competitive, though the Dell’s OLED screen outdoes them all.

Verdict: High on Productivity, Short on Stamina

The ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 upholds the legendary ThinkPad X-series standards in all ways but one: battery life. It lacks all-day unplugged stamina and isn’t competitive in its class, at least with its standard 41WHr battery.

However, even had it lasted longer off the plug, Lenovo’s own ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 would still be a rosier choice. It has superior features and battery life and can be nearly the same price dependent upon Lenovo’s ever-changing sales.

That said, the X13 Gen 3 should be more competitive with its optional 54WHr battery. If you can find it with that for less than the X1 Carbon, and especially if you want an AMD processor (which the X1 Carbon doesn’t offer), the X13 Gen 3 becomes a much more attractive buy.