Portable ultrabook with super battery life

Gadget review

Joining the race to build thinner yet more powerful laptops, Chinese technology major Lenovo has launched ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook -- a no-compromise mix of portability and usability. With a spill-resistant keyboard sporting large keys, a brighter screen and long battery life, Lenovo's 14-inch X1 Carbon is giving a tough fight to other ultrabooks available in the market.

What works
Made of satellite-grade carbon fibre, the machine features a reinforced chassis and is made to stand extreme conditions. Weighing just 1.1 kg, the Rs 97,000 business laptop has an Intel Core i5-6300U (6th Generation) processor and runs on Windows 10 Pro operating system. It comes with an 8GB RAM and 256GB solid-state drive (SSD).

From the security point of view, the device has Intel vPro manageability technology -- a feature set of hardware-based manageability and proactive security for business desktop computers. ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a normal, one-touch fingerprint reader which, unlike other scanners, does not need a repeated "swipe" to login and pre-boot authentication.

The 14-inch display touted as the best for a lightweight ultrabook is available in 1920 x 1080 and 2560 x 1440 resolution. To test the display, we ran different quality videos. The device did skip some frames during 4K video streaming but while playing the song video "New Thang" by US rapper Redfoo, we could differentiate between shiny prints on clothes and jewellery that artists wore.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon has wonderfully placed bottom-mounted speakers. Listening to Norwegian singer Kygo's "Electric Feel" gave a rich surround sound thanks to the pre-loaded Dolby audio software. Lenovo is famous for its trackPoint and touchpad and X1 Carbon's back-lit, silent keyboard didn't disappoint at all. It comes with two-level brightness options.

The bright red TrackPoint provides an accurate navigation option and can be used to highlight text and/or click icons. Lenovo also has every port one needs. The company even provided us three different connectors. As far as performance is concerned, ThinkPad X1 Carbon offered streamlined productivity and multi-tasking performance. For instance, it took only seven minutes to copy 19GB of data.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon has a four-cell battery and gives enough charge to last a day with a standard amount of work. On standby mode, the battery lasted for almost three days and during moderate usage, the ultrabook lasted almost 9 hours and 16 minutes (with 50 per cent brightness). What doesn't work. The 720p webcam is nothing to boast about and worked like an average camera, yielding grainy photos under low-light conditions. It could also do with speakers with better, louder sound.

DESCRIPTION THINKPAD X1 CARBON ULTRABOOK™
Processor Intel Core i5-6300U (6th Generation)
Operating System Windows 10 Pro
Webcam 720P with mute function
Memory 8GB DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz Memory
Battery Up to 8.6 hours
Dimensions (W x D x H) (inches) : 13.11" x 9.01" x 0.65" (mm) : 333 x 229 x 16.45
Weight Starting at 2.8 lbs (1209 g)
Keyboard 5-row with Trackpoint (Island style, Under mount) plus Adaptive backlit Keyboard keys
Navigation TrackPoint® and 5 Button trackpad with Glass surface (70 mm x 100 mm)
NFC Yes