Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review pictures

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It's been a while since I reviewed a laptop that had people crowding around me, everyone wanting to touch and hold the device. That happened constantly with the X1 Carbon — I spent an inordinate amount of time hunting down the computer hours after someone took it "just to look at it." That's as good a testament as any to how impressive an achievement the Carbon's design really is.

On the one hand, the Carbon is undeniably a ThinkPad — Lenovo's understated black look with a few red accents isn't particularly exciting, but it's handsome in a very professional way. And when it's matched with the matte carbon fiber build of the X1 Carbon, it gets even better. The X1's wedge-shaped body is styled a lot like the MacBook Air, but Lenovo actually improves on the execution: every corner is rounded ever so slightly, and every edge tapers a bit toward the bottom. It gives the X1 a look that's still sharp and modern, but it doesn't dig into your palms and forearms like the Air does.

The carbon fiber itself is comfortable and almost rubbery, but it's incredibly sturdy too. Lenovo says it picked the material because it's lighter than aluminum but still as strong, and both claims seem to be true — the X1 Carbon weighs exactly three pounds and is only 0.74 inches thick at its fattest point, but it still feels extremely well-made. Lenovo even boasts that it passes eight different Mil-SPEC tests, which stress-test a laptop in extreme temperatures and situations.

Since everything is black, it can actually be hard to locate the ports on the side of the X1, but there's a decent selection to be found. The right side houses an SD card slot, a Mini DisplayPort, a USB 3.0 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's a USB 2.0 port on the left, next to a wireless switch and the slot for the power adapter. The rectangular power plug looks a bit like Apple's MagSafe plugs, but sadly it's not magnetic. In a nod to the traveling professional, there's a switch on the left side that shuts off all the device's radios in an Airplane Mode of sorts. Notably absent are an Ethernet port (though there's a USB adapter in the box) and an HDMI port — but the DisplayPort helps to offset that. On the back of all but the base model, there's a SIM card slot that you can use to add 3G data access to your ThinkPad; it worked seamlessly with my AT&T; SIM, which is awesome.

One of the features I'd expect from a $1,399 laptop is a 1080p display — most of the Carbon's similarly priced competitors have one, from the Vizio Thin + Light to the Asus Zenbook Prime. The Carbon's resolution is a firm step below, at 1600 x 900 — but as it turns out the spec sheet is really my only complaint. The screen is a matte display, which has pros and cons: you can see the screen outdoors, but colors tend to be ever so slightly dulled. The X1 Carbon's screen doesn't get particularly bright, but since it's matte you don't need blinding brightness to combat reflections and glare. As with most laptop screens, horizontal viewing angles are excellent but if you try to look at the screen from below or above, colors become almost inverted. You'll definitely do some adjusting of the screen's angle before you find a comfortable spot. For my needs, I'll take a matte screen over a glossy one in a heartbeat, but I'd urge you to look at the screen before you buy it.

The display is paired with a sturdy, reliable hinge that stays put at almost any angle — the laptop can even fold completely flat if you're so inclined, though I don't know why you'd be so inclined. You'll need both hands to open the computer, as the base is too light to stay in place while you pry open the screen.

It took me a while to locate the speakers on the X1 Carbon, because they're tiny little slits on the bottom of the device that really don't look anything like speakers. They output pretty good sound, though, and even use the surface the laptop is on to diffuse audio. The two output fairly clear sound with a reasonable stereo effect, and though they won't replace a good set of headphones or external speakers, they're certainly a notch above my MacBook Air's tinny speakers.

Death. Taxes. Awesome ThinkPad keyboards. Just as RIM never made a BlackBerry keyboard I didn't like, Lenovo has a history of making excellent laptop keyboards, and the X1 Carbon doesn't disappoint. It uses the same "smile" design as the U310, which spaces out the keys slightly more without placing them any further apart so that they're easier to feel and press. Backlights make the keys easier to see in the dark, and the light can be toggled using the Fn key and the space bar. The keys themselves look a little odd, and I don't love the font for the letters, but neither changes the fact that the X1's keyboard has the perfect amount of travel, the keys feel great, and I can't think of another laptop I've gotten used to typing on so quickly.

Well, save for one thing — I never got used to the fact that the Control and Fn buttons are switched, so that the Fn button is the leftmost key and the Control key is one to the right (it's the same as a MacBook Air, but Control is a much less important key on a Mac). It's different from the U310, and I much prefer it the other way — my pinky always wants to hit the outermost key. The function buttons on the X1 Carbon are also secondary to the F1 or F2 keys, so you have to hit two buttons to change brightness or playback; the U310 does this the other way as well, and I wish the company had left it the same. You can change a lot of this in the BIOS, but it's a bit of work.

Lenovo's keyboard prowess is well-documented, but the company is also starting to figure out how to make a trackpad, which is astonishingly rare among PC manufacturers. The X1 Carbon's glass touchpad is large and smooth, responsive and fast without any of the nasty textures or oddities of most. It's a clickpad, and as a Mac user I appreciated the two-finger right-click capabilities too. Gestures worked well, though there's the tiniest bit of lag on zooming in and out; I suspect that's much more a driver problem than a trackpad problem, though. My biggest problem with nearly every Windows PC I've tested has been the trackpad, and having one that I didn't have to think about made the X1 Carbon all the more appealing. Of course, if you're not into the trackpad at all, Lenovo's telltale TrackPoint nub is present as well — I've never gotten used to it, but I know a lot of people who swear by it.

I discovered the X1 Carbon's biggest flaw about eight hours after taking it out of its box. The first night I had the computer I was sitting on my couch playing video games and watching TV, with the Carbon sitting beside me running benchmark tests. An hour and a few tests later, I went to pick up the laptop to set in on my lap for some more testing and browsing. I dropped it immediately, like I'd grabbed a hot pan off the stove. The X1 Carbon gets really, really hot when it's working hard, to the point where it becomes a problem. It's hottest on the bottom near the back, but even the keys and the palm rest can get hot — and sweaty hands aren't fun while you're on a computer. When the X1 Carbon isn't under serious duress, it's not hot at all, but fire up Photoshop or a game and the temperature spikes.

Excessive heat is often due to overly conservative fans, as the manufacturer tries to curb the machine's noise output. Indeed the X1 Carbon is relatively quiet even as it heats up, but the fans seem to still be purring along; you can actually feel them through the chassis at points, and when the computer is really chugging the whole machine feels like it's vibrating.

There's not much room for a battery inside a 14-inch, three-pound, 0.74-inch laptop, so I can't say I was shocked to find the X1 Carbon's battery life a bit lacking. It lasted 4 hours, 44 minutes on the Verge Battery test, which cycles through a series of websites and high-res images with brightness set at 65 percent. That's not very good for an ultrabook, but there's a silver lining: Lenovo's Rapid Charge technology means the X1 Carbon charges in a serious hurry. I charged from dead to 60 percent in 30 minutes, while I was using the computer. It charged fully in an hour, and would do both faster if I hadn't been using the computer at the time.