ThinkPad 13 First Thoughts and Unboxing

It's been three years since I last purchased a laptop for myself (a ThinkPad X230) and while the X230 is holding up just fine (well, aside from a cracked body), I've been itching to get something new just 'cause. That said, I'm cheap and don't see any need to spend a grand on a laptop -- I don't game or need much of any performance past a Core i3, just need something solid and light with a halfway decent screen. I'm totally dependent on a pointing stick (due to decades of brain burn in using that form of input) so that limited me to business laptops. Problem is, quality business machines don't come cheap unless you buy a refurb, which is a fine path but you lose getting the latest ports and technology. Thus when the ThinkPad 13 was announced at CES 2016 in January I was intrigued by the promise of a budget friendly $500 or so laptop; that was solidly built, had a pointing stick and option for 1920x1080 screen. When the ThinkPad 13 went up for order a couple of weeks back I hit buy. Unfortunately the price with the 1080p screen I wanted was +$55 and after taxes made the total bill $700, but still that's cheaper going with any other flagship ThinkPad such as the X or T series.

Anyway, I unboxed the ThinkPad 13 today and for old times sake did an unboxing video (used to do a lot more of these when I was a full time reviewer):



It's rather embarrassing that I had no idea what the OneLink+ port was on the left side, but now that I do know all I can think is "what a waste". Any port that's proprietary to a specific manufacturer is an annoyance. Note in the video I couldn't power up the ThinkPad 13 due to the battery being totally dead, after getting it charged and booted up I realize my eyes aren't what they used to be, the 1920x1080 resolution on a 13" screen is too small for me to read text and so now I'm up-scaling. The screen brightness of 220-nits is fine, I noticed on Lenovo.com somebody had a review complaining the screen is too dim, but not for me, I don't intend to be working outside.

As far as fit and finish, the ThinkPad 13 is as solid as my X230 , no flex anywhere and the body is possibly more rigid than the X230. The faux metal plastic covers on the screen hinges are my only concern for the long run durability.

The port selection is great, I'm especially excited to have a USB type-c port as I want to try out the charging capabilities there. I have a phone with a USB type-C connector but unfortunately no two way USB C cord to connect to the laptop yet (just a USB 3 to USB C). I'd also like to try out a USB C charger ( such as the Pixel USB C charger) to see if I can then travel with a charger that can power both my phone and laptop.

If anyone has questions about the ThinkPad 13 let me know, happy to answer. I'll post more thoughts after I've used this machine some more.

 

I've been eyeing the ThinkPad 13 as well. Can you tell us if the palmrest is made of aluminium?

How are the speakers after testing them?

Have you had the chance to test battery life under realistic conditions?

 

The palm rest is aluminum, same as any other ThinkPad. The speakers are confirmed on the bottom, one on the left and one on the right. They're actually not as bad as I expected, they do get loud but you get a lot of distortion when the volume is cranked. For my needs such as listening to NPR or streaming from Fios as some background noise while I work the audio is fine. There's no bass, it's all treble. Testing the battery life now by playing some video and screen at 70% brightness. I'll post back when I have numbers on that.

 

I beg to differ. Most ThinkPads have ABS plastic palmrests, with more recent models integrating the plastics into the magnesium-alloy support frame. An aluminium palmrest is a rarity among ThinkPads, so it's nice to see that the budget 13 offers one.

Thanks for the feedback on the speakers. After seeing the drivers, which are decently sized, I was hoping for acceptable audio, which seems to be the case.

 

Just an update on battery life, with the screen at 70% brightness and streaming video for 2 hours (Verizon Fios live tv) and then idling the rest of the time the battery life was 6 hours. If I left video running the whole time my guess it would come down to 4 hours. For web browsing you'd probably see 5 to 6 hours if you installed an ad blocker.

 

5 to 6 hours with just web browsing? That's a bit disappointing. I was hoping for around 8 hours. Can you test the battery life with a normal day's worth of browsing, watching youtube videos, etc (with brightness maybe at 70% again)?

Also, how's the display? According to laptopmag's review of the laptop, it only has a color gamut of 64.1%. Also according to their review, they got 9 hours of battery life, but their test is unrealistic with putting the brightness at 100 nits (I'm not sure how bright that actually is).

I'm thinking of buying a laptop for my CS degree in university, but I'm not sure if I should go for the thinkpad 13, t460s, or x1 carbon. Each one has their faults. I want at least 8 hours battery life, good keyboard, upgradable RAM/SSD (I want 16 GB of RAM), good display (also should be 13-14 inches), and be about 3 lbs. The x1 carbon you can't upgrade the RAM unless u get i7 and it's expensive. The T460s has low battery life compared to the previous generation, T450s, and has a color gamut of around 65%. I was planning to get the T460 because of the swappable batter, but the weight is 4.2 lbs, and the color gamut is also around 65%.

I don't think I care about the color gamut too much as long as things look nice enough to use without noticing.

 

Dell XPS 13?

 

I was looking at the Dell XPS 13, but I heard the keyboard's not that great (1.2 mm keytravel).

 

After a couple of weeks usage I'd say I get around 7 - 8 hours of usage doing work on the Thinkpad 13 with screen brightness at 70%, I don't watch video as part of my work so once you start streaming video for hours there's no way you'll get 7 hours. Probably more like 5 hours if you're streaming video. 100 nits is about 50% brightness, in the evening without much light in the room 50% is certainly comfortable. By day you'll want at least 70% - 90% brightness.

The screen is fine for my needs, the ThinkPads I've used almost never have a top of the line screen in terms of saturation (except for their workstations maybe), but their viewing angles are good and there's zero reflection and that's what I really care about.

As far as ease of upgrade, the T series is far easier to upgrade, one screw access to the hard drive and a couple of screws for memory with no prying the case and removing the keyboard. The ThinkPad 13 is way harder to open up, you can do it but requires removing screws and prying the case.

Still, I'm liking the ThinkPad 13, the keyboard is fantastic, performance just fine for business / computer science needs, nice and light, quality build and all at a very reasonable price. I also like that it has USB C, just picked up the Google Chromebook Pixel 60W charger and it works to charge the ThinkPad 13, now I can carry one charger for both my phone and laptop.

 

But thats compared to old T-Series of 4-5 years ago. Newer T-Series are not easier to open then ThinkPad 13, except the T460s maybe.

 

Hi, thanks for the review. This baby is certainly a successor to E330. I wish lenovo can give a better code name than just a thinkpad 13 which sounds more like thinkpad edge 13, heh. Unfortunately there is no additional m.2 slot for 2nd storage, but it's expected as E460 doesn't have it too.

 

I have a favour to ask, can you check if there is CSM option in its firmware (bios)?

 

Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing! mind sharing on the following?

1) Does Intel WiDi/Miracast work on the ThinkPad 13?
2) Any idea if the Type C port is USB3 or 3.1?

Thanks!

 

The USB Type C port of the ThinkPad 13 is a USB 3.1 Gen1 (formerly known as USB 3.0, 5 Gbit/s) port that supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode and USB Power Delivery.

 

Thanks. Any one has tried the Intel WiDi/Miracast?

Also if anyone successfully swaps out the M.2 SATA SSD for a PCIE NVME one please share!!

 

A

According to
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...ad-13-SSD-M-2-is-PCIE-compatible/td-p/3318074
PCIE NVME Drives aren't supported

 

Greetings to Thinkpad 13 owners

• Have you tried to install 32GB of ram? 16GB x 2, i.e. http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Lenovo/thinkpad-13 states that it's possible to use 32GB of ram
• Is it possible in bios to swap fn & ctrl functions?
• Touch pad doesn't have bottom buttons at all? If so, how do you handle left/right clicks? Using top buttons?
• What about keyboard/lid flex? Will body crack if you take it by one hand?

Thanks!

 

Yes, there is an option for that (Config -> Keyboard/Mouse -> Fn and Ctrl Key swap).

 

How do you remove the back cover?

The instructions appear simple ... remove the 9 screws, then 'pry up the latches in ascending order'?

I could remove the screws but the back cover was still firmly fixed. I didn't want to wedge a screwdriver into the case to try to lever it open due to risk of damage.

Any ideas how to remove the back cover?

 

I used a small flathead screwdriver about 3mm wide with a reasonably fine tip.
Squeezed it gently along just opening the case about 2mm along the edge.
Tried to be careful when I felt that I reached the clips but ended up breaking a couple of clips ... still went back together perfectly though.

NVMe Samsung 950 Pro M2 was not recognised (as expected based on advice from thinkpad forum experts and lenovo chat).

Ended up using Samsung 850 EVO M2 SATA which works fine (but didnt benchmark before and after to compare performance).

Upgraded to 8Gb x 2 Kingston ValueRAM 2133 DDR4 .. worked fine (after resetting the battery power in the BIOS!).

 

Looks like it, you have to disable secure boot to enable this though.

 

I also had great difficulty removing the back cover, basically followed the same instructions you saw and very gingerly pried it open using the order described in the disassembly document. I didn't video tape the process of removing the cover, but did record a look at the internals. Note, I haven't actually made any component swaps or upgrades yet.

 

I ended up using a flat blade screwdriver with a width of about 3mm, and was able to insert and twist it open .. about 2mm at a time and gently went around the edge. Ended up cracking 2 clips but it went back together fine. Now it has 16Gb RAM and an 850 EVO 500Gb SATA M2 SSD.