Top 5 reasons to BUY or NOT to buy the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2

While ThinkBooks have been the new kids on the block, they have quickly managed to attract followers, and become one of the popular ones. That was to be expected, however, as when Lenovo sets its sights on a market, they don’t stop until they are #1.

This is what is happening with the ThinkBook lineup right now, as Lenovo is pumping a lot of resources to make them as best as they can be and to dominate the business notebooks with good looks market. The Gen 2 returns with the same premium build quality and great hardware choices, which made it famous in the first place. Add to that an arsenal of features, and you get a compact powerhouse that can rival the best.

Today we are presenting you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2: Full Specs / In-depth Review


4 reasons to BUY the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2

1. Design and build quality

As with the previous ThinkBook 13s, the Gen 2 gets the same all-aluminum body, which put it on the map in the first place. It is quite durable with little to no flex from the chassis and the lid, especially when you consider the weight and height, sitting at 1.26 kg and 14.9 mm, respectively, which is thinner than the Gen 1 device. The design itself is also quite good, and it fits the business setting that the device is suited towards. The two-tone grey finish on the lid adds a bit of flair, and the minimal branding makes it look sleek and expensive.

The lid doesn’t open with a single hand at all, due to the stiff hinges, however, it houses some goodies such as the 720p webcam and the ThinkShutter, which opens and closes very smoothly, something that is rarely the case in laptops. The keyboard is on a good level with its clicky feedback, but short key travel, due to the low-profile nature of the device. It also has a backlight. Next to it, sits the fingerprint reader, which is embedded inside the power button. The touchpad is a tad smaller, due to the form factor of the laptop, however, it has a Mylar surface, which offers smooth gliding and tracking.


2. Display

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 uses a 13.3-inch WQHD+ IPS panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The display has comfortable viewing angles, a maximum brightness of 361 nits, and a contrast ratio of 1650:1. The color coverage is really good, sitting at 97% of the sRGB color gamut.

The color accuracy is also spectacular, even with the factory settings, where we get a dE value of 1.7. Once we apply our Design and gaming profile, the dE value goes even lower to 1.0, which is dead center on the professional standard. Here you can compare the results of the test with both the factory settings (left) and with our Design and gaming profile applied (right).


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Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 configurations with 13.3″ IVO M133NW4J R0 (FHD+, 1920 × 1200) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

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Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

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3. Battery life

The laptop comes with a 56Wh 4-cell battery unit. It lasts for 11 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing, and 9 hours and 29 minutes of video playback. The way we perform our tests is with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.


4. Cooling

The laptop has a pretty good cooling solution, despite its tiny 13.3-inch form factor. The setup consists of one wide heat pipe, which connects to two heatsinks on its opposite ends, which are in turn connected to two fans of different sizes.

Intel Core i5-1135G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 23.64 GHz (B+52%) @ 91°C @ 49W3.47 GHz (B+45%) @ 95°C @ 43W2.20 GHz @ 64°C @ 20W

The unit that we reviewed had the Core i5-1135G7, which is a 15W CPU. In our CPU stress test, the processor quickly increased its clock speed to a frequency of 3.64 GHz and spiked to a temperature of 91°C. After that, it maintained a slightly lower frequency but had an increase in temperature. In the final stages of our stress test, the CPU had a frequency of 2.20 GHz, while sitting at a temperature of 64°C.

Comfort during full load

The outside temperature was okay, measuring at 41.1°C. The hotspot of the laptop was around the I, O, and 9 keys.

 

1 reason NOT to buy the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2

1. Upgradeability

The device, due to its small size, comes with soldered RAM. This essentially makes it, so that you’re stuck with whatever you preconfigure the laptop with. At least the RAM works in dual-channel mode, so you get better performance. Fortunately, the storage is expandable through one M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

Here is our detailed teardown video, which shows you exactly what to do, in order to access the M.2 slot for upgrades, or just general maintenance and cleaning of the internals.


All Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 configurations:

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