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日本[Video Review] Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 – Some flaws, but still good enough
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (Intel) in-depth review
The ThinkPad brand is full of laptops suiting every budget, and every size preference. Today, we have one for the more pretentious users. A laptop, that offers good portability, premium build, and more than adequate performance.The laptop in question is called the Lenovo Thinkpad X13 Gen 3, and it is exactly what you expect. However, it is interesting to see that the manufacturer is not afraid to use powerful CPUs inside its small chassis.We are talking about the Intel version, which is offered with up to the Core i7-1280P - a 28W CPU with 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores. As usual, you are gi[...]
Pros
- Premium build quality
- 100% sRGB coverage and super accurate colors with our Gaming and Web design profile (BOE NV133WUM-N61 (LEN41A0))
- No PWM (BOE NV133WUM-N61 (LEN41A0))
- Charges via Type-C
- 2x Thunderbolt 4 + Gen 4 SSD support
- IR face recognition + fingerprint reader
Cons
- Needs a better cooling
- Soldered memory
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (Intel) - Specs
- CPU
- Intel Core i7-1280P #69 in Top CPUs Intel Core i7-1270P #136 in Top CPUs Intel Core i7-1260P #122 in Top CPUs Intel Core i7-1255U #165 in Top CPUs Intel Core i5-1250P #169 in Top CPUs Intel Core i5-1245U #158 in Top CPUs Intel Core i5-1240P #129 in Top CPUs Intel Core i5-1235U #163 in Top CPUs Intel Core i3-1215U #194 in Top CPUs
- Display
- 13.3”, WUXGA (1920 x 1200), IPS
- HDD/SSD
- up to 2000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 32GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Home
- Battery
- 54.7Wh, 41Wh
- Body material
- Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum, Carbon, Glass Fiber
- Dimensions
- 305.8 x 217.89 x 18.25 mm (12.04" x 8.58" x 0.72")
- Weight
- 1.20 kg (2.6 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
- 2x USB Type-C
- 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.0
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.2
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- optional
- Web camera
- HD / FHD
- Backlit keyboard
- optional
- Microphone
- Dual Array Microphone, far-field, Dolby Voice
- Speakers
- 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Dolby Audio
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
- Kensington Nano Lock
All Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (Intel) configurations
[Intro]
There’s a ThinkPad for every budget, but today we have the high-end ThinkPad X13 Gen 3, which backs up its price with a wide array of features, a great display, and as much processing power as you’d like, as both the P-series and U-series Intel chips make an appearance.
[Design]
On the outside, this is a traditional ThinkPad. Lenovo offers it in two colors, Grey and Black. The former has a full aluminum chassis, while our laptop has a combination of materials.
[Aluminum, Plastic, Carbon fiber, Glass fiber]
The weight fluctuates between 1.20 and 1.32 kg, depending on the materials and the battery capacity. With the laptop being as light as it is, there is some flex from the lid and base, but overall we’d consider the device to be durable.
[Input devices]
The lid can be opened with one hand, showing off thin bezels. The top one keeps the HD webcam, while an FHD option is also available. The FHD webcam can be paired with an IR sensor for facial recognition, which vastly improves security.
Speaking of security, the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader. It’s placed above the keyboard, next to two speaker grills.
The keyboard is simply great, offering spill resistance, a backlight, long key travel, and clicky feedback, so you know typing is excellent. In the middle of it, we find the TrackPoint, which works with a trio of physical buttons. The touchpad is covered in Mylar, which does a fine job of mimicking glass. Moreover, it’s responsive and accurate.
[Ports]
Going to the sides, Lenovo is plenty generous with the I/O. You get one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and a SmartCard reader on the right. On the left, there’s one more Type-A port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI connector, and an audio jack. The Thunderbolt ports offer Power Delivery and DisplayPort support, so you can add additional displays to improve your workflow.
[Display]
If you decide to stick with the panel that we have here, you’re in for a good time. The FHD+ IPS panel delivers excellent results in our tests. It could have been a bit brighter, maxing out at 290 nits. However, we also have to commend its 100% sRGB coverage and amazing accuracy, even with the stock settings, which delivers a dE value of 1.8.
With our Design and Gaming profile, you get a dE value of 0.6, which is even better, so the laptop is ready for Creator work right from the get-go. If you fancy other types of office work, our display profiles can help you as well, so we’ll have them linked down below.
[Sound]
The sound coming off of the front-firing speakers is actually quite decent. There are no deviations across the lows, mids, and highs in our audio test.
[Performance]
Lenovo offers a large portion of the Alder Lake U-series and P-series of processors, giving you a lot of options as far as performance and efficiency are concerned. We went all in with the Core i7-1260P, one of the more powerful chips that are available. The CPU is powerful and makes quick work of the competition from AMD, including the Ryzen 7 6800U.
[Cooling]
In the stress test, we see that the cooling setup can’t handle the Core i7 in long loads, running the chip at 22W. On the other hand, it does very well in short bursts, going as high as 49W. What does this mean for comfort?
Well, the laptop runs pretty quietly, even during full load, while the base heats up to 44°C, so you can definitely feel the warmth, but it’s not uncomfortable, per se.
[Battery]
The laptop goes easy on the 54.7Wh battery, making it last through 10 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing, or 7 hours and 32 minutes of video playback. Looking at the Dell XPS Plus 9320, which is a very close competitor, you can see that there’s potential for even more, as Dell’s power management seems to be doing a better job.
[Teardown and upgradeability]
The upgradeability isn’t a strong suit of many small laptops, and sadly, the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 lands under that umbrella as well. The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard, but at least you are offered up to 32GB of LPDDR5 memory, which will last a while. For storage, there’s only one M.2 slot that does fit Gen 4 drives.
If you want to see how to upgrade and disassemble the ThinkPad X13, we have a special teardown video, which we’ll link below.
[Verdict]
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 will certainly enjoy tons of popularity, offering good performance and a great display. However, knowledgeable consumers will swiftly critique its battery life and lack of upgrade options, the latter of which is excusable. They would be right to do so, as devices like the Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 deliver better battery life and similar performance, along with a modern and futuristic look that’s certainly an eye-catcher.
The ThinkPad does come with a lot more security features, like the IR sensor, the fingerprint reader, and the SmartCard reader, so it will come down to personal preference.
On our website, we have a more detailed review, which will give you the complete picture of the ThinkPad X13 Gen 3. It’s linked down below.
