Lenovo ThinkPad L13 review – a “cost-conscious” little business machine

Lenovo has one of the biggest business notebook brands in the world. Ever since they bought the IBM computer division together with the ThinkPad brand, they were expanding it to the extent we have today – a laptop at almost every standard size, at almost every price range. Today, we are looking at the “cost-conscious” ThinkPad L13.

It has a 13.3″ display which comes in two iterations – 768p TN one and a 1080p IPS one. Additionally, Lenovo has equipped it with the latest ULV CPUs to hit the market from Intel (the 14nm series) – the so-called Comet Lake processors. Additionally, it features a spill-resistant keyboard, industrial design, and a docking capability.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-l13/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo ThinkPad L13 - Specs

  • IVO M133NWF4 RA
  • Color accuracy  4.3  3.3
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • No OS, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 46Wh, 46Wh, 4-cell, 46, 45Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum, Glass Fiber
  • Dimensions
  • 312 x 219 x 17.6 mm (12.28" x 8.62" x 0.69")
  • Weight
  • 1.38 kg (3 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
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac/ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Audio
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All Lenovo ThinkPad L13 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the packaging, we received a 65Wh USB Type-C power adapter. Other than that, there is the notebook itself in a different segment plus the mandatory manuals.


Design and construction

So, despite the “cost-conscious” price tag, this notebook comes with an aluminum lid and a base that is made of glass fiber reinforced polymer. This, essentially, is plastic strengthened with glass fibers, which not only helps to keep the laptop extremely light, but it also makes the material more durable. Speaking of weight – the notebook stops the scales at 1.38 kg (3.06 lbs), while the height stays at 17.6mm.

Its aluminum lid cannot be opened with a single hand, which is petty, but there is nothing we can do there. Additionally, Lenovo has put one of its ThinkShutter thingies on top of the camera, so you are comfortable that the government is not watching you.

Following up, (or down, more precisely), we have the base. There, you will see the spill-resistant keyboard, featuring the classic U-shaped keycaps. Moreover, the key travel is decent, while the feedback is far from being as clicky as we would like. Frankly, the top and the bottom row’s keys are smaller in size in comparison to the rest of them, while the “Arrow” keys are surrounded by the “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys.

One thing you can’t miss is the red Nipple, which works in conjunction with the buttons placed above the touchpad. Speaking of the touchpad, it is a little small in size, but the tracking is decent. Not only that, but right next to it, you can see the fingerprint reader.

On the bottom, there are two speaker cut-outs, as well as the ventilation grills. However, the hot air is exhausted from the back. This will work perfectly when you use the laptop in a closed position, while when opened – the exhaust is blocked by the lid’s bottom side.

Ports

On the left side, there is a USB Type-C power input, another USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port and en Ethernet extension port, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port and a headphone jack. On the right – you will find an HDMI connector, another USB Type-A port, a MicroSD card reader and the Power On/Off button, that stays flush with the surface and has little to no tactile feedback.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

This device’s bottom plate has 9 mounting points. They are all Phillips-head screws, which stay attached to the panel even after you unscrew it – how neet!

When we take a quick look at the cooling solution, we see nothing too interesting – just a single heat pipe and a medium-sized fan.

Sadly, its memory is soldered to the motherboard, so you won’t be able to upgrade it. Make sure you pick a big-enough option, so you don’t face any problems. Additionally, you can go from 4GB all the way up to 16GB of DDR4 memory working at 2666 MHz. However, storage-wise, you can switch the M.2 device for a bigger and faster one, as it supports PCIe x4 drives.

All of this is powered by a 46Wh battery pack.


Display quality

Lenovo ThinkPad L13 is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, IVO M133NWF4 RA. Its diagonal is 13.3-inch (33.78 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 166 ppi, their pitch – 0.153 х 0.153 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 53 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 284 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 274 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6100K – warmer than the 6500K temperature for sRGB. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 6260K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 68% Brightness (White level = 141 cd/m2, Black level = 0.09 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is excellent – 1680:1 (1570:1 after profiling).

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo ThinkPad L13’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 55% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo ThinkPad L13 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 28 ms.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo ThinkPad L13’s display doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. This makes it comfortable for long periods of use.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Lenovo ThinkPad L13’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, adequate default settings, and comfortable backlight in terms of long usage. Its disadvantage is the modest color coverage.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo ThinkPad L13 configurations with 13.3″ IVO M133NWF4 RA (FHD, 1920 × 1080) 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].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

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.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo ThinkPad L13 produces a relatively loud sound with good quality. Its low frequencies have some deviations, while the mids and highs are clear.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook are available here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-l-series-laptops/thinkpad-l13-type-20r3-20r4/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with 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. Let’s see how the 46Wh battery pack copes with the competition.

We got 8 hours and a half of Web browsing and around 7 hours and a half of video playback.


CPU options

The ThinkPad L13 is coming equipped with either the Core i3-10110U, the Core i5-10210U or the Core i7-10510U.


GPU options

In terms of graphics power, you are being treated by the Intel UHD Graphics integrated GPU.


Gaming tests

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Intel UHD Graphics84 fps37 fps– fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-10210U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo ThinkPad L133.04 GHz (B+90%) @ 97°C2.10 GHz (B+31%) @ 97°C2.12 GHz (B+33%) @ 79°C
Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-13.45 GHz (B+116%) @ 94°C2.33 GHz (B+46%) @ 86°C2.00 GHz (B+25%) @ 74°C
ASUS ZenBook Duo UX4813.26 GHz (B+104%) @ 94°C2.77 GHz (B+73%) @ 98°C2.06 GHz (B+29%) @ 71°C
Lenovo Yoga C640 (13)2.87 GHz (B+79%) @ 73°C2.89 GHz (B+81%) @ 85°C2.23 GHz (B+39%) @ 87°C
Dell Vostro 55903.50 GHz (B+119%) @ 94°C2.68 GHz (B+68%) @ 97°C2.36 GHz (B+48%) @ 79°C
Lenovo Yoga C740 (14)3.09 GHz (B+93%) @ 96°C2.66 GHz (B+66%) @ 97°C1.96 GHz (B+23%) @ 71°C

Probably to please its business-oriented target group, the ThinkPad L13 doesn’t turn its fan on for the first 10-15 seconds of stress testing. This was the reason for the sharp drop of frequency and a super high temperature in the 15-30-second time period. However, we noticed something interesting that is not reflected in the chart above – the clock speeds fell to 1.30 GHz for more than a minute in the middle of the test. After that, the fans sped up, and we got the results for the last checkpoint.

Comfort during full load

Well, the middle part of the keyboard gets quite warmed up when you put a stress test on it. Especially the area around the Nipple – exactly as expected…


Verdict

What should we say, the ThinkPad L13 is another solid business notebook. However, for the money, Lenovo asks for it (and keep in mind they state the laptop is a cost-conscious model), you could get quite more capable machines, should you also need the business and security goodies.

One very good example of a capable competitor in the Latitude 5300, despite the fact that it features the older Whiskey Lake, processor family. Usually, this means that the battery life and the performance would be worse on the aforementioned device, however, this is totally not the case. Despite the overall good battery life of 8 hours and a half of Web browsing and 7 hours and a half of video playback, it is still far behind what the Latitude was able to provide.

Interestingly, the performance is not that good either. Especially when you compare it to what the XPS 13 7390 is capable of. Nevertheless, we would like to praise the spill-resistant keyboard, especially as someone who never keeps coffee or any type of liquids thinner than a toothpaste around the laptops because of how clumsy he is.

Also, Lenovo ThinkPad L13’s IPS panel (IVO M133NWF4 RA) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, adequate default settings, and comfortable backlight in terms of long usage. Its disadvantage is the modest color coverage. Let’s not forget the MicroSD card reader and the PCIe x4 M.2 drive support. Sadly, there is no RAM upgrade possible, as all the memory is soldered to the motherboard.

All in all, the ThinkPad L13 is not a bad laptop, it is just not as good as the Latitude 5300 for example.

Pros

  • Spill-resistant backlit keyboard.
  • Supports PCIe x4 drives
  • Charges with USB Type-C and a MicroSD card reader
  • Has a fingerprint reader
  • Doesn’t use aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment (IVO M133NWF4 RA)


Cons

  • Memory is soldered to the motherboard
  • There are better options at this price tag
  • Covers only 55% of sRGB (IVO M133NWF4 RA)
  • Heats up under heavy load

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-l13/

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3 years ago

What is the reason to produce laptops serie in 2020 without 4G modem?