IFA 2024 | Hands on with new Lenovo ThinkPads: Ultralight X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition & ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD with glass touchpad

Most PC manufacturers did not attend the IFA 2024 in Berlin, as they skipped having a traditional Exhibition stand on the show floor. Companies like Acer, Asus and Lenovo did have a presence in Berlin, but only in the run-up to the big trade show, where they showed off their newest laptops with architectures like AMD Strix Point, the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus and Intel Lunar Lake. For us as journalists, this provided the rare enough opportunity to get some hands-on time with the new products - in this case, with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: X1 Carbon goes X1 Nano

For a long time, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon was the most lightweight ThinkPad laptop available. This changed when Lenovo released the small 13-inch variant ThinkPad X1 Nano in 2021. This small model pushed the weight beneath the import 1 kg marker. Being a 13.3 inch device did bring a few disadvantages though and apparently, this model was not all that popular, as Lenovo discontinued it after 2023's ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3.

With the X1 Nano gone, it seems like Lenovo refocused on making the X1 Carbon the boundary pushing device again. If so, they succeeded with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13. With just 980 g, the newest version sheds roughly 10 % of its predecessor's weight. This may not sound like much, but when actually picking up the X1 Carbon G13, it feels much more lightweight than the older model. This change comes without any compromises to the stability of the chassis, as the X1 Carbon still feels as robust as before.

New touchpads for X1 Carbon G13 and T14s Gen 6 AMD

Touchpads have never been the biggest strength of ThinkPad laptops. Lenovo seemingly strives to improve their business line in this area. The ThinkPad T series for example has almost always used trackpads with a Mylar-plastic surface in order to decrease costs. While those touchpads were not bad in terms of usability, their haptic quality suffered. Especially on the slightly more expensive T14s series, it put Lenovo at a real disadvantage compared with Dell's Latitude 7000 and HP's EliteBook 800.

With the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD, Lenovo finally gives the premium T series the premium experience of a glass touchpad. The difference is immediately noticeable, with the new glass trackpad being cool to the touch and premium feeling.

Another feature that has not yet reached the T series is the new haptic touchpad with integrated TrackPoint buttons. This increases the size of the touchpad drastically, but it also increases costs. That is why it is still an optional feature on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, same as for the X1 Carbon G12 (available for $1,650 from Amazon). The difference: The newest model also gets a new version of the haptic trackpad from supplier Sensel, which feels even better than before. The click of the haptic clickpad is more soft and smooth than before, better emulating the dedicated TrackPoint buttons.

All in all, the new ThinkPads are a rather small update in terms of their looks, but that does not mean there are no changes to them. The real change however is on the inside - we are looking forward to testing both the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD with Strix Point and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition with Lunar Lake as soon as they are available.

The above is the detailed content of IFA 2024 | Hands on with new Lenovo ThinkPads: Ultralight X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition & ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD with glass touchpad. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!