For more than 3 decades, the Lenovo ThinkPad has been the workhorse of the business world. Known for its uncompromising design, durability and reliability, the ThinkPad is a staple when it comes to productivity and professional computing. With Intel launching their latest Core Ultra vPro Evo Edition processors, Lenovo has refreshed their lineup of ThinkPad laptops for 2025. In this review, we will take a look at the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop.
Design and Build Quality
The ThinkPad laptop’s design has evolved over the years, but always kept practicality and functionality in mind. The laptop continues to be sleek, lightweight, built out of high-quality materials and feels reassuringly durable.
When picking up the laptop, I was surprised with how light the laptop feels. There are plenty of thin-and-light business focused laptops out in the market, but none feel this light in the hand. According to Lenovo, the laptop weighs just under a kilogram and that is impressive.
Being light doesn’t imply that the laptop feels cheap though. Lenovo used a combination of Carbon Fiber, Magnesium and Aluminium for the chassis, resulting in high strength and durability. There is little flex to the keyboard deck and lid too. The matte finish on the keyboard deck and the lid feels premium, although it did pick up fingerprints quite quickly. I am certain it will be hard to maintain the clean look of this laptop’s exterior over time.
The hinge is perfectly weighted for one-finger opening, and the lid can stretch back up to 180°.
Lenovo has also kept many elements from its past designs, some of which are unmistakably “ThinkPad”. The most notable among them is definitely the red TrackPoint nestled between the letters on the keyboard.
Lenovo pioneered the use of Trackpoints back in the day when trackpads were small and inaccurate. Once novel, Trackpoints now feel outdated as modern trackpads are larger and more accurate. As such, the use of Trackpoints fell out of favour. The experience of using it was just not up to par with large glass-topped trackpads.
I do appreciate the nostalgia factor of having the Trackpoint as an input. However, it feels too clunky and inaccurate to be my primary mode of mouse input.
Other design elements include the ThinkPad logos on the palm rest and the lid, both of which look neat with the Red dot for the “i”.
The bezels on the display are strikingly thin, with a small lip on the top bezel to help open the laptop. This lip houses the webcam with a physical shutter button, along with an IR camera for Windows Hello login.
Display and Audio
Our ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 features a 14-inch 16:10 IPS, touch-enabled panel with a resolution of 1920×1200. It has a peak brightness of 500 nits and a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. Lenovo also offers an OLED option with a higher resolution of 2880×1800 and refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which should be quite a nice upgrade.
That’s not to imply that the IPS panel in our review unit falls short in any respect. The 500 nits of peak brightness meant that I had little difficulty using the laptop outdoors and the Anti-glare coating is a welcome feature under bright indoor lights. It supports 100% of the sRGB colour space, which is good enough for light editing workloads. The 16:10 aspect ratio is highly appreciated as it makes a real difference in productivity applications and 1920×1200 resolution is good enough for a 14-inch display. For those who require touch functionality, that is an option too!
Coming to audio, the laptop has two 2 Watt stereo upward-firing speakers that get surprisingly loud. It maintains clarity up to about 80% volume, after which a small amount of distortion creeps through. The bass is lacking, which isn’t surprising when you consider how thin the device is. However the mids and high frequencies weren’t too bad. For the video conferencing, the speakers are more than adequate and I even enjoyed using the laptop for watching media.
Performance and Benchmarks
Powering the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 is Intel’s latest Lunar Lake processors. Our configuration in particular is equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V. It is an 8-core processor that comprises 4 P-cores and 4 LPE-cores, and it is equipped with the Intel Arc Graphics 140V internal GPU. The processor can hit a maximum turbo frequency of 5GHz on its P-cores and it also comes with the Intel AI Boost NPU with 48 TOPS of compute power.
Our review unit is also configured with 32GB of DDR5 8533MT/s memory and 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 5 SSD.
Intel has stepped up their game with their latest series of processors in terms of both power and efficiency. I tested the laptop with various workloads such as photo editing, light video editing, word processing, browsing and video conferencing. The laptop felt snappy and responsive throughout my review and I had no issues with the performance. With the dedicated NPU and iGPU, the laptop is also Copilot+ certified, so it is decent with light AI tasks too.
The “V” in the processor’s name signifies that it is part of their vPro line of CPUs, which offers a host of features for corporations and enterprises. It consists of various technologies that make it easier for IT administrators to deploy, secure and remotely manage a large fleet of computers. Some of these technologies include Intel active management technology, Intel trusted execution technology and Intel identity protection technology. For regular consumers, these technologies aren’t necessary, however when it comes to large corporations, vPro can be essential for IT administrators.
With regards to thermals, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been engineered quite well. The Intel processors are power efficient, and during regular use I barely heard the fans.
Here are some benchmarks:
Keyboard, Trackpad and TrackPoint
It should be no surprise that the keyboard on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is one of its best features. This is an area that Lenovo has been remarkably consistent with in its ThinkPad lineup of laptops over the years. With 1.5mm of key travel, the keystrokes are snappy and feel perfect with regards to its actuation force and weight. The layout of the keys are also consciously productivity focused. There are dedicated keys for ‘Home’, ‘End’, ‘Insert’ and ‘Delete’, along with shortcuts for screenshots, switching windows and Power Modes. There is even a user-defined key that can be customized to open an application, open a website, start a key sequence or copy text.
The Trackpad is glass-topped with good precision and accuracy. The size of the trackpad is a little compromised due to the physical mouse buttons at its top edge, which is required for the Trackpoint. It even includes a dedicated middle mouse button, which is uncommon among laptops.
Coming to the Trackpoint, as I mentioned earlier, felt more like a nostalgia feature rather than being really functional. To their credit, Lenovo has added a lot of functionality such as double tap to bring up a shortcut menu, a shortcut for scrolling with the middle mouse button. However the learning curve seemed too high for me to use it effectively, especially when there is a perfectly good trackpad right below it. I’m sure there will be a handful of people who can be really productive with the Trackpoint, but I’m not one of them.
Ports and Connectivity
As expected for a productivity-focused laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon comes with a healthy selection of ports. In total you get 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports, 2x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports with USB PD 3.0 and DisplayPort 2.1 support, 1x HDMI 2.1 port with support up to 4K/60Hz and 1x 3.5mm combo jack. Our model also features a Nano-SIM card slot for 5G connectivity. These sets of ports are perfect for a business laptop and I have no complaints.
The wireless connectivity is also great, with support for WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 thanks to its Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE201 network card. Speeds were fast and I never lost connectivity. The presence of a SIM slot means you can always be connected via 5G networks.
Battery
The laptop is equipped with a 57Wh battery that supports rapid charging, getting up to 80% in 1hr. Thanks to Intel’s power efficiency improvements in their Lunar Lake processors, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon had surprisingly good battery life. With regular use such as word processing and web browsing, I got around 8-9 hours of screen on time. While this is nowhere near the battery life you get with a MacBook, it is plenty good for a Windows laptop. I was able to just get through an entire work day without needing the charger, and if I did need to charge it, I appreciated having the support for quick charging.
Conclusion
At this point, it is quite clear that the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop is amazing. It has an excellent display, robust build, sleek design, powerful performance and a top-notch keyboard. The battery life is not as competitive with Apple’s MacBook, but still better than most Windows laptops. The TrankPoint isn’t entirely necessary to have, but it doesn’t affect the laptop’s usage, so it’s definitely not a deal breaker. All in all, the Lenovo X1 Carbon is among the best Windows powered laptops in the market right now.
Coming to the price of the laptop, this is where it gets a bit difficult. With all of these features and build quality, Lenovo certainly charges a premium for this laptop. Our configuration in particular is priced over Rs. 2.8 lakhs, which is steep. Of course, these are vPro machines designed for enterprises, so I would expect Lenovo to offer better pricing when corporations buy these laptops in bulk. But if you are an individual looking at the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, I would highly suggest the non-vPro variants of this laptop, which should be much cheaper in price for a similar experience.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon can be checked out here from Lenovo’s official store.
For more than 3 decades, the Lenovo ThinkPad has been the workhorse of the business world. Known for its uncompromising design, durability and reliability, the ThinkPad is a staple when it comes to productivity and professional computing. With Intel launching their latest Core Ultra vPro Evo Edition processors, Lenovo has refreshed their lineup of ThinkPad laptops for 2025. In this review, we will take a look at the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop.
Design and Build Quality
The ThinkPad laptop’s design has evolved over the years, but always kept practicality and functionality in mind. The laptop continues to be sleek, lightweight, built out of high-quality materials and feels reassuringly durable.
When picking up the laptop, I was surprised with how light the laptop feels. There are plenty of thin-and-light business focused laptops out in the market, but none of them feel this light in the hand. According to Lenovo, the laptop weighs just under a kilogram and that is impressive.
Being light doesn’t imply that the laptop feels cheap though. The chassis combines Carbon Fiber, Magnesium and Aluminium for excellent strength and durability. There is little flex to the keyboard deck and lid too. The matte finish on the keyboard deck and the lid feels premium, although it did pick up fingerprints quite quickly. I am certain it will be hard to maintain the clean look of this laptop’s exterior over time.
The hinge is perfectly weighted for one-finger opening, and the lid can stretch back up to 180°.
Lenovo has also kept many elements from its past designs, some of which are unmistakably “ThinkPad”. The most notable among them is definitely the red TrackPoint nestled between the letters on the keyboard.
Lenovo pioneered Trackpoints when early trackpads were small and inaccurate. It was truly a novel method of input, however, these days, trackpads are highly accurate and much larger in size. As such, the use of Trackpoints fell out of favour. Using it now feels clunky compared to modern glass trackpads.
I do appreciate the nostalgia factor of having the Trackpoint as an input. However, it feels too clunky and inaccurate to be my primary mode of mouse input.
Other design elements include the ThinkPad logos on the palm rest and the lid, both of which look neat with the Red dot for the “i”.
The bezels on the display are strikingly thin, with a small lip on the top bezel to help open the laptop. This lip houses the webcam with a physical shutter button, along with an IR camera for Windows Hello login.
Display and Audio
Our ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 features a 14-inch 16:10 IPS, touch-enabled panel with a resolution of 1920×1200. It has a peak brightness of 500 nits and a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. Lenovo also offers an OLED option with a higher resolution of 2880×1800 and refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which should be quite a nice upgrade.
That’s not to imply that the IPS panel in our review unit falls short in any respect. With 500 nits brightness and an anti-glare coating, the laptop works well outdoors and under bright lights. It supports 100% of the sRGB colour space, which is good enough for light editing workloads. The 16:10 aspect ratio is highly appreciated as it makes a real difference in productivity applications and 1920×1200 resolution is good enough for a 14-inch display. For those who require touch functionality, that is an option too!
Coming to audio, the laptop has two 2 Watt stereo upward-firing speakers that get surprisingly loud. It maintains clarity up to about 80% volume, after which a small amount of distortion creeps through. The bass is lacking, which isn’t surprising when you consider how thin the device is. However the mids and high frequencies weren’t too bad. For the video conferencing, the speakers are more than adequate and I even enjoyed using the laptop for watching media.
Performance and Benchmarks
Powering the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 is Intel’s latest Lunar Lake processors. Our configuration in particular is equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V. It is an 8-core processor that comprises 4 P-cores and 4 LPE-cores, and it is equipped with the Intel Arc Graphics 140V internal GPU. The processor can hit a maximum turbo frequency of 5GHz on its P-cores and it also comes with the Intel AI Boost NPU with 48 TOPS of compute power.
Our review unit is also configured with 32GB of DDR5 8533MT/s memory and 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 5 SSD.
Intel has stepped up their game with their latest series of processors in terms of both power and efficiency. I tested the laptop with various workloads such as photo editing, light video editing, word processing, browsing and video conferencing. The laptop felt snappy and responsive throughout my review and I had no issues with the performance. With the dedicated NPU and iGPU, the laptop is also Copilot+ certified, so it is decent with light AI tasks too.
The “V” in the processor’s name signifies that it is part of their vPro line of CPUs, which offers a host of features for corporations and enterprises. It includes technologies that help IT admins deploy, secure and manage large fleets remotely. Some of these technologies include Intel active management technology, Intel trusted execution technology and Intel identity protection technology. For regular consumers, these technologies aren’t necessary, however when it comes to large corporations, vPro can be essential for IT administrators.
With regards to thermals, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been engineered quite well. The Intel processors are power efficient, and during regular use I barely heard the fans.
Here are some benchmarks:
Keyboard, Trackpad and TrackPoint
It should be no surprise that the keyboard on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is one of its best features. This is an area that Lenovo has been remarkably consistent with in its ThinkPad lineup of laptops over the years. With 1.5mm of key travel, the keystrokes are snappy and feel perfect with regards to its actuation force and weight. The layout of the keys are also consciously productivity focused. There are dedicated keys for ‘Home’, ‘End’, ‘Insert’ and ‘Delete’, along with plenty of quick shortcuts for taking screenshots, switching Windows and the Power Modes. There is even a user-defined key that can be customized to open an application, open a website, start a key sequence or copy text.
The Trackpad is glass-topped with good precision and accuracy. The size of the trackpad is a little compromised due to the physical mouse buttons at its top edge, which is required for the Trackpoint. It even includes a dedicated middle mouse button, which is uncommon among laptops.
Coming to the Trackpoint, as I mentioned earlier, felt more like a nostalgia feature rather than being really functional. To their credit, Lenovo added features like double-tap for shortcuts and middle-button scrolling. However the learning curve seemed too high for me to use it effectively, especially when there is a perfectly good trackpad right below it. I’m sure there will be a handful of people who can be really productive with the Trackpoint, but I’m not one of them.
Ports and Connectivity
As expected for a productivity-focused laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon comes with a healthy selection of ports. In total you get 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports, 2x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports with USB PD 3.0 and DisplayPort 2.1 support, 1x HDMI 2.1 port with support up to 4K/60Hz and 1x 3.5mm combo jack. Our model also features a Nano-SIM card slot for 5G connectivity. These sets of ports are perfect for a business laptop and I have no complaints.
The wireless connectivity is also great, with support for WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 thanks to its Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE201 network card. Speeds were fast and I never lost connectivity. The presence of a SIM slot means you can always be connected via 5G networks.
Battery
The laptop is equipped with a 57Wh battery that supports rapid charging, getting up to 80% in 1hr. Intel’s efficient Lunar Lake chips give the ThinkPad X1 Carbon impressive battery life. With regular use such as word processing and web browsing, I got around 8-9 hours of screen on time. While this is nowhere near the battery life you get with a MacBook, it is plenty good for a Windows laptop. I was able to just get through an entire work day without needing the charger, and if I did need to charge it, I appreciated having the support for quick charging.
Conclusion
At this point, it is quite clear that the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop is amazing. It has an excellent display, robust build, sleek design, powerful performance and a top-notch keyboard. The battery life is not as competitive with Apple’s MacBook, but still better than most Windows laptops. The TrankPoint isn’t entirely necessary to have, but it doesn’t affect the laptop’s usage, so it’s definitely not a deal breaker. All in all, the Lenovo X1 Carbon is among the best Windows powered laptops in the market right now.
Coming to the price of the laptop, this is where it gets a bit difficult. With all of these features and build quality, Lenovo certainly charges a premium for this laptop. Our configuration in particular is priced over Rs. 2.8 lakhs, which is steep. Of course, these are vPro machines designed for enterprises, so I would expect Lenovo to offer better pricing when corporations buy these laptops in bulk. But if you are an individual looking at the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, I would highly suggest the non-vPro variants of this laptop, which should be much cheaper in price for a similar experience.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon can be checked out here from Lenovo’s official store.