Lenovo updates ThinkPad laptops with fresh CPUs, recycled metals
Today, Lenovo announced upcoming updates to its ThinkPad X1 lineup, including the flagship ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Lenovo’s 2023 ThinkPad X1 Carbon, X1 Yoga, and X1 Nano will all get new Intel CPU processors and use recycled materials for the first time.
According to Lenovo’s announcement, the 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, 13-inch ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, and 13-inch ThinkPad Nano Gen 3 will each use as much as 97 percent post-consumer content (PCC) plastic in their battery enclosures and 95 percent PPC plastic in the laptops’ speaker enclosures, as well as their included AC adapters.
Further, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 will have a palm rest that’s 90 percent recycled magnesium. Meanwhile, the clamshell’s bottom cover will be 55 percent recycled aluminum.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Nano 2-in-1, the lightest PC (2.13 lbs) in Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup, will have a palm rest and bottom cover that are a 90 percent “recycled magnesium hybrid,” Lenovo said.
None of these materials represents groundbreaking laptop designs, but they introduce recycled parts to Lenovo’s most popular series for power business users. And laptops that use recycled materials and can be recycled themselves make for less eco-hostile machines. The upcoming ThinkPad X1 hasn’t earned IT sustainability TCO Certification ahead of next year’s release, but its prior generations have.
In addition to eco-friendly packaging, Lenovo said all laptops are eligible for its CO2 Offset Services program. The program lets you buy carbon offsets based on Lenovo’s estimated projected carbon emissions for five years of device use. In October, Lenovo claimed carbon offset purchases from its ThinkPad and ThinkBook computers had offset over 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Lenovo’s announcement of its upcoming laptops today also highlighted its preloading of the Lenovo Commercial Vantage app, claiming it could help users conserve energy. The app includes features like Human Presence Detection, which uses the laptop’s camera to detect if you’re nearby and will lock the system if you’re not.
Beyond eco-friendly parts, the new ThinkPads will continue a trend of work-from-home and hybrid work practices. Each laptop can combine AI and its camera to provide posture warnings and “eye wellness alerts,” while the new X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga will be able to blur their screen or alert you when they sense someone is looking at the display from over your shoulder. The laptops’ webcams go up to 1080p resolution with RGB and IR sensors and have physical shutters.
Beyond that, we can expect the ThinkPad laptops to come with Intel’s 13th Gen mobile processors, known as Raptor Lake; although, since Intel hasn’t announced those yet, all Lenovo could say was that the systems would have Intel’s latest. Among the 2022 lineup, the Gen 10 ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7, and ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 all go up to an i7-1280P.
The three laptops will maintain decent port selection despite being approximately 0.6 inches thick, with two USB-C (Thunderbolt 4) ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.0b, and a 3.5 mm jack.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Yoga will go up to 64GB of LPDDR5 RAM, while the Nano will max out at 16GB. Each laptop can be configured with up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.
Screen selection is similar to last year’s, with the displays carrying 16:10 aspect ratios. The X1 Carbon’s display will go up to 3840×2400 with VESA’s True Black 500 certification and a 400-nit brightness claim. The X1 Yoga’s OLED screen, meanwhile, has the same resolution but claims up to 500 nits, while the X1 Nano’s display will max out at a 2160×1350 IPS display with a 450-nit spec.
Lenovo’s refreshed ThinkPad X1 lineup comes out in April. The X1 Carbon is expected to start at $1,729, the X1 Yoga at $1,859, and the X1 Nano at $1,649.
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1905786