Lenovo Thinkpad 13 Chromebook - Celeron 3855u Review
Early on Verdict
It looks and mostly feels like a ThinkPad - but beware of the lousy display on the entry-level configuration.
For
- Affordable
- Classic ThinkPad
- Practiced battery life
Against
- Poor display
- Keyboard a missed opportunity
TechRadar Verdict
It looks and mostly feels like a ThinkPad - merely beware of the lousy display on the entry-level configuration.
Pros
- +
Affordable
- +
Classic ThinkPad
- +
Good bombardment life
Cons
- -
Poor brandish
- -
Keyboard a missed opportunity
Lenovo is looking to break new ground with the ThinkPad 13, a laptop that looks and feels like a classic ThinkPad but comes with a much cheaper price tag than nosotros're used to. With a starting price of £379.99 (around $480), it's the 2d-most affordable model in Lenovo's current ThinkPad line-upward, positioned simply behind the company'southward rugged ThinkPad 11e Serial that's aimed at students.
The ThinkPad thirteen could have turned out very unlike. It would have been like shooting fish in a barrel for Lenovo to slap its iconic computer'due south logo onto whatsoever quondam chassis, merely instead the ThinkPad 13 feels like a stripped back version of its premium flagship T460s. Decked in matte-black, its aluminum-reinforced hat bears the classic ThinkPad logo positioned in the corner, consummate with a glowing crimson letter 'I' that pulses even when the hat is airtight. Lenovo's own logo is etched into the contrary corner.
The lid, which sports a practiced thickness and is steadfast on its two metal hinges, can easily be opened with a single hand. The movement is made easier by the tapered base of operations that curves upwards toward the forepart of the auto. Everything housed under the chapeau screams ThinkPad – from the laptop'due south AccuType-shaped keys to the ruby TrackPoint nestled between the 'G' and 'H' keys, to the black-and-cerise buttons housed above the trackpad.
Lenovo had to make some compromises to achieve the ThinkPad 13's depression cost indicate, and where our sample was concerned that came down to the display. With a pixel-resolution of 1,366 x 768, the ThinkPad isn't all-time suited to working with multiple applications side-by-side simultaneously. For that, you would need to upgrade to the version with a full HD display that starts at £559.99 – a price that almost brings the ThinkPad 13 in-line with impressive consumer models such as the Asus UX305 and Dell XPS 13.
The display uses a TN (Twisted Nematic), rather than IPS (In-Plane Switching) console, and so viewing angles are worse than what you'll find on more expensive ThinkPads. They're not also bad, however, which shows how far TN panels have come in contempo years. Rated at simply 200 nits, the display is far from the brightest you'll see on a laptop and its colors lack vibrancy which further compounds its usefulness for multimedia-editing professionals.
Things are more promising under the hood. Even at the depression-end, the ThinkPad thirteen comes with a 128GB SSD which allows for reasonably fast boot and application loading times and file transfers compared to a traditional HDD. Less exciting is its maximum 4GB of RAM, which forth the display's low pixel-resolution makes the ThinkPad 13 less than ideal for multi-tasking.
There's a healthy array of ports on the ThinkPad 13, including a headphone jack, two USB-A ports, a Kensington lock, HDMI, and fifty-fifty USB-C – a real bonus on a business laptop this affordable.
Benchmarks
- Cinebench R15: OpenGL: 36.37 fps; CPU: 290 cb (points)
- Geekbench iii (Single-core): 2,878 points; (Multi-Core): v,956 points
- Battery test (1080p looped video streamed over Wi-Fi in Border, 50% brightness): 5 hours 45 minutes
The ThinkPad 13 is powered by a sixth-generation Intel Celeron 3855U Skylake processor which also provides graphics duties via an Intel Hd Graphics 510 solution. The combination of Intel's sixth-generation Skylake processor and the brandish's low resolution makes for impressive battery life.
The ThinkPad clocked upward almost six hours in our looped video test and tin become for up to nine hours nether general utilize using Windows 10's Battery Saver manner without needing to be juiced back up again. Still, it still comes second to newer similarly-priced laptops that feature Intel'south seventh-generation Kaby Lake CPUs – such equally the Dell Vostro 14 5000 – which ran for almost viii hours in the same looped movie test.
ThinkPads are known for their comfortable keyboards, and the ThinkPad 13 doesn't disappoint. Though, let'south exist clear: it doesn't offer anywhere well-nigh the level of comfort afforded past more than expensive ThinkPads in the serial.
While the large and well-spaced keys offering a generous i.94mm of fundamental travel and large, the cushioning found on flagship models simply isn't at that place. The keyboard is still much better than many we accept tested on similarly-priced laptops and makes the ThinkPad 13 an ideal choice for ardent typists on a budget.
Meanwhile, the ThinkPad 13's touchpad is small yet usable enough, capable of performing a variety of Windows ten multi-touch gestures without besides much trouble.
Early verdict
The ThinkPad 13 marks a convincing new entry into the line-up that looks (and mostly feels) like the existent bargain. From its color scheme to its red trackpoint, the machine makes you experience like you're using a ThinkPad. Although non Lenovo's best, its keyboard offers deeper travel than near other laptops, and the inclusion of a USB-C port is a pleasant surprise.
The features most likely to remind you that y'all're not using a more than expensive model are the ThinkPad 13's lackluster display, which is slightly on the dim and washed out side. If y'all're OK with mainly using one application on the screen at whatever one fourth dimension (in the absenteeism of an external monitor) and don't require oodles of horse power, checking out the ThinkPad 13 is something of a no-brainer.
What is a easily on review?
Hands on reviews' are a journalist's get-go impressions of a piece of kit based on spending some time with it. Information technology may exist only a few moments, or a few hours. The important affair is we have been able to play with it ourselves and tin can give you some sense of what it'south like to employ, even if it'south only an embryonic view. For more than information, see TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee.
Source: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/lenovo-thinkpad-13
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