CES 2018 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon coming with HDR and Kaby Lake-R options

After remaining silent throughout the second half of 2017, Lenovo is now ready to update its venerable ThinkPad family with new designs and features just in time for CES 2018. The 14-inch ThinkPad X1 series, for example, will receive a much-needed performance boost via Intel's 8th gen U-class Kaby Lake-R options. Competing consumer alternatives like the HP Spectre 15, Dell XPS 13, and Acer Aspire 5 have all been shipping with Kaby Lake-R for months and so Lenovo will be starting the new year a bit late to the party.

Aside from the CPU upgrade, the 6th generation X1 Carbon will have a couple more tricks up its sleeve. Firstly, SKUs will have a HDR-capable QHD (2560 x 1440) IPS touchscreen option for a brighter 500 nit backlight and improved color reproduction over previous generations. Secondly, the webcam will have a physical slider called the ThinkShutter to cover up the lens when it is not in use. Lenovo says the concept for the ThinkShutter arose from seeing users tape over their webcams with unsightly sticky notes. The ThinkShutter will be making its way onto other upcoming ThinkPad models as well. A similar feature is already available on some HP Envy monitors, but Lenovo is the first to bring a built-in mechanical slider to a laptop form factor.

No other changes have been made to the chassis of the 2018 X1 Carbon when compared to the 2017 X1 Carbon. Thus, users can expect the same dimensions (323.5 x 217.1 x 15.95mm), weight (~1.13 kg), and connectivity features for the refreshed lineup. We recommend checking out our existing review on the 2017 model for more information on the hardware.

The 14-inch 2018 Lenovo X1 Carbon is launching before the end of this month for a starting price of $1700 USD.

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