Notebookcheck Logo

CES 2021 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is the first 3:2 Yoga convertible & thinnest ThinkPad yet

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is the first 3:2 Yoga convertible & thinnest ThinkPad yet
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is the first 3:2 Yoga convertible & thinnest ThinkPad yet
In the year 2021, Lenovo expands its high-end series ThinkPad X1 with another model. The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is thinner than all other ThinkPads and at the same time the first 3:2 ThinkPad. It also is one of the few laptops to utilize Titanium metal as a chassis material.

Titanium is a material not often seen in laptops, Typically, laptops are made out of plastic, aluminum, magnesium, carbon-fiber or a mix of these materials. To find a laptop made out of the exotic Titanium, we have to look back far into the past: The Apple Powerbook G4, nicknamed "TiBook", used titanium for most of its chassis in the early 2000s. A few years later, Lenovo/IBM released a ThinkPad series with a screen-cover out of titanium, the ThinkPad Z series. Curiously, both the TiBook from Apple and the ThinkPad Z series were among the first models in their respective brands with the wider 16:10 aspect-ratio.

The aspect ratio change is an interesting parallel to the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga Gen 1. The new ThinkPad Yoga flagship not only uses titanium, it also introduces a new aspect ratio. 3:2 has only been used by Lenovo in detachable tablets like the new ThinkPad X12. The X1 Titanium is both the first ThinkPad laptop and the first Yoga convertible with the 3:2 aspect ratio at the same time.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga: More tablet-focused than other Yoga laptops

But why use 3:2 here and not 16:10, like the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon? Lenovo sees 3:2 as the better format for tablets and convertibles, while normal clamshell laptops are better served with 16:10. This also signifies an elementary difference to the ThinkPad X1 Yoga 2021, which uses a 16:10 screen like the X1 Carbon: Lenovo optimizes the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga for tablet usage.

Tablet or laptop: Thinkpad X1 Titanium Yoga Gen 1
Tablet or laptop: Thinkpad X1 Titanium Yoga Gen 1
Lenovo X1 Titanium: A cover/screen cover made out of titanium
Lenovo X1 Titanium: A cover/screen cover made out of titanium

This is visible when looking at the much lower weight of the X1 Titanium Yoga (1.15 kg) compared with the X1 Yoga (1.39 kg) and also the extremely thin chassis. With just 11.5 mm thickness, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yuga is the thinnest ThinkPad ever, which will probably make tablet mode much more enjoyable to use. This is probably also the reason why Lenovo is using titanium. The strength of titanium is much greater than aluminum, allowing the ThinkPad Yoga Titanium to be thinner. It should be noted though that only the lid is made out of titanium. The remainder of the X1 Titanium Yoga is made out of carbon and magnesium.

First 3:2 ThinkPad: Less options than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon / X1 Yoga

The thinner, lighter chassis results in various compromises and a reduction in options compared with the thicker models. The two Thunderbolt 4 connectors are the only ports present, exactly like with the ThinkPad X1 Nano. In terms of mass-storage, a maximum of 1 TB is offered, which hints at the M.2 2242 format, since bigger 2 TB drives are only available in the longer M.2 2280 format. When it comes to the memory, there is a maximum of 16 GB LPDDR4X, 32 GB are only available in the new X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga.

The battery shrinks compared with the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, from 57 to 44.5 Wh. Also, Lenovo utilizes the Intel Tiger Lake UP4 CPUs instead of the faster UP3 variants - another similarity with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano. Different from the X1 Yoga, there is no integrated stylus. Instead, a magnetic stylus is available for the X1 Titanium Yoga. Even the speakers are impacted by the thin chassis, as there are only two speakers instead of four like in the thicker X1 ThinkPads.

Very unusal for a ThinkPad laptop: There is only a single screen option. This one screen does have good specs on paper: A 13.5 inch low-power screen in the 3:2 aspect ratio, with a maximum brightness of 450 cd/m² and a resolution of 2K (2,256 x 1,504). sRGB is supposed to be covered completely and it supports Dolby Vision. Not really compromised compared with X1 Yoga and X1 Carbon is the keyboard, which sports the same 1.35 mm key-travel and red ThinkPad TrackPoint. Like its thicker counterparts, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga can be ordered with 5G or LTE, too.

Pricing & Availability: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga Gen 1

According to Lenovo, the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga will be available in the USA in January 2021. It is more pricy than the X1 Yoga and X1 Carbon, starting at $1,899.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Gen 1 specifications
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Gen 1 specifications
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Gen 1 specifications (continued)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Gen 1 specifications (continued)

Source(s)

Lenovo

Read all 6 comments / answer
static version load dynamic
Loading Comments
Comment on this article
Please share our article, every link counts!
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2021 01 > Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is the first 3:2 Yoga convertible & thinnest ThinkPad yet
Benjamin Herzig, 2021-01-11 (Update: 2021-01-11)