Announced at IFA 2024 back in September, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 had a successful, albeit limited, launch in November. The expensive premium ThinkPad laptop was made available with only a single CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V and one screen option, a terrific, but also expensive and power-hungry 2.8K 120 Hz OLED screen. The only available option was the choice between a 1 TB or 2 TB SSD. We reviewed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon G13 in December and found it to be an excellent device, thanks to the efficiency of Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs.
However, the one hardware configuration available is clearly not for everyone - the OLED screen has PWM, and it reduces battery life compared to IPS options. Also, it is expensive, same goes for the Ultra 7. Plus, the X1 Carbon Gen 13 was lacking a 4G or 5G modem option, normally a staple of the ThinkPad laptop series. Accordingly, one of our critiques for the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon was the lack of configuration options.
Things are about to change: Lenovo is readying several new options for the X1 Carbon Gen 13, including Ultra 5 CPUs with 16 GB RAM and IPS screens, which will bring the price of the premium ThinkPad down. While Lenovo has not announced anything yet, these options are already listed on Lenovo's parts lookup support site, and they include:
- WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) 14" IPS displays made by AUO, Innolux and BOE
- WWAN antennas for configurations with 5G / 4G LTE modules
- Intel Core Ultra 5 226V (16 GB RAM), Core Ultra 7 256V (16 GB RAM), Core Ultra 7 266V (16 GB RAM), Core Ultra 9 288V (32 GB RAM)
- 8 MPix webcams (instead of just FHD like in our review unit)
- PCIe Gen 5 SSDs from Samsung
When exactly Lenovo will make these options available is unclear at this point - however, a good guess would probably be February 2025, which is when the convertible variant of the X1 Carbon Gen 13, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition, will also launch.