ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12: New keyboard, better cooling and 120 Hz screen for Core Ultra flagship laptop
Traditionally, Lenovo announces the ThinkPad X1 Carbon every year at CES. This time though, the announcement comes before the show begins and still in the year 2023.
Of course, this timing coincides with the launch of Intel's new Core Ultra CPU series, code named Meteor Lake. For this occasion, Lenovo is revealing the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12, the newest in the long line of flagship premium ThinkPad laptops of the X1 series. And this year, this model line for company managers, frequent travelers and high end enterprise computing gets a brand new design.
TrackPoint buttons or no TrackPoint buttons: You get the choice
The first big design change visible to anyone is the new haptic trackpad, which was pioneered by the ThinkPad Z series, with models like the ThinkPad Z13. This forcepad-like design forgoes the traditional dedicated buttons for the TrackPoint, the red ThinkPad pointing stick, integrating them into the touchpad and thus increasing the touchpad area. Touchpad users will probably like this, but ThinkPad fans who love the TrackPoint? Not so much. In a good move, Lenovo will still offer the classic solution with a mechanical trackpad and dedicated buttons, so users get the choice which design they prefer.
This is not the only input-device change: Lenovo has flipped the FN and Ctrl keys, fixing a long-standing annoyance of many users who are used to other manufacturers. The new keyboard also integrated the fingerprint sensor and it includes new tactile markers on certain keys, so blind users and touch-typists can more easily find them.
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Another design change: Lenovo shrank the screen bezels. In exchange, the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon will have a reverse notch on top of the screen, to make room for the new 8 megapixel webcam.
Core Ultra with improved thermals, 5G, 120 Hz OLED, 64 GB RAM
The X1 Carbon is firmly part of the Intel camp, as it is co-engineered by the blue CPU giant. Thus, it launches with Meteor Lake. To support these new chips, Lenovo claims that the new model will have an improved cooling system, apparently adopting a larger dual fan system - the anemic cooling system of the previous generation was one of our main concerns, so we will be happy if this turns out to be true.
Luckily, this new ThinkPad X1 Carbon G12 retains all of the advantages of the older models when it comes to ports and weight: It still has plenty legacy ports like USB A and HDMI, and the weight is still low at just 1.09 kg / 2.42 lbs starting weight. It will be available with 5G LTE, up to 64 GB LPDDR5X RAM and 2 TB SSD storage. The battery capacity remains unchanged at 57 Wh. New this year is WiFi 7 and the 2024 ThinkPad X1 Carbon also gains a new premium screen option: A 120 Hz OLED panel.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12: Pricing and availability
The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G12 will be available in limited configurations and unit numbers starting in December 2023, with the full portfolio launching in March 2024. The initial base price: $2,989.
Source(s)
Lenovo