Are you looking for a classic ThinkPad experience without spending much? Luckily, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 is a compact business workstation with reliability and security that you have never seen before in a laptop with this price tag.
2 Minutes – Overview
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been known as the reigning king of business laptops due to its comfortable keyboard, sleek display, efficient battery power, and lightweight design, but it’s pricey. That’s where the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 comes into play. This excellent alternative to the ThinkPad X1 enables you to unleash similar benefits without selling your soul to buy one.
The ThinkPad X13 inherits some remarkable features from its highly acclaimed predecessor, X1 Carbon, such as its outstanding larger keyboard, robust hardware, and immersive audio fidelity. This business laptop perfectly combines performance, portability, and durability.
The excellent clamshell we will review here has a 13.3-inch, 1080p display, AMD Radeon graphics, 8GB of memory and a 256GB solid-state drive. It supports AMD Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors, which provide the excellent performance you throw at it – from everyday productivity to more demanding creative work. However, as anticipated, it may need to match the excellence of the award-winning ThinkPad X1 Carbon. In summary, considering that the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 is priced at around £400, it might be the best bargain for users needing a laptop that can keep up with them all day.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Pros and Cons
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Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Specifications
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 PRO Processor |
| Screen Size | 13.3 inches |
| Maximum Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| SSD | 256 GB |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon Graphics |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Pro |
| Colour | Black |
| Screen Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Keyboard | Backlit |
| Weight | 1.49 kg |
| Connectivity | HDMI, USB 3.2, Thunderbolt |
| Warranty | 1 Year |
| Wireless Networking | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth |
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Design and Build
The Lenovo ThinkPad show quite a resemblance with its star of the family, the X1 Carbon, but it could be more refined. The most salient difference is housed at the top of the deck, while on X1, these are flanking the keyboard.
If you look at the exterior, you’ll notice that this Lenovo laptop has the minimalist and professional appearance that has become synonymous with the ThinkPad brand. Its all-black architecture is sleek and understated, making it an excellent choice for business users and professionals who want something to represent their personality. Lenovo kept the iconic ThinkPad logo on the lid, which is astonishing and definable.
On the portability notes, the ThinkPad X13 weighs only 1.49 kg, meaning you can pack and carry it everywhere, whether it’s a business tour, a coffee shop, or a bus.
The ThinkPad X13 features four rubber feet on the bottom to ensure optimum airflow and stability while sitting on a surface. In addition, a small square-shaped ventilation grill is placed in the upper-left corner of the laptop’s underbelly.
Build quality is another distinguishing feature of the Lenovo ThinkPad series. The X13 Gen 2 lives up to its reputation with a well-built, long-lasting chassis. The laptop is designed to withstand daily rigours and is MIL-STD-810H certified for durability, which means it can tolerate many environmental conditions and physical demands. Its construction materials, which include reinforced carbon fibre and metal components, ensure that it can support you for years to come just like– a trustworthy companion!
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Display
Excellent is the only word describing the ThinkPad X13’s 13.3-inch display. While many of the latest business laptops have touchscreen support, this Lenovo AMD laptop
does not hold this feature. While it lacks touch capabilities, the display compensates with superb colour accuracy and glare reduction. Despite having a backlight rating of only 300 nits, the matte coating on the screen does an excellent job of masking any reflections generated by ambient light.
Regarding colour accuracy, the screen can display the whole sRGB colour gamut and more than 75% of the more extensive Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 palettes. This level of performance is outstanding but not unusual for a high-end business laptop. In our benchmarks, the brightness level is sufficient for indoor use; you may need more in bright outdoor conditions.
IPS panel type is what is incorporated into this Lenovo laptop.
This panel is best known for its wide viewing angles and precise colour reproduction. Thus, the Lenovo X13 Gen 2 screen is suitable for tasks where colour accuracy and viewing angles matter, such as content creation and presentations.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Performance
The ThinkPad X13 has an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU to handle your onslaught of tabs and intensive processes without even breaking a sweat. The Ryzen 5 processor is built on the Zen 3 architecture, which significantly improves single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.
You can run numerous applications at the same time without encountering severe lag. This makes it ideal for professionals who frequently work on multiple projects, such as office apps, online browsers, and communication tools simultaneously.
The integrated AMD Radeon GPU chips that come with these processors perform well in casual gaming and GPU-accelerated tasks. While the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2, like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, is not a gaming laptop and won’t run the latest AAA games at high settings, it can reasonably play older or less demanding titles and activities like light video editing.
Even on the synthetic benchmarks, the ThinkPad X13’s 8 GB RAM provides faster boot times for various activities, from office productivity tasks to demanding work like video editing.
In a file duplication test, the 256GB PCIe SSD on ThinkPad X13 took almost one and a half minutes to duplicate 25GB of multimedia files, resulting in a transfer rate of 310.5 megabytes per second. This Lenovo laptop outperformed its counterparts if you compare this transfer performance with a similar laptop with 256 GB SSD.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Keyboard and Touchpad
One of the standout features of Lenovo laptops is their ergonomic keyboard, and the X13 Gen 2 is no exception. The keyboard of the Lenovo 13″ laptop offers a comfortable typing experience with good key travel and a tactile feel. The keyboard’s width has been lowered to around 95% of the Carbon X1.
The keys on the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2, like the current ThinkPad X1 Carbon, cover minimum key travel, measure 1.5 mm, and are flatter in shape. However, the keyboard still provides a more comfortable typing experience when compared to alternative business laptops from HP or Dell.
Nonetheless, the keyboard is still appropriate for long typing sessions and has a two-stage white background illumination. This backlighting functionality is handy for you to work in low-light or dim environments.
On the other hand, the Trackpad has added a broader touchpad in the new X13 G2, which is very responsive and easy to use. The smooth surface provides a tactile experience, plus you’ll also hear pretty loud and cheap noise when clicking on the touchpad.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Connectivity
Not only the performance and keyboard are up to the mark on the ThinkPad X13, but Lenovo also gives you more input and output options to connect and share data effectively. These include two rectangular USB Type-A and two USB-C ports, each supporting Thunderbolt 4 speeds. You’ll find an HDMI port to connect your laptop to external displays, monitors, or projectors.
Under the hood is an Ethernet port, which is handy for a stable and fast-wired internet connection, and a built-in MicroSD card reader for storage expansion.
As for wireless connectivity, you’ll get the cutting-edge Wi-Fi 6E standard and Bluetooth 5.2. There are also optional 4G and 5G LTE modems, compatible with either a nano SIM or an eSIM.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Battery Life
On the batter test benchmarks, the ThinkPad X13 can last more than 10 hours on a single charge, which involves continuous web surfing and multitasking. This is pretty damn impressive for the users who are always on the move. This extended battery life ensures you can work the whole day without constantly searching for an outlet.
What’s the best part? Thanks to the rapid charge technology and power-efficient hardware, you can charge the ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 from 0-80% in an hour.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Audio and Webcam
The ThinkPad X13 includes Dolby Atmos speakers located between the region that sits between the hinge and the function keys. Audio quality from the front-facing speakers is adequate for videoconferencing, but you may not enjoy immersive volumes in video and audio streaming.
Lenovo has integrated a 1080p camera with a 2MP sensor on the ThinkPad X1. Although this camera is explicitly tailored for video conferences and related applications, it needs more photos and videography.
However, the 1080p webcam provides more excellent image quality and includes IR sensors for convenient facial recognition login to your Windows account, assuming your IT security standards allow it.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Security
The Lenovo 13″ laptop comes with ThinkShield features that prioritize your privacy and security to protect your data. These ThinkShield features cover your information and device sway from unauthorized access, making it the best “business-class” workstation. These features are as follows:
ImagineShutter: This is a physical webcam cover that adds an extra layer of security against unauthorized access to your camera.
PrivacyGuard with PrivacyAlert: A better screen option that helps prevent nosy bystanders from reading your display. It improves the privacy of your screen and notifies you in case of any privacy violations.
Fingerprint Scanner: Thanks to the optional match-on-chip fingerprint reader, you can easily log in with just one finger. This adds a convenient yet secure form of authentication.
dTPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module): The discrete TPM 2.0 chip encrypts and secures your hardware, assuring the safety of your hardware.
AMD Memory Guard: This unique function enables memory encryption, adding extra security to your data and sensitive information.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 – Price and Availability
Our review package is the most budget-friendly configuration you can get. It has a starting price of around £650 in the UK. This model has a quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, AMD Radeon Graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD, a 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel display, and Windows 11 Pro.
The good news is that if you purchase a Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 from Laptop Outlet, you can save up to £250.00. In that case, you’ll get the same configurations mentioned above along with an extended warranty of 1 year for just £400.
Bottom Line
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 (13.3 AMD) is what every professional wants to see in a business laptop. What it lacks in cutting-edge features like dedicated graphics and a modest audio quality, it makes up for typing comfort, fine-tuned security, robust battery life, connectivity options, and competent performance.
This isn’t a business laptop to impress high-end users; however, it’s a fine choice for every organization seeking a lightweight and cost-effective workhorse. That’s why consider the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 (20XJS29705) and make a smart investment in your professional life – without putting a strain on your pocket.
Do you want to explore more Lenovo laptop options? Visit Laptop Outlet and find a wide range of models and configurations and get the perfect match for your digital work and productivity demands.
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