ThinkPad X1 Renewal: Hands On With 2019's X1 Carbon Gen 7 and X1 Yoga 4th Gen

Impossibly Thin and Light

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The no-compromises Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is perhaps the ultimate business laptop. Lots of corporate types covet its durable, muscular design that manages to be so thin and light thanks to its carbon fiber chassis. But Lenovo still isn’t sure that even those folks appreciate how unique the X1 Carbon is. So the latest generation will make it more obvious by including an optional lid that shows off the carbon-fiber weaves, in case the Carbon name wasn’t enough to make you remember how thin and durable this laptop really is.

The seventh generation X1 Carbon debuted at CES this week alongside a brand new ThinkPad X1 Yoga, its 2-in-1 convertible cousin. I spent some brief time with both, and I realized that even though they’re iterative updates, both of them aren’t merely different than their predecessors—in some of the most important aspects of their design, they’re actually better. That means that come June, when they go on sale for a starting price of $1,700, IT department inboxes will surely be flooded with upgrade requests from salivating road warriors.