A premiere: Until this point, every notebook was equipped with an LC (liquid crystal) display. Only plasma was an alternative for many years, but it was not a real alternative to LCDs for mobile applications due to its characteristics, mainly the high power consumption. We can now see a trend towards another technology, which might be able to replace the LCD technology. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) were initially used for very small displays, and a lot of modern smartphones use them. For about the last year, OLED TVs have been available, but they are still expensive. And now we have the first OLED notebook.

The 14-inch panel has the native resolution of 2560x1440 pixels (WQHD) with a 16:9 aspect ratio – the result is a pixel density of 210 PPI, so the presentation is vivid and sharp. There is an additional glass layer on top of the screen, so it is a glossy display. You can also get the ThinkPad X1 Yoga with a "regular" IPS-LCD, either with the same QHD or Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) resolution. These displays are, contrary to the OLED model, equipped with an anti-glare coating, so they are semi-glossy / semi-matte.

We continue with the measurement results of the OLED display: Lenovo advertises a luminance of 300 cd/m² for the OLED panel. The display does manage this value, but only if there is almost no white content at all, where we can measure up to 305 cd/m². The situation is complicated because the X1 Yoga has an automatic brightness control: The more white you see on the panel, the darker it gets, and the other way around. The dimming process is so fast that the user does not notice it, so worries about an effect similar to the Dell XPS 13 with its aggressive brightness control are unfounded. The brightness distribution of the panel is very good at 91%. The pixels of the OLED display are illuminated, so there is obviously no additional background illumination. This also means there is absolutely no backlight bleeding. There are no annoying bright spots even when you slightly twist the panel.

We compare the OLED panel with the IPS sibling as well as the best LCDs you can see as references for good notebook IPS displays – like the Surface Book or the MacBook Pro 13, or the EliteBook 1040 G3 with a 14-inch QHD-IPS display as a business rival. The luminance of the OLED falls behind very good LCDs, but we have to mention that the other two announced OLED notebooks are advertised with a maximum luminance of 300 cd/m² as well – so there is currently no brighter OLED panel for a notebook.