Slim, seek and surprisingly sexy

A sleek, slim and powerful Ultrabook computer designed for the executive on the go, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon with its 4G connection, allows you to connect to Internet anytime, anywhere. 

The X1 Carbon, which sports a micro-SIM card tray on its base, is only 18.46mm thick and weighs about 1.2 kgs. A 9-hour battery life means it’s convenient to use on the road and the battery can be replenished very fast, taking just an hour to boost the battery life back to 80 per cent of its capacity.

The X1 Carbon looks really sleek in its black carbon fibre roll cage and is sturdy with reinforcement throughout. Lenovo says X1 Carbon is built on the legacy of the ThinkPad – one of the most iconic business computing devices of more than two decades. And its design and functions have won it 20 awards in total, including PC World Best of CES 2014 Best Laptop, Fashion Times Best of CES Ultrabook and Engadget Best of CES Finalist People's Choice Award.

Lenovo says X1 Carbon is the toughest ThinkPad ever made, adding that the X1 Carbon has passed through eight separate military specification tests – all under extreme conditions with dust, vibration, heat, cold, altitude, water, and humidity– so it can withstand spills, drops, and heat exposure.

The X1 Carbon tested here was powered by Intel Core i7-4600 CPU 2.1 GHz and equipped with 8 gigabytes of RAM. It used 240 GB SSD (solid state drive) storage. The graphics horsepower came from integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000 and the X1 Carbon runs on Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit.

Its 14-inch 10-point multi-touch display had a high resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and 270 nits brightness, making it good for watching HD videos and viewing photos.

It’s also secure with a fingerprint scanner for you to log on safely and privately.

The test found that X1 Carbon had impressive performance. Its multi-touch screen was very responsive and scrolling was fast and smooth. Business applications like Word 2013 and Excel 2013 ran fast and video clips also played smoothly. The Ultrabook also rendered web pages very fast.

I tested its mobile broadband connection with my TrueMove H’s 3G HSPA+ account and I found that the Ultrabook could check mails, read web pages and update and check my Facebook wall without any delay.

The X1 Carbon took only 10 seconds to bring up the Windows Tiles home screen when I used the local account that required no log-in and it took only five seconds to shut down. When I ordered the shutdown, its screen turned off immediately but took five seconds to completely turn off the power.

The X1 has several useful and fun functions and features including it has two USB 3.0 ports, one of which can be used to recharge your mobile device even when the Ultrabook is powered off – as long as it remains connected to its power adapter. The X1 Carbon also has a display port and HDMI port for connecting to an external monitor.

A nice feature is its unique Adaptive Keyboard that automatically changes the row of touch-sensitive function keys above the keyboard. The function keys will appear depending on what application you're in. There are five modes of Adaptive Keys, which are Home mode, Web-browser mode, Web-conference mode, Function mode, and Lay-flat mode.

For example, the Adaptive Keys automatically change to the Lay-flat mode when you put your computer display to 180 degrees from the relative position of the keyboard. The Lay-flat mode provides a special set of Adaptive Keys that are designed to help you share information on the screen with a person sitting across from you or 90 degrees to your left or right.

And it’s very nice that X1 Carbon has NFC (near field communications) that allows it to be connected an to NFC-enabled Bluetooth speaker easily.

Moreover, X1 Carbon comes with camera gesture function and voice recognition. The voice control lets you say some basic function to control some apps, like checking mail by saying “check my email”. You can also start Skype by saying “Open Skype”.

The camera gestures function is fun. It lets you control basic functions of some multimedia apps by waving you hand, gesturing a tap or up and down movements.

For example, after you have activated the camera gestures function, you can and swipe your hand to the left to turn the next page or to skip to the next track if you are using it as a media player

Making a fist and moving it upwards or downwards adjust the volume. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a suggested retail price of Bt79,900.

 

Key specs

_ Processor: Intel Core i7-4600 CPU 2.1 GHz processor

_ Operating System: Windows 8.1

_ Display: 14-inch WQHD (2560x1440) IPS display with available 10-point multi-touch; 270 nits

_ Video Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000

_ Memory: 8GB (on board)

_ Storage: 240 GB SSD

_ Sound: Stereo Speakers with Dolby Digital Plus; HD Microphone

_ Integrated Comms: 2 USB 3.0 (1 with AOU); 3.5mm Combo Jack (headphone/mic); Full-size HDMI; OneLink Docking; Native Ethernet via supplied cable

_ Keyboard: Backlit Adaptive Keyboard

_ Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0; 802.11ac; NFC; 4G + LTE WWAN

_ Camera: 720pHD Camera

_ Battery: Up to 9 hours

_ Dimensions: 331 x 226 x 18.46 mm 

_ Weight: 1.2 Kgs