Lenovo at CES 2019: 7th Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gets Thinner
by Anton Shilov on January 10, 2019 1:00 PM ESTLenovo this week introduced its 7th Generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops. The new notebooks got a number of tangible improvements when compared to their predecessors. The latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon come in a thinner chassis and integrate latest-gen processors from Intel. In addition, higher-end versions of the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon will come equipped with a 4K LCD featuring a 500 nits brightness and Dolby Vision HDR support.
Being Lenovo’s flagship notebooks, ThinkPad X1 Carbon support the company’s latest technologies and business features as the manufacturer naturally wants to create a product that will stand out from the crowd. The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon comes in a new chassis that is 14.95 mm thick (down from 15.95 mm before) and weighs 1.08 kilograms (down from 1.13 kilograms before). Traditionally, ThinkPad X1 Carbon features ultra-thin display bezels that enable to install a 14-inch LCD into 13.3-inch-class chassis. Speaking of monitors, it is necessary to note that the new laptops will be outfitted either with a premium 10-bit Ultra-HD display panel with a 500 nits brightness and Dolby Vision HDR support, or a more conservative Full-HD panel with a 400 nits brightness and the ThinkPad Privacy Guard.
The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops are based on Intel’s quad-core 8th Gen Core i5/i7 processors based on the Whiskey Lake microarchitecture and featuring Intel’s UHD Graphics 620 iGPU. Just like in case of previous-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon machines, the CPU will be paired with LPDDR3 (presumably) DRAM, and a PCIe SSD. Since the laptop is about half of a year away, Lenovo does not disclose its exact specifications, possibly because some things may change.
Connectivity wise, the 7th Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon seems to be generally similar to its predecessor albeit with some improvements: it is going to support Wi-Fi + Bluetooth featuring an enhanced antenna design, an optional 4G/LTE-A Cat16 modem, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, USB 3.0 Type-A connectors, a GbE with a dongle, an HDMI output, a TRRS audio connector, and so on.
One of the important improvements of the upcoming ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops over the current-gen laptop is a revamped Dolby Atmos-badged audio subsystem with four speakers and four far-field microphones. As for webcam, Lenovo will offer both regular as well as IR-equipped 720p cameras both of which can now be covered with the company’s ThinkShutter privacy cover.
Lenovo says that its next-gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon notebooks will work for up to 15 hours, but does not mention its exact capacity. Based on previous-gen flagship Lenovo laptops, it is highly likely that only Full-HD model will operate for up to 15 hours on one charge, whereas Ultra-HD SKUs will work for around 12 hours, depending on the usage model.
The 7th Generation Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops will not be available for quite a while. Lenovo promises to start their sales only in June, 2019, at an MSRP starting from $1709.
Related Reading:
- Lenovo's Halo: The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Announced
- Lenovo Launches Ultra-Thin ThinkPad P1: X1 Carbon Meets Workstation
- Lenovo Unveils New ThinkPad X1 Carbon, X1 Yoga Laptops: 8th Gen Core, Dolby Vision HDR
- Lenovo Reveals Yoga C930 Convertible: 13.9-Inch LCD with Dolby Vision, 8th Gen Core i7
Source: Lenovo
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cosmotic - Thursday, January 10, 2019 - link
"GbE with a dongle"WHYYYYYYYYYYY A DONGLE?!?? If you're going to consume space on the chassis for a port, make it something multi-purpose. If I have to carry around a dongle, I would rather it be a usb-to-ethernet or thunderbolt-to-ethernet than a proprietary dongle I can only use with a lenovo.
jordanclock - Thursday, January 10, 2019 - link
It looks a bit too thin for an ethernet port to me.Prestissimo - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
Meanwhile, Toshiba has both GbE and VGA in a slim laptop.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Toshiba-Portege-X30T...
CallumS - Thursday, January 10, 2019 - link
For MAC address passthrough I believe. Enterprises sometimes require the use/registration/authentication of system/NIC MAC addresses for system/security management purposes which as far as I am aware isn't something that can be achieved within the USB3.X or TB interface specifications - which would also need to cater to allow tight management of interface functionality as some of the same organisations would also require the ability to limit/disable standard USB and TB connectivity/functionality (many disable the interfaces completely today).Broken_Sudo - Thursday, January 10, 2019 - link
Looks cool. Like the thin look. Is a Linux dual boot possible?skavi - Thursday, January 10, 2019 - link
it's a thinkpad. I'd be very surprised if it weren't.Pedro Lupin - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
It's a Thinkpad, so no official Linux support, but since this will be popular you'll get drivers for it... Over time...If you want vendor Linux support -> Dell XPS line
akvadrako - Monday, February 11, 2019 - link
The X1 Carbon 6th gen is Ubuntu-certified.nostriluu - Friday, January 18, 2019 - link
Comments are so depressing, must we live in 80s level of communication forever?I installed Ubuntu on my X1 Yoga a month after it was released, it supported everything perfectly except the fingerprint reader.
Linux is officially supported on a number of Thinkpad models, and used by a large number of professionals.
Linux doesn't really have "drivers" the same way Windows does.
Prestissimo - Friday, January 11, 2019 - link
Apparently both X1 Carbon and Yoga are down to 51 Wh batteries now, which is roughly 6 hours at best on the FHD screen. 500 nits UHD should expect 3.5 hours.While Dell Latitude 7400 has a 78 Wh battery that could probably pull 12 hours with the low-power display and usually better optimization than Lenovo. Didn't think I'd be considering a Latitude over Thinkpad.