This ThinkPad is the featherweight office champ, but it's best feature is more subtle

Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (Gen 6)

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The sixth-gen ThinkPad X13 is disposable present for $1,569.
• At 2.0 pounds, it's 1 of the lightest laptops I've tested each year, with a fantastic artillery that charges successful the blink of an eye.
• It's pricey, the show is conscionable average, and the keyboard/trackpad mightiness consciousness excessively cramped for some.

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We're large fans of the ThinkPad present astatine ZDNET, reviewing respective models crossed the antithetic bid each year. It's rather an extended catalog astatine this point, from the powerful P series to the affordable E series to the bladed and light X series. So if you hide however to archer them apart, I don't blasted you.

Also: I've tested dozens of ThinkPads: Here's the Lenovo exemplary I support coming backmost to

The X1 Carbon is arguably the ThinkPad's flagship model, and astir premium successful presumption of design. But it's expensive, relegating itself to the precocious tier of the marketplace arsenic an "executive-tier" device. 

Enter: the ThinkPad X13 (Gen 6), Lenovo's reply to a much accessible ultraportable ThinkPad, with immoderate of the champion features of the X1 Carbon but astatine fractional the terms successful a battery-efficient, high-performing package.

Armed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255 U-series processor (Intel's astir power-efficient chips), the sixth-gen X13 is designed for users who request utmost portability without a full batch of show trade-offs. Weighing conscionable 2.05 pounds, it's surely 1 of the lightest laptops I've tested implicit the past year, with a coagulated physique that passes the one-finger test, and conscionable capable ports for the mean professional. 

The ThinkPad X13 Generation 6 is simply a quintessential ThinkPad with a black-and-red body, TrackPoint, and carnal close and near buttons supra the trackpad, but... successful miniature. Its 13.3-inch IPS show isn't thing groundbreaking, but the 400-nit, WUXGA (1920x1200) solution is crisp, glare-resistant, and casual to enactment on. The integrated Intel graphics circular retired its business-forward mission. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Similarly, portion the keyboard isn't peculiarly cramped, the trackpad mightiness beryllium for immoderate people. At 4.5 inches agelong and astir 2.5 inches deep, it's dwarfed by trackpads connected larger ThinkPads similar the P1 Gen 8, which is astir 6 inches across. Although this is the aforesaid size arsenic recovered connected different 14-inch ThinkPads, it's inactive connected the tiny broadside successful my opinion, and thing to support successful mind. 

In presumption of carnal design, however, these 2 things are the biggest trade-offs for the laptop's diminutive size. With enactment for up to 64GB of soldered LPDDR5x representation and 2TB of section storage, the hardware is surely connected par with its larger siblings, including models with the Intel oregon AMD Ryzen AI Pro 300-series chips. 

Also: The Lenovo ThinkPad streak is implicit - this exemplary breaks a decade-long inclination successful the champion mode yet

For mundane users, connectivity is sufficient, with 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports supporting PD 3.0 and DisplayPort 2.1, 1 HDMI larboard that supports an outer show astatine 4K and 60Hz refresh rate, a 5Gbps USB-A port, and a headphone jack.

Unlike different ThinkPads successful the X1 series, the speakers connected the X13 are upward-facing and placed connected either broadside of the keyboard. This results successful audio that's surely large and clear, but alternatively hollow and lacking successful bass. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

This benignant of audio illustration is much perfect for dependable calls, webinars, and videoconferencing, usage cases much aligned with its concern on-the-go usage case. The 5MP RGB camera is of bully quality, providing a clear, crisp representation adjacent successful less-than-ideal lighting conditions successful my testing. 

As a grab-and-go laptop for mobile professionals, its apical prime is -- you guessed it -- its battery. This happening has fantastic artillery life, lasting good implicit a afloat workday and easy into the next. When idle, artillery beingness drops to a trickle, and long-lasting video calls (that could person been an email) hardly taxation it. 

Also: I urge this low-cost ThinkPad to astir professionals - and it's connected merchantability for 19% off

The 54.7Wh artillery and U-series Intel Core Ultra 7 255 processor enactment unneurotic to present a cool, quiescent powerfulness illustration that hums on without activating the instrumentality unless nether a demanding workload. 

This is followed by the information that it supports accelerated charging, reaching 80% successful an hr with a 65W charger oregon higher. This is 1 of those features I perceive users kick about: accelerated charging often requires heftier chargers astatine 100W oregon higher. If you don't person 1 of these connected hand, you'll get a "low charger" connection and won't beryllium capable to instrumentality vantage of the feature. 

Not thing you'll apt tally into here, arsenic astir chargers successful the chaotic are astatine slightest 65W (as is the charger it comes with), truthful you'll astir ever beryllium capable to complaint astatine this expedited rate. In my testing, I recovered this to beryllium accurate, expanding from 5% to 77% successful a small nether an hour. 

Also: A week with Lenovo's astir almighty ThinkPad changed however I deliberation astir enactment laptops

All successful all, the X13 pushes the boundaries of portability for the ThinkPad line, representing the acold extremity of the spectrum portion maintaining everything other that defines it. If you privation a susceptible 13-inch workhorse that you'll person nary problems toting astir town, this is the laptop for you. That said, arsenic a business-minded ThinkPad, it's not precisely cheap, hovering astir the $1,500 people for the 16GB version: a terms that requires committedness to the brand.

ZDNET's buying advice

Of each the ultraportable laptops we've tested implicit the past fewer years, the ThinkPad X13 exudes reliability with a premium hardware illustration and tried-and-true carnal form. There are nary gimmicks here; this is simply a ThinkPad done and through, well-suited to concern users who request portability and a fantastic artillery life. 

I'd urge the X13 to users who privation a truly airy laptop but aren't keen connected experimental signifier factors oregon lower-end hardware. While the show is conscionable mean and perchance excessively tiny for some, it's backed up by coagulated hardware. In that sense, the X13 brings much musculus than competing ultraportables similar the Asus Zenbook A14 oregon the Surface Pro 12-inch.