The ThinkPad X13s is Lenovo’s first Snapdragon-powered ThinkPad, promises up to 28 hours of battery life
Powered by the all-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, the 5G-enabled ThinkPad X13s sets the bar for mobile productivity
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What you need to know
The first Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3-powered laptop has just been announced. The ThinkPad X13s is a brand-new clamshell PC that looks to bring Lenovo’s enterprise-first security and familiar TrackPoint system to mobile workers.
Windows-on-ARM is nothing new to Lenovo, which has launched previous devices like the first mmWave 5G laptop, the 2020Flex 5G, and the LenovoYoga C630from 2018. But the X13s is the first to earn the ThinkPad badge. What that means is besides the familiar TrackPoint red dot on the keyboard, it also gets the full suite of security features that make ThinkPads, well,ThinkPads.
Lenovo told Windows Central during a briefing that this laptop has been in development for the last four years as it worked with Microsoft to bring Lenovo’s security of software and tools natively over to ARM, including VPN and antivirus abilities required by companies.
The laptop has a familiar design with a low-power 13.3-inch 16:10 1920x1200 (FHD+) display that is also anti-glare. The top and bottom covers of the X13s are made from 90% certified recycled magnesium and come in a “Thunder Black” colorway.
The rest of the specs are also impressive, especially for connectivity. There is the latest Wi-Fi 6E and, of course, 5G, including mmWave and sub6. The inclusion of mmWave, which is always challenging and still rare in laptops, is one reason Verizon (along with AT&T) will be selling this laptop later in 2022.
Since mobile video conferencing is so important these days, the ThinkPad X13s has a 5MP full HD web camera with AI-based auto framing, Windows Hello IR for facial recognition, and a triple microphone array with intelligent noise suppression. There are also modern features likehuman presence detection, which allows hands-free logging in, locking the PC, and dimming the screen when not looking at it to save power.
Ports are kept simple with just two Type-C 3.2 (Gen 2) ports for data, display out, and charging, along with a standard 3.5mm headphone and mic jack.
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However, the secret sauce for the ThinkPad X13s is that newSnapdragon 8cx Gen 3ARM processor, first announced back in December. The 8cx Gen 3 is a 5nm SoC, a massive generational shift in performance compared to the anemic Gen 2. The CPU is supposed to garner a boost of 40% for single-core, 85% for multi-core, and 60% for GPU performance over the 8cx Gen 2, making the most substantial improvement yet.
For comparison, earlier benchmarks gave the single-core GeekBench score of 1,010, which puts the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 in the range of theLenovo Yoga C740with anIntel Core i5-10210UCPU.
The multi-core scores of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 look even more promising. A Geekbench 5 multi-core score of 5,355 places the processorabovetheHP Spectre x360 14with an IntelCore i7-1165G7.
When combined with the 50WHr battery, Lenovo claims that the ThinkPad X13s can get 28 hours of usage (likely video streaming). While that seems absurdly high, a real-world test could land near the 17 to 20-hour mark. Indeed, Lenovo’s 2020Flex 5Ghit 18 hours of usage in PCMark 10with 20% battery left. That laptop beat the ARM-based Galaxy Book S from Samsung by 7 hours and the Surface Pro X (G1) by 10 hours.
Lenovo is also using zippy PCIe 4.0 for the SSD and LPDDR4 for the RAM, which should make this laptop easily the fastest Windows on ARM PC to date. This is the first Windows-on-ARM laptop that can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM.
We won’t have to wait long to get our hands on the ThinkPad X13s, either, as Lenovo says it will begin shipping in May. Even the price is a bit fairer, starting at $1,100, which is $300 less than 2020’s Lenovo Flex 5G. AT&T and Verizon are expected to carry the ThinkPad X13s a bit later in the year.
Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer,podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.
