Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 15-inch review: Far from the cutting edge

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 15-inch review: Far from the cutting edge

Deja vu. Just like last year's Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, the 2021 Surface Laptop 4 indistinguishes itself by its utter averageness. It's still not particularly light, or fast or feature-packed. It's not inexpensive or full of cutting-edge tech and it doesn't have an especially long battery life. It's faster and has better battery life than the older model, but so does every other laptop updated for 2021. But it's also still reasonably portable, sufficiently fast, pleasantly sleek looking, durable, somewhat upgradeable, and backward-compatible with previous power supplies and Surface Connect accessories sold by Microsoft. 

Very little has changed for this generation. It's been bumped to the 4000-series of the AMD Ryzen 7 mobile processor and 11th-gen Intel Core i7-11875G7, plus storage and memory increases and newer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Given the rote upgrades, it's a bit annoying that Microsoft chose to use the last generation (Zen 2) of the AMD CPUs rather than the current and faster 5000 series (Zen 3), though that's probably due to the timing of the laptop's release. It's also par for the course: the Surface Laptop 3's AMD CPU was also an older-than-current generation.

Like

• Retains the thin, sleek look
• Solid performance and battery life

Don't Like

• Screen still has wide-ish bezels
• Too few ports
• Can't upgrade memory

The Ryzen 7 4980U processor in the 15-inch system is dubbed the Ryzen 7 Microsoft Surface Edition. That made sense last year when the processor differed from the rest of its siblings by the addition of an extra graphics core (compute unit) its Vega 9 integrated graphics. But this year's CPU is effectively identical to the Ryzen 7 4800U, albeit with clock speeds a mere 200MHz faster, and in fact its Vega 8 integrated GPU has one CU less than the chip in the Surface Laptop 3. 

Note that this year's AMD model will always outperform last year's simply because the older model used a lower-end Ryzen 5, not a Ryzen 7, and the AMD model will likely outperform the Intel model, at least on multicore-intensive tasks, simply because it has 8 cores compared to the Intel's 4. 

The 3:2 aspect ratio, 201 pixel-per-inch display is the same as before; nothing to get excited about unless you're upgrading from an old laptop with a dim screen. It's fine for work, but somewhat washed out for Netflix. There are two color profiles which come with it, a standard sRGB and an "Enhanced" mode, but the latter seems to be the native screen profile and looks like it just increases the contrast. It retains the same old sufficient 720p webcam and the paucity of ports -- one each USB-A and USB-C plus an analog headphone jack. 

Read more: Meet Microsoft's new Modern family of work-from-home audio accessories

The under-the-hood-only updates mean much of what we liked and disliked about the Surface Laptop 3 remain the same, from the slim and sleek design to the insufficient number of ports and soldered memory. This year I'll toss in the somewhat stodgy looking  screen bezels because it uses the same screen in the same chassis as before; even Apple finally overcame bezel inertia for the MacBook Pro a few years ago. 

Still slim and still Microsoft Surface Connector powered.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Down to business

Microsoft offers only AMD processors in its consumer-focused models, but both AMD and Intel for its Surface Laptop 4 for Business line. The two sales channels differ by the variety of configurations and version of Windows they offer -- Windows 10 Home versus Windows 10 Pro. The biz prices are about $100 higher.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15 inch)

Price as reviewed	$1,700, £1,649, AU$2,699
Display	15-inch 2,496 x 1,664 (201 ppi, 3:2 aspect ratio) pen and touch display
PC CPU	2.0GHz AMD Ryzen 7 4980U
PC Memory	16GB 4,267MHz LPDDR4
Graphics	AMD Vega 8
Storage	512GB SSD
Ports	1 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A (1 in power brick), headphone jack, 1 x proprietary (Surface Connect port)
Networking	Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200, Bluetooth 5.1
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Home (2H20)
Weight	3.4 lbs/1.5 kg

The pricing for the 15-inch model starts at $1,300 (£1,469, AU$2,499) for AMD and $1,800 (£1,799, AU$2,849) for Intel, but the AMD base models have only 8GB of RAM. You really can't run Windows 10 very well in 8GB except for maybe lightweight cloud-based applications and possibly enterprise remote PC software like Citrix Desktop. The flip side is that 32GB is overkill for most software you'd be running on this laptop. So if you're going to opt for the 15-inch Surface Laptop 4, I recommend the 16GB memory, 512GB SSD models.

That's still a lot to pay for what you get compared with competitors: Laptops like the Lenovo Yoga 9i, a 2-in-1 which is smaller at 14 inches but superior in almost every other way for hundreds less. On sale, it might be a different story. That model even has discrete graphics for gaming; there's not a ton of graphical muscle here with the integrated Intel Iris Xe or AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics. The heavyweight multiplatform shooter Outriders was choppy even at the lowest graphics preset, but lightweight Hades, the recent award-winning indie game, ran perfectly. 

Overall, the Surface Laptop 4's AMD CPU performed very well for its size class. At 11-12 hours, battery life was much improved over the previous generation, to the tune of about 2.5 hours, and quite competitive for its size. 

Toss in some wonky USB-C and touchscreen behavior I experienced -- they both stopped working until a random reboot fairy sprinkled some magic dust on them -- and it's hard to place the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 in the top tier of models we've tested over the past couple of years. But you'll probably be perfectly happy with it, especially if your IT department buys it for you.

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

Cinebench R20 (multicore)

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

Video streaming battery test

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

PCMark 10 Pro Edition (complete)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

System configurations

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-1165G7; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 4,267MHz; 128MB Intel Iris Xe graphics; 512GB SSD
Microsoft Surface Book 3 (15-inch)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (1909); 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7; 32GB DDR4 SDRAM 4,267MHz; Intel Iris Plus Graphics and 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q design; 512GB SSD
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (1903); 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,667MHz; 128MB (dedicated) Intel Iris Plus Graphics; 256GB SSD
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch, AMD, 2021)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (2H20); 2.0GHz AMD Ryzen 7 4980U; 16GB LPDDR4 SDRAM 4,267MHz; tkGB (dedicated) AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics; 512GB SSD

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Source

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Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 15-inch review: Far from the cutting edge

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 15-inch review: Far from the cutting edge

Deja vu. Just like last year's Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, the 2021 Surface Laptop 4 indistinguishes itself by its utter averageness. It's still not particularly light, or fast or feature-packed. It's not inexpensive or full of cutting-edge tech and it doesn't have an especially long battery life. It's faster and has better battery life than the older model, but so does every other laptop updated for 2021. But it's also still reasonably portable, sufficiently fast, pleasantly sleek looking, durable, somewhat upgradeable, and backward-compatible with previous power supplies and Surface Connect accessories sold by Microsoft. 

Very little has changed for this generation. It's been bumped to the 4000-series of the AMD Ryzen 7 mobile processor and 11th-gen Intel Core i7-11875G7, plus storage and memory increases and newer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Given the rote upgrades, it's a bit annoying that Microsoft chose to use the last generation (Zen 2) of the AMD CPUs rather than the current and faster 5000 series (Zen 3), though that's probably due to the timing of the laptop's release. It's also par for the course: the Surface Laptop 3's AMD CPU was also an older-than-current generation.

Like

• Retains the thin, sleek look
• Solid performance and battery life

Don't Like

• Screen still has wide-ish bezels
• Too few ports
• Can't upgrade memory

The Ryzen 7 4980U processor in the 15-inch system is dubbed the Ryzen 7 Microsoft Surface Edition. That made sense last year when the processor differed from the rest of its siblings by the addition of an extra graphics core (compute unit) its Vega 9 integrated graphics. But this year's CPU is effectively identical to the Ryzen 7 4800U, albeit with clock speeds a mere 200MHz faster, and in fact its Vega 8 integrated GPU has one CU less than the chip in the Surface Laptop 3. 

Note that this year's AMD model will always outperform last year's simply because the older model used a lower-end Ryzen 5, not a Ryzen 7, and the AMD model will likely outperform the Intel model, at least on multicore-intensive tasks, simply because it has 8 cores compared to the Intel's 4. 

The 3:2 aspect ratio, 201 pixel-per-inch display is the same as before; nothing to get excited about unless you're upgrading from an old laptop with a dim screen. It's fine for work, but somewhat washed out for Netflix. There are two color profiles which come with it, a standard sRGB and an "Enhanced" mode, but the latter seems to be the native screen profile and looks like it just increases the contrast. It retains the same old sufficient 720p webcam and the paucity of ports -- one each USB-A and USB-C plus an analog headphone jack. 

Read more: Meet Microsoft's new Modern family of work-from-home audio accessories

The under-the-hood-only updates mean much of what we liked and disliked about the Surface Laptop 3 remain the same, from the slim and sleek design to the insufficient number of ports and soldered memory. This year I'll toss in the somewhat stodgy looking  screen bezels because it uses the same screen in the same chassis as before; even Apple finally overcame bezel inertia for the MacBook Pro a few years ago. 

Still slim and still Microsoft Surface Connector powered.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Down to business

Microsoft offers only AMD processors in its consumer-focused models, but both AMD and Intel for its Surface Laptop 4 for Business line. The two sales channels differ by the variety of configurations and version of Windows they offer -- Windows 10 Home versus Windows 10 Pro. The biz prices are about $100 higher.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15 inch)

Price as reviewed	$1,700, £1,649, AU$2,699
Display	15-inch 2,496 x 1,664 (201 ppi, 3:2 aspect ratio) pen and touch display
PC CPU	2.0GHz AMD Ryzen 7 4980U
PC Memory	16GB 4,267MHz LPDDR4
Graphics	AMD Vega 8
Storage	512GB SSD
Ports	1 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A (1 in power brick), headphone jack, 1 x proprietary (Surface Connect port)
Networking	Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200, Bluetooth 5.1
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Home (2H20)
Weight	3.4 lbs/1.5 kg

The pricing for the 15-inch model starts at $1,300 (£1,469, AU$2,499) for AMD and $1,800 (£1,799, AU$2,849) for Intel, but the AMD base models have only 8GB of RAM. You really can't run Windows 10 very well in 8GB except for maybe lightweight cloud-based applications and possibly enterprise remote PC software like Citrix Desktop. The flip side is that 32GB is overkill for most software you'd be running on this laptop. So if you're going to opt for the 15-inch Surface Laptop 4, I recommend the 16GB memory, 512GB SSD models.

That's still a lot to pay for what you get compared with competitors: Laptops like the Lenovo Yoga 9i, a 2-in-1 which is smaller at 14 inches but superior in almost every other way for hundreds less. On sale, it might be a different story. That model even has discrete graphics for gaming; there's not a ton of graphical muscle here with the integrated Intel Iris Xe or AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics. The heavyweight multiplatform shooter Outriders was choppy even at the lowest graphics preset, but lightweight Hades, the recent award-winning indie game, ran perfectly. 

Overall, the Surface Laptop 4's AMD CPU performed very well for its size class. At 11-12 hours, battery life was much improved over the previous generation, to the tune of about 2.5 hours, and quite competitive for its size. 

Toss in some wonky USB-C and touchscreen behavior I experienced -- they both stopped working until a random reboot fairy sprinkled some magic dust on them -- and it's hard to place the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 in the top tier of models we've tested over the past couple of years. But you'll probably be perfectly happy with it, especially if your IT department buys it for you.

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

Cinebench R20 (multicore)

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

Video streaming battery test

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance.

PCMark 10 Pro Edition (complete)

Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch Intel)

Surface Book 3 (15-inch)

Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch AMD, 2021)

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

System configurations

Asus ZenBook Duo 14 UX482	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-1165G7; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 4,267MHz; 128MB Intel Iris Xe graphics; 512GB SSD
Microsoft Surface Book 3 (15-inch)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (1909); 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7; 32GB DDR4 SDRAM 4,267MHz; Intel Iris Plus Graphics and 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q design; 512GB SSD
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (1903); 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,667MHz; 128MB (dedicated) Intel Iris Plus Graphics; 256GB SSD
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch, AMD, 2021)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (2H20); 2.0GHz AMD Ryzen 7 4980U; 16GB LPDDR4 SDRAM 4,267MHz; tkGB (dedicated) AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics; 512GB SSD

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Lenovo's $2,499 foldable ThinkPad is ready for preorder, joined by its lightest X1 laptop ever

Lenovo's $2,499 foldable ThinkPad is ready for preorder, joined by its lightest X1 laptop ever

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is the future of the PC market. Or not. It really all depends on where you fall on the value of foldable displays. Having a 13.3-inch OLED tablet PC that folds in half is ostensibly cool, as is the option to use it as dual, 9.6-inch screens. You can fold it a little to read it like a book or bend it a bit more so that you're typing on half and working on the other. It's a giant notepad as well as a powerful Windows 10 Pro laptop with Wi-Fi 6 and optional 5G. And it's available for preorder now for $2,499, which is about £1,900 or AU$3,600, converted.

The X1 Fold's accessories are available to preorder, too, and those are really what makes it more interesting than simply a tablet that folds in half. There's the Mod Pen that lets you draw, take notes and sign documents on the Fold. Then there's the Easel Stand that attaches to the back so you can stand the X1 Fold horizontally or vertically. But the Bluetooth Mini Fold Keyboard is probably the most interesting since it stores and charges when set on top of (or inside of) the X1 Fold.   

The X1 Nano is the PC maker's lightest ThinkPad ever. 

Lenovo

Along with the X1 Fold preorder announcement, Lenovo unveiled its lightest ThinkPad ever, the X1 Nano. Starting at $1,399 (£1,090 or AU$1,978, converted) and available before the end of the year, the 13-inch laptop weighs 1.99 pounds (907 grams) and is built around an 11th-gen Intel Core processor and Iris Xe graphics. It's part of Intel's Evo platform that's a guarantee of sorts that you'll get the best possible mobile experience. Other features include: 

• Dolby Vision-enabled, 2K-resolution display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 100% sRGB color gamut
• Updated suite of AI and biometric security and privacy including voice recognition and presence detection
• Window 10 Pro or Ubuntu Linux OS
• Wi-Fi 6 and optional 5G wireless
• Thunderbolt 4, quad speakers and 360-degree mics

Joining the X1 Nano is a fleet of ThinkBooks covering all kinds of user types. The ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 i with optional 2,560x1,600-resolution display, for instance, seems ideal for anyone who needs a small laptop to work anywhere at anytime. Also part of Intel's Evo platform, the 13.3-inch laptop weighs only 1.3 kilograms (2.8 pounds) but promises all-day battery life, fast charging, instant wake when you lift the lid and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. It'll also be available with AMD Ryzen 4000 series processors. 

No, it's not a optical drive. It's a Versa Bay with wireless earbuds. 

Lenovo

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga i, the company's first two-in-one ThinkBook, has the same general features of the ThinkBook 13s but with 360-degree hinges attached to its 14-inch full-HD touchscreen with active pen support. But probably the most interesting model is the ThinkBook 15 Gen 2 i. The 15.6-inch laptop is available with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds stored in the built-in Versa Bay offering up to 2 hours of battery life at 70% volume, Lenovo says. Like the others, the ThinkBook 15 will be available with 11th-gen Intel Core processors, but an Nvidia MX450 discrete graphics chip is also an option and AMD processors. 

The new ThinkBook models arrive in October and November starting as low as $549. 

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Lenovo Yoga 730 review: Still a great 2-in-1 for the money

Lenovo Yoga 730 review: Still a great 2-in-1 for the money

Sometimes playing it safe really is the best move to make.

The 13.3-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 was an excellent two-in-one for the money, and its follow up, the Yoga 730, is no different. And when I say "no different" I mean Lenovo changed little between the two models, resulting in a slightly better but not drastically dissimilar laptop. Moving up to eighth-gen Intel Core i-series processors is the biggest change, and it results in a noticeable performance boost. 

There are a handful of other changes, like it now has two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports instead of only one, and Lenovo added far-field microphones letting you call out to Microsoft'sCortana digital assistant and eventually Amazon Alexa services from up to 13 feet (4 meters) away. 

The 730's design changes slight, too, but you probably wouldn't notice unless it was next to the 720. it's a little thinner and lighter, and the edges are rounded more, especially at the back. All the changes make it more comfortable to use as a tablet, whether that's with your fingers or the optional $60 Active Pen 2 with 4,096 levels of pen sensitivity.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Despite the improvement, the pricing stays about the same as the Yoga 720: The 730 starts at $880, but my review system is priced at $950, which gets you a storage increase from a 128GB PCIe SSD to a 256GB drive. The Yoga 730 isn't yet available in the UK or Australia, but the US price converts to about £700 and AU$1,265. For office work, for school work, this is just a solid pick and a good value to boot if you want a thin and light laptop. 

Lenovo Yoga 730-13IKB

Price as reviewed	$949.99
Display size/resolution	13.3-inch 1,920x1,080 touch display
CPU	1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U
Memory	8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz
Graphics	128MB dedicated Intel UHD Grphics 620
Storage	256GB SSD
Networking	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.1
Operating system	Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

More and less

Basically, everything that made the 13.3-inch Yoga 720 an excellent two-in-one is still present in the 730, albeit in a slimmer, lighter package at 2.7 pounds (1.2kg) and 0.55-inch (14.1mm) thick. The iron gray metal chassis gives it a premium look and feel as do the slim bezels around the full-HD-resolution touchscreen. The screen's hefty 360-degree hinges keep the Yoga in just about any position you could want it in. They're stiff enough that it will require two hands to open it, but not so much that you'll have problems adjusting it.

The display has good color performance, but not good enough to recommend for critical photo and video editing (though this isn't designed for that in the first place). It gets adequately bright for outdoor use, though with the glossy coating you might still struggle. One nice extra, though: The display also supports Lenovo's optional $60 Active Pen 2 if writing or drawing on the screen is a necessity for you.  

Lenovo's Active Pen 2 works well on the Yoga 730 with little to no discernable lag. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

The keyboard might not feel as firm as one of the company's professional ThinkPad models, but the keys still have a fair amount of travel to make typing comfortable, and they are well spaced, clearly labeled and brightly backlit. 

The Windows Precision touchpad works really well and I didn't experience any cursor jumpiness. The precision pad means you get full multitouch gesture support for three- and four-finger gestures for quickly switching between applications, activating Cortana (Microsoft's digital assistant), or hiding all open windows. Speaking of Cortana, Lenovo added far-field mics so you can use Cortana from up to 13 feet (4 meters) away. Lenovo intends to add Amazon's Alexa services, too, assuming the integration into Windows 10 ever pans out. 

Like many ultraportables, the Yoga 730 isn't loaded down with ports. If having built-in Ethernet, an SD card reader and an HDMI port are necessities for you, you'll have to look elsewhere. Instead, you'll get one USB 3.0 port (type-A), two USB-C ports and a headphone/mic jack. Both of the type-C ports can be used for charging and are Thunderbolt 3, so with a dock or adapters you'll be able add video outputs, an Ethernet jack and more, as well as accommodating data transfer speeds up to 40Gbps.

More power to you

The 13.3-inch Yoga 730 (it's also available in a 15.6-inch size) I tested was just a step above the base configuration with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U, 8GB of memory, integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics and a 256GB PCIe SSD for storage. You can get the system with more memory and storage, and if you're willing to pay $1,550, you can get it with a 1.8GHz Core i7-8550U, 16GB of memory and a 512TB PCIe SSD. There are currently no 4K UHD-resolution screen or 1TB PCIe SSD options, which were offered on the Yoga 720. 

The configuration I tested is more than enough for day-to-day tasks, though depending on how much you push it, you will end up with some fan noise. Want to listen to music while you answer some email and post to Facebook? This will have you covered. However, Playing the latest first-person shooter on ultra settings and editing high-resolution video are not in the cards. That said, it made quick work of some basic photo and video edits.

As for battery life, it underperformed compared to similarly configured systems we've tested with our video-streaming battery drain test. It did run for 8 hours and 21 minutes, which isn't bad, but it is 25 minutes less than what we got with the Yoga 720. 

Under normal use you're probably not going to get through a full day without hooking up to your power supply or a USB-C power bank. The positive here it has a quick-charge feature that gets you two hours of battery life with only a 15-minute charge. 

Still one of the best you can get

Like its predecessor, the 13.3-inch Lenovo Yoga 730 has a premium look and feel, but with a smaller price tag. It's a pretty nice little two-in-one for students or the home office where some added flexibility comes in handy and a quality thin-and-light design is appreciated. 

Geekbench 4 multi-core

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga (3rd) 14,301 HP EliteBook 1040 G4 (2017) 14,120 Lenovo Yoga 730-13 12,191 Lenovo Yoga 720-13 7,300 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2017) 7,014

Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

Multitasking multimedia test 3.0 (in seconds)

HP EliteBook 1040 G4 (2017) 236 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga (3rd) 291 Lenovo Yoga 730-13 322 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2017) 734 Lenovo Yoga 720-13 1394

Note: Shorter bars indicate better performance

Cinebench R15 multi-core

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga (3rd) 658 HP EliteBook 1040 G4 (2017) 650 Lenovo Yoga 730-13 504

Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

Video-streaming battery drain test (in minutes)

HP EliteBook 1040 G4 (2017) 536 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2017) 536 Lenovo Yoga 720-13 526 Lenovo Yoga 730-13 501 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga (3rd) 454

Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

System configurations

Lenovo Yoga 730-13	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel UHD Graphics 620; 256GB SSD
Lenovo Yoga 720-13	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7200U; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,133MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel UHD Graphics 620; 256GB SSD
HP EliteBook 1040 G4 (2017)	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit); 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-7820HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,400MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel HD Graphics 630; 512GB SSD
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2017)	Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.3GHz Intel Core i5-7Y75; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,866MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel HD Graphics 615; 256GB SSD
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Yoga (3rd)	Microsoft Windows Pro (64-bit); 1.9GHz Intel Core i7-8650U; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,133MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel UHD Graphics 620; 1TB SSD

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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano review: Featherlight and feature-rich work laptop

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano review: Featherlight and feature-rich work laptop

The ThinkPad X1 Nano is Lenovo's lightest ThinkPad ever, weighing just 2 pounds (907 grams), and yet it still retains a lot of what we like about the rest of the bigger and (not much) heavier X1 business laptop line. That list of likes includes solid build quality, strong productivity performance, a comfortable -- if small -- keyboard, a nice display and the latest security and privacy features available. The only real hiccup is a battery life shorter than I'm used to seeing from an ultraportable such as this. Otherwise, the X1 Nano is a laptop you won't mind getting from your IT department to slip into your bag every day. 

If you're buying the X1 Nano for yourself, however, the laptop currently starts at a reasonable price of $950, though that model is marked as "clearance." The configuration I tested has a $3,129 regular price and a far lower but still expensive $1,887 sale price. Compared to the base model, my test configuration has twice the memory at 16GB, double the storage at 512GB and an 11th-gen Core i7 instead of a Core i5. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano

Price as reviewed	$1,877
Display size/resolution	13-inch 2,160x1,350-pixel display
CPU	2.1GHz Intel Core i7-1160G7
Memory	16GB 4267MHz LPDDR4X (onboard)
Graphics	128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Storage	512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Networking	802.11ax wireless, Bluetooth 5.1
Connections	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (x2), 3.5mm audio jack
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro (2H02)

The clearance model is pretty enticing and would be a good choice for a commuter laptop for work or school. You'll get greater performance longevity out of the version I tested, though, with its slightly faster processor, extra RAM (it's onboard and can't be upgraded) and additional storage space for files and software. Business laptops are regularly more expensive than consumer models, too, because they are more durable and offer greater privacy and security features.

The X1 Nano has a privacy shutter for its webcam.

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For the X1 Nano that means a Mil-Spec-tested magnesium-aluminum body with a hybrid carbon-fiber lid, a match-on-chip fingerprint reader (the biometric info is stored on the reader, not the computer) with anti-spoofing technology, and an IR camera for facial recognition. The BIOS is self-healing, too, meaning it can repair itself from a back-up in case of a malicious attack or a failed or interrupted update. 

The Nano can also be configured with an ultrawideband radar sensor that can tell when you walk away from it and quickly lock the laptop. It can also sense when you return and automatically wake and unlock the Nano. Called Human-Presence Detection, it's simultaneously awesome and a tad creepy. This setting and many more can be controlled through the laptop's Commercial Vantage app. 

In the app you'll find everything from battery and power settings to audio tweaks for its mics and speakers to turning on and off the keyboard's various hotkeys. As you might expect, the controls are designed to improve your work experience, such as setting the laptop's mics and speakers (there are four of both) to improve your VoIP call quality while also suppressing keyboard noise. 

The Nano X1 has a TrackPoint and touchpad, but a touchscreen is optional. 

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Small but not cramped

There are always trade-offs when you make a laptop this small, thin and light but Lenovo manages to keep things comfortable. For instance, it has a 13-inch display but gives you some extra vertical room to work with its 16:10 aspect ratio. Also, its 2K resolution is a fair compromise between full HD and 4K, and it can hit a 450-nit brightness level (for working in bright conditions) and covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut. The display looks good right out of the box. However, that extra resolution might have something to do with its shorter-than-anticipated battery life of 8 hours, 22 minutes on our video streaming test. 

The keyboard and touchpad are predictably smaller to fit into the X1 Nano's petite frame. Lenovo reduced the size of the function keys and a few others but none of them slowed my typing or seemingly increased my typing errors. The slim body does mean there isn't as much key travel as one of its beefier ThinkPads. It's still a comfortable typing experience. 

A notebook that weighs the same as an actual notebook. 

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Even the port assortment on the X1 Nano is small with only two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headset jack -- though Thunderbolt 4 handles all your connection needs and power with a single cable and the right USB-C hub. Plus, it charges fast using Thunderbolt 4, too, getting you to 80% of a full charge in an hour. 

While it is expensive, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano earns its price tag with its durable lightweight design, high-quality display, a fleet of features to improve the user experience and easily managed security and privacy options. 

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