From the now distant IBM era to that of Lenovo, the Thinkpad series has retained an image of seriousness, performance and workmanship for mobile use. With the X13s Gen 1, the Chinese giant continues on this path but brings something more, abandoning the Windows and Intel duo to keep Windows only and integrate a Qualcomm SoC, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. In other words, it’s a machine that beats to the rhythm of an ARM architecture, with all that that can bring in terms of endurance and relevance when the user often works away from an outlet. But also the downside of the coin: All of this can also bring concerns about the software side. In short: is this conservative but innovative Thinkpad worth its 1,949 euros?
An old know-how…
ThinkPads have always been carriers of an approach, a specific vision of mobility, rather professional, designed for efficiency. The little red pointer in the middle of the keyboard is an example. Another option is to embed a 4G/5G NanoSIM card on the right side of the laptop. Keeping three separate buttons at the top of the trackpad is justified both by that desire and by a desire not to rush the regulars, even though we can perfectly operate the ThinkPad X13s without ever touching them.
In general, everything seems to be designed to offer maximum comfort to the user. Starting with the case itself. Sturdy, simple but pleasant, with its rounded corners, it weighs in at little more than 1.1 kg on the scales and indicates when to carry it, whether in a backpack or at arm’s length. It’s nearly 16% lighter than the average ultraportable we’ve tested over the past two years.
The keyboard also retains the strengths of its predecessors, with a stable, balanced touch that allows you to find your way around quickly and type without tiring. The keys are a good size, well spaced, nothing to complain about, Lenovo’s know-how is there. Of course, with mobile devices, it is possible to switch the X13s to flight mode, answer a call, mute the camera, etc. via shortcut.
Ultimately, we only blame the keyboard for one thing: the position of the Fn key. It is placed to the left of the Ctrl key, which is often the key at the end of the line. That’s why we often press Fn instead of Ctrl… At least the time to get used to it.
Before we turn to the disk, let’s take a quick look at the connectors. It’s extremely sparse, not to say pared-down – Mac regulars shouldn’t be too disoriented, as there are only two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports (rather than Thunderbolt), one of which is used to charge the X13s. The two ports are on the left side, on the opposite side there is the Kensington slot to secure your laptop in the office, the NanoSIM slot and a mic/headphone mini-jack.
It’s a bit on the short side, especially since it’s not possible to connect a display directly via a USB-C cable. In our testing, we had to use an adapter and output the signal via HDMI.
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The ThinkPad X13s keyboard is comfortable and true to the legacy of Lenovo/IBM laptops. 
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – For fans of the central hand, here comes a day of joy… 
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – Lenovo is keeping the physical buttons for the trackpad. 
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The ThinkPad X13s has a slot for a 4G/5G NanoSIM card.
Also biometrics…
Like any good self-respecting professional and modern device, the Thinkpad X13s offers the possibility to secure your connection to your session thanks to biometrics. In this case, the choice is between a webcam compatible with Windows Hello and a fingerprint reader.
Both are set up and working properly. In use, however, it seemed to us that the fingerprint reader, which is admittedly a bit more restrictive as you have to place your finger in the right place, is faster, while the webcam sometimes tends to find you a little too far or too close your machine.
And speaking of the webcam, let’s say a few more words about its quality. It’s hard to find that the acting is good, despite the supposed work of an AI behind the scenes. In a properly lit office, there seems to be a lot of digital noise that becomes a tingling sensation as the light dims.
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The X13s webcam is Windows Hello compatible.
A decent record, but far from excellent
When we turn on the X13s, we quickly realize that the Full HD+ LCD panel (1920 × 1200 pixels) will not dazzle us. It doesn’t appear to be very bright, and it is. The 01Lab measurements are 364 cd/m2, which isn’t much – 11.6% less bright than the competitor average – and maybe even problematic for working in direct sunlight – true professionals never work on the patio?
Lenovo ThinkPad X13s: A panel that can do better
Display technology Display brightness Contrast ratio (ANSI) Color fidelity (Delta E 2000 average) Display resolution
Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 IPS Acer Swift Edge SFA16-41-R356 OLED Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED OLED Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch M2 2022 IPS Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 IPS
In terms of contrast, the panel performs significantly better at 1701:1, which is good for an LCD panel. The colorimetric accuracy, on the other hand, is rather off the mark. With a Delta E 2000 of 4.32, it’s 72.4% less accurate than the average for competing panels. That’s not catastrophic as the X13s isn’t built for video editing or heavy photo editing, but it’s a bit of a shame for a device in this price range.
Especially since, and this is ultimately the main point of criticism that will be voiced on the screen of this device, its resolution is poor. At 170 dpi, the Lenovo X13s’ panel isn’t the most pleasing and precise. This sometimes even creates the unpleasant impression of blurring, of lightly flowing text, of colors with imprecise contours…
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The ThinkPad X13s offers a somewhat disappointing Full HD+ screen. 
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The matte panel eliminates a lot of the reflections, and all the better because you don’t have to rely on the brightness. 
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The connection of the X13s is limited to two ports in USB-C format.
Record autonomy on Windows
Even if the panel doesn’t inspire enthusiasm, it must be acknowledged that it may play an important role in the X13s’ autonomy due to its low luminosity. Both in our versatile autonomy tests and in video streaming, the ultraportable from Lenovo actually shows remarkable endurance.
In the first case, simulating a series of fairly intense daily usage, the 01Lab recorded 4:24 p.m. That’s 47.5% more than the average for the competition and so good that it’s better or almost as good as the MacBook Pro and Air M1 and M2 offering. Few machines can say the same…
Lenovo ThinkPad X13s: record autonomy!
Versatile autonomy Video streaming autonomy loading time
Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 Acer Swift Edge SFA16-41-R356 Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch M2 2022 Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1
And this outstanding achievement is no coincidence. In terms of video streaming autonomy, the X13s actually has an almost equal “score” of 4:02 p.m. This is 80% higher than the competition and way better than anything the MacBook Pro and Air M2 offer in the same form factor.
The Qualcomm chip is no match for Apple’s M chips, and that’s no small feat. But what about the performance?
Not the performance of an M1, not necessarily the right choice…
The issue of performance is tricky because it has so many facets. Because the presence of an ARM chip at the heart of this laptop PC running Windows 11 raises many preliminary and daily questions. The chip itself is “technically” solid, but it can’t compete with Apple Silicon chips for Mac in terms of speed. To assess its “raw” performance, we resort to a simple and effective tool: Geekbench.
Geekbench and Cinebench: The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 faces the competition…
Geekbench 5 Single Core Score Geekbench 5 Multi Core Score Geekbench 5 Compute Score (GPU) Cinebench R23 (Multi Core)
Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 Acer Swift Edge SFA16-41-R356 Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch M2 2022 Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1
The synthetic bench confirms the significant difference in performance between the Snapdragon SoC and its competitors, be it the excellent Ryzen 7 6800U or the Apple M1 or M2, about which a lot has already been said. Apple’s chips dominate the competition and AMD’s chip also outperforms Qualcomm’s chip. The difference in performance, whether in single core or multi-core, is significant.
In the single-core space, Qualcomm’s SoC is 1.3 to 1.7 times less efficient than its competitors. If we turn to the multi-core results, the drop is much greater, the gap widens since we notice a delta that moves again between 1.3 for the Zenbook S 13 OLED, d ‘Asus, and 5.2 for that spreads MacBook Air M2.
This difference in performance can probably also explain why the Qualcomm chip consumes less than the chips from the competition.
01net.com – Lionel Morillon – The design of the ThinkPad X13s is pleasant and supported by a beautiful finish.
However, it is obvious that a synthetic measuring instrument alone cannot provide any information about the ease of use and the potential of a configuration, a machine. Still, the ThinkPad X13s is a special case. When used, two realities collide, both of which are associated with a kind of software schizophrenia.
The first is Microsoft’s native applications and operating system for the ARM chip. Daily Windows 11 Pro operations are smooth, fast and responsive. All applications shipped out of the box or compiled for Windows ARM run fine and in such cases it is impossible to tell the difference between an Intel and an ARM version of Windows. Edge runs flawlessly, renders the heaviest pages quickly, and doesn’t flinch when multiplying tabs sensibly. The office suite offers the experience you’d expect from a spreadsheet or word processor, with nothing missing.
Unfortunately, native applications are not the majority. So even Chrome running natively on Apple Silicon Macs is an x86 version. Then the user’s long journey into the second software reality of Windows 11 ARM begins. When luck smiles on us, we enjoy a pleasant experience – this is the case with Firefox – but sometimes riddled with slowness, not necessarily at runtime, but at least at startup. The experience then becomes less fluid: a mix of poor performance and lack of optimization.
But it just happens that the application refuses to start. We encountered this scenario with Adobe’s Creative Suite, for example, without anyone really knowing why. Is this just a software problem? A limit of configuration?
To be honest, even some of our testing tools couldn’t work on the ThinkPad It has to be said that Geekbench 5 couldn’t detect the graphics part of the SoC…
So, some examples from our testing and usage show that it’s difficult to trust Windows 11 ARM to deliver the experience we’ve come to expect every day. Microsoft’s operating system clearly lacks the equivalent of Apple’s Rosetta 2, which has made the transition from Intel processors to Apple Silicon SoCs for Mac almost seamless.
This uncertainty would be problematic for general users, but for professionals, traditionally the preferred target group of ThinkPads, we find it almost unaffordable. How can you take the risk of not being able to run a business application, not being able to monitor a project because a tool isn’t working? The only solution is to use tools in the cloud that only require a browser on the computer. The X13s then becomes something of a thin client… but loses some of its potential.