If you are looking for a travel machine that can knock out your photo and video editing chores without hesitation, you might be looking for the 3rd Generation ThinkPad X1 Yoga from Lenovo. I’ve been using one for about a month now and there’s no going back.
14” X1 Yoga- 3rd Generation
I find that a 14-inch laptop is the perfect blend of large enough to do serious editing and small enough to fit all my backpacks. Weighing in at 3.08 pounds, it’s easy to carry and you don’t feel like you’re hauling twice the weight you need to get the job done. It’s the perfect blend of lightweight but ThinkPad tough. All ThinkPads are tested against 12 military-grade specifications and 200 quality checks.
Being a Yoga model, you have the inherent flexibility to use it:
- As a standard laptop
- Tented for watching videos
- Folded flat as a large tablet
- Stand mode for presentations or with a docking station
When the screen is folded back into tablet mode, the keys actually recess from their normal position, so laying it on your lap doesn’t send spurious keystrokes to the computer.
In regular laptop mode, press the FN key and the spacebar to toggle the lights on the keyboard if desired. I love this feature when typing in bed and the lights are low.
Power in a compact design
The model I’m using now is the 20LD0017US, which comes with an HDR WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS anti-reflective, anti-smudge, multi-touch with Dolby Vision, 500 nits, 14” monitor. Not only does it show an amazing picture, its touch capability is the best I’ve ever experienced – AND it’s ten-finger touch enabled – perfect for games. If you aren’t familiar with NIT terminology – it’s a representation of brightness and contrast for the screen – the bigger the number, the better readability. This screen is definitely brighter than most and is easy to read even in bright sunlit locations.
One hot machine, this comes with an 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8650U Processor with vPro® (1.90GHz, up to 4.20GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache). The standard operating system is Windows 10 Pro 64 and there’s 16 GB of LPDDR3 2133MHz RAM onboard.
This machine also comes with a blazing fast 1 TB Solid State Drive, (PCIe-NVMe OPAL2.0 M.2). Waiting for a start-up or a reboot is no longer an issue. Even large video files open or save quickly.
Fan design blows the heat out the back of the machine, instead of down, like so many models. That keeps the machine from overheating while operating on your lap.
A beautiful screen for editing or viewing
I absolutely love this screen for all types of work. With the 2560 x 1440 screen, you can easily get so much more content on screen at one time.
The higher resolution is ideal if you are typing with Word and you want to have a webpage open at the same time. Having them each side-by-side is ideal on a 2560-pixel-wide screen.
Videos and movies look awesome on this screen. With Dolby premium audio, the volume is definitely loud enough to fill your room (apartment).
Add a fine tip stylus and you’re ready to get to work
When you zoom way out to see a super wide webpage or spreadsheet, sometimes your links can get very tiny. Not a problem if you are using the garaged ThinkPad Pen Pro designed by Wacom. Ideal for a mouse replacement, it is so accurate, that for the first time ever, I am able to actually do real time handwriting on screen without the typical lag time most previous models experienced. It also is the first time I’ve actually been able to take notes and do sketches in OneNote that were actually usable. Palm rejection means you can rest your hand on the screen without introducing unwanted additional pen strokes.
The pen also is ideal for working in Photoshop and Lightroom. Trying to do adjustment brush edits with a mouse, or worse yet with your fingertip, is extremely frustrating. With the Pen Pro, it makes it easy to trace a photo and cut out an object from its background.
You can also use it for signing documents and sketching on screengrabs. Never fear running out of batteries on the pen, as it charges itself every time you place it back in its garage.
As compact as it is, it’s still a ThinkPad
Despite its size and portability, it’s still as rugged as you’d expect from the Lenovo ThinkPad line. My first ThinkPad, which I bought almost twenty years ago, and this one both sport the classic TouchPoint red tip that gives you one more way to select your work instead of using the touchpad.
Another benefit of this classic ThinkPad setup are the three buttons atop the touchpad. These left/right mouse buttons and the touch “scrollwheel” button in the center, work fabulously when working in the car or on the bus. With a standard touchpad, every time the bus would hit a chuck hole, I’d end up selecting some random object on the screen. Not with these dedicated buttons and the TouchPoint.
I was a little surprised when I first got the X1 Yoga and discovered the FN key to be the left-most key on the bottom row. From my Yoga 900 and prior models, I always expect the CTRL key to be the outboard key, but by opening Lenovo Vantage, I was able to easily remap the two keys.
The top row of keys are dual functions with F1 through F12 needing the additional FN key to operate. Without the FN key, the buttons adjust volume, brightness, wireless, Bluetooth, microphone, Windows settings and Lenovo Vantage. F12’s special key is mappable to launch any program or key sequence you want. I’ve got mine set up to immediately launch my text editor. AND, just like the CTRL/FN key switch, if you use the function keys more than the media controls, they can be swapped just as easily to not need the FN button.
Business ready, this machine features Intel Dual Band 8265 Wireless AC (2×2) and Bluetooth 4.1 with vPro. A chip-enabled fingerprint reader is easy to use on the front right corner of the wrist rest.
At the top of the screen is a webcam which is 720p high definition with an integrated 360 degree far-field microphone and a ThinkShutter. The shutter is a sliding door that conceals the camera. That fills two purposes. One, it keeps the camera lens clean, and two, it keeps any rogue program from broadcasting your face while you work.
With Cortana and Alexa both enabled, you can easily take advantage of the always on microphone to set timers, check weather, add items to your to-do list or play music. Don’t want them listening in? Just touch the microphone key to mute it.
Battery power and recharging
While the battery is rated up to 15.4 hours with its integrated Li-ion 54Whr battery, my usage has been no where near that. Without doing anything to be battery efficient, normal working time is more like 4-5 hours. By killing the screen brightness, I could easily get a few more hours, but I think I’d be hard pressed to get anything approaching 15 hours.
The ideal alternative is that the power supply is a reasonably compact 65W, type-C power adapter. That gives me the option of using my MyCharge 20000mAh portable battery pack with either its 110v outlet or its USB-C port.
Offsetting the power usage, is the Rapid Charge technology – meaning that I can run the unit on battery for 4-5 hours in the morning, and when I plug it in at lunch time – it will recharge up to 80% of capacity in less than one hour. Then I’m ready to unplug and finish the day back on battery power.
Inputs and Outputs
Along the left side of the machine are two Thunderbolt 3.0 USB3.1 Gen 2 Type-C ports and one standard USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type -A Always On port.
On the right side is another standard USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type -A Always On port, along with an HDMI port, a microphone/headphone combo jack, and a compact Ethernet extension connector (separate dongle needed for native Ethernet.)
On the rear of the unit is a removable cover revealing a MicroSD card slot and a phone SIMM slot. I might use the Micro SD slot in a pinch, but it’s inconvenient to get to – requiring the screen to be closed to access it. I prefer to use a special XQD/SD/USB reader that plugs into one of the USB-C ports for all my photo and video editing requirements.
My perfect companion
With all this machine has going for it, I believe this is going to be my lifelong companion. With its 1TB drive to hold all my many photo, video and editing programs and with a couple 1 TB SSD external drives, I can work on the road for weeks on end without having to log into my large M800 ThinkCentre desktop setup.
Check it out at Lenovo.com.
Disclosure: I am a Lenovo Ambassador and Lenovo gave me this device as part of the Lenovo INsiders program, but Lenovo did not provide additional compensation for this review. Opinions expressed have been and always will be my own.