Lenovo Thinkbook 13s review: ThinkPad influences at a great price
Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)
Lenovo's ThinkPad family has a lot of fans, but not everyone can spend ThinkPad money on a laptop. Designed for small business customers (and regular consumers who want a more privacy-focused machine), Lenovo's new Thinkbooks seem like an experiment to boil the essence of a ThinkPad down into its most important parts and put those pieces in a more affordable package.
On paper, it seems Lenovo has done just that: the new Thinkbook 13s has a stress-tested aluminum body, comfortable keyboard, webcam privacy shutter, fingerprint reader, and other things that you'd find on a ThinkPad machine. But the Thinkbook's attractive starting price of $734 truly helps it stand out as an option for anyone who wants not just a ThinkPad alternative but a relatively affordable Windows machine as well.
Look and feel| Specs at a glance: Lenovo Thinkbook 13s | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Worst | Best | As reviewed | |
| Screen | 13.3-inch 1920i-1080p anti-glare IPS non-touch | ||
| OS | Windows 10 Home 64 | ||
| CPU | Core i5-8265U | Core i7-8565U | Core i5-8265U |
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 620 | ||
| RAM | 4GB | 16GB | 8GB |
| Storage | 128GB PCIe SSD | 512GB PCIe SSD | 256GB PCIe SSD |
| Networking | 802.11AC (2 x 2), Bluetooth 5.2 | ||
| Ports | 2 x USB-A 3.1, 1 x USB-C, 1 x HDMI, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x power port | ||
| Size | 12.11i-8.52i-0.63 inches (307.6i-216.4i-15.9 mm) | ||
| Weight | 2.95 pounds (1.34 kg) | ||
| Price | $734.30 | $1,154.30 | $832.30 |
| Other perks | Webcam shutter, fingerprint reader on power button |
Lenovo Thinkbook 13s $734.30 from Lenovo (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) Lenovo tried to give a ThinkPad machine the "modern ultrabook" makeover, and the result is the updated Thinkbook. That's not a derogatory statement-the Thinkbook 13s is quite attractive, and I wouldn't guess that it's a notebook with a $734 starting price. It has a slate gray color scheme that uses a lighter gray color on its anodized aluminum chassis, a darker gray on its keycaps, and shiny accents on the edges of the trackpad and a few other locations. Overall, it looks most akin to an IdeaPad notebook with some design influences from the ThinkPad X lineup.
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