Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2014 Review

This ultra-book is incredibly light. It is amazingly comfortable to carry around and have on your lap. As a matter, it is so light that I kept opening my backpack to see if I forgotten to pack it! The carbon-fiber casing has a smooth and luxurious finish which makes it feel like a high-end laptop. There is a slim fan to keep the CPU cool with a magnetically-charged filter keeps the air intake clear of dust. The X1 Carbon is completely silent and never gets uncomfortably hot.

Lenovo laptops are famous for having the best keyboards. Every key is soft with a positive yet quiet response. A back-light optionally illuminates the keyboard for use in low light. The latest incarnation of the Lenovo X1 Carbon replaces function keys with an Adaptive Key Row which shows one of 4 sets of function keys, depending on the application in focus. This clearly where Lenovo started messing with the winning formula. While it saves space, this row does not provide any feedback and is frequently changing. Accessing certain controls, such as volume, requires more key-presses than before.

The Lenovo X1 Carbon features both a Trackpad and a Trackpoint. The Trackpad is quite large and is itself a single clickable button. The Trackpoint, a Lenovo classic inherited from IBM, is a rubber-coated joystick located between keys. This pointing device is much more precise than a typical Trackpad since it is relative rather than absolute. For this reason, Lenovo and a few other brands reserve the Trackpoint for high-end offerings.

Until this revision of the X1 Carbon, there were mechanical buttons between the space-bar and the Trackpad. Lenovo integrated the buttons entirely into the tracking surface which is unfortunate. While buttons are available in 2 sizes, even the large size still makes the middle-button incredibly difficult to press reliably. A new version of the Synaptics driver is supposed to divide the entire Trackpad into 3 clickable vertical stripes but sadly causes the middle-button to stop working entirely. Lenovo recently removed the broken version from their site.

Additional changes to the keyboard were made in order to keep individual keys full-size. First is the replacement of the CAPS LOCK key by a pair of Home / End buttons. This is sensible change which just takes time getting used to as these keys are normally found on the other side of the keyboard. CAPS LOCK which is probably the least used key nowadays on any keyboard is actually not completely gone. One only needs to press Left-Shift twice to toggle it.

The 2560x1440 display is razor-sharp and looks stunning. Its angle-of-view is impressive and the anti-glare coating really works. The LCD maintains good visibility and contrast under a variety of lighting. This is not the highest-resolution available anymore but is fine enough that pixels are hard to notice.

Just above the display there is a 720 HD camera which sits between a pair of noise-canceling microphones. The resolution is good and refresh rate is remains fluid, even in relatively low light. Sound recording optionally filters noise from key-strokes for a smoother conferencing experience.