Live Science Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold seizes your attention with its dazzlingly vivid and vivid 16.3 - inch foldable display — but this might not be enough to right for sluggish performance and underwhelming battery life story .

arresting prominent projection screen

Compact when folded

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

Expensive

Sluggish performance

Weak battery living

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

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CPU : Intel Core i7 - 1250U

RAM : 16 GB LPDDR5

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

GPU : Intel Iris Xe Graphics

Storage : 512 GB SSD

Display : 16.3 - inch OLED

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

Weight : 4.27 pound ( 1.94 kg )

Dimensions ( in ): 13.6 x 10.9 x 0.34 ( W x D x H )

Dimensions ( cm ): 34.7 x 27.6 x 0.9 ( W x D x H )

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is one of the most interesting devices we ’ve wait at — it ’s one of a fistful of " folding microcomputer " on the market that aims to give creatives and digital creative person plenty of display real estate and versatility . Much like the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold , its configuration factor sets it apart from the conventional 2 - in-1 - style laptop - hybridisation - tablet we ’re used to .

Although it come at a great cost , this machine ’s arresting OLED HDR presentation underlines why it might well be one ofthe beneficial devices for picture editing and image work — but given that it ’s fitted with a twelfth - gen Intel C.P.U. and integrated art ( and the deficiency of a conventional cooling system ) , we wo n’t be anticipate fireworks beneath the cowl .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 review

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2: Design

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is n’t quite a laptop — it ’s more a portable monitor with a keyboard , but it can for certain double as a laptop and/or tablet when you necessitate it to be one . Indeed , it ’s one of the most strange twist we ’ve look back , which is refreshing amid a sea of devices homogenise around two or three core excogitation .

The heroic 16.3 - inch foldaway display — encase in 100 % recycle plastic with magnesium and carbon fiber corroborate an atomic number 13 physique — is at the heart of this twist . But it also come with a detachable Bluetooth keyboard and kickstand that clip onto the seat of the show magnetically , as well as a stylus penitentiary and kickstand .

calculate on your needs , you may hold it in portrait style or landscape painting and use it as a tablet — or you could fold it along its horizontal axis vertebra and pitch it up on your desk , using the bottom half as a keyboard with haptic feedback as you typecast . you’re able to also connect the Bluetooth keyboard , unfurl the kickstand , and use it in portrait or landscape mode as a admonisher . In short , the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold is fabulously versatile .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

Although you’re able to compact everything into a compact , 12 - in software that you’re able to fit into your bagful , its 4.27 lbs ( 1.94 kilogram ) weight is on the heavier side — peculiarly give that the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold weighs just 3.31 lbs ( 1.50 kg ) .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold: Display

Its massive , foldable 16.3 - column inch lozenge show is stunningly shiny and vibrant — an first-class small-arm of kit for anybody baby in graphic work or icon redaction . The 2,024 x 2,560 - picture element OLED HDR show take an unusual aspect proportion of 1.26:1 — and this can be jarring at first , as heavy pitch-dark bars will appear above and below any 16:9 media you ’re take in back . But you soon get used to this , and you will appreciate consume more erect space at your disposal .

What would have really capped it off would have been the electrical capacity to kick upstairs to 4 thou — this is far from a dealbreaker , but a painfully missed opportunity given its rather miserable pixels - per - inch ( PPI ) of 200.2 .

Nonetheless , there ’s mountain to bonk about the screen and we confirm as much by testing it using a display calibrator . We record a brightness reading of 446 candela per square time ( cd / m^2 ) — which is just shy of the 500 cd / m^2 that Apple claim a MacBook Pro can reach . This brightness is couple up with Brobdingnagian vividness and reasonably accurate color , with the OLED video display register 99.9 % coverage of the sRGB colour gamut .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

We did note that , by nonpayment , green were somewhat oversaturated and blue and loss were slimly undersaturated — but there were almost no optical aberration . Its Delta - vitamin E reading — a metric that determines how distorted colors are compared to what they ’re mean to be , from 0 to 100 , with a good termination ordinarily falling between 3 and 6 — was 0.26 on medium , with a uttermost of 1.87 , which is exceptional .

Its direct contrast , meanwhile , is excellent — with the customary deep blacks you would look from an OLED display .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2: Keyboard and touchpad

The detachable Bluetooth keyboard that come with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold feel smaller than it is , mostly because the showing is so large to begin with — but it ’s a well - designed computer peripheral that complements the primary gadget .

We would n’t rate it as highly as some of the keyboards you ’ll regain in bounty laptops , and it feels rather lightweight — with minimum tactual feedback and a short travel space when you campaign the key . This is despite its still palm tree quietus and a sassy fabric base that keep it planted on your desk . The statistical distribution of Francis Scott Key is as you would wish , beyond the Function key appear to the left field of the leftover - sided Control key , which is strange . It also include a fingerprint scanner to the side of the arrow keys .

The touchpad , meanwhile , is too small to employ well — but you would gestate as much from a detachable keyboard . The manufacturer admittedly could have extended the depth of the keyboard to tolerate for a larger surface area , but this may have caused difficulties when attaching the keyboard to the back of the showing when you close down it up and pack it away .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 laptop.

(Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Future)

The keyboard also features Lenovo ’s red rubber trackpoint at its heart , but this is rather fiddly to employ . The touchpad or stylus offers a much legato experience .

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2: Performance and battery

It ’s unmanageable to pack a tablet with the same punch as a gamy - end laptop computer , but the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold makes a real go of it . In that vena , how well it performs really depends on whether you ’re comparing it with high - close laptops or tablets .

The Intel Core i7 - 1250U mobile processor fitted into the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold was once considered mellow - remnant , but it ’s a few generations old by now — and might not represent the best value for money . Lenovo pairs this CPU with 16 GB of LPDDR5 read/write memory as well as a 512 GB SSD — and Intel Irix Xe unified graphics , rather than anything dedicate .

Overall , operation in our benchmarking with Geekbench 6 was about the layer we had await — with impressive single - threaded carrying into action of 1,912 considering the long time of the central processing unit , but fallible multi - threaded carrying out of 6,663 . By means of comparison , one of the late mobile processors fitted into the HP Spectre x360 14 — the fresh Intel Ultra 7 155H 3800MHz ( 16 cores ) — scored 2,110 and 10,480 severally .

Xiaomi Watch S4 being tested by our reviewer

art carrying out was underwhelming , with a score of 11,247 . unified artwork are never going to compete with consecrate graphics cards from AMD or Nvidia , but Intel ’s integrated art in the HP Spectre x360 14 , by dividing line , strike 24,993 .

This suggests the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is well suitable to most average day - to - day tasks but might struggle on the multitasking front — and with any intensive design work . While it ’s an first-class choice for working with images at a high level , give the quality of its display , its underpowered part coupled with the want of cooling means it ’s susceptible to strangulation and wo n’t execute as well as a high - end laptop computer might .

Its dual 65 Wh battery , meanwhile , lasted 7 hours and 49 minute of arc in our looped video playback examination — which is underwhelming compared to some of the secure machines out there , and seven hours shorter than the aforementioned Spectre .

Vitesy Eteria being tested by our reviewer

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2: Ports and features

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold has a handful of ports distributed around the edges of its display , including three USB - C port and a SIM card slot . One matter that directly fend out is that using the gimmick in landscape orientation with the kickstand means always obscuring at least one USB - deoxycytidine monophosphate port . It ’s insufferable to , say , charge the keyboard , plug your twist into an external monitor lizard and plug in a hard campaign all at the same clip . There is also no phone jack , bizarrely .

When standing it up in landscape mode with the 5MP webcam to the left , there is a might button at the top as well as book up and down button to the right . The stylus can also magnetically attach to the top of the presentation — which is incredibly handy . The kickstand also attach magnetically to the back of the show . While integrating this into the tablet ’s design itself would have been better , this match together middling well and is stable once you ’ve stand it up .

Alongside an optional SIM one-armed bandit , connectivity choice include Wi - Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 — which , as with other components , are a few generations behind the curve now .

Acer Aspire Vero 16 - display screen

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2?

✅ You ’re a creative on the go : The Lenovo social function bright as a portable show for presentations and so on .

✅ You have dainty hands : The small keyboard and touchpad imply this is n’t for the sausage - finger !

❌ Money ’s squiffy : Some of its market rivals ruff the Lenovo in the value - for - money stakes

Colgate Kids Battery Powered electric toothbrush being tested by our reviewer

❌ You do a lot of intensive blueprint work : This simple machine was n’t build for eminent - end graphics carrying out

Whether you should invest in the ThinkPad X1 Fold truly depend on your need and requirements — and how much budget you have to cauterise . avowedly , it will elevate your originative productiveness , but it suits a very specific set of needs that might be beyond most people ’s requirements — and it does not represent the best value for money . What you are really paying for here is its foldable screen purpose — which is a breath of fresh air travel and intuitive to use — but there are tidy sum of downsides too , especially if a conventional 2 - in-1 would suit your want just hunky-dory .

It has a stunning and heroic presentation that you may fold up up and take with you wherever you go — which is a huge selling point — and it can seriously immerse you in any work that involve graphics or epitome editing . But that comes at a hefty cost — as well as a slightly weaker battery life and performance than you might require if you were to invest in a portable 2 - in-1 and an international varan alternatively .

HP Elitebook Ultra open screen on table.

If this product isn’t for you

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The ThinkPad X1 ’s Fold most obvious contender would be the Asus Zenbook Fold 17 , which has very similar stipulation as well as a slightly turgid screen door . Its barrage fire life might be a touch better , too , with a 75 Wh electrical capacity battery versus the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold ’s 64 Wh dual batteries .

That articulate , both motorcar are incredibly pricey . If you want something a little lighter , minuscule and more powerful — but evenly telling in terms of its display calibre — then we ’d suggest looking into the HP Spectre x360 14 , a ceremonious 2 - in-1 that also number outfit with a stylus .

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