Which ThinkPad is Right for Your Corporate Need?

1. Which ThinkPad is Right for Your Corporate Need? For many corporate users and businesses IT departments, nothing but a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop will do. Whether it's their durable build quality, industry-leading consoles, overexcited accurate pointing sticks, or simple black appealing, the ThinkPad line has a number of supports that Lenovo fans won't do without. Even if you've already got your heart and your budget dedicated to a ThinkPad, you've got a lot of selections. Lenovo currently trades over 20 ThinkPad models representations across 9 different lines. The laptops all have the same basic beautiful, but vary importantly when it comes to size, price, and screen resolution quality, performance and extra battery life. Some even have snappier keyboards than others. Keep in mind that not all ThinkPad have webcam covers, but we know some of the best ones you can get. And once you've made a solid decision, check out our assembly of the best ThinkPad T-Series to encourage your productivity, but if you're more interested in general Lenovo laptops, we have a page for that too. Best Overall: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Properties: CPU: Intel Core i5/Core i7 | GPU: Intel UHD 620 | RAM: 8GB/16GB | Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD | Display: 14-inch (1080p/1440p) | Size: 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches | Weight: 2.5 pounds. Pros: The ThinkPad X1 Carbon has all the trademarks of a perfect corporate use laptop. Packed into its attractive, slim body is a powerful 8th Gen Core i7 processor combined with a battery that can last up to 10 hours and 28 minutes with a 2K HDR panel and 11:01 in 1080p. Its 14-inch, 2K HDR display covered a vivid 199 percent of the sRGB color spectrum and averaged 469 nits of brightness on our light meter, making it perfect for watching movies on the go. Its keyboard offers great tactile feedback, registering 1.8 millimeters of travel and requiring 71 grams of actuation force. To top it all off, its carbon-fiber chassis passed a dozen MIL-STD-810G durability tests, including those for extreme temperatures, shocks and vibrations, and the system offers security features like Intel vPro, an infrared camera with a privacy shutter and a fingerprint reader.

2. Cons: There's not much weighing this machine down, aside from a pair of too-quiet speakers and a grainy webcam. However, after purchasing several units for ourselves, we discovered inconsistent quality control: The keyboard and display were not as good as the ones on the model we initially reviewed. Best for Multimedia: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Properties: CPU: Intel Core i5/Core i7 | GPU: NVidia GTX 1050 Ti | RAM: 8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB | Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD | Display: 15.6-inch (1080p/4K) | Size: 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches | Weight: 4 pounds. Pros: Whether you're a video editor or even a gamer, the 15-inch ThinkPad X1 Extreme is an excellent multimedia business laptop that suits your needs. Armed with a Core i7 processor and an NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, this beast can get you through rigorous programs as well as a select few games. It ran the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark on Very High at 1080p at a playable 35 frames per second. At only 0.7

3. inches thick and roughly 4 pounds, the X1 Extreme is seriously portable for a laptop this size. We were blown away by the system's 4K display, which reproduced 186 percent of the sRGB color gamut and averaged 366 nits of brightness. It also happens to have a cushy keyboard that has 1.7 millimeters of travel and requires 78 grams of force to actuate. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme also offers the same durability and security features as the Lenovo X1 Carbon, but with an added Smart Card option. Cons: Regardless of all that power and beauty, a battery life of only 6 hours and 7 minutes is a major buzzkill (the premium laptop average was 8:14 at the time). It also gets pretty warm, too — the center of the underside clocked in at 116 degrees (123 being the hottest on the underside near the hinge) after it streamed a 15-minute HD video. Best Detachable: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Properties: CPU: Intel Core i5/Core i7 | GPU: Intel UHD 620 | RAM: 8GB/16GB | Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD | Display: 13-inch (3K) | Size: 12 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches (0.6 w/ keyboard) | Weight: 2 pounds (2.8 w/ keyboard). Pros:

4. If you need to be versatile in your line of work, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet serves as an excellent, durable and secure 2-in-1 detachable. Artists in particular will appreciate the ThinkPad Pen Pro, which has a full metal body and a elastomer pen tip that supports up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Our review unit had a Core i5-8250U processor, which scored 12,772 on the Geek bench 4 overall performance benchmark, flying past the premium laptop average (10,586) at the time of the review. What's also unique about this machine is that its detachable keyboard maintains Lenovo's quality standards: Its keys have a good 1.3 millimeters of travel and require 61 grams of force to actuate. Additionally, its 13-inch, 3K display will lull you into a trance, covering 118 percent of the sRGB spectrum and unleashing a whopping 415 nits of brightness. It has an impressive pair of cameras: The rear has an 8-megapixel resolution while the front has a 2-MP shooter. Cons: While it's physically portable, the slate's battery lasts only 5 hours and 59 minutes (below the 8:18 average), so you won't be able to survive a typical workday. And if you usually listen to music while you work, it's going to be difficult to jam out with the X1 Tablet's quiet speakers. Best Battery Life: Lenovo ThinkPad T480 Properties:

5. CPU: Intel Core i3/Core i5/Core i7 | GPU: Intel UHD 620/NVidia MX150 | RAM: 4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB | Storage: 500GB HDD or 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB SSD | Display: 14-inch (768p/1080p/1440p) | Size: 13.3 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches | Weight: 3.6 pounds (4 with battery). Pros: With the ThinkPad T480, you never have to worry about your laptop dying during your workday — or even two. Its six-cell, 72-watt-hour battery lasted a ridiculous 17 hours and 19 minutes on our battery test. You can top that off with a speedy 8th Gen Core i5 processor and an NVidia MX150 GPU, which is strong enough to take on some light gaming like Dirt 3 (117 fps). In addition, you get a snappy keyboard with 1.7 millimeters of travel and 72 grams of actuation force. Cons: Unlike other ThinkPad, the T480's 14-inch, 1080p panel is not very colorful, reproducing a bland 77 percent of the sRGB color gamut and averaging 269 nits of brightness. Best 2-in-1: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Properties:

6. CPU: Intel Core i5/Core i7 | GPU: Intel UHD 620 | RAM: 8GB/16GB | Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD | Display: 14-inch (1080p/1440p) | Size: 13.1 x 9 x 0.7 inches | Weight: 3.1 pounds. Pros: If you need the versatility of a tablet but you aren't feeling the whole detach-and- reattach thing, then the ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a great choice. It's a slim, lightweight 2-in- 1 (3.1 pounds, 0.7 inches thick) that features a lockable ThinkPad Pen Pro, which has 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity and two shortcut buttons. This baby reproduced 201 percent of the sRGB gamut and gleamed with 477 units of brightness. And in terms of speed, its 8th Gen Core i7 processor notched a solid 14,517 on the Geek bench 4 test. It's military-durable and has privacy features like the rest, but what's notable is that it has an integrated privacy slider within the glass of the display, which looks much more subtle than the giant shutter on competing systems. Cons: The X1 Yoga lasted 7 hours and 42 minutes on our battery test, and while that may not seem that bad, it still isn't reliable enough to get you through the workday. And despite its keys measuring 1.4 millimeters of travel and requiring 65 grams of actuation force, we didn't find this keyboard to be all that great to type on.

7. Best Workstation: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Properties: CPU: Intel Core i5/Core i7/Xeon | GPU: NVidia Quadro P1000/P2000 | RAM: 8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB | Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB SSD | Display: 14-inch (1080p/4K) | Size: 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches | Weight: 4 pounds Pros: The P1 is an absolute powerhouse of a ThinkPad. Our machine boasted a Xeon processor with 32GB of RAM, which ripped apart Geek bench 4, scoring 17,893 and beating the workstation average (17,172). And all of that power is packed into a 0.7-inch slim frame that weighs just 4 pounds. This speed demon also features an unbelievably comfortable keyboard, with keys that got a deep 2.2 mm of travel. Cons: While its display is colorful, it's not very bright, averaging just 285 nits. Not to mention that you'll basically be tied to your desk all day — the battery lasted just 4 hours and 16 minutes on a charge. It's also worth mentioning that this machine gets a little warm. We measured the underside at 119 degrees Fahrenheit after we played a 15-minute HD video at full screen, which is above our 95-degree comfort threshold.

8. Most Affordable: Lenovo ThinkPad E580 Properties: CPU: Intel 7th Gen Core i5/8th Gen Core i5 | GPU: Intel HD 620 | RAM: 8GB/16GB | Storage: 256GB/512GB SSD | Display: 15.6-inch (768p/1080p) | Size: 14.5 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches | Weight: 4.7 pounds Pros: For less than $1,000, this machine offers speedy 8th Gen Core i5 performance, a sexy silver aluminum lid and even a select few security features like dip encryption and an optional fingerprint reader. Despite the price, Lenovo doesn't skimp on the keyboard. Its keys felt super responsive, registering 1.8 mm of travel and requiring a solid 72 grams of force to actuate. Cons: The E580's affordable price requires a few compromises: namely, the display. Its 15.6- inch, 1920 x 1080 panel covered 80 percent of the sRGB spectrum and averaged 243 nits, which isn't optimal for any art design or photo editing. And while its battery lasted a

9. respectable 8 hours and 19 minutes, it landed below the premium laptop average at the time (8:51).