Is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 Worth It? Full Review & Real-World Battery Test

[@SenselInc]

Hey Decoding. 👋Sensel here, the company that make the haptic touchpad for the X1 Carbon Gen 12, along with several other ThinkPads. We're super pumped that you like our haptic touchpad in the X1C G12! 🥰 Thank you so much for calling it out here and your G11 vs G12 video. We're very happy that you decided to order and test the version with the haptic touchpad. 🙌🙏 If you'd ever be interested in learning more about our touchpads, what sets them apart from the other haptic touchpad suppliers, and what the future of haptic touchpads might look like, please let me know. I'd love to talk!

[@L1keAnEnderman]

Just wanted to say that how involved you are with the community is pretty admirable. It is easy to see that you care about your product and want to hear feedback from people

[@SenselInc]

@@L1keAnEnderman Thanks so much for the kind words Ender. 🥰🙏 That's absolutely right. Without feedback we can't improve, and who better to provide feedback than the end-users. It's also much faster if we go directly to the end-users, rather than waiting for our customers like Lenovo and Dell to get the feedback from users, which maybe they'll then pass along that to us, and maybe not. 😉

[@gorofujita5767]

11:50 >"The result? A solid 4 hours and 8 minutes which I think is quite respectable" Is this 2010? This is an *objectively terrible* result. For much less money, an M-series Macbook Air will last a solid 16 hours of web browsing and text based work.

[@Decoding_Labs]

well you can’t really compare AMR architecture vs X86 in terms of efficiency, I also talk about this in my conclusion. It’s respectable for Intel laptop not for industry standards

[@breadone_]

@@Decoding_Labs yes you can compare them, it's the difference in battery life, the exact same metric. it doesn't matter what architecture it is, 16h > 4h plain and simple.

[@AreiousX]

One thing that wasn't mentioned is that the haptic trackpad can be configured to have a touchpad button area, basically mimicking the 3 traditional buttons that require higher force to activate and have a different haptic feedback - I think it's a pretty good middle ground. On the note about battery, I have an OLED model with 155H and can get ~3+ hours under heavy use (VMs, media, etc)

[@Burbanana]

is it good for (dev) work though? I heard its very limited in power.. and how warm does it get? Im currently looking at this, the T14s or the new Zenbook S 16 with Ryzen AI which is very efficient.. (im scared of arm for doing hobby dev projects lol)

[@AreiousX]

​@@Burbanana I'm not a dev so I can't say in terms of compiling speed etc, but I do work in cybersecurty and it can handle multiple virtual machines on top of other programs/scripts, so good enough for me. There's a performance mode if I needed more power, it does get pretty toasty at the bottom but it's not a problem using it on a desk. It's perfect for my use case to have something very thin and light and still good enough for most things, but I'd say if speed is important then you might want to look elsewhere.

[@Burbanana]

@@AreiousX thanks! You think it would be bad for lap use then since it gets warm?

[@AreiousX]

@@Burbanana it would definitely be uncomfortable, especially if you're wearing shorts

[@Burbanana]

@@AreiousX thanks bud! The new Pavilion Plus with ultra 7 and the vivobook S 16 with ryzen AI look decent but I think their build is flimsy compared to the more premium stuff.. Which leaves the 60hz mediocre battery T14s OLED and the Zenbook S 16 for me.. I think Im going to try the Zenbook soon.. The 14 is out in a couple weeks but is priced higher with intel core ultra 200.. Cant make sense of any of it.

[@mrlang125]

wow you have the exact one i am looking for! great review! thank you!

[@Decoding_Labs]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bigdisme5622]

I picked up a LG Gram 16 a week ago. Sadly returning it. My gripes no fingerprint reader, speakers are terrible volume or lack of (can't hear them) when relaxing in a hotel playing netflix which is huge for me and also no OLED which once you use it you can't unsee it. X1 much better web cam at 2160p, oled, fingerprint reader, much louder speakers but terrible batter life. Its up to you just my thoughts. 14:30

[@anirbanchakraborty1102]

Finally a great video on x1 carbon gen 12 with haptic touchpad, thanks!! I have a couple of queries - 1. I have been using Macbooks since 2009 and recently encountered the need to get a windows machine. I am a bit nit-picky about the keyboard and touchpad on laptops and hence Macbooks have been excellent companions over these years. Coming from a macbook, do you think I might like this haptic touchpad? I am asking this as you also seem to use a mac. How does select and drag work on this, in comparison to a macbook touchpad? I am also considering the surface laptop as it also has a haptic touchpad. 2. You mentioned that the battery life is ~4 hours. Is it really that bad? Can you also do a test with say 50% screen brightness, bluetooth off etc.? Thanks in advance.

[@Decoding_Labs]

1. I think you will like this haptic touchpad a lot. It’s not quite Apple-like yet, but it gets very close in terms of experience. 2. Yes, the battery life isn’t great. It’s still Intel, and it’s still x86 architecture, which isn’t as efficient as ARM64. I can do some further testing, but I’m currently on vacation in Norway, so if you can wait, I will do that when I come back.

[@anirbanchakraborty1102]

@@Decoding_Labs Sure, your opinion on this would surely help. Thanks!!

[@proautoscan]

50% brightness and the full HD display ( not the OLED that he has) should offer easily 8h battery life for a normal everyday use

[@BlendingWithHenry]

@@proautoscan This laptop would not get double the battery life (4 hours to 8 hours) just by lowering the screen brightness to 50%. LOL

[@Deejay-e2f]

Thank You for reviewing this Lenovo laptop because I just had mine delivered an hour ago.

[@dedarahamad408]

Awesome Video

[@Decoding_Labs]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@tybrassington1614]

I've see on the new cheaper models such as the P14s, they have changed the keyboard to become stiffer and clickier than previous generations of Lenovo keyboards. Is this the case for the X1 Carbon?

[@iSowelu]

Actually, as a Mac user (who also enjoys ThinkPads), I've always liked the traditional default Fn + Ctrl layout on ThinkPads as this is the same layout found on all Macs and MacBook keyboards to this day. So if Lenovo was looking to satisfy other users with this change, Mac users aren't among them. Also, USB-A is never going to die if PC Manufacturers continue to include them as peripheral manufacturers will follow suit and continue make USB-A the dominate port on their products, keeping this unnecessary cycle going. I honestly don't know why people insist on keeping this legacy port alive when USB-C is superior in every way. If you have legacy peripherals, $5 quality adapters exist and can be permanently attached to the peripherals and won't be lost. Having said all that, excellent video!

[@Decoding_Labs]

Thank you for sharing your perspective! I understand your points, especially about the Fn + Ctrl layout and USB-A. It’s always interesting to see how preferences vary among different users, especially when it comes to long-standing features. I appreciate your detailed feedback and glad you enjoyed the video!

[@BlendingWithHenry]

Thanks for the video. The "video" itself is very good, but this laptop has no innovations. Lenovo continues to make Thinkpads look like standard boring fingerprint magnet office computers. There's no special features about this laptop, honestly, and the battery life being under 5 hours isn't good on Balanced performance mode doing basic tasks and photo editing. It's not even using a power-hungry screen. There's no WOW feature, there's nothing special. Dell and Apple continue to innovate and Lenovo is going to lose this race, *IF* they are trying to target consumers, and not just business offices.

[@king3380]

Is this laptop's cooling system able to handle high performance games?

[@Decoding_Labs]

No, it’s not a gaming laptop in the first place.

[@margaretreneau7379]

Are there enough ports to connect a monitor, mouse usb, key board usb and ethernet usb (3 usb ports?)

[@Decoding_Labs]

it depends on your peripherals, I use thunderbolt 4 port to connect X1 to my dual monitor setup and for mouse and headset I simply use Bluetooth. There are 2 USB Type-A ports, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports and 1 HDM 2.1 port

[@matthewklinestiver9355]

Like it, but as others mentioned, disappointed by the battery life.

[@Decoding_Labs]

Definitely

[@TH-wr1dv]

also at yooga it was one of most anoying things that power switch is at side. It is just too easy hit with it to stuff at table.

[@Decoding_Labs]

hah with that I totally agree

[@cezarras]

Where are the big indestructible thinkpad which could, compare with laptops like legion i9 or razor blade

[@itsathejoey]

How does battery life compare to the macbook pro?

[@Decoding_Labs]

You cannot really compare ARM64 on Mac and X86 on ThinkPad and it also depends wether you want to compare to 16" or 14" MacBook Pro but you can check MBP battery life here: www.apple.com/macbook-pro/compare/

[@Gepedrglass]

Nothing compares to macbook's battery life.

[@paulnorman8274]

The X1 Carbon is noticeably lighter than even a MacBook Air 13..... While having a bigger, and in this version OLED, screen... It has precious little in common with any MacBook Pro, which is a much heavier laptop with a bigger battery. The MacBook Pro is also more powerful for virtually all applications available for MacOS. The new Thinkpad P14s g3 is closer to the Pro 14. While the P1 g7 and p16v g2 are bracketing the MB Pro 16 performance wise. Neither come close to the battery life of the Pro16, though. The ARM MacBooks are just much more efficient, and the 16 has a max-sized 100WHr battery. In general, if MacOS is acceptable, either the MB Air 13 or 15 are probably "better" than the Carbon for most people, unless absolute lowest weight per screen size rules all. But for a lot of people, MacOS is not acceptable. And the ARM Macs aren't obvious candidates for neither Windows nor Linux nor Qubes. They're MacOS machines. Very good ones, but only if MacOS is acceptable. And also, while Macs are still likely "better", the latest "PCs" are not therefore "bad." The Carbon is a darned good laptop for most thin'n'light uses. Even if a MacBook may have been "better" at some tasks: Outside of some corner use cases, you're not going to suffer appreciably with a Carbon. OTOH, you are going to suffer, if your MacBook simply can't run a software title you need and which is only available for the PC or Linux, or if you require, or just fancy, Qubes for security and privacy. Then; even the fanciest Macbook can quickly become the equivalent of a Betamax recorder.

[@uFamous_Breakfast1792]

@@Gepedrglass lol Snapdragon X Elite based laptops now have better battery life

[@Gepedrglass]

@@uFamous_Breakfast1792 sure but they're snapdragon. good luck doing anything with it lol