Lenovo Z13 Thinkpad Review - A premium Ryzen ultrabook at last!

[@stuffmikebought]

This must have been a stressful video to make, at 31 seconds, clean shaven, 8 minutes later, full beard

[@MashITTech]

haha well spotted. there was actually 3 takes to get through this one :) the joys of having too many laptops in at the moment. You could always pop over with your new razer and add another one to my collection?

[@BsianTech]

I just did the review on the Thinkpad Z13, the model I got from Lenovo was fully speced up and had the OLED Panel, the battery life on the OLED really drained the battery a lot more. Results of the test has been forwarded to Lenovo but I agree this Z13 is premium as and does has very good performance. Pricing is okay here in Australia but shipping woah that's a different story. Great job mate!

[@MashITTech]

Thanks mate, will head over and check out your review soon! been so busy I have hardly watched any KZbin lately 😂

[@jonathanr4160]

Ultrabooks with Ryzen are so good for casual gaming. Trying to game on intel integrated graphics is rarely worth it but AMD actually makes it possible for a lot of games. Look at something like the steam deck, which is even smaller than an Ultrabook and can play tons of games fairly well for cheap $

[@MashITTech]

Very true

[@jessegriffin9]

AMD makes our dreams come true. For People who want a thin, light, playable and business laptop, Z13 is the one. Sad prices are always high in the UK but I still hope pc manufacturers will drop prices in market sites because m1 mac is now cheaper than windows laptop in the same performance and built quality

[@disadadi8958]

The efficiency is crazy good. Idling with only HWInfo active the CPU package was consuming as little as 0.19 W on the 6850U version.

[@MashITTech]

Yeah its amazing. Intel really need to improve their efficiency as they only seem to be able to pull ahead with insane wattage

[@bdhaliwal24]

Apple could have learned a lesson by adding the lip for the camera instead of the silly notch. I just found your channel, really nice with the no nonsense content.

[@lucasfitingof]

Lenovo sales told me US & Canadian online stores supposed to get the Black metal Z13 sometime "later this year". In my region, its only the Gray metal top or the Black vegan leather option. The black metal top looks really good. Really hope the Black metal variant makes it before Black Friday 🤞

[@antonbabadjanov8813]

Today they told me there is no information on when it would be available, but offered to put me on a waiting list. Did they not think that the most popular color for a ThinkPad would be.... black? Maybe they really want to push the leather version, which, arguably, is quite nice, but I'd still choose metal over it.

[@pkmachinegun]

Honestly I think I would take the "Arctic Grey" due to fingerprinting on the black.

[@sterntelz]

This channel has very informative videos. It's my go-to channel for new laptops.

[@MashITTech]

Thank you mate, I appreciate your support :)

[@Dunestorm333]

I actually ended up going for the OLED version. One thing most people aren't aware of is that OLED panels are inherently brighter than LED-backlit panels (even at the same measured brightness level). When testing my phone at 250 nits for example; it looks way brighter than my LED monitor at 300 nits, the better contrast on OLED also improves legibility, even at lower brightnesses. Whilst the OLED version of the Z13 has worse battery life, you're still typically looking at between 7.5-9 hours, which is a fantastic trade off for having an objectively better image quality.

[@MashITTech]

I love oled, the image quality is incredible and blacks are true black as it turns the pixel off! My problem with oled is the pwm flicker they use, it gives me the worst eye strain and headaches! I wish someone would use a technology other than pwm 😢

[@Dunestorm333]

@Mash IT yeah some people are more sensitive to it than others unfortunately. I've seen the XPS 15 OLED in person and that has even worse PWM flicker at 60hz instead of the 240Hz of the Z13 (IIRC).

[@goryoandres9779]

Great review!

[@jetmartin9501]

Great bones on this laptop...love that they have a USB-4 port on either side of the machine and they offer a matte screen option....but I do wish that they would have gone with the 14" form factor and given us at least 1 USB-A port (even if it had a drop down jaw mechanism) and a full sized HDMI port and maybe a micro SD card slot...(an that would have made it the ideal laptop). If the Carbon can give those ports and more why couldn't they do the same on a 14" version of the Z-series. Maybe next year they will move to the 14" form factor. I'm jussayin....

[@jamespostle6894]

im glad they didn't make it bigger i have one and i think its the perfect size.

[@huybeamanhhuy1161]

Please compare with Dell XPS 9320 Plus

[@JimKanaris]

Very cool! It’s a tossup for me between the Z16 and the XPS 9530. Usually I would go with the beautiful XPS but Dell’s qc holds me back. The only review of it to date on KZbin suggests continuing problems with hinge, trackpad, power supply, and potentially the cooling (with the i9). I’m going to sit on the sidelines to see what happens there. Reviews of Lenovo’s Z series are, on the whole, fairly positive, even if spec-wise it’s not as strong as the spec’d out new gen XPS’s. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Thanks for steering me in the Lenovo direction! (Thanks too for testing the speakers with a meaningful track with oomph! I’m tired of that silly lobster video and techno nonsense.)

[@MashITTech]

I would take a Thinkpad over an XPS any day! I have had a few XPS laptop brought to me with loose trackpads and throttling issues! I love the look of the XPS though so its a real shame

[@JimKanaris]

@@MashITTech ya, like I said, I’m steering in that direction. I’ll take quality with decent performance over specs any day. Moreover, those specs may be (and often are) compromised by build (a beautiful but compromising chassis) and poor quality control. Shame, indeed. I hope Dell recovers from this but for now: 👎

[@timothylu1349]

@@JimKanaris did you end up getting the z16? Im wondering about portability since 16’ is pretty big. Is it around the same size as the dell xps 15?

[@JimKanaris]

@@timothylu1349 I didn't. I wound up getting the XPS (9530: 40W rtx 4070 + i9 @ fhd+). There were certain things about the z16 that were holding me back, including the internals. I hope I don't regret it. My xps arrives next week.

[@stuffmikebought]

even though you didn't have a spare small NVMe lying around, I am pretty sure you can cut the larger ones in half as long as you don't hit the black pieces, that way you can essentially have 2 NVMe for the price of 1

[@MashITTech]

🤣

[@pkmachinegun]

IM DEAD LMFAO

[@wintersilence9884]

I guess there is a mistake in this video. The processor in the spec says 6850U or 6860Z, nothing like 6850H in this series!!

[@MashITTech]

I had the 6850u, if I put 6850h then that was purely a typo, sorry

[@jordancancel2157]

I wish I can get that Lenovo Legion laptop for gaming my birthday was on August 6th

[@ceevee8914]

Can you check if Freesync on the internal display can be enabled through AMD software?

[@wintersilence9884]

Is 80mm ssd always faster then 42mm ones? I cannot find anything about that on the Internet. Is there an article somewhere describing this?

[@pkmachinegun]

Ive spent the past 3 days doing laptop research to replace my wifes $300 lenovo (dunno what model- tag wore off lol, but its SUPER cheap in every way albeit still running really strong...impressed to say the least). Ive been floating between an apple refurb macbook 14 pro m1 pro (as we are an apple household) and a dell xps 15 (with no graphics and an i5 processor). I am a lenovo fan (obviously with her lenovo, my Ryzen ThinkPad T14s and my Legion 7i (11700H, 3080 non-ti) and I think that it is absolutely abhorrent that it is so hard to find which lenovo products are the macbook/xps competitors. That being said, I think that the Z13 or (more likely) the Z16 will be the direction that we go. I think the best spec for everyday use would be the base Ryzen 5, no dgpu, base 16gb ram and the 256gb ssd and upgrade the ssd later. Off the lenovo site I can get the 13 for $1186 and the 16 for $1354. What are your thoughts Mash?

[@MashITTech]

These Z series are definitely the most premium Ryzen laptops I have come across and I really enjoyed this Z13. There were some teething issues with the z16 which I believe were sorted via a BIOS update so that is also a good option now. You may also want to consider the T14 or T14s Ryzen editions (I recently reviewed the T14 with 6800u) they are cheaper, perform better and still have great configuration options at the expense for a little thickness. If it was for my I would have the T14s with 6800u and 400nit 1200p screen

[@pkmachinegun]

@@MashITTech I do love the T14S and I actually have one. A Gen 2 with a 5850U in it and it is my school laptop. So out of all of the laptops we picked up the refurb MacBook 14 Pro because the return on investment was the best as I can expect 8-10 years out of the laptop.

[@MikeKabaWike]

I can attest - the track pad is AWESOME. I've always disliked thinkpad trackpad. They aren't crisp. They usually have a deep hollow clunk feeling when clicked. This haptic pad is so much better

[@stuffmikebought]

that Riff Rock jams

[@MashITTech]

yeah we are loving their royalty free channel at the moment

[@jordancancel2157]

I just really want to go Legion 7i gen 7 rtx 3070 please man my birthday was on August 6th and 8 didn't get anything

[@shahriarhakim6673]

please also check out the z16

[@MashITTech]

I do plan to

[@nezuko3836]

When you press the edge of the screen, especially on the bump, does it sink slightly into the case? My Z13 with the touch panel does that, and it feels weird to me. I was wondering if the same thing happens on a non-touch model.

[@MashITTech]

I certainly didn't notice that! how much does it sink in?

[@ithinkabout4369]

The palmrest is actually a glass material, not Aluminium

[@MashITTech]

ah thanks. I wondered why it was so smooth. Appreciate you pointing it out :)

[@c.m.7037]

Has anyone tried installing Ubuntu on this? Any issues?

[@aaron1983]

How much of the memory is actually usable after the igpu? I hope they have 32gb

[@MashITTech]

They do have a 32gb option and I will check the ram use when I get back in the office 👍

[@DexKennedy]

UK pricing rules it out for me. Great ultrabook though.

[@MashITTech]

Yes, U.K. pricing is disgusting

[@RorschDG-2]

Are we hopefully going to see a review of the Z16? Hopefully with the 6500m?

[@youp1tralala]

Could you test if eGPU truly works?

[@MashITTech]

As soon as I get a free evening I will. I just have an office stacked up with laptops atm

[@evansboydkadongola4347]

Nice laptop😀

[@liamein1327]

Great video as always!. I'm currently watching your X17 R2 reviews and am wondering will you do a tutorial on how to repaste it down the line? Keep up the good work.

[@MashITTech]

It is something I will probably do when I have a bit of down time! At the moment my office is stacked with laptops I still need to review :)

[@goryoandres9779]

Was it better than the Nano?

[@MashITTech]

Yes for definite! I loved the nano but this feels more solid, has better efficiency and more better gfx performance. If I was a really light user I would Still be happy with the nano but if you want to do any sort of 3D work or light gaming the z13 is a big step up

[@goryoandres9779]

@@MashITTech Wow! Good thing Lenovo is putting AMD chips even on their higher end Thinkpads. Thanks for the response.

[@barrierankin2234]

Try the Slim 7 Pro X instead

[@MashITTech]

Sounds great. The ryzen CPU’s are amazing and I am really pleased you are actually making premium ryzen laptops!

[@Arbiter946]

this or x1 nano?

[@MashITTech]

I would probably choose the z13 depending on price as I prefer the better graphics performance on the amd chips

[@ArunKR46]

Broo...where is the Legion 7i review 🥹

[@MashITTech]

Still working on it. I actually filmed this z13 video before I even received the legion 😂

[@ArunKR46]

@@MashITTech ☹️..hmm... eagerly waiting for it..guess a lot of people are...

[@MashITTech]

Yeah I totally get that but these reviews are a lot of testing, filming and editing to complete. I am hoping to get the deep dive out this week

[@mzamroni]

Only 2 usb c. No hdmi and usb a No physical webcam shutter No physical buttons for the track point. 2240 ssd slot instead of 2280. Lenovo should simply reuse x1 carbon chassis and calls it z1 carbon.

[@DarktrekOfficial]

I got one today and I‘m going to send it back. It‘s awesome BUT mine does squeak at the bottom panel every time i lift it up. For 2.5k I am not going to accept that. Still no company coming close to Apple build quality. Now I don‘t know what to get because I need windows and this would‘ve been the perfect machine but it‘s the 2nd time Lenovo disappointed me after the X1 Nano and now this.

[@eviljesus5411]

boo hoo a little squeak. macs have no trackpoint, no touch screen, no pen support, inferior keyboards, can't swap out a broken screen or even upgrade the ssd and locked in an OS prison.

[@DarktrekOfficial]

@@eviljesus5411 But they have built quality. I won't spend 2.5k and settle for a squeaky case.

[@johnvang5581]

@@DarktrekOfficial you hit the nail on the head - apple qc is better but theyve always exceled in not promoting every new feature

[@191.]

This is how you make space for a webcam. Take that, Apple! It's pointless anyway, but hey, no stupid notch!

[@adinchandra1797]

At Thumbnail: Well, is really hard to say about "Intel". But, I only wait for a few times until they maybe can be better And maybe more competitive against AMD Just FYI, The RDNA 2 iGPU well is Great for Gaming, but yeah Intel Graphics is still way better when comes to Content Creation using Adobe Programs

[@stuffmikebought]

those sides look weird

[@andyH_England]

Nice, though too many bad experiences with Lenovo to buy them again. Also, the pricing makes the MB Pro 14 M1 Pro look an absolute bargain! There will be sales in due course, as there are few people outside Enterprise that can pay these ridiculous prices. I imagine the XPS 13 Plus with these AMD chips in would have been a far better buy, but sadly Dell and Intel are working together to keep Intel from losing even more customers.

[@MashITTech]

Oh sorry to hear you have had bad experiences! was it faulty units or poor CS? And yeah, I hate that Dell won't use Ryzen in premium products as they would be amazing

[@andyH_England]

@@MashITTech I had three Dell laptops with BSOD that I could not recover and as they were out of warranty, not economical to repair. The last one cost me >£3000 so that was the end of my relationship. My business now uses MS, Samsung and LG as well as Macs. They have all been reliable.

[@antonbabadjanov8813]

@@andyH_England What about Lenovo? I am having issues with my X1 Nano not recognizing the ThinkPad Thunderbolt 4 dock many times when it wakes up from sleep and the only remedy being restart (unplugging and plugging in again doesn't help).

[@hanjarake_taro]

When I buy Thinkpad, I buy Thinkpad, not something looks like Thinkpad

[@adinchandra1797]

Since Windows 11 launched, you know I completely stop thinking about Chip inside any Computer, cause It just makes me Stressful And I just 💕 How Good the AMD it is, although somehow, Intel is still not that Bad

[@jordancancel2157]

Rtx 3080

[@bealotcoolerifyoudid7217]

Fuckin hell 7 comments already. Im late.

[@MashITTech]

Better late than never 🤣🤣

[@Mr_Megamind]

That's a beautiful machine, little bit overpriced though

[@suparnosuparno1941]

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