First, I realize the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a business class laptop and business class means expensive. But this pricing just seems silly.
I get newsletters from Lenovo (I have a 6th gen X1 Carbon) and they’ve just announced the 8th gen model, which uses 10th gen Intel CPUs. There’s a lot of generational stuff here. Anyway, I’ve modified part of the newsletter below to highlight my concern.
The thing, though, is what does that absurdly high (starting!) price of $3149 get you? It’s really just standard specs for any decent ultrabook:
- 8 GB ram
- 256 GB SSD
- 14 inch 1920×1080 non-touch display (not even 16:10)
You get a few minor extras like a fingerprint reader (which is pretty standard on ultrabooks now, anyway), the infamous red nub for navigation (which I find a mild irritant when typing), an alleged 19.5 hours of battery life (take this one with a huge grain of salt–like, jumbo salt), a promise of ruggedness (which I can verify from my model) and the rest is really just configurable options, like a privacy screen, touch display and so on.
Now, compare this to the just-updated MacBook Pro 13 inch model (the one with the 10th gen Intel CPUs). It starts at $2399. This is also a lot of money, but it’s $750 less than the X1 Carbon. What do you sacrifice for that?
- No USB 3.0 ports
- No Wi-Fi 6
- Battery life rated at 10 hours instead of “19.5”
- Heavier at 3.01 pounds
- No shutter on webcam
- Aluminum case will dent and scratch when treated roughly
What do you get over the X1?
- Four Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of 2
- Touch Bar (OK, some might consider this a negative)
- 13 inch display–smaller, but running at a higher resolution of 2560×1600 and at a more productivity-friendly 16:10 ratio
- Wide color support
- True tone (display can detect ambient light and adjust automatically)
- Faster integrated graphics
- 16 GB ram (twice as much)
- Ram is significantly faster
- 512 GB SSD (twice as much)
- Faster CPU (2.0 GHz vs 1.6 GHz)
Really, unless you absolutely need Windows (which you can still run on the MacBook Pro, actually) or some of the privacy features, or must have Wi-Fi 6 now, the MacBook Pro is not just a better deal, it’s a significantly better deal.
How weird.
But good for Apple. I’ll be posting again about my own laptop possibilities again soon. I will not be considering an 8th gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
