Lenovo Thinkbook 13s Pairs Solid Business Features With Consumer-Friendly Touches

Lenovo’s ThinkPad dresses down into business casual, trading some performance for an affordable price tag.

- Mark Hachman

Lenovo’s ThinkBook 13s is a deliberately intriguing combination of a business notebook with consumer flourishes, aimed at the vaguely-defined space between a home business and a more traditional consumer PC. It largely succeeds.

The ThinkBook 13s (also known as the ThinkBook 13s-IWL) sacrifices just a bit on the performance front for including an 8th-gen Whiskey Lake processor, but places it inside a sturdy chassis with a very good keyboard on top. It includes a combination of legacy USB-A and forward-looking USB-C ports, an excellent audio system, with decent battery life. And at a price hovering between $700 to $800, you’re left with a pretty solid midrange laptop for general use.

BASIC SPECS

Lenovo claims that the suggested retail price of the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s we tested is over $1,100, but we couldn’t find a single price suggesting it was over $1,000. Online, the prices we saw at press time averaged about $800 or slightly less, and should eventually fall. Otherwise, there’s a healthy mix of features catering to consumers and small businesses.

Display: 13.3-inch (1920 x 1080) IPS anti-glare (non-touch)

Processor: Intel 1.6GHz Core i5-8265U (Whiskey Lake [go.pcworld.com/wslk], as tested); 1.8GHz Core i7-8565U

Graphics: Intel UHD 620

Memory: 4GB-16GB DDR4 2400MHz (8GB, as tested)

Storage: 128-512GB M.2 SSD PCI-E NVMe (256GB as tested)

Ports: 2 USB Type A (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 USB-C (Gen 2, DisplayPort), HDMI 1.4b, 3.5mm jack

Camera: 720p HD Camera (user-facing), fixed-focus

Battery: 45Wh, 78Wh

Wireless: 802.11ac (2x2); Bluetooth 5.0

Operating system: Windows 10

Home Dimensions: 12.11 x 8.52 x 0.63 inches (15.9mm)