Lenovo ThinkPad X13s

Excellent battery life is your reward for an ARM chip inthis ultra-thin laptop for corporates

- TIM DANTON

PRICE As tested, £1,450 (£1,740 inc VAT) from lenovo.com/gb

If this ThinkPad and the Surface Pro 9 (see p44) are any indication, there is a growing confidence among laptop manufacturers that Windows is a genuine contender on the ARM platform. Not only for consumers, but businesses too.

Here, Lenovo opts for the third generation of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx platform, which was announced in December 2021 with great fanfare. The big promise? That this 5nm system-on-a-chip would deliver almost twice the speed of its Gen 2 predecessor at 60% of the consumption per watt of its AMD and Intel rivals.

There were other promises, too: enhanced videoconferencing, clearer audio, superior artificial intelligence capabilities, added security in partnership with Microsoft. It was enough to put Qualcomm in a boastful mood, claiming that hordes of Snapdragon-powered laptops and 2-in-1s would soon appear, offering 20 hours of battery life while being connected over 5G.

Positive battery

My first test was to see if the X13s could live up to expectations for battery life. Lenovo actually goes beyond 20 hours and states this laptop can reach 28 hours of Full HD video playback with the screen at 150cd/m², so I copied that scenario. It didn't make it, but a life of 17hrs 56mins remains strong. I saw a similar result when I switched on the Wi-Fi and kept it idling.

All of which means I wouldn't even think about bringing the 350g power supply with me on day trips into work, but take the marketing claims with a pinch or two of the white stuff.

Mixed performance