Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition review: Sleek and refined, but one flaw vexes me

In all my years of reviewing laptops, this is only the second time a Lenovo ThinkPad has made its way to my desk. (Wild, right?) I reviewed the X1 Fold soon after it was released in March 2024, but five years before that was when I last touched a ThinkPad. What I remember most about it was its thickness and heaviness — nothing like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition. It’s as light as a feather and thin as a number two pencil. If not for the ThinkPad’s iconic features, I might have mistaken it for a Yoga or IdeaPad.

But as much as I adore this modern ThinkPad, it’s outfitted with a processor that doesn’t have the best multitasking performance available. Its battery life, though good, is bested by many of its competitors. Even with robust security features, the X1 Carbon Gen 13’s $2,000 starting price is probably too steep for most people who want one of the best business laptops.

Unless it’s a work expense, as many of these might be, it’s tough to reconcile its admittedly impressive looks with its price tag.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Specs and benchmarks

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Price and configurations

The $1,999 ThinkPad X1 Carbon I tested is configured with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (8-core) processor outfitted with Intel Arc (8-core) integrated graphics. Supporting hardware includes 32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s also a $2,519 model with the same specs but a 1TB SSD and a $2,719 model with the same specs but with a 2TB SSD.

To put it mildly, the $520 price jump between the 512GB and the 1TB model is bananas. But even if the $1,999 model came with a 1TB SSD, the X1 Carbon would still be of poor value compared to competing business laptops like the Asus Expertbook P5. For $1,099 (or $999 if on sale), it offers the same Core Ultra processor, the same amount of RAM, and though it has an IPS display instead of OLED, it has a higher 144Hz refresh rate and brighter display by almost 100 nits.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Design

I thought I was “over” black laptops. At the very least, they must look and feel untextured for my goth heart flutter. The coating on the X1 Carbon is smooth and matte, making me wish my Yoga Book 9i looked the same. The iconic ThinkPad logo is there as you’d expect; the red dot in the “i” slowly blinks when the system is asleep and the lid is closed — a tiny design detail that’s as subtle as it is unforgettable.

The black coating collects more — and more defined — fingerprints than any laptop I’ve tested recently. I’m talking about visible arches and loops that are sharp enough for notarizing paperwork. That makes it a good practice surface for a crime scene investigator. I dusted my prints with makeup powder and peeled them off with clear mailing tape. (I saw this technique in an episode of CSI and figured I’d try it.) With the X1 Carbon, your fingerprint can be both a security feature and evidence.

Other than the annoying amount of time and effort you’d probably spend cleaning the X1 Carbon (for reasons not related to crime, I hope), the rest of its design is as polished as any other premium laptop. Even Lenovo’s legendary red TrackPoint in the center of the keyboard and large touchpad buttons at the top of the trackpad don’t take away from its modern appearance.

Much of that modern appearance has to do with the slim display bezels (less than a quarter of an inch on the right and left sides) and thin angled body that’s 0.56 inches at the thickest point. At 2.13 pounds, it’s technically even lighter (by 0.03 pounds) than the new Asus Zenbook A14 with a Snapdragon X Elite processor. Its keyboard and touchpad dimensions are balanced with the rest of the laptop, too. The 4.7 x 2.7-inch touchpad (including the button on top) is centered with the alt keys and the spacebar.

The only issue with the keyboard is its height. Usually, I can reach the number keys on a 14-inch laptop without moving all my fingers away from the home row, but the X1 Carbon’s are too far away, even if I stretch my fingers as far as I can. The function keys are a solid inch from the tips of my fingers with my palms placed on the palmrest.

Here’s how the X1 Carbon compares to some of its other lightweight competitors:

• HP Omnibook Ultra Flip 14 — 12.35 x 8.51 x 0.59 inches, 2.9 pounds
• Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 — 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.61 inches, 3.4 pounds
• Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) — 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.47 ~ 0.51 inches, 2.6 pounds

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Ports

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The X1 Carbon has the ports you’d expect from a business laptop of its caliber, but not necessarily from one with such a thin, light chassis. Major kudos to Lenovo for that!

• 2x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 (DisplayPort and charging support)
• 2x USB-A (one with charging support)
• HDMI 2.1
• Headphone/mic combo jack
• Kensington Nano Security Slot
• Nano SIM slot (available starting January 2025)

If you need more ports, check out Laptop Mag’s favorite USB-C hubs and laptop docking stations.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Security and durability

Enhanced security features put the “none of your” in this business laptop. They usually aren’t something you’ll find on a standard productivity machine, but on a business laptop they’re a needed line of defense against cyberthreats. (Imagine Sandra Bullock hitting a punching bag to Salt-N-Pepa in Miss Congeniality; please accept my brain for the weird connections it makes while I write.)

The X1 Carbon comes with ThinkShield, Lenovo’s end-to-end security platform leverages hardware-based security features like Trusted Platform Module (TPM), AI-based network analysis, and a fingerprint reader to protect against data breaches, malware attacks, unauthorized access, supply chain attacks, and more. It also has a Kensington Nano Security Slot if you need to physically chain the laptop to your desk.

For a laptop as thin and as light as this one, durability might be one of your concerns. But Lenovo says it’s tested against the Department of Defense's MIL-STD-810H standard, which accounts for all sorts of environmental conditions like extreme weather, vibration, shock, dust, and corrosion.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Battery life

The X1 Carbon lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes in Laptop Mag’s battery rundown test, which consists of setting the display brightness to 150 nits and cycling through several web pages until the battery dies. That’s a reasonable time for a laptop battery to last, but for a business laptop, that might be right on the precipice of “too short,” depending on various factors.

Lengthy video calls, the display set to maximum brightness, and power settings affect battery life to varying degrees. If your 9-to-5 is more like a 7-to-6, and you spend most or all of it away from an outlet, 11 and a half hours might not be enough.

Here's a look at how the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition's result stacks up against its actual competitors:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Display

The display is pretty darn good for a business laptop. The 14-inch, 2.8K OLED panel bumps up the contrast and brightens colors that might appear duller on an IPS display with the same color gamut coverage. (Not that the coverage is bad; 81% of DCI-P3 is excellent for a laptop not primarily designed for visual work.) Everything I watched with the X1 Carbon looked fantastic, and smooth thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate.

From the slot machines’ blinking lights and the faintly outlined dark furniture in the Crow’s Nest in Poker Face, the X1 Carbon’s display exemplified the shifting moods of a casino in the middle of a desert landscape. Natasha Lyonne’s choppy, blonde hair looked equally as vibrant as any colored wall behind her.

The display also picked up lots of fine details in The Serpent Queen, like young Catherine Medici’s lightly white-powered face as she sees her husband in person for the first time. There were scenes intentionally desaturated for emotional effect, too, and yet the display firmly held on to the subtle color that was there, keeping the mood consistent.

Here's how the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition's display performed in our lab tests against its competitors:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Keyboard and touchpad

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 sports an interesting keyboard, and I’m not talking about the obvious red dot smack dab in the center. Typing is both soft and crisp, a unique feel I don’t often come across when I review laptops. Pressing the keys down is slower and gentle compared to how fast they snap back up, yet that softness didn’t adversely affect my typing speed. (Testing my typing speed on Monkeytype.com showed I was only 5 WPM behind my usual average.)

It was more like a cushion for my heavy-fingered typing style. The TrackPoint did make it a little awkward to type at first since the keys around it feature grooved cutouts at the corners, but I got used to it.

I felt astonished by how much I liked using the TrackPoint itself. In the past, I couldn’t get the hang of it. I’d either apply too much or too little pressure, so it was hard to control the cursor. I didn’t have that issue with the X1 Carbon. It was super responsive, quickly adjusting to any amount of fine pressure.

But as much as I wanted to ditch the touchpad, I’m too used to scrolling through web pages with two fingers. It would take more than a week of testing to retrain my brain to do it differently. That’s a bummer because moving my fingers along the 4.7 x 2.7-inch touchpad isn’t as smooth. But at least the touchpad and buttons along its top are clicky and firm.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Audio

From video calls to music and movies, you shouldn't need to crank the volume on this laptop above 65%. Its downward-firing speakers get loud — crank it up to 11 loud. Talking, singing, and rapping come through crystal clear. Even though I have hearing loss in both ears, it wasn’t hard for me to understand most of the dialogue and lyrics.

But the sound of instruments and electronic beats wasn’t top-quality. Whether I was listening to some of my testing staples, like Rob Zombie’s “Dragula” or Combichrist’s “Sent to Destroy,” much of the bass and mid-tones sounded distorted. It was hard for me to make out the individual pieces of each composition.

These songs still had life to them since the sheer volume the speakers can handle creates the illusion of a somewhat hard-hitting bass. However, in a song like Eisenfunk’s “Pong” that incorporates intentionally distorted sounds, volume alone cannot wholly compensate for that. Those beats sound tinny through the XI Carbon’s speakers, nearly wiping out the low-end.

I highly recommend grabbing a pair of the best headphones if you're an audiophile.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Performance and heat

As long as you’re not multitasking an incredible amount, you shouldn’t have any complaints about performance. The laptop handles a dozen open Edge browser tabs and a few apps, Spotify, Excel, and Teams, like a professional juggler. It’s decently efficient with tasks like video transcoding and opening Photoshop files.

However, I ran into the same performance limitations as the other Lunar Lake laptops I’ve reviewed recently. Keeping 30-plus tabs of open YouTube videos, Etsy products, and multiple Google Docs and Sheets slows the system down after a while.

According to Laptop Mag's testing, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V’s multicore performance is the equivalent of the Core Ultra 5 125H — Intel’s last-gen processor. For a modern CPU in a $2,000-plus laptop? It’s a letdown.

On a positive note, you can leave this laptop on your bare lap without scalding your skin. The highest temperature reached in our testing was 88.3 degrees near the rubber riser by the top left underside — well below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

I watched an entire episode of Poker Face, and The Serpent Queen curled up with the laptop on my couch, and the chassis never felt too hot. It stayed cool after playing Palia for about an hour in the cloud (via Nvidia’s GeForce Now).

Here's how the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition performed in our real-world and lab tests compared to its competitors:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Gaming and graphics

Discrete graphics performance is still earth-shattering compared to integrated graphics, but the X1 Carbon is outfitted with an Intel Arc 140V 16GB iGPU. If your work goes beyond editing formulas in Excel spreadsheets, you’ll be well-equipped, even for the occasional video game.

The X1 Carbon handled point-and-click adventures like Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator and Norco exceptionally well. (And you bet I used the TrackPoint with those games.) The experience was identical to previous Lunar Lake-configured laptops I’ve tested. It even handled Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm well in our testing. With the graphics set to Medium and native resolution (2880 x 1800), it averaged 34 frames per second (fps).

But you’re better off playing graphically intense 3D games in the cloud. This laptop could not break the 30 fps minimum threshold in most games we tested, even at 1080p resolution (although graphics were set to their highest setting).

Here's how the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition performed in a few of our typical game benchmarks compared to the competition:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: AI features

This Aura Edition ThinkPad comes with a suite of AI features called Lenovo AI Now, the company’s answer to Microsoft’s Copilot companion. It runs locally on the laptop, though you can also access Lenovo’s AI cloud-based AI ecosystem through the app.

Within Lenovo AI Now, there are two assistants that run locally. Knowledge Assistant is designed to help you locate files if you forgot where you saved them, or if you need to recover a specific tax document across multiple years. This assistant can also scan the content of various files and return a list of the most relevant ones, hopefully saving you from clicking between dozens of folders. You can also ask it to search for a specific page within a PowerPoint presentation or generate summaries of documents.

The other assistant, PC Assistant, is essentially Lenovo’s Vantage app in a chatbot. For instance, instead of clicking into and around the Vantage app to find a list of your system’s specifications, you can type “What’s the hardware of my PC.” The chatbot will reply with the information you’d find in the Vantage app — the same information you’d find by clicking on the Windows Taskbar search icon and typing in “system information.” (Three methods, same results.)

Then there’s Lena, a more specialized chatbot for troubleshooting PC performance and other complex issues. In the AI chat, you can type something like “fan noise is loud,” and assistant Lena will generate a list of possible steps you can take to fix the issue — not unlike a “how to” article many tech outlets have published over the years.

As of this writing, Microsoft does not list the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition as a Copilot+ PC on its website, but it notes that on some devices, “Copilot+ PC experiences require free updates continuing to roll out through early 2025. Timing varies by device and region.” So if you buy this laptop now and don’t immediately have access to features like Cocreator, Live Captions, and Windows Studio Effects, you should sometime in the not too distant future.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Webcam

The 1080p webcam on this laptop is serviceable and best used in a brightly lit space with natural light. Anything other than that, and you’ll probably start to appear grainy and a little blurry to whoever is on the other side of your video chat.

My living room was awash in warm lighting, and it seemed to mess with the webcam’s auto color correction. If I moved or tilted my head slightly, the image would brighten and take on a cyan tint before overcorrecting with yellow tones a few seconds later. Can you tell from the photo there are green highlights in my hair? Yeah, I can’t either. My skin has warm undertones in that photo, too. In real life, I have cool undertones.

The webcam also tends to blow out hot spots, like the lamp beaming directly onto the white wall behind me. We recommend checking out the best webcams instead.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: Software and warranty

This Aura Edition laptop offers more features than a standard ThinkPad. One is Smart Care, a customer service and support app that can be used on the Lenovo Commercial Vantage PC or as a standalone phone app. The app offers direct access to Lenovo Support if your laptop goes wrong, and it can manage multiple devices under a single Lenovo ID.

Another helpful feature within the Vantage app is Smart Modes. There are five predefined modes (Shield, Attention, Collaboration, Wellness, and Power) that you can toggle on and off by pressing the Mode (F8) key on the keyboard.

The Vantage app helps you monitor the laptop’s overall health, test its performance with a suite of benchmarks, view system information, and see how much time is left on the one-year warranty.

Bottom line

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition is a sleek, refined beauty. It’s so light that you might forget you put it in your briefcase. Its display produces bright, vivid colors for movies and video calls alike, and it easily handles light multitasking. I even liked using the TrackPoint.

But paying over $2,000 for a laptop I know doesn’t have the best multicore performance or battery life is a huge ask. If my employer let me expense it or provide it for my job, I would happily use it. If it had better multicore performance or battery life, I could justify purchasing it myself, but both are dealbreakers.

If the X1 Carbon is also giving you price paralysis, I recommend checking out the budget-friendly Asus Expertbook P5 or Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5. Even if you have $2,000 or more to spend, I still recommend checking out something like the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 because it offers much more battery life and better multitasking performance.