Lenovo ThinkBook 13s review: ultra-portable “business notebook” with a human face

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More recently, Lenovo brought to Ukraine updated laptops of the ThinkPad business line and a brand new one.

ThinkBook line. It is positioned as a cross between the business line and consumer laptops Lenovo and is focused on small and medium-sized businesses. Indeed, at first glance it looks like the company took all the most practical from the ThinkPad line and placed it in a less rigorous case. In the editors gg already visited the 13-inch representative of the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s line, let's see what happened as a result.

What is it?
What is in the box?
How does the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s look and assemble?
How convenient is it to use a laptop?
How good is the screen?
What about performance, autonomy and sound?
In the dry residue

What is it?

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In all respects, Lenovo ThinkBook 13s -A typical ultra-portable “working” laptop in the good sense of the word. A compact metal case, restrained appearance, a processor of the Whiskey Lake Intel Core i5-8265U family, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB PCIe SSD and a 13.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920 × 1080. Of the useful bonuses there is a fingerprint scanner, and a keyboard backlight. They promise 11 hours of battery life. It's time to check how it all works, how long and how convenient.

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What is included?

Packaging and packaging migrated frombusiness line. Strict mustard colored cardboard box with ThinkBook designation and basic technical information. Inside, there are also no bonuses, only a standard basic set: laptop, relatively compact 65 W power supply, power cable and documentation:

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How does the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s look and assemble?

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Almost the entire body of the laptop is made ofmetal (plastic only the screen panel) calm gray with a matte finish. There are practically no signs of use visible on it, fingerprints do not remain, the laptop does not need to be constantly wiped to maintain a presentable appearance. On the top cover are only the Lenovo logos and the ThinkBook line:

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Case thickness is not a record, but it allowedinstall full size connectors. On the right there are 2 USB 3.1 ports, one of which can always be turned on to charge mobile devices. On this side, a card reader would be quite logical, but it is not in the laptop:

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At the back is a rather massive articulated mechanism, and a little lower, on the left side, ventilation holes are visible. There are no connectors:

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On the left side is a proprietary connector for the blockpower supply, full-sized HDMI 1.4 port, combined microphone and headphone jack and USB Type-C 3.1. Sadly, Type-C does not support either Thunderbolt or Power Delivery:

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There is nothing useful in the front, not even a cutout for opening the laptop, although it would not hurt in this model. At this point, we will return in more detail a little later:

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Bottom - perforation of the cooling system, stereo speakers on sloping platforms and rubberized legs. There are two in front and a large strip across the entire width of the laptop:

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The frame on the sides of the screen is very narrow, but the gapson top and (especially) under the display are wide. A bit strange, considering that the webcam with microphones and LEDs is in its usual place. The camera is equipped with a ThinkShutter mechanical shutter. For those who believe Big Brother is following everyone:

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Externally the new lineup (and the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s inin particular) it looks very nice: nothing superfluous, high-quality, practical materials, calm color and excellent assembly. The only thing that surprised me a bit was the wide frames under and above the display, which were not particularly structurally necessary.

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How convenient is it to use a laptop?

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The hinges of the laptop turned out to be rather “tight”: the display does not stagger and is well fixed in the desired position, and the maximum opening angle is 180 °. But opening a laptop is another task. With one hand - not an option at all, with two - is also not very convenient, given that there is no cutout and there is nothing to pick up a lid for.

The keyboard on the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s is comfortable. The layout has migrated from consumer models; it is standard (or almost standard) for ultraportable models. Features such as trackpoint and additional buttons, like the ThinkPad no. Long Shift, one-story Enter, the upper row reduced in height, the arrow block is not separated from the main one, and the up and down arrows are reduced in height. Home, End, PgUp, PgDn are combined with arrows:

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The buttons are typical of Lenovo notebooks' shapes, comfortable, with moderately soft, pleasant, tangible and informative move. There is a white keyboard backlight with two brightness levels:

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The power button is separate from the keyboard unit,located above Delete and combined with a fingerprint scanner, which is logical and convenient. Around the perimeter is an LED that glows white during operation and yellow if fingerprint identification is needed. The scanner works accurately and quickly:

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Lenovo ThinkBook 13s has a large touchpad10.5 × 6.5 cm, buttons are not separated. The touchpad is plastic, but with a very sensible coating, the finger glides perfectly. The sensitivity of the touchpad is high, it is convenient to use.

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How good is the screen?

The laptop has 13.3-inch IPS-display with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 and anti-reflective coating. Of course, not touch. It is of very good quality, with nice color reproduction and maximum viewing angles. The margin of brightness, according to the sensations, is average: it’s enough for a room, not very much on a sunny day on the street.

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According to the results of measurements, the maximum brightnessamounted to 283.375 cd / m2, which is a bit below the stated 300, but it is worth considering the possible error. Black field brightness is 0.31 cd / m2, and static contrast ratio is 914: 1. The color rendition is also very good: the green and blue components are close to the reference values, but there is a slight lack of red, as a result, the color temperature is a little too high:

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What about performance, autonomy and sound?

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Inside is an absolutely standard set of modernUltraportable Notebook: Intel Whiskey Lake processors with integrated graphics. We had a review with the Intel Core i5-8265U. This is a 14-nm quad-core processor with support for 8 threads HyperThreading, 6 MB SmartCache. The clock frequency is 1.6 GHz (up to 3.4 GHz Turbo Boost). The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 chip with a frequency of up to 1100 MHz is responsible for the graphics. The 13-inch ThinkBooks will only have integrated graphics; the ThinkBook 14s will be available in a configuration with a discrete Radeon graphics card. RAM - 8 GB DDR4-2400. Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 AC (2 × 2) and Bluetooth 5.0.

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Some kind of surprises from the familiar and goodthe familiar “office” configuration is not worth it. Performance at the expected level: the browser, office applications and photo editors work without any problems or brakes. Theoretically, you can also play something old or unpretentious. Benchmark results:

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As a drive, an SSD WD NVMe PCIe3.0x2 with a capacity of 256 GB is used:

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Reading speed is a little over 1700 MB / s, and writing speed is about 1300 MB / s, which corresponds to those stated on the WD website:

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Much more interesting and diversethings in such laptops with a cooling system and stability. Lenovo ThinkBook 13s pleased in this regard: the CO is very quiet, while effective. At the very beginning of the stress test, the processor temperature rose to 90 °, the processor dropped the performance by only 4%. This lasted a very short period of time, after which the CO gained the necessary speed and maintained the temperature of the insides at 75 °:

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The ultrabook has a 45 Wh battery. They promise up to 11 hours of operation, the function of fast charging from a 65 W complete power supply is supported. Of course, the claimed 11 hours could not be obtained, but the laptop withstood the standard working day at low brightness with constant Wi-Fi connection and using Chrome with a bunch of tabs, Photoshop and playing music with headphones. Altogether about 8 hours, which is very good.

The stereo system is quite suitable for viewingmovies and videos by a small company, enough volume. The speakers are successfully placed at an angle to the bottom panel and do not overlap on the surfaces. There is software for tuning:

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Of the additional software, it is worth noting LenovoVantage In the application, you can see the current state of the laptop, there are driver updates, power settings, CO, USB for charging mobile devices, a display, and so on:

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In the dry residue

The launch of a new line of laptops can be consideredvery successful: Lenovo ThinkBook 13s turned out to be a very enjoyable working ultraportable laptop. It looks more neutral and versatile in comparison with the strict ThinkPad, made of metal with a practical matte finish, which does not leave prints. The pluses are the quality display, efficient and quiet cooling system and long battery life. In terms of performance - a necessary standard set. But some points still upset a bit: there is no card reader, and the USB Type-C port does not support either Thunderbolt or Power Delivery, although they would be very useful. Structurally, I would like less gaps under and above the display, as well as a less tight hinge with the ability to open the laptop with one hand. Worth reviewing the configuration 24 700 UAH, which is very good, given the characteristics and features.

5 reasons to buy Lenovo ThinkBook 13s: