If I were buying a new laptop for myself today, I would get a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12). If you need a laptop for productivity and don't care about gaming on it or doing workstation-level video and photo-editing, it's a fantastic choice. The X1 Carbon line has long been considered the Rolls Royce of business laptops, because it combines a fantastic keyboard, great navigation (touchpad and TrackPoint), plenty of ports and long battery life into a slim, 2.42-pound chassis.
When I reviewed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) earlier this year, I really liked it but I lamented that it was so expensive relative to prior-generation X1 Carbons. Now, with Labor Day sales upon us, Lenovo finally has some X1 Carbon (Gen 12) configurations at really good prices that are about $900 off what they were.
An entry-level model with a Core Ultra 5 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is just $1361 today or you can step up to a SKU with a Core Ultra 7 155U CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for $1,687. Adding the coupon code BUYMORELENOVO should get you an additional $40 off at checkout.
Both models that are on sale have 1920 x 1200 non-touch screens, Wi-Fi 6E and 1080p Webcams with IR facial recognition. The model we tested for our review had a 2880 x 1800 OLED panel which probably had a negative effect on its battery performance. Still, it lasted 9 hours and 27 minutes on our test, which involves surfing the web over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness set at 150 nits.
My guess is that buying a model with a 1920 x 1200, non-OLED panel would get you an extra hour or two of endurance, maybe more.
During the hours that you're using it, the X1 Carbon has a ton to offer. I found the snappy keyboard amazing to type on and I love the TrackPoint pointing stick which allows me to navigate around the desktop without moving my fingers off of the home row. If you don't like the red nub, there's a very accurate glass touchpad.
The X1 Carbon is super-slim at just 0.59 inches thick, but it still has room for two USB Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports and a full-size HDMI port. So, whether you need to use a Thunderbolt dock or pop in one of the best USB Flash drives, you don't need a dongle.
Back in the spring when I tested the X1 Carbon, a model with a similar configuration to the one we tested (Core Ultra 5, 16GB, 512GB) was $2263. Today, it's about $900 less than that. So, if you're lookin for a great productivity laptop, you can get great savings right now.
