Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G12 laptop review: First major refresh in three years

[Redaktion]

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon gets a major facelift this year to accompany the new Meteor Lake-H CPU and OLED panel with double the refresh rate of the previous generation. It's the best Carbon yet, but some performance problems remain unsolved.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-G12-laptop-review-First-major-refresh-in-three-years.803321.0.html

[lmao]

heh looks like it's time to start considering macbooks cheap

[Neenyah]

Our test unit has been configured with the Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, integrated Arc 8 GPU, 32 GB of LPDDR5x 6400 MHz RAM, and a non-touch 1800p OLED display for approximately $2700 USD.

$2,364.99

$335 less is quite a difference for "approximately", IMHO.

Lenovo US

All major CPU-related issues (weird throttling and such) will be fixed with the first BIOS update, Lenovo is always doing that for some reason with almost all their new laptops - release meh initial BIOS, then update to get a much better experience. Good review though, thanks.

[lmao]

yeah just add some cash and get a proper m3 pro laptop, it will stomp this meteor lake in everything

and stop lying yourself about "bios updates", this cpu is an m1 generation competitor

[lmao]

$2,364.99

laughing at "Est value $3379.00, you are saving $1014"
thank you lenovo thank you

[Neenyah]

yeah just add some cash and get a proper m3 pro laptop, it will stomp this meteor lake in everything

Certainly great choice, yeah, I agree.

and stop lying yourself about "bios updates", this cpu is an m1 generation competitor

Not lying (myself), they always do that. It's like they rush initial version and then polish it lately, like they have no time to make it ideal from the start, it is really weird and it happens for years now with almost all Lenovo laptops. For example the X1 Carbon Gen 11 from this review with latest BIOS is wiping the floor with this Gen 12 here, by a lot (some 18-22%). Of course not in iGPU performance but its i7 CPU is not throttling anymore at all (like it was in their reviewed Gen 11 sample here in their database).

$2,364.99

laughing at "Est value $3379.00, you are saving $1014"
thank you lenovo thank you

Hah, yeah lol, they are always doing those wild prices for some reason, then slap "mad discounts" on them, crappy tactics but if it works for them... 🤷

[EN]

How would this compare to the latest 14S with the same screen but AMD cpu?

[NikoB]

It's funny, in the Asus Duo review we see how the top-end MeteorLake Ultra 9 185H quickly drops to 1300 points in CineBench R15. And here, in an even smaller laptop, a junior chip of the same series (but for which Intel allegedly asks an insane $500 in bulk from 1000 pieces, despite the fact that it clearly doesn't cost even half) weighs an insignificant 1 kg, instead of 1.7 kg in Acus and at only 25W (in Asus 20W) it produces as much as 1700+ points, albeit with some dips.

It is clear that no one will use such machines for lengthy calculations. But with a processor price of $500 alone, the consumer wants to see at least 3000 points in a 14" laptop 2024 under long-term load in CineBench R15. But instead, Intel takes us back to 2021. At best...

Cheating with consumption in 2022-2023 ended badly for Intel. Now it will be difficult for them to explain to consumers why they have to pay such monstrous money to get 2-3 year old performance from AMD...

[dext]

Why no one anywhere comments on moving of the right CTRL?
Am I the only one, who uses right-hand shortcuts?
Or is it just possible to use the fingerprint reader as CTRL?

[MarkC]

Not sure why but when testing you guys should test it playing a YouTube video and see if fans start spinning  and it heats up just watching YouTube videos or movies. Has Lenovo resolved this problem yet of being able to just watch YouTube videos without fans going to max rpms and laptop heating up when an iPad can play videos on YouTube all day long with no fans and heat issues.

[NikoB]

Not sure why but when testing you guys should test it playing a YouTube video and see if fans start spinning  and it heats up just watching YouTube videos or movies.

My 2018 laptop remains completely silent even when playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 2011 at maximum fhd quality. The coolers turn on at minimum speed once every few minutes for a few seconds and turn off. And the simplest YouTube 4k@60fps is generally an easy task - it cannot even warm up to 60C with it, and the coolers turn on at 72-75C...

Therefore, any laptop 2023-2024 that is not capable of silently playing 8k@60fps on YouTube is absolute garbage.

[lmao]

Therefore, any laptop 2023-2024 that is not capable of silently playing 8k@60fps on YouTube is absolute garbage.

this only depends on if cpu has hw av1 decoder or not lmao

[Neenyah]

Not sure why but when testing you guys should test it playing a YouTube video and see if fans start spinning  and it heats up just watching YouTube videos or movies.

I just tested 4K 60 fps on my X1C and it was dead-silent with low temps (measured by HWiNFO). I doubt that it's going to be anything different here with the newest gen considering massively upgraded/improved power efficiency in Meteor Lake.

Has Lenovo resolved this problem yet of being able to just watch YouTube videos without fans going to max rpms and laptop heating up...

Not an issue anymore [in Intel ThinkPads] for many years, since Kaby Lake Refresh.

[NikoB]

this only depends on if cpu has hw av1 decoder

All the latest lines (by core) of SoC have a hardware AV1 decoder. However, 8k is only needed for large 4k screens (or if you look at such a screen closely or there are a lot of complex static details) - because from 4:2:0 8k you get the reference 4k 4:4:4.
Approximately how from 4k 4:2:0 you get reference 1080p in 4:4:4.

When 8k monitors arrive, for reference 8k you will have to shoot video in 16k (4:2:0). And this is far beyond the limits of even very expensive optics...

[lmao]

this only depends on if cpu has hw av1 decoder

All the latest lines (by core) of SoC have a hardware AV1 decoder. However, 8k is only needed for large 4k screens (or if you look at such a screen closely or there are a lot of complex static details) - because from 4:2:0 8k you get the reference 4k 4:4:4.
Approximately how from 4k 4:2:0 you get reference 1080p in 4:4:4.

When 8k monitors arrive, for reference 8k you will have to shoot video in 16k (4:2:0). And this is far beyond the limits of even very expensive optics...

lol why are you always responding with unrelated stuff