Intro, Exterior and Internal Features

The best display we’ve seen so far in a laptop!

Lenovo sent over an OLED-equipped ThinkPad X1 Yoga a while back. I was mid-development on our client SSD test suite and had some upcoming travel. Given that the new suite’s result number crunching spreadsheet ends extends out to column FHY (4289 for those counting), I really needed a higher res screen and improved computer horsepower in a mobile package. I commandeered the X1 Yoga OLED for the trip and to say it grew on me quickly is an understatement. While I do tend to reserve my heavier duty computing tasks and crazy spreadsheets for desktop machines and 40” 4K displays, the compute power of the X1 Yoga proved itself quite reasonable for a mobile platform. Sure there is a built in pen that comes in handy when employing the Yoga’s flip over convertibility into tablet mode, but the real beauty of this particular laptop comes with its optional 2560×1440 14” OLED display.

OLED is just one of those things you need to see in person to truly appreciate. Photos of these screens just can’t capture the perfect blacks and vivid colors. In productivity use, something about either the pixel pattern or the amazing contrast made me feel like the effective resolution of the panel was higher than its rating. It really is a shame that you are likely reading this article on an LCD, because the OLED panel on this particular model of Lenovo laptop really is the superstar. I’ll dive more into the display later on, but for now let’s cover the basics:

Exterior

On the left edge, we have the power connector (not shared with a USB port as we have seen on some other Lenovo models), OneLink dock connector, Mini DisplayPort, and a USB 3 port that (if enabled) can also be used to charge devices even while the X1 is fully shut down.

On the right (viewed inverted), we have a Kensington Lock receptacle, an HDMI out, two more USB 3, a headset jack (with mic), volume up/down buttons, power / standby button, and the integrated stylus port. You can also see one of the bottom/side firing stereo speakers here.

The carbon reinforced lid and magnesium chassis are surprisingly scuff resistant and have held up very well considering it has been lugged around in my daily backpack for months now. The included 65W charger is more than adequate yet compact and can charge from empty in a bit over an hour.

Interior

Our sample came reasonably equipped with a Core i5-6300U (Skylake), Samsung SM951 512GB NVMe SSD, and 8GB of RAM. LCD models of the line run in the $1400 range, while OLED will cost a $200 premium.

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