This is our detailed review of the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 series, a new lineup of premium ultrabooks built on AMD Ryzen hardware and the long consecrated ThinkPad principles.
This Z13 is not like most other ThinkPads, though, as it ditches the standard black chassis for a mostly aluminum build in this variant, and it feels more premium-made than pretty much all the other ThinkPad options out there – that’s not an easy feat.
At the same time, this still packs full-size inputs despite the ultra-compact format of this 13-inch chassis, and doesn’t compromise on configurability. However, some of the decisions involving ergonomics and the IO might raise eyebrows, as ThinkPad users might not be that happy relying only on USB-C ports.
The hardware specs are another particularity of this ThinkPad Z13 series, as this is an AMD-exclusive design built on a Ryzen 7 6000 Pro platform with Radeon graphics. That’s going to attract pro-users, with the potential mix of performance, efficiency, and security offered here, but the devil is in the details with this kind of ultra-compact computer, as you’ll see in this detailed review.
In fact, we’ll go over all the important aspects that you should consider before opting for one of these over some of the other premium ultrabooks out there .
Specs as reviewed – Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 gen 1
Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 gen 1, 2022 model
Screen 13.3 inch, FHD+ 1920 x 1200 px, 16:10 aspect ratio, IPS, non-touch, non-glare,2.8K OLED touch panel option also available
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U, 8C/16T
Video AMD Radeon 680M, up to 2.2 GHz
Memory 16 GB LPDDR5-6400 (soldered), up to 32 GB
Storage 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD (Micron 2450) – single M.2 2242 slot
Connectivity Wireless 6E (Qualcomm WCN685x) 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.1, optional LTE (Fibocom L860-GL-16 4G CAT16)
Ports 2x USB-C 4.0 , mic/headphone, optional SIM tray
Battery 51.5 Wh, 65W USB-C charger
Size 295 mm or 11.59” (w) x 200 mm or 7.86” (d) x 13.9 mm or 0.55” (h)
Weight 2.65 lbs (1.2 kg)+ .66 lbs (.3 kg) charger and cables, EU version
Extras backlit keyboard, glass haptic touchpad, 2MPx FHD webcam with IR and e-shutter, finger sensor, stereo bottom speakers, Arctic Grey or Bronze Leather variants, dual-fan vapor-chamber cooling
Lenovo offers the ThinkPad Z13 series in a multitude of variants, all based on AMD Ryzen Pro 6000 hardware with Radeon graphics. The base model starts at a Ryzen 5 6650U with a FHD screen, while the top specs include the exclusive Ryzen 7 6850Z processor, 32 GB of RAM, up to 1 TB of storage, and an OLED 2.8K touch display. We’ll discuss all these in the article.
Design and first look This ThinkPad Z13 is one of the better-made and premium-feeling ultrabooks I’ve used over the years, able to proudly face any of its competitors, albeit that’s a MacBook, a Dell XPS, or an HP Elite.
No part of the chassis flexes or bends or squeaks in any way, and all the materials are high-quality and feel excellent to the touch.
Lenovo offer this in two variants, this aluminum-made Artic Grey model that we have here with silver machined-milled edges, or another option with a faux-leather lid and a Bronze metal finish around the edges. The interior is black aluminum on both, the kind that will show smudges and finger oil easily and you’ll have to constantly clean off – it does wipe clean more easily than the standard plastic ThinkPad models.
What struck me about this ThinkPad is how compact it is, about as small and as thin as an XPS 13 or a ZenBook S 13 . It’s not the lightest 13-inch laptop , though, as a result of the thicker metals used for the chassis and the complex internals and cooling, but it’s still highly portable at 2.65 lbs (1.2 kilos).
Despite its compact format, this laptop implements a full-size keyboard and a spacious clickpad, which we’ll discuss in detail in a bit.
Ergonomics are mostly fine as well, but I do have some nits to point out.
On the positive side, there are no annoying lights in the line of sight as the power button is placed on the right edge, the rubber feet on the bottom offer good grip on the desk, and the screen can be easily picked up and adjusted with a single hand, while the sturdy hinges make sure to keep it in place when moving the laptop around. I appreciate the lump at the top of the display that acts as a lever that you can use to open it up, while also providing the space to integrate the camera system and microphones.
On the other hand, the display only goes back to about 140 degrees on this Z13, and not all the way flat as on most other ThinkPads. Then, the lips and corners are also cut sharply on this design, so they can get uncomfortable on the wrists in certain situations.
And then there’s the IO. Lenovo only offer two USB-C ports on this laptop, one on each side, and both with USB 4.0 support, which includes fast data transfers, DP video output, and Power Delivery. There’s also a headphone jack on the right edge, as well as an optional SIM tray if you opt for an LTE-capable configuration. Up to you if you’re fine with this sort of minimalist IO on your laptop.
All in all, the Z13 is an interesting and unique-looking addition to the ThinkPad lineup. It strays away from the classic black design lines of the ThinkPad X1 Nano or X1 Carbon , but it ups the game when it comes to how sturdy and premium this feels in actual use.
Keyboard and trackpad The keyboard on this ThinkPad Z13 is a standard layout with full-size keys and proper spacing.
The arrows are the only part that’s a little weird and will need some time to get used to, as the Left and Right arrows are quite narrow and the Up and Down are vertically half-sized. That’s mostly because Lenovo implemented a finger sensor on the left side of the arrows with this layout, unlike on other ThinkPads. This approach also means there are no dedicated keys for PgUp and PgDn, which are instead secondaries in the Up and Down arrows.
The typing experience is fine, much like I’d expect from a ThinkPad ultrabook keyboard, with good and firm feedback and still limited key depth. The strokes are quiet, so won’t raise unwanted attention.
The keys are backlit, with white LEDs and two brightness levels to choose from (with Fn+Space). The illumination is uniform and almost no light bleeds out from underneath the keycaps.
Furthermore, Lenovo implemented on the top row of keys dedicated indicators for CapsLock and for FnLock, audio mute, microphone, and camera. These are useful, although can get distracting when using the laptop at night.
The touchpad is a large glass surface with haptic feedback, a unique design for ThinkPads. That means the surface is no longer physically clickable and there are no longer dedicated click buttons at the top, for TrackPoint use. Instead, there’s a custom clickable haptic zone at the top, and the entire surface is haptic and clickable with a firmer press.
This approach allows for a much larger touchpad surface and tends to work fine with everyday use and gestures, especially corroborated with the sturdy chassis. On the other hand, I struggled with click and drag tasks, and I found the clicks to be noisy.
I also noticed that the trackpad can malfunction when using the computer on the lap or on the couch, in case your clothes or anything else ends up touching the surface, and that can happen quite often given how this clickpad goes nearly all the way to the front lip of the laptop. That interferes with the haptic surface somehow and causes the clickpad to stutter or even not register any commands.
Finally, for biometrics, there’s a dedicated finger sensor masked between the Right Ctrl and Left arrow key, as well as IR functionality for face unlocking with Hello. Both worked fine on this unit.
Screen There’s a 16:10 13-inch display on the ThinkPad Z13, with a choice of three different panels:
IPS FHD+ 1920 x 1200 px, matte, non-touch, with 400-nits and 100% sRGB colors;
IPS FHD+ 1920 x 1200 px, anti-glare and touch, with 400-nits and 100% sRGB colors
OLED 2.8K 2880 x 1800 px, anti-glare and touch, with 400-nits and 100% DCI-P3 colors.
Our review unit gets the first panel options, and we’ve also reviewed the FHD+ touch model in our review of the ThinkPax X13s available over here . I find it interesting how Lenovo are able to implement anti-glare touch on these panels and especially on the OLED, where most other options are glossy and reflective. I haven’t seen that live yet, though, so not sure what to expect in terms of image quality, bright-light use, or potential graininess.
Back to the panel on our unit, it’s rather unimpressive by today’s standards. I mean, it’s fine for daily use if you keep the laptop indoors, but otherwise it lacks the richness or the brightness of other options – at least the blacks and contrast are pretty good for an entry-level IPS option.
Here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor :
Panel HardwareID: Lenovo LEN41A7 (NV133WUM-N63);
Coverage: 96.0% sRGB, 69.3% AdobeRGB, 71.5% DCI P3;
Measured gamma: 2.17;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 421.45 cd/m2 on power;
Min brightness in the middle of the screen: 19.14 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1555:1;
White point: 6600 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.27 cd/m2;
PWM: No (to be further tested).
Our sample came well-calibrated out of the box and experienced no visible light bleeding on dark backgrounds.
Hardware, performance, and upgrade options Our test version is a mid-specced configuration of the 2022 Lenovo Thinkpad Z13, with an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U processor + AMD Radeon 680M embedded graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, and a middling 512 GB SSD.
Disclaimer: This is a retail unit that was provided for review by Lenovo. I tested it with the software available as of late-October 2022 (BIOS 1.24, Vantage 3.13.14.0 app). This is a mature software package as the laptop has been available in stores for a few months now, but some aspects might still change with future updates.
Spec-wise, this is based on the 2022 AMD Rembrandt 6000 Ryzen Pro hardware platform, with the Ryzen 7 6850U 8Core/16Thread processor on this configuration. This is the Pro version of the regular Ryzen 7 6800U, with similar CPU and iGPU specs, but with a handful of extras useful in enterprise environments, such as chip-level AMD Memory Guard and Microsoft Pluton chip-to-cloud technology.
The Z13 is also a thin-and-light ultraportable implementation and supplies the processor with ~15W of sustained power in demanding loads, thus it is not as capable of a performer as other AMD designs with higher power settings. This aspect impacts both the CPU and GPU capabilities, as we’ll discuss in a bit.
Graphics are handled by the integrated Radeon 680M chip, an RDNA2 design with 12 Graphics Cores and frequencies of up to 2.2 GHz. Due to the lower power design here, this won’t perform to the best of its abilities, as explained in this separated review and benchmarks analysis of the AMD Radeon 680M chip .
A lower-specced Ryzen 5 Pro 6650U processor is also available for this laptop, a 6C/12T processor with Radeon 660M graphics. At the upper level, you can also get the Ryzen 7 Pro 6860Z processor, which is pretty much a minimally higher-clocked version of the 6850U. The 6850U can run at up to 4.7 GHz Turbo, while the 6860Z goes at up to 4.75 GHz Turbo. marketing aside, in real life, there’s absolutely no difference between them.
CPUs aside, our configuration also comes with 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, in dual-channel. The memory is onboard and non-upgradeable, and you can get up to 32 GB of RAM on this laptop.
For storage, Lenovo opted for a middling PCIe gen4 Micron 2450 drive here, which performed well in our tests, but is not as fast as other SSDs. It can be upgraded, but that might not be that simple given its an M.2 2242 format, and not the widespread 2280 model.
It is possible to open up this device to get to the internals, and it’s a fairly simple process, requiring removing the back panel held in place by a handful of Philips screws. In this part of the world, there’s a warranty sticker on one of the screws, which is totally unacceptable in this day and age. Be careful when you pull out the back panel, you’ll have to start from the back. You also don’t have to remove the screws, they’re designed to remain attached to the d-panel once fully unscrewed.
Inside you’ll find the cooling module with the vapor chamber, the M.2 SSD slot, the LTE module, the battery, and the speakers. The speakers are tiny, as the space around the battery is mostly utilized for the array of LTE antennae.
As far as the software goes, everything can be controlled through the Lenovo Vantage app, which offers access to system updates, battery settings, etc. At some point in the past Lenovo decided to no longer include power profiles in Vantage on these Thinkpads, and that’s still the case today. Instead, you can switch between the standard profiles in Windows 11 (Better Power Efficiency, Balanced, Best Performance) to juggle the power settings. I do preffer having the power profiles in Vantage, as on the Legion models and older ThinkPads.
Regardless, the laptop runs cooly and quietly with daily use. I’ve kept my unit on Balanced most of the time, and only switched to Best Performance for benchmarks and gaming. The fans inside keep mostly idle with light use but do kick in quite often with multitasking, so you’ll hear them in a quiet environment. They never get loud, though, and in fact they rarely go over 35 dBA on this laptop with any activity.
Here’s what to expect in terms of performance and internal temperatures with browsing, word processing, or video streaming.
Performance and benchmarks On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
On Best Performance, the system applies peak power of ~50W for a very brief moment, but then the Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U processor gradually stabilizes at around 20W of power, with temperatures of ~75 degrees Celsius, fan levels of ~35 dBA and clock speeds of 2.8 GHz. This translates in Cinebench scores of ~1500 points.
Lenovo sets a low noise limit for the fans, as well as a low temperature limit on the APU, which result in the ~20W of sustained power in this test, which is only a mid-level setting for the AMD platform, as you’ll see further down.
I haven’t tested the other Windows 11 modes, but I did run the same test on Best Performance with battery power, in which case the Z13 was surprisingly able to perform identically to the plugged-in mode. Very few laptops can offer this sort of performance on battery power.
To put these in perspective, here’s how this Ryzen 7 6850U implementation fares against a few other modern ultrabook implementations, both Intel and AMD.
Even in this lower-power unit, the performance is competitive against most other platforms, with the exception of the significantly higher-power implementation of the Ryzen 9 6900HS. At 25W sustained, the Ryzen 7 6800U in the Zenbook S 13 delivers about 10% higher performance, but with higher temperatures and noise levels. As far the CPU performance goes, this Ryzen 7 implementation is very well balanced, hitting a sweetspot of capabilities, noise levels and temperatures.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. With these tests, the system power stabilizes at even lower levels around 15-17W, with similar 35 dBA fan levels and temperatures around 70 degrees Celsius.
We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Best Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit did not pass the test, which means the performance decreases with longer demanding loads, once the heat builds up and the system cuts off the power.
Next, here are some benchmark results. We ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks on the Best Performance profile on this Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U configuration, with the screen set at the default resolution.
Here’s what we got.
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 5235 (Graphics – 5774, Physics – 14866, Combined – 1960);3DMark 13 – Night Raid: 16405 (Graphics – 21009, CPU – 7318);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 1966 (Graphics – 1771, CPU – 5237);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1328;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 4303;Handbrake 1.3.3 (4K to 1080p encode): 35.69 average fps;PassMark 10: 5647 (CPU – 21048, 3D – 4999, Memory – 2142, Disk – 16068);PCMark 10: 5923 (Essentials – 9404, Productivity – 8064, Digital Content Creation – 7435);GeekBench 5.4.3 64-bit: Single-Core: 1386, Multi-core: 8166;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 1766 cb, CPU Single Core 218 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 3788 cb, CPU Single Core 530 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 10579 cb (best run), CPU 7730 (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1359 CB (best run);x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 43.50 s.
And here are some extra work-related benchmarks:
Blender 3.01 – BMW scene – CPU Compute: 4m 41s;Blender 3.01 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 11m 54s;PugetBench – DaVinci Resolve: 267;PugetBench – Adobe Photoshop: 684;SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 26.28;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 16.42;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 29.54;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 0.93;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 74.76;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 14.54;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 37.47;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 38.23;V-Ray Benchmark: CPU – 6894 vsamples, GPU CUDA – 153 vpaths;
These are good results for a modern 13-inch ultrabook.
However, the low-power low-noise design drags down the performance in comparison to something like a ZenBook S 13, which is the only other AMD-based 13-inch ultrabook that we’ve tested so far. Still, these differences aren’t significant and are only visible in the longer duration CPU and GPU loads, and less so with quicker loads that are equivalent to the daily multitasking that most potential buyers will most likely run on this sort of laptop.
This ThinkPad Z13 is also highly competitive against most of the Intel Core P and Core U options available out there, despite the fact that those are running at higher power (and higher noise/temperatures). The few 12th-gen Core H available ultraportables will outmatch it, but most of those are not 13-inch formats, with the ROG Flow Z13 being the exception .
And here’s what to expect in games on this ThinkPad Z13. This is not a gaming machine by any means and doesn’t allow the Radeon 680M to run at its full capabilities, but is still a fair performer at FHD+ resolution with low settings. Here’s what we got on this unit, and I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.
ThinkPad Z13 – Swift Edge –ZenBook 14 2022 –ZenBook S 13 2022 –ZenBook 14 2021 –
Bioshock Infinite 102 fps (65 fps – 1% low)
80 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
70 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
102 fps (63 fps – 1% low)
70 fps (40 fps – 1% low)
Doom: Eternal 41 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
–
29 fps (15 fps – 1% low)
45 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
–
Dota 2 56 fps (33 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (31 fps – 1% low)
29 fps (15 fps – 1% low)
74 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
56 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 5 31 fps (24 fps – 1% low)
–
29 fps (15 fps – 1% low)
39 fps (31 fps – 1% low)
26 fps (18 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 41 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
36 fps (20 fps – 1% low)
36 fps (23 fps – 1% low)
47 fps (35 fps – 1% low)
28 fps (16 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 36 fps (24 fps – 1% low)
31 fps (23 fps – 1% low)
38 fps (20 fps – 1% low)
41 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
–
Doom, Dota 2, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
Bioshock, Far Cry, Tomb Raider games – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
You should take some of these results with a grain of salt, especially for the shorter duration benchmarks, because the sustained performance of this implementation degrades over time. The Ryzen 7 APU starts running at 40+W, but then the power gradually descends to 15W in the tested titles, as illustrated by the logs below, all recorded on the Best Performance profile in Windows 11.
For what is worth, at 15W, the Radeon 680M GPU only runs at around 1 GHz, less than half its design speed in a full-powered implementation .
The good news is that the fans keep at 35 dBA with games, and that the internal temperatures stabilize at around 65 degrees Celsius, which are both excellent results. However, these would be better suited for some sort of middle-ground Balanced mode, with perhaps higher fan and power levels for a top-performance profile, like most other manufacturers offer on their units.
I was also curious how the laptop performs when placing it on a raiser stand in order to allow for unrestrained airflow into the fans, and that does allow for a slightly higher sustained power limit and lower temperatures, but without a noticeable impact on the overall performance.
As shown in previous tests, this laptop is also an excellent performer on battery power, where it matches the capabilities offered while plugged in. Few other designs can match that.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others Lenovo implemented what looks like an advanced thermal module on this laptop, with two fans, a long radiator, and a vapor-chamber over the processor.
Fresh air comes into the fans through the bottom of the laptop, through the open intake grill on top of the fans. This justifies placing the laptop over a raised stand in order to facilitate airflow when running demanding loads. Hot air goes out through the radiator positioned between the hinges, under the display, but most of it is diverted down and to the back of the laptop, and thus the panel doesn’t overheat in any dangerous way.
Regardless, by opting for low fan noise levels on the Best Performance profile and thermal limits of around 65-75 degrees Celsius on this sample, the hardware only stabilizes at around 15-18W of sustained power in demanding loads, and that prevents the AMD Ryzen 6000 platform to perform at the best of its abilities in this chassis.
One might argue that quieter fans and lower temperatures are to be appreciated, especially in this sort of ultracompact notebook. I don’t disagree, all I’m saying is that these settings would make better sense for a mid-level Balanced profile, with some more permissive fan and power settings for the top-tier profile, in order to allow potential buyers an option for better-sustained performance. You’re getting that sort of profile with other modern AMD ultrabooks, for a 10-30% boost in capabilities.
With daily use, the laptop runs mostly silently with streaming and light activities, but the fans do kick in with multitasking and you’ll hear them in a quiet room. I haven’t noticed coil whining or electronic noises on this sample.
With sustained loads, the fans ramp up to 38 dBA while the APU runs at 40+ W of power, and then drop at around 35 dBA once the power settles in the sustained 15-18W range.
The external temperatures are fine in all situations, with cool surfaces with daily use, and hotspots up to 45 degrees Celsius in the middle of the chassis with sustained loads. You’ll probably not want to run demanding loads on the lap, but other than that, these temperatures are OK for this sort of laptop.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Balanced Mode, fan idle *Gaming – Best Performance mode – playing Witcher 3 for 30 minutes, fan at ~35 dB
For connectivity, there’s WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 through a Qualcomm module on this laptop. It performed well with our setup and the signal and performance remained strong at 30 feet, with obstacles in between.
There’s also the option to equip the laptop with an LTE 4G module, which is available in our sample. That might come in handy if you’re traveling a lot and preffer having an always-on Internet connection without having to rely on creating a hotspot from your phone. There’s no option for a 5G module, though, which is a bit weird in this day and age.
Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through grills placed on the underside. They can be easily covered while using the laptop on the lap, so keep that in mind.
Lenovo only found space for some tiny speakers inside this ThinkPad Z13, so you shouldn’t expect much in terms of volumes (up to 75 dBA at head level) on audio quality, especially on the lower end. On the other hand, these speakers don’t distort or push noticeable vibration into the chassis, which means you can use them at their higher volumes if you need to.
The camera is positioned at the top of the screen and is an FHD 2 MPx shooter with a wide-angle lens. It’s better than the average laptop camera, but still not amazing.
It also supports IR with Windows Hello, and comes with an e-shutter controlled by the F9 key.
Battery life There’s a 51.5Wh battery inside the ThinkPad Z13, which is fair-sized for this sort of laptop, albeit still smaller than you’re getting with some other 13-inch ultrabooks.
Here’s what we got in terms of battery life, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness).
6 W (~8 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Balanced Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;5.5 W (~9 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;6.2 W (~8 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Best Power Efficiency Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON;10 W (~4-6 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 60%, Wi-Fi ON.
These are good runtimes considering the size of the battery. The OLED variant will most likely last a little less on a charge.
Lenovo pairs this with a compact and lightweight 65W charger that plugs in via USB-C. It’s a dual-piece design with a small brick, but the long cables add up in your bag, especially since they lack any sort of zip ties or other sorts of cable organizers. A full recharge takes a little over 1.5 hours.
Price and availability- Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 This 2022 version of Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is widely available in stores in most regions of the world.
The Ryzen 7 6850U, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD model reviewed here starts at around $1600 with the matte FHD screen. The same is available for around 1800 GBP in the UK and 2000 EUR in Germany.
Lower specced models are also available from around $1400, while the top configuration with the Ryzen 7 6860Z processor, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB SSD, and the OLED 2.8K display is listed at around $2200 after discounts.
Various other discounts might apply at the time you’re reading the article, so follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your region .
Final thoughts- Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 This ThinkPad Z13 is an interesting 13-inch compact ultrabook and one of the better such options available in stores these days.
The excellent build quality, the good keyboard, and the multiple display and configuration options are among its main selling points, alongside the elephant in the room: the balanced AMD hardware specs supplemented by an advanced cooling module.
At the same time, you’ll have to accept the USB-C-only IO here, the somewhat finicky haptic touchpad, as well as not much in audio quality. Plus, the way Lenovo sets the power profiles and thermal limits on this product prevents the AMD platform from running at its peak abilities in sustained loads. For general use and daily multitasking, though, this is a highly competitive notebook.
Finally, there’s also the price to consider, which is a bit on the steeper side, especially outside of the US. That’s justified by the craftmanship quality and the engineering put into creating this product, but might still steer some of you away towards one of the more traditional ThinkPad lineups or perhaps some of the competition. Among those, the AMD-based Asus ZenBook S 13 is a fierce contender with higher power settings, a larger battery, and a more affordable price tag, while the HP EliteBook 835 is another Pro-level option to consider, but one we haven’t yet reviewed. And then there are the multitude of Intel options as well, such as the XPS 13 Plus or ThinkPad X1 Nano , as well as the larger Yoga 9i or ZenBook 14 .
That sums up my time with the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13, and I’d appreciate your feedback and impressions in the comments section below.
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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
HN
November 3, 2022 at 2:43 pm
HI,Mr.Girbea can you help me? i'm searching for laptop with this specs:1- 12700h cpu or higher(autocad,3dsmax,premier…) 2-rtx3060 or higher gpu 3-touchscreen 4- 6 hrs battery(for light use and light coding) with fast charge support.university student.thanks
Andrei Girbea
November 3, 2022 at 2:46 pm
I can't do the research for you, there are plenty of options that meet your requirements, and plenty of articles here on the site that will help in your decision. I'd start with a screen size and budget in mind, both aspects you haven't mentioned :)
john
November 4, 2022 at 8:59 am
if money no object:1-dell xps 9720 2-hp envy 16 3-msi z16p 4-asus zenbook 16x 5-asus rog flow x16(amd cpu) 6-buy two laptops if you can one for home hard work(for me scar 15) and the other one for university(for me z13).
Leon
November 8, 2022 at 3:08 am
Hi Andrei. With it plugged into the wall & fully charged, can you measure the Idle Power Consumption with screen at minimum brightness, WiFi On, your same Windos Balanced setting.
Andrei Girbea
November 8, 2022 at 11:56 am
I no longer have this around. I haven't tested idle use, I don't see the point.
George Z13
July 21, 2023 at 5:15 pm
Label: This notebook is awesome! (mind that im not a tester, i would just like to share my experience with this shiny little jewel)
I do not agree with everything in this review. This review has alot of personal feelings of the writer and seems to be, not objective enough.
I've recently upgraded my laptop. I'm now using Z13 for work at my company (yes im corpo rat) as well as for personal projects for other companies.
I have to mention this: ! WINDOWS 11 ! it sucks ! not stable for work applications, problems with PDM data management, windows 11 really gave me a hard time, setting it all up, still not satisfied after 2 or 3 months.
My old laptop Dell Precision 7720 with windows 10 is running everything without problems and stable. Work apps are just better optimized for win 10 and vice versa.
I'm using SolidWorks 2019 cad software, data management PDM, emails, office tools. Making presentations, researching and im in contact with customers and sometimes I travel around europe by plane or across my country.
Lets try to compare these two laptops, just abit.
1.) Dell Precision 7720 with intel 6820HQ, 32GB ram, 17''Full HD TN display, 6GB Quadro P3000, large keyboard with numpad
– this laptop was SUPER EXPENSIVE 6 years ago
– runs on battery about 1 hour of work and dies
– its heavy and large, have massive 240W PSU (weight for airplane bag, or traveling matters alot)
– for its power consumption is very weak nowadays
– did i mention its heavy ?
– even this expensive 6GB P3000 video card, cant run more than 2 monitors with QHD resolution !
– i don't have much more to say about this workstation, it was working good, stable
2.) Lenovo ThinkPad Z13, bronze variant, leather top (really luxury look), AMD 6860Z – Z exclusively for this laptop, and super high resolution OLED touch display (looks like Retina to me), with 32GB ram DDR5
– runs on battery about 5 hours of work with no problems, total of approx 7 hours when wifi off
– its super light and small
– OLED with touch is damn awesome, for moving over maps, and when you miss a mouse = it becomes 😎
– massive problem is you cant bend it more then 135° or so, you cant flip it
– USB-C is not a problem !!! I'm using monitor with integrated USB-C dock, using AMD newest feature on notebooks in this architecture, the Thunderbolt GEN 4 – powering the notebook from single cable, from the monitor, at the same time running resolution 5120×1440 49'' display 70Hz, everything on one cable! + 13'' OLED 3k + one more 27'' FHD for monitoring temps, it was running smooth as f ! all the resolution coming from APU in the 6860Z
– all other periferies (mouse, keyboard, 3D joystick) are connected by bluetooth or USB dongle which is in monitor
– at home i'm using USB-C to DP 1.4 for 32'' QHD monitor
– at meetings i can use single cable, only for connecting from USB-C to HDMI to be able to present on large screens (you dont need to bring 240W power supply, cuz meetings lasts only few hours and it can be done on battery)
– button on the side is very good, you can power on the notebook withouht opening the lid !
– touch password login is awesome
– face ID login is awesome as well
– im using LTE data sim card as well, connected to VPN data server 24/7, no need for cables anymore, or using Wi-Fi (at office, i have Ethernet connected to monitor and from monitor C > C to notebook)
Overall, the Z13 can handle even big models in CAD, i could not believe what this small device is capable of. Doing everything faster than Precision, for 1/4 or less power consumption. Temps are awesome, average chip power consumption during my work was about 12-13Watts.
Okay, lets finish it. Largest problems are WINDOWS 11 and Screen is not FLIPable, 180° could be enough. Everything else is PERFECT ! Without WIN11, this laptop could be called a MAC BOOK KILLER.