Review Lenovo Thinkbook 13s: A comprehensive, reliable laptop

Lenovo always produces enterprise-oriented laptops, with the classic ThinkPad line that has helped shape the standard of professional laptops.

Laptops like Yoga and Carbon seek to bridge the gap between professionals and consumers, through reduced size, as well as the introduction of 2-in-1 features.

And Lenovo's latest laptop, the ThinkBook 13s-IWL, continues this by providing a more traditional, budget-friendly experience.

Price and configuration of Lenovo ThinkBook 13s

Lenovo offers several options for the ThinkBook 13s-IWL line, with prices starting at $ 629 (VND 14,600,000) for Intel Core i5-8265U CPUs, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. At a price of $ 713 (VND 16,570,000), you have a CPU similar to the basic configuration but with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. For $ 905 (VND 21,000,000), you have an Intel Core i7-8565U and a 512GB SSD (an additional $ 84 / nearly 2 million VND to own 16GB of RAM).

Lenovo also offers a 14-inch version for those who want a laptop with a wider screen, with similar specifications but with a slightly higher price.

Design

Aesthetically, there aren't any revolutionary advances in design for the ThinkBook 13s.

With a traditional 180-degree foldable clamshell frame, the ThinkBook 13s design is comparable to Lenovo's persistent ThinkPad line while maintaining a small, lightweight appearance, weighing just 1.3kg and measuring 31 x 22 x 1.5cm.

Although the ThinkBook 13s offers an HDMI port, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports and a USB Type-C port, there is no Thunderbolt 3 port.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13s has a 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080 non-touch IPS screen. The screen with 314 nit brightness provides a pleasant web browsing and video viewing experience. Sharp, colorful images. However, the bezels on the ThinkBook 13s are significantly larger when compared to rivals like Asus Zenbook UX433 and MacBook Air.

Durability and security capabilities

Lenovo offers several features that increase the durability of the ThinkBook 13s, including an extra layer of protection against overflow and extreme temperatures, as well as a hinge that can be opened and closed 25,000 times.

In terms of security, ThinkBook 13 integrates a fingerprint reader into the power button, the ability to encrypt data and work along with other security features of Windows 10.

Sound

The speakers on the ThinkBook 13 provide a good audio experience, sufficient for making business presentations or watching YouTube videos.

Keyboard and touchpad

Lenovo has always been at the top of the keyboard and touchpad. ThinkBook 13s is no exception. The keys on this laptop are comfortable to type on.

The classic red Lenovo trackpoint button is missing in the ThinkBook 13s keyboard. This will disappoint those who prefer to use it instead of the touchpad.

The touchpad for ThinkBook 13s is equipped with Windows Precision driver and provides a good experience. Perfect touchpad size for this laptop (6 x 11cm), neither too big nor too small.

Performance of Lenovo ThinkBook 13s

Real-world tests with the Intel Core i5-8265U processor of ThinkBook 13s 1.6GHz with 8GB RAM give good results. With 20 Google Chrome tabs open and many YouTube videos playing at the same time, the laptop fan ran but did not see the video speed or quality decrease.

The ThinkBook 13s had a Geekbench 4.3 multi-core score of 12,485, below the average of 13,178, but beat the MacBook Air (Core i7-8565U) with a score of 7,880.

The ThinkBook 13s' PCIe 256GB SSD works well, copying 4.97GB of media files in 13.5 seconds with a transfer rate of 376.9 megabytes per second.

The ThinkBook 13 shined in the CPU-intensive Handbrake test, measuring the time it took to transcode a 4K video into 1080p. With a time of 20 minutes 12 seconds, the ThinkBook easily surpassed HP Envy 13 (23 minutes 38 seconds), Zenbook 14 UX433 (24 minutes 46 seconds) and the average (25 minutes 12 seconds).

Graphics

The ThinkBook 13s has an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU, so unless you plan to stream the game via the cloud, don't expect any AAA titles to run on this machine. The classic Dirt 3 (2012) test on ThinkBook 13 yielded a rate of 26 frames per second.

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test for ThinkBook 13s reached 72,037 points, quite good for integrated GPU.

Battery life

Another highlight of the ThinkBook 13s is battery life. On the battery test, which includes continuous web browsing at 150 nit brightness, this laptop ran for 8 hours and 57 minutes, much longer than the laptop average (6 hours). 34 minutes).

Webcam

The 720p webcam on ThinkBook 13 is sufficient for making regular video calls with family and friends and is placed at the highest position on the screen. ThinkShutter included in ThinkBook 13s is a welcome addition to the privacy.

Heat

ThinkBook 13s efficient heat management. Thermal problems are hardly noticeable during daily use.

Warranty and software

Like many Windows laptops, the ThinkBook 13s comes with a number of custom applications and bloatware. You can easily remove or replace if you want.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13s comes with 1 year warranty.

Conclude

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13s delivers stable performance with a comfortable keyboard and nearly 9 hours of battery life.