Review Lenovo ThinkPad X390: Excellent business laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad X390 has several advantages. It's thin, light, especially for a business laptop, and very powerful, while maintaining the famous 'giant' keyboard of ThinkPads.

In today's article, let TipsMake.com evaluate the details of this laptop and see if it suits your needs.

Specifications and features of Lenovo ThinkPad X390

The price of ThinkPad X390 can vary greatly according to the configuration. For a minimum cost of $ 899, you get 8GB of RAM and an Intel Core i5-8265U processor. However, the low-resolution 1366x768 screen and the meager 128GB SSD are a bit difficult to accept.

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The test computer has an Intel Core i7-8565U processor and 16GB DDR4 RAM, a 13.3-inch touchscreen, 1920x1080p and a 512GB SSD. It also includes a fingerprint reader and infrared camera for Windows Hello. All of these items cost up to $ 1,689 (VND 38.9 million).

You get a lot of ports, including 2 USB-A ports, 2 USB-C ports (a Thunderbolt 3), HDMI 1.4 and a Kensington Lock slot. There is also a removable tray on the back for MicroSD and nano-SIM cards.

Design and screen

Unlike the ThinkPad L390 Yoga 'sibling, the ThinkPad X390 doesn't have a 360-degree hinge. Instead, it folds 180 degrees, so the screen can lie flat on a table.

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In return, the bezels measure just 0.38 inches (less than 1cm). The device weighs about 2.9 pounds (1.3kg).

The X390 uses an IPS panel, which is said to provide excellent viewing angles. However, tilting the screen changes the brightness significantly. No matter which angle you choose, colors appear faded and eyes start to feel a little uncomfortable in moderate light conditions.

On the plus side, the screen is dimmer better at reducing glare. You can also dial the X390 brightness to reduce eye strain in environments such as offices with fluorescent lights.

Keyboard and touchpad

The typing experience is arguably the best thing about having a ThinkPad. Even as other laptop makers try to reduce the thickness of the keyboard to the maximum level, Lenovo still insists on providing its business laptops with thick, luxurious keyboards.

However, the keyboard also seems to make more errors in less than ideal environments (such as putting it on your lap instead of on a table).

To maintain the thinness of the machine, Lenovo must trade the X390 touchpad. Like other ThinkPads, the X390 still offers dedicated left and right buttons. You can always press the touchpad to select something, but this is not the ideal touchpad for people who like the feeling of clicking down.

Security, camera and audio

The Lenovo ThinkPad X390 webcam is a typical 720p model, but has a physical privacy shutter. Just slide it into place and a subtle red dot covers the lens to confirm that no one will be able to snoop on you. Lenovo also plans to provide a 'PrivacyGuard' screen to prevent prying eyes.

The ThinkPad X390 offers both fingerprint reader and infrared sensor for Windows Hello's facial recognition feature. It's great to have both options on a laptop, but keep in mind that facial recognition will not work when the shutter covers the webcam.

Sound quality is seldom a priority on business laptops, and so is the case with the ThinkPad X390, which lacks bass and is not particularly loud. However, Lenovo says it uses a new audio signal processor to eliminate noise on the microphone and this gives great results.

Efficiency

The ThinkPad X390 doesn't overheat on the underside, thanks to a vent that blows to the right. The system fan operates fairly quietly when performing a basic workload.

However, there is a warning for 'Better Battery' setting. For example, while using the Tweeten application in Windows, scrolling seems unstable and web links take a while to load. Setting up the X390 in parallel with the Lenovo ThinkPad L390 Yoga (with a smaller i5-8265U CPU and half the RAM), the ThinkPad L390 Yoga loads web pages faster in Better Battery settings. However, in the 'Best Performance' setting, the X390 regained its lead.

On PCMark 8's Work 2.0 test, the ThinkPad X390's score was 3,784, ranking first among all other thin and light laptops tested (only HP Specter x360 and Samsung 1995 Notebook 9 Pro scored close equal).

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HandBrake is another highlight for the ThinkPad X390, which takes about 65 minutes to encode a test .MV video file into a smaller .MP4 file. The Dell XPS 13 gives better results, but overall, the ThinkPad X390 makes good use of its quad-core CPU for long periods of heavy-duty handling.

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For the Cinebench test, the X390 falls in the middle of the Core i7-8565U laptops for multi-threaded performance. That means the ThinkPad X390 did well in single-threaded testing, better reflecting the applications most people use.

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The X390 scored well on the 3DMark Sky Diver 1.0 test, at least for a laptop with integrated graphics. In fact, this doesn't make much sense, because you still want a dedicated GPU to play modern 3D games.

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Battery life is the only significant weakness.

Many other factors can affect battery life, including brightness, screen resolution, and workload intensity. The ThinkPad X390 has a challenge: its 49,410 mAh capacity is smaller than rivals like HP Specter x360 (61,000 mAh) and Samsung Notebook 9 Pro (54,050 mAh). Batteries add weight and cost, so this is the tradeoff needed in thinner, lightweight laptops.

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Should you buy Lenovo ThinkPad X390?

The Lenovo ThinkPad X390 is a laptop with impressive performance and many useful features for businesses. However, compared to the price, users expect a better experience with the screen, keyboard and touchpad.