Hi everyone.
I'm Mark, and I think this is my favorite ThinkPad laptop so far.
This is the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 and this is my review.
So if you used several thinkpads before,
the Z13 is going to look and feel different.
Let's start with the design.
The ThinkPad Z13 has a 13.3 inch display with a 16 by ten aspect ratio.
You can get it in a touch or non-touch version on a 1920
by 1200 resolution display or go for the better looking OLED option.
I would personally go for that one.
This unit is the touchscreen 1920 by 1200 option.
You can get this in Arctic gray, black or this beautiful color in bronze
with the vegan leather lid.
I understand some people prefer real leather, but to me
this feels like leather without the leather smell.
My wife is also vegetarian, so it makes her feel happy.
I didn't harm any animal while enjoying this great looking laptop.
On top of the display
is the communication bar with a full HD camera and windows Hello face unlock.
There's also a dual array microphone.
The communications
bar is raised above the display, which makes the lid easier to open.
Speaking of the lid, you can open it
one handed, which is a great indicator of a high quality hinge.
If you're a long time ThinkPad user, most of these lids open up to 180 degrees.
So definitely be careful and try not to open this all the way because it doesn't.
Let's talk about the keyboard.
This one will be new to previous ThinkPad users as well.
The control and function buttons are now the usual Windows laptop position.
All other thinkpads usually have this switched around.
Typing on the z13 is comfortable.
Key travel might feel shallower than other thinkpads,
but I find it still comfortable to type on.
Only thing I'm not a fan of is the small up and down arrow keys,
but that's a bit nit picky.
If you're curious how the keyboard sounds, here's a short clip.
The fingerprint scanner is next to the arrow key.
I don't use it since I like the windows hello face unlock better,
but the fingerprint scanner option is there, if you prefer to use that.
Now on to the trackpad. This is new as well.
There's usually the three points on the top part of this trackpad,
but it's now all glass.
The middle is textured to indicate the center button
and you can use this along with the red nipple to scroll on pages.
If you know you're not going to use that feature, you can disable that
forcepad area, so you end up having a bigger trackpad.
This is also a haptic touchpad, meaning you feel a click
through a vibration instead of a mechanical physical click.
I'm used to other windows laptops with a haptic touchpad
and this is the best so far.
The power button is on the right side along with the audio jack and USB
four type-c.
The left side has one USB 4 type-c.
That's not a lot of ports, so you might need to have some dongles when traveling.
When you're at home. This is usually not a problem.
For example, at my home office I'm only using the one Usb-C port on the left,
but I'm connected to an external monitor, a Canon DSLR as a webcam, a screen light
bar to light up my workspace and my Fitbit charger while powering up the Z13 too.
That's what's great about having a monitor that provides power to the laptop
and is also a built in USB hub.
I'll include a link to the monitor in the description below.
This laptop came with Windows 11 home and I'm glad
that I didn't see any unnecessary pre-installed software.
There is the commercial vantage app which lets you change some of the settings
on your laptop as well as check for firmware or bios updates.
For example, this is where I adjust the sound settings.
There are two downward speakers tuned by Dolby Atmos
and you can optimize the sound for movies, music or speech.
But I leave it on dynamic for the laptop to figure it out for for me.
For specifications you can get up to AMD ryzen 7 pro 6860z
up to AMD Radeon RX 680M up to
32 gigs of ram up to one terabyte SSD
and the three display options I mentioned earlier,
this review unit has AMD Ryzen 7 pro 6850U
16 gigs of RAM and 512 gigs of storage.
Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered so you won't be able to upgrade later on.
This configuration is currently priced at about $1,850,
but Lenovo usually has deals and coupons, so
check their website for the latest pricing.
I've been using this laptop for a few weeks already for work and
personal use and it's more than capable of handling my everyday tasks.
I work in marketing, so there's emails, word processing, spreadsheets
and video calls. No issues with performance.
On the side, I also dabble in video editing, producing
videos on YouTube and Instagram and the Z 13 is very surprising.
I was able to edit 4K videos without any problems.
Timeline was smooth with some B-roll and simple color grading.
A six minute 4K video from my Canon R6,
which I'm shooting with right now, took eight and a half minutes to render.
That's a few minutes faster than the previous laptop
I tested with Iris Xe Integrated Graphics.
So if you want to use this laptop during your 9 to 5 job
and do some creative work on the side, then this laptop can certainly handle it.
Now, if you're editing videos full time, needing to render several videos a week,
then there are certainly other laptops built for that purpose.
The battery life of the Z13 is great.
I see about eight and a half hours before needing to plug in.
So this means I can go to a coffee shop to get some work done
and not worry about bringing the laptop charger.
We can take the lower resolution display
and the power efficiency of the AMD processor for that.
If you do need to plug in the laptop, the power adapter is also small and light.
So how about the fan noise and heat?
The fans do spin during heavy load like editing and doing updates,
but they're not loud at all.
I sometimes had to lean in closer to make sure if they were actually spinning.
It also gets hot, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Here I can feel most heat when placing my finger above the keyboard
and function keys and on the left side next to the USB port.
Overall, I'm really liking the ThinkPad Z 13.
It's a great looking ThinkPad and I loved the changes that were applied here.
Love the bigger trackpad.
I love the control and function keys that are now in the correct placement.
I love the camera bar.
I love the performance for both.
My 9 to 5 job and my side hustle and the battery life is great too.
This one is the 1920 by 1200 resolution.
Now, I wish I got the OLED version because I think I would love that laptop
even more. And I think you would, too.
There's also a Z16 version with the bigger display, which I'm very curious about.
Let me know in the comments if you're interested in seeing a review on that.
All right.
So that's my review of the ThinkPad Z 13.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below.
Thanks for watching.