Lenovo Unveils 2023 ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Yoga, Nano And Bold Mini LED Displays For CES
by
Zak Killian
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Tuesday, December 20, 2022, 05:49 PM EDT
CES is in two weeks, kids, and you know what that means: piles and piles of product announcements. Lenovo wants to beat the rush, apparently, because today it announced a bevy of beautiful new devices. We already took a look at the consumer-focused Idea-family goods, so now let's go over the business-oriented Think-family products.
Leading the way is the refreshed ThinkPad X1 family. These are Lenovo's do-it-all business models, with excellent performance paired with attractive exterior styling and great portability. As usual, the latest ThinkPad X1 series comes in three flavors: the folding-type convertible Yoga, the ultra-portable Nano, and the top-of-the-line Carbon (which you can see at the top of this page).
The Thinkpad X1 Carbon is a 14" laptop that would have been called an "ultrabook" once upon a time. It sports a narrow screen bezel and a mechanical shutter for its FHD+IR MIPI computer vision camera. The X1 Yoga is also a 14" laptop, but it's a convertible with a flexible hinge that can allow the laptop to be used like a tablet or standing up in tent mode. Meanwhile, the Nano is a smaller laptop with a 13" display. All three models sport a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports and a pair of USB Type-A ports.
The two larger models, the Carbon and the Yoga, can be had with up to 64GB of memory and an optional OLED display with VESA HDR500 TrueBlack certification. The Nano makes do with 16GB of RAM and a 450 cd/m² IPS LCD. All three systems can be configured with up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage, and are available with "the latest Intel Core processors." That would be 12th-gen Alder Lake as of this writing, but it's very likely that these laptops will be had with 13th-generation Raptor Lake mobile CPUs by the time they become available next year.
Arguably the most exciting announcements out of Lenovo's pro portfolio this time around are its new ThinkVision Mini-LED monitors. The ThinkVision P27pz-30 and P32pz-30 are 27" and 32" monitors in 4K UHD resolution that use IPS LCD panels backed by mini-LED backlights that give them 1,152 dimming zones. As you could expect, this results in immense HDR performance, such that they reach a peak brightness of 1,200 cd/m².
Unsurprisingly, they're DisplayHDR 1000-certified, and support connections using HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, or USB4. Both monitors also sport USB 3.2 hubs that support 140W charging as well as RJ-45 connections so that you can use the monitor as a docking station for your laptop. As these are professional monitors and not gaming displays, they refresh at 60 Hz, but both monitors can do 99% of Adobe RGB or DCI-P3, perfect for digital artists.
Those aren't the only displays that Lenovo's debuting next year. The company's ThinkVision VoIP monitors, the charmingly-named T27hv-30, T24mv-30, and T24v-30, are designed explicitly for remote workers. As you'd expect, each model includes a webcam—5MP with IR in this case—as well as dual microphones and integrated stereo speakers. New to this generation is a dedicated Microsoft Teams button, as well as an indicator that shows when the user is on a call, an alert when you've been in front of the screen too long, and Eyesafe 2.0 certification.
The T27hv-30 is a 27" model in QHD (1440p) resolution, while the T24mv-30 is a 23.8" display in FHD (1080p). Both of those displays use USB Type-C to connect to the host computer, and feature the aforementioned RJ-45 jack to let them function as docking stations with wired network access. If you want something a little more old-school, the T24v-30 uses the same display as the T24mv-30, but swaps the USB Type-C port for a Type-B connection and also picks up a VGA plug.
Folks who are after Thunderbolt 4 pass-through are in luck as well, as Lenovo's ThinkVision P-series displays both offer it. The ThinkVision P49w-30 is a 49" double-wide display in 5120×1440 resolution, giving it a 32:9 aspect ratio. Lenovo puts it down for an impressive 2000:1 contrast ratio, and says that its IPS LCD can reproduce 98% of the DCI-P3 color space. Besides the TB4 pass-thru, it also has another USB Type-C port for charging, four USB Type-A ports, and an RJ-45 connection.
Meanwhile, the ThinkVision P32p-30 is a "near-edgeless" 31.5" IPS LCD monitor in 4K UHD resolution that can reproduce 95% of the DCI-P3 colorspace. Perhaps not as impressive as the P49w-30 or the mini-LED models above, but certainly still a gorgeous display. Lenovo allots this one a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-B connection, and an RJ-45 jack.
Finally, we have the entry-level L27i-40 and L24m-40 displays. These are pretty basic office or student monitors, but that doesn't mean that they're bad displays. Indeed, both are FHD IPS LCDs that include integrated speakers and can reproduce 99% of the sRGB color space. The larger model accepts HDMI or VGA input, while the smaller monitor skips the VGA plug for a four-port USB hub.
As you could expect, all of this hardware is on the way next year. The Thinkpad X1 laptops should show up in April, with the Nano starting at $1649, the Carbon starting at $1729, and the Yoga starting at $1859. The ThinkVision P32p-30 will also come in April, for $999, while its double-wide sibling won't show until June, for $1699.
The Lenovo ThinkVision VOIP monitors will come along in May, starting from $259, $399, and $519. Those beautiful mini-LED displays won't be here until August, unfortunately, but it probably doesn't matter unless you have some deep pockets for monitors of this caliber. The 32" model will begin at $1599 and Lenovo hasn't yet decided on the pricing for the smaller version.