Lenovo ThinkPad X260 Review: A Sleek, Tough, All-Business Ultrabook

In the following benchmarks we employ two very different battery life tests--Battery Eater Pro and a custom 1080p HD video loop test--to prove out battery life with our test group of machines and the Lenovo ThinkPad X260. In all tests, Windows 10 Quiet Hours have been enabled and displays are calibrated with lux meters on pure white screens to as close to 115 lux as possible. For the average notebook this is somewhere between a 45 - 60% brightness setting.

Since notebook displays significantly affect power consumption and battery life, it's important to ensure a level playing field with respect to brightness of the display for battery testing. However, since many notebook displays vary in brightness at each respective brightness setting in Windows, this calibration with the meter is also critical to ensure all displays are set to as near identical brightness as possible before testing.

Battery Life Testing Heavy-Duty Workload And Light-Duty Battery Life Performance Tests

Battery Eater Pro provides a heavy load on the laptop and generally runs through its battery life much faster than our custom video loop test. Our video benchmark helps you get a sense of how long the laptop will handle ordinary tasks while on battery power; Battery Eater Pro presents a worst-case scenario.

With its oversize backup battery, the ThinkPad X260 was poised to crush the competition in our benchmarks. It did, providing a whopping 10 hours and 46 minutes in our video loop test and 2 hours and 24 minutes in Battery Eater Pro. Both of these scores point to a notebook that can handle a good chunks of the workday (and possibly the whole day) away from power outlets. And it’s worth mentioning again that you can swap the rear battery anytime without powering down the ultrabook.


The ThinkPad X260 also handled the battery tests well with its standard battery setup, which is the two 3-cell, 23Wh batteries. The larger, 72Wh battery juts out from the bottom of the ultrabook, making it a little thicker (and noticeably heavier), so it’s good to see that the laptop can still hold its own when using its slim battery.

Acoustics: As for noise, the X260 is nearly silent, which is typical for ultrabooks -- its fans don't make much noise at all, even under load. That said, the keyboard is actually a little louder than most notebook keyboards we’ve recently tested. The keys thump a bit as you type. As fans of clicky mechanical keyboards, we doubt that the low thumping from the ThinkPad X260’s keyboard is loud enough to be a problem for most users, but it’s worth mentioning. The noise seemed just a little louder when the larger battery was in place than when we used the laptop with its default battery, most likely due to the difference with the angle when striking the keys.