Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Review - HDR Business Laptop

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Let's find out what the model from the new Lenovo line is capable of.

Lenovo is known primarily as a manufacturer of ThinkPad notebooks - reliable and high-quality devices for solving professional problems. For example, they are the ones who work on board the ISS. However, ThinkPads are too expensive for most users.

Fortunately, Lenovo has come up with a budget alternative. Last year, the company launched its ThinkBook line of affordable models for work and business. One of them is the ThinkBook 13s. We find out on her example whether the manufacturer managed to make a budget ThinkPad.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design
• Screen
• Input Devices
• Sound
• Performance
• Autonomy
• Outcomes

Specifications

Operating system	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
CPU	Intel Core i5-8265U 1.6 GHz
Memory	RAM: 8 GB LPDDR3; ROM: 256 GB NVMe SSD
Video accelerator	Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display	13.3 inches, IPS, 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, 166 ppi
Ports	USB Type ‑ C 3.1, 2 × USB Type ‑ A 3.1, 3.5 mm audio jack, HDMI, proprietary charging connector
Wireless interfaces	Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 5
Battery	45 Wh
Dimensions (edit)	307.6 × 216.4 × 15.9mm
The weight	1, 32 kg

Design

The exterior of the laptop is as utilitarian as possible. There are no bright, eye-catching elements, everything is strictly to the point. Even the branding is discreet: matte logos are located along the edges of the case. The color scheme is appropriate: the model is only available in gray.

The body is metal. Only the rear air duct grille, hinges and hinge lining are made of plastic. By the way, you won't be able to open the laptop with one hand, since the mechanism is rather tight. It is also inconvenient that there is no groove in the lower part in order to pick up the lid with your finger. On the other hand, the hinge can be rotated 180 degrees, making it easy to find the optimal display angle.

The dimensions are rather big by the standards of 13-inch models: large margins around the edges of the screen affect. Nevertheless, the device fits into a small backpack, and the weight of 1, 3 kg does not cause inconvenience when carrying.

Above the screen is a 720p webcam. Its quality does not cause delight, but the presence of a curtain will delight connoisseurs of privacy. Now there is no need to sculpt stickers on the lens - just move the slider.

There is no face recognition system here. For authorization, you can use the fingerprint sensor built into the power button. It works quickly and accurately, however the scan is not registered when the device starts up. Apparently, the laptop is not equipped with a buffer memory that would store data until the authentication process.

Port selection includes USB Type ‑ C, two USB Type ‑ A 3.1, 3.5mm audio jacks, HDMI, and a proprietary charging input. It's strange that the laptop does not support the Power Delivery standard for Type-C charging. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the complete adapter is very bulky and inconvenient to carry.

Screen

The ThinkBook 13s is equipped with a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 dots. The surface of the screen is matte and reflects almost no glare, the crystalline effect is not very pronounced. The display is slightly less sharp compared to its glossy counterparts, but at a pixel density of 166 ppi, the difference is small.

The margin of brightness is impressive. Together with the matte finish, it gives excellent readability in the sun. Color reproduction is close to natural, 100% sRGB coverage is claimed. The contrast level is decent by IPS standards, but at maximum brightness, highlights are visible on a black background. This is due to the imperfect assembly of the screen module.

The display also supports HDR, which is rare in laptops in this price segment. This makes the colors richer, but nothing more. Perhaps the screen is still not bright enough to fully implement the technology.

Input Devices

The ThinkBook 13s has a decent keyboard, although it falls short of ThinkPad standards. The test sample does not have a Russian layout, but this did not prevent us from evaluating the convenience of printing.

The keys are large, the travel depth is sufficient, there is a backlight for working in the dark. You can only find fault with the small arrows ↑ and ↓, to which the PgUp and PgDown functions are assigned: it is not very convenient to scroll through documents with them.

But Lenovo saved money on the touchpad. It is covered with cheap plastic, on which your finger does not slide easily. The surface flexes when pressed, which makes clicks fuzzy and rattling. After five minutes of work, I want to connect a mouse.

Sound

There are two speakers on the bottom of the case. Their tuning was done by HARMAN specialists, but the result is not impressive.

The volume margin is sufficient, but closer to the maximum, overloads and an increase in distortion are heard. There is no bass in the sound at all.

Overall, the speaker quality is average. The same applies to the sound in the headphones, which is responsible for the built-in Realtek audio codec.

Performance

ThinkBook 13s is based on Intel Whiskey Lake ‑ U processors. Our sample has a Core i5-8265U, 8 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and a 256 GB solid-state drive. The base power consumption of the processor is 15W (PL1), however, the system can go into turbo mode for a short time, supplying 25W of power to the chipset (PL2).

Lenovo did not trick with the power management scheme, leaving the recommended mode by Intel: instead of smooth adjustment, the laptop switches from PL1 to PL2 and vice versa, guided by the temperature data. The fan starts to spin faster under load and makes a lot of noise, but this allows you to work at higher frequencies for longer.

In the Cinebench R20 benchmark, the laptop scored 1,300 points, which is quite good for this class of devices. For comparison, the HP Elite Dragonfly with the same processor scored 1,150 points. System metrics recorded during testing were recorded using the Intel Power Gadget utility.

Screenshot: Cinebench R20

Processor frequency, MHz

Processor power, W

Processor temperature, ° C

The built-in Intel UHD Graphics 620 accelerator is responsible for the graphics. It is enough for light processing of photos and videos, as well as casual games, but for something more it is not suitable. The laptop does not support external graphics cards as it does not have Thunderbolt certification.

The RAM is not soldered on the motherboard, so if necessary, its volume can be increased to 32 GB. You can also replace the Wi ‑ Fi ‑ adapter and install a faster SSD: the standard drive does not have the highest read and write speeds.

Lenovo has made a laptop with sufficient performance by the standards of the class and phenomenal upgrade possibilities. It is the latter that make the model stand out from its competitors.

Autonomy

The ThinkBook 13s has a 45 Wh battery. In testing, the laptop lasted nearly 11 hours of Full ‑ HD ‑ video playback, a performance on par with the MacBook Air and HP Elite Dragonfly. When using Word and parallel web surfing, the model worked for 6.5 hours. The supplied 65-watt adapter replenishes the charge in 2 hours.

Outcomes

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13s is not a budget replacement for the ThinkPad. Even if you upgrade the configuration, the model will be inferior in terms of build quality, keyboard and touchpad. Otherwise, we have a compact laptop with an excellent screen, decent performance and the possibility of an upgrade. For many, this will be enough to choose it as a working tool.

ThinkBook 13s cost varies depending on the configuration and is 58-70 thousand rubles.