Lenovo’s new 16-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold is the most flexible, versatile Windows PC — ever

• Lenovo has introduced the 2nd Gen of its modern ThinkPad X1 Fold PC
• The new gadget has a a lot bigger 16.3-inch foldable OLED show
• It ships with Intel twelfth Gen Core-U sequence i5 or i7 processors
• Availability is anticipated beginning November 2022, beginning at $2,499
• We frolicked enjoying with the pre-production model for a hands-on

In 2020, Lenovo stunned the world with the first PC with a foldable show. The ThinkPad X1 Fold had so much going for it, together with pen assist, a Bluetooth keyboard, optionally available 5G, and Lenovo’s tough {hardware} testing.

However regardless of its groundbreaking design, which was a few years in the making, Lenovo knew the authentic X1 Fold was extra of an experiment. And the whole lot they’ve realized from buyer suggestions has gone into the all-new ThinkPad X1 Fold 16.

Almost the whole lot about the new ThinkPad X1 Fold is up to date, modified, and improved. I spent a while dealing with the gadget in New York Metropolis and was shocked. 

Right here’s the whole lot you could find out about it.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: Specs and options

Whereas the authentic X1 Fold had Intel’s ill-fated and underpowered Lakefield “hybrid” CPU, the new X1 Fold makes use of Intel’s twelfth Gen U-series Core i5 or i7 vPro processors, providing ten cores (two of that are efficiency), giving it way more a punch.

Not solely is there extra CPU efficiency, however the design is additionally wholly fanless this time. That’s a win-win.

The actual story of the new X1 Fold is that show. It’s an excellent 16.3-inch (2024×2560) foldable Samsung OLED 600nit HDR/400nit SDR with 100% DCI-P3, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, On-cell Contact with Pen assist. When folded, it shrinks to a extra cheap 12-inch show, which, paired with the Bluetooth keyboard, makes it really feel way more like an precise laptop computer.

By comparability, the authentic X1 Fold’s show was solely 13.3-inches spanned and nearer to 8-inches when folded.

Furthermore, Lenovo has found out how one can fold the show with none hole this time and no seen crease. When closed, the X1 Fold now really looks like a ebook.

Different specs are additionally spectacular. The X1 Fold could be configured with as much as 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, and three USB Sort-C ports, two of that are Thunderbolt 4. There’s additionally an choice for a Nano-SIM tray for 5G Sub 6 with LTE.

Lenovo designed the X1 Fold in order that no matter its posture, not less than two Sort-C ports can be found to be used. Likewise, for the audio system, of which there are three with Dolby Atmos. Solely two work at any time, however they’re positioned, so once more, no matter the X1 Fold’s posture, you get good stereo Dolby Atmos audio.

Lenovo has a 5MP RGB+IR digital camera with an optionally available Intel VSC (Visible Sensing Controller) for safety. Intel VSC brings human presence detection for zero-touch login and “onlooker detection.”

That full HD 5MP digital camera with Intel VSC means it could actually auto-frame no matter the pill’s posture – panorama, portrait, laptop computer mode, and so on.

Lenovo separated the kickstand from the pill for this technology. Whereas that appears a step again, the firm’s new kickstand attaches magnetically and lets clients do one thing they might not do earlier than: Mount the X1 Fold vertically and horizontally.

Lenovo claims this mode portrait mode proves “…extremely efficient for studying and modifying lengthy paperwork, simultaneous social feeds, web sites, and extra.” In my time with the X1 Fold, I agree that it was a bit wild not solely utilizing it in portrait mode but in addition barely curving it for a “bent L” form.

In fact, customers can nonetheless use the X1 Fold in “ebook mode” for “proofreading articles or looking digital publications” or old-school “pill mode” for notetaking, drawing, a number of person interplay, or watching a film on the Dolby Imaginative and prescient-certified show.

Being a ThinkPad, the new X1 Fold additionally meets Lenovo’s stringent sturdiness testing, together with assembly MIL-STD-810H requirements.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: New full-sized keyboard, haptic touchpad

New this 12 months is additionally a much-improved keyboard. The earlier keyboard technically labored, and it even charged wirelessly, which was neat, nevertheless it was very cramped. In spite of everything, it is even smaller than the Floor Go’s keyboard.

Now, that new keyboard is a lot bigger and full-sized. Certainly, it’s successfully the similar keyboard as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano with one huge distinction: The touchpad is haptic and never mechanical. To avoid wasting area and provides extra of a pure really feel, Lenovo leveraged haptics to simulate what an correct touchpad looks like, which additionally they utilized in the ThinkPad X1 Titanium.

Bluetooth 5.2 retains the keyboard linked to the X1 Fold and is rechargeable by way of USB Sort-C.

When the keyboard is dropped onto a folded X1 Fold, Windows 11 “shifts up” the show to suit the 12-inch viewable space. Lenovo says this place is ultimate for cramped areas like a prepare, airplane, or when you could apply it to your lap.

When utilizing the X1 Fold and the kickstand, the keyboard slides up and sticks magnetically to the kickstand. Or, because it is wi-fi, you might use the keyboard at a distance.

Lenovo may even squeeze in a fingerprint reader on the new keyboard, which is wonderful if the privateness digital camera is engaged, and Windows Good day face recognition is disabled.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: It is repairable

Lenovo went past simply making a PC with a gapless foldable show. Sometimes, these radical designs compromise on with the ability to be repaired, as the backs and show rely closely on glue.

However Lenovo even made repairability on the X1 Fold a precedence. The entrance and rear covers, which now function “recycled woven efficiency material” as a substitute of fake leather-based, can pop off to disclose the laptop computer’s innards.

Storage could be swapped or upgraded, and the batteries could be changed, as can the board and different elements, ought to they want it (I assume the show, as properly).

You’ll nonetheless want semi-professional servicing, however not less than the new X1 Fold is not a throwaway gadget anymore.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: First impressions

So, how is the new X1 Fold? We’ll have to attend a couple of extra months (November) to get our palms on a manufacturing mannequin, however there is little doubt Lenovo has stepped up its sport.

It’s necessary to keep in mind that Lenovo is properly forward of everybody on this class as they began down this street a few years in the past. It is not a part of Intel’s “Venture Horseshoe Bend” — a collaboration between Intel, Microsoft, and PC producers.

Lenovo is now on “gen 2” of PCs with a foldable show, whereas ASUS is simply beginning. That’s why the ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold has a large hole and a design just like what Lenovo did two years in the past.

With 5 postures (laptop computer mode, panorama PC, portrait PC, ebook mode, and pill), the new Lenovo X1 Fold is undoubtedly the most versatile PC round. When folded up and closed, you possibly can see the way it is dwarfed by a correct 16-inch laptop computer (the new ThinkPad X1 Excessive). It’s night time and day, making the X1 Fold a way more transportable PC (granted, the X1 Excessive is additionally miles extra highly effective).

I do fear, nonetheless, about the little bit of clumsiness that comes with this kind issue. Packed up, you’ve gotten the X1 Fold, the magnetic stand, and the keyboard hooked up to it, together with the pen. It’s not the most elegant factor to arrange since there are “three transferring components,” so to talk.

It’s a bit like deconstructing a laptop computer as a substitute of it being only one unit.

Nonetheless, the X1 Fold additionally does many issues that no different PC can do, making it particular and, for some, fairly invaluable (primarily due to that $2,500 beginning value, which doesn’t embrace the keyboard).

Sadly, Windows 11 doesn’t but have an excessive amount of software program to make the most of X1 Fold. Positive, with Windows 11 22H2, which this pill ships with, you get some new contact and gesture assist for snapping home windows. That helps. However nothing occurs if you fold the show with Windows, abruptly pretending it is two screens, which might be extra useful—and even defaulting to this conduct.

Hopefully, we’ll see extra from Microsoft in the coming 12 months to assist foldable PCs to leverage its capabilities.

Between the a lot thinner design (17.4mm closed, 8.6mm opened), a lot thinner bezels, nicer hinge, higher high quality supplies, bigger show, and improved efficiency, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is actually the most modern — and distinctive — Windows PC but.

I can’t wait to attempt the closing model out.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold goes on sale in November with a beginning value of $2,499.