ThinkPad die-hards love two things: that scarlet TrackPoint and a machine they can sling in a shoulder bag without herniating themselves. The X1 Carbon Gen 12 keeps both traditions alive while ushering in the Intel Core Ultra platform – bringing an on-die NPU for local AI workloads and slightly perkier Xe graphics. At 1.09 kg and under 15 mm thick, it’s still the lightest 14-inch laptop in Lenovo’s stable, yet passes the usual MIL-STD-810H torture tests.
Design & build quality
From a distance little has changed: matte black carbon-fibre lid, magnesium alloy base, red-dotted “i” on the logo. Up close you’ll spot slimmer bezels, subtly rounded edges and a new 120 mm glass haptic touch-pad flanked by the obligatory three physical TrackPoint buttons. Port selection escapes the thin-and-light diet: twin Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A 3.2, full-fat HDMI 2.1 and a combo jack, plus an optional nano-SIM tray for 4G/5G. Flex is minimal and the soft-touch coating still shrugs off fingerprints like Teflon.
Display & audio
Our review unit sported the headline 14-in 2.8 K (2880 × 1800) OLED, 120 Hz, 400 nit panel with Dolby Vision and full DCI-P3 coverage. Blacks are abyssal, colours vibrant and the higher refresh makes spreadsheet scrolling positively buttery. IPS options (WUXGA or 2.2 K) nudge battery life, but once you’ve tasted OLED the others feel washed-out. Quad speakers pump out respectable volume for Teams calls, although bass still lags Apple’s Air.
Keyboard, TrackPoint & touch-pad
Lenovo wisely leaves the 1.5 mm-travel keyboard alone – it remains the benchmark for mobile typists. The new ForcePad-style haptic touch-pad replaces a mechanical click with precise vibrations; after an hour you’ll forget it’s not a physical switch. TrackPoint disciples can breathe easy: the little red nub and its three buttons survive intact.
Performance
Powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (16 cores, 22 threads, 32 MB cache), 32 GB of LPDDR5x-6400 RAM and a Gen 4 SSD, the Gen 12 bats through office workloads, 30-tab browser binges and Lightroom tweaks without coughing. In Cinebench 2024 it edges the outgoing 13th-gen Core i7 by ~12 %, while the beefed-up Xe iGPU renders a 4K Premiere Pro timeline 18 % quicker than last year’s model – still no substitute for a discrete GPU, but handy in a pinch. The integrated AI NPU handles Windows Studio Effects and Copilot requests locally, trimming latency and cloud calls. Fan noise rarely tops a muted whoosh, with surface temps peaking at 39 °C under sustained video export.
Battery life
Lenovo touts “up to 12 hours” from the 57 Wh pack. Our mixed-use loop (Wi-Fi, 150 nit OLED, Slack, Word, Spotify) conked out after 8 h 17 m – middling rather than marathon, and an hour shy of the MacBook Air M3. Stick to WUXGA IPS and dial back the refresh and you’ll flirt with double digits. Rapid Charge still fills 80 % in 52 minutes via the 65 W USB-C brick.
Connectivity & extras
Wi-Fi 7 future-proofs the radio; Bluetooth 5.4 handles your ANC cans. The 5 MP IR webcam gains a ToF sensor for Lenovo’s “Zero-Touch” presence detection, which reliably locks the screen when you wander off and wakes it before you’ve fully sat down. Fingerprint and IR log-ins offer belt-and-braces security, and there’s still a good old-fashioned physical shutter for the paranoid.
Price & value
UK configs start at £1,600 for a Core Ultra 5/16 GB/512 GB IPS model and climb past £2,300 once you tick OLED, Ultra 7, 32 GB and 1 TB. That’s a premium over rivals like the Dell XPS 14 and HP Dragonfly G4, both of which pack similar silicon for a few hundred quid less. You’re paying for pedigree, portability and that unbeatable keyboard feel – intangibles accountants often struggle to amortise.
Verdict
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 is evolutionary, not revolutionary: same fabulous build, even better inputs, moderate performance gains and battery life that’s merely fine. If you live on the road and crave the lightest, toughest Windows notebook with a keyboard your fingers will write love letters to, it remains the yard-stick. Everyone else can pocket a little cash and look at more mainstream metal.
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