Lenovo’s business-friendly ThinkPad laptop lineup has long been the gold standard. Younger generations, on the other hand, have criticized the iconic notebook’s boxy black aesthetics. Lenovo introduced a completely redesigned ThinkPad, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13, to pique the interest of Gen Z.
Unlike previous ThinkPads, the Z13 features a new faux leatherette trim and copper-colored accents, making it both modern and retro. While the Z13 received a stylish exterior makeover, the real appeal is on the inside. The ThinkPad Z13, unlike other versions of Lenovo’s business-focused laptops, is built entirely around AMD’s Ryzen processor architecture, which promises power, endurance, and performance in a lightweight package. But, with the Z13, can Lenovo maintain the ThinkPad line’s legacy appeal while modernizing its aesthetic?
Design and Features
The ThinkPad Z13 represents Lenovo’s most radical departure from the ThinkPad tradition. Though the boxy aesthetic and straight edges remain, this modern laptop foregoes the smooth black finishes and unassuming design in favor of a fashion-forward vegan leather trim with contrasting copper-hued tones. Those looking for a more understated look can go with the Arctic Gray aluminum lid.
Our vegan leatherette lid has a more distinct feel and stands out among Lenovo’s sea of black ThinkPads. Still, by embracing personality, the Z13 abandons the ThinkPad’s stoic minimalism heritage. That’s not to say the new design is flashy; it retains traditional ThinkPad elements like straight edges, subtly curved corners, a mostly black finish, and the iconic red light built into the dot on the I of the ThinkPad logo.
Unless you’re a purist, Lenovo’s modern take on the classic ThinkPad is very refined and polished – it feels like a laptop designed for the 2020s rather than the 1980s. The new design is both stylish and functional, and it adheres to Lenovo’s design philosophy of very minimal flourishes. Everything, from the vegan leather to the camera bar at the top, appears to have been carefully considered.
Lenovo isn’t the first company to use leather or vegan leather in its design, nor is it the first to prioritize sustainability, but its efforts appear more genuine than those of many of its competitors. For example, HP’s 2018 Spectre Folio was one of the first laptops to feature a leather folio, but the use of real leather raised some eyebrows among vegans and those concerned about the environmental impact of the beef industry. The use of vegan leather here solves that problem, and the pebbled leather grain looks and feels nice – it’s definitely a lot more inviting to look at and feel than Apple’s MacBook laptops’ cold aluminum.
Similarly, the sustainable approach has been executed flawlessly. Lenovo can’t be accused of greenwashing, from the recycled aluminum bottom plate to the recycled plastics in the leather lid to the compostable packaging made from bamboo and sugarcane fibers.
The ThinkPad Z13 is available in two finishes: all-metal and leather-clad with copper accents. Our review unit is the latter, and it is the more visually appealing laptop. The use of vegan leather here gives the Z13 a luxurious feel, similar to the interior of a luxury car, and the Lenovo and ThinkPad logos have been “branded” into the vegan leather, giving it all of the branding elements of a traditional ThinkPad.
In comparison to the classic ThinkPad X1 lineup, I prefer the leather because it is less of a fingerprint magnet than the glass fiber-laced lid and simply looks better. The accented copper-toned rails that run around the side of the Z13 add a nice bit of contrast. Strips of plastic inlaid into the metal copper-colored rails assist the laptop in connecting to Wi-Fi 6E networks and Bluetooth devices. The design is similar to what Apple is doing with the sides of its most recent iPhone models.
Despite the mobile-inspired design, which includes antennas placed around the edge of the laptop, mobile broadband is not integrated inside the body.
Despite the Z13’s boxier, squared-off appearance – the slightly slanted wedge-shaped profile from Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon line has been dropped – this laptop feels incredibly compact and portable. The Z13’s footprint is smaller than that of the MacBook Air M2, the XPS 13 Plus, and the ThinkPad X1 Nano at 294 x 199mm, making it an ideal companion for business travelers.
The Z13’s 0.55-inch slim profile makes it thicker than the 0.44-inch MacBook Air but thinner than the 0.66-inch X1 Nano and the 0.6-inch X1 Carbon. And, at 2.76 pounds, it’s light enough for road warriors to carry. The slim design of this Ryzen-powered laptop competes with Intel’s Ultrabooks.
A small copper band at the top, which houses the laptop’s FHD and IR cameras, acts as a lip to help open and close the lid. In reality, the expanded portion enables Lenovo to cram camera technology into the Z13’s compact body without having to increase the size of the minimal display bezels or resort to top-notch, as seen on Apple’s latest laptop models. The Z13 has a 92% screen-to-body ratio thanks to its narrow bezels.
The Z13’s disadvantage is that Lenovo appears to be more concerned with form than function in some areas. For example, with the webcam, the company switched from a physical to an electronic shutter for privacy.
In addition, unlike bulkier business notebooks, Lenovo is focusing on the cloud with the Z13. The ThinkPad Z13, which targets the Gen Z demographic, loses a lot of its bulk and ports in favor of a slimmer profile. There are two USB-C 4 ports on each side of the laptop, as well as a power button on the right side and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Most users will most likely connect the laptop to cloud services, use Bluetooth peripherals, or rely on the notebook’s spacious 512GB Gen4 NVMe solid-state drive for storage, which eliminates the need for additional ports.
A 65W USB-C charger is included in the box, and using it will take up one of the laptop’s two ports. If you require more ports, this model will require you to live the dongle life.
Another difference between the Z13 and standard Lenovo ThinkPad models is that the bottom is made of recycled aluminum rather than glass fiber. The bottom panel acts as a passive cooler for the laptop, while the internal fans provide active cooling, and vents along the bottom round out the thermal system.
Heat can be an issue because the aluminum bottom plate is used as part of the thermal system. The Z13 gets hot, especially when the CPU is stressed, making it a poor choice for use on your lap. Heat is less of an issue when used on a desk or solid surface.
The bottom panel, like most business laptops, can be removed to gain access to the internals and replace or upgrade components over time. The M.2 SSD can be accessed by unscrewing the five screws that are secured to the lid. Both the Wi-Fi card and the RAM are soldered to the main board and cannot be replaced. The fans and battery are serviceable components. And, because it’s a ThinkPad, the Z13 has passed Lenovo’s MIL-STD 810H testing, ensuring its durability in harsher environments.
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Keyboard
The keyboard, with its signature red nub that’s an iconic mainstay on all ThinkPad models, is perhaps the one area where Lenovo stumbled with the Z13. If you’re new to the ThinkPad brand, you might not notice, but the slightly lower performance of the keyboard compared to other ThinkPad family members dilutes the brand.
The Z13’s keyboard, like most ThinkPads before it, provides a great typing experience with a full-size keyboard and an edge-to-edge design to fit the compact space. According to Lenovo’s research, the keys retain a smile-shaped design with a subtle curve along the bottom edge to aid in typing speed and accuracy, and you also get a full row of function keys at the top.
The most noticeable difference is that Lenovo inverted the Ctrl and Fn keys on this keyboard. Instead of placing the Fn key on the left-most edge, as on other ThinkPad laptops, the Z13 sticks to a more traditional layout, with the Ctrl key on the left. After coming from the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, it took me a few hours to adjust to the new arrangement, and long-time ThinkPad fans who upgrade to the Z13 can swap the key mapping in the software.
Because the Z13 is so thin, Lenovo changed the key travel on this laptop, opting for a more shallow distance to save space. Instead of the more traditional ThinkPad 1.5mm of key travel, the Z13 has about 1.35mm. To counteract this, the Z13 has stiffer keys that require more actuation force, creating the illusion of deeper key travel.
In my experience, the Z13’s keys are comfortable to type on, with deeper travel than the keys on my MacBook Pro, but not as comfortable as the keyboard on my X1 Carbon. If they haven’t used some of Lenovo’s best laptops, new ThinkPad users will find the keyboard excellent. The function keys can be remapped using Lenovo’s software, and the keys are backlit. I appreciated having dedicated function keys for muting and unmuting the microphone during my video calls, which is a feature that is frequently lacking in consumer laptops. The arrow keys on the Z13 have also been modified, and a fingerprint scanner, in addition to the IR camera, serves as a secondary biometric authentication method.
When typing, I found the keys to be slightly louder than on the X1 Carbon, but significantly quieter than the keys on my MacBook Pro. The keyboard on the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is excellent, and the more familiar arrangement with the control key to the left of the function key is a welcome change for new ThinkPad users.
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Trackpad
Below the keyboard deck is a fairly wide – but not quite as tall – trackpad. Lenovo uses a haptic area on the top of the trackpad this year to increase the overall surface area of the trackpad, which can also double as click buttons for the trackpoint. Instead of physical left and right click buttons, when using the red trackpoint, you can press down and feel a haptic click on the left or right top edge of the trackpad, which works similarly to Apple’s 3D Touch or Force Touch on the MacBook. The virtual buttons can be configured, and users can alter the amount of force required to activate them as well as the audibility of the clicking noise.
The disadvantage of this arrangement, if you rely on the trackpoint, is that you can’t blindly feel where the buttons are and may inadvertently press on the wrong thing. This may be a deal breaker for long-time ThinkPad owners, but given that the Z13 is aimed at Gen Z audiences, I doubt the change will impair the notebook’s usability.
Lenovo has also expanded the touchpad area by switching to this new design. The glass-covered touchpad is a joy to use, allowing for precise cursor control and gestures.
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Display
To bring the Z13 down to a more affordable price point that will appeal to Generation Z, one of the best display features of the ThinkPad X1 series was removed. The screen on most ThinkPad models can recline a full 180 degrees, allowing it to lay flat on the table alongside the keyboard deck. While this yoga gesture may not appear to be significant, it facilitates collaboration with nearby colleagues because a team can huddle around the display while viewing content. Because of the Z13’s more discrete and concealed hinge, the screen can only recline so far, from closed to about 145 degrees. It reclines about as far as the display on my Intel-powered MacBook Pro when in use.
The Z13’s 13.3-inch display is available in a variety of resolutions and configurations, all of which support a slightly taller 16:10 aspect ratio. I prefer the taller 16:10 display on most consumer notebooks for multitasking and productivity, though it’s still not as tall as Microsoft’s 3:2 display on the Surface Pro 8. Our model has a 1920 x 1200 resolution IPS panel that supports touch and has a glare and smudging reduction coating. A matte screen without touch support is also available, as is an upgraded 2.8K resolution OLED touchscreen panel with 2880 x 1800 pixels.
The display’s narrow borders make working on content feel very immersive. The more compact frame makes the Z13 feel much more compact than it actually is for travel, but when you’re working on it, the immersive quality of the display makes it appear to be working on a larger 14-inch screen.
The standard IPS touch display on our review unit is stunning, displaying rich, bright colors with even backlighting. The display is also very bright. The display is rated by Lenovo at 400 nits, which is 100 more than the average laptop in this class. I was able to achieve 435 nits with the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 in use.
In general, I found that I didn’t need to go above 75% brightness in most situations, and even at 100% brightness, the display is still very readable outside. When working in bright ambient lighting, reflectivity is still an issue, despite the anti-reflection coating. The screen also had a wide viewing angle. The screen is also ideal for creative work, as it covers the entire sRGB color space.
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Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Performance
Despite the fact that the Z13’s design makes it less familiar as a ThinkPad, its performance is nothing short of the brand’s standard. The star of the show and the brains behind the Z13’s beauty is AMD’s Ryzen 6000 Pro processor.
Our review unit’s Ryzen 7 6850U mobile processor has eight processing cores, and the CPU also includes AMD’s Radeon 680M graphics with 12 GPU cores. The Ryzen 6000 Pro processor’s performance is very competitive. AMD largely delivers on its promise of delivering efficient performance to a compact laptop that can be used for productivity, creativity, and gaming with the Ryzen 6000.
The AMD Ryzen 7 6850U performed similarly to Intel’s 12th Gen Core i7 mobile processors in general productivity tasks where the CPU is primarily used. Our PCMark 10, Geekbench 5, and Cinebench tests confirmed the similarities in performance between these two competing chipsets.
While the single- and multi-core Geekbench 5 scores were comparable to competing Intel models, the Ryzen’s multi-core performance outperforms the rival 12th Gen Intel by 2,000 points. The performance of the Ryzen 6000 Pro processor on the Z13 was very similar across various energy modes, whereas Intel’s processor throttled in more energy-efficient modes.
The Ryzen 6000 on the Z13 performed slightly worse on single-core processor benchmarks than Apple’s M2 processor on the recent MacBook Air but blew away Mac’s custom Arm-based silicon on the Cinebench benchmark.
When launching apps, multitasking with multiple windows open, or web browsing with multiple tabs open, the ThinkPad Z13 never felt sluggish. The laptop’s performance is buttery smooth for most productivity tasks.
Efficiency is an area where the Ryzen outperforms its Intel rival, and this is reflected in battery life. In my mixed use of the ThinkPad Z13, I was able to average between 12 and 15 hours with mixed usage, and the display was set to around 50% brightness, implying that the Z13 should be able to last up to two work days without needing to be recharged. To extend battery life even further, battery saver mode was activated near the end of the second day. When it comes to efficiency, the Ryzen-powered Z13 falls into Arm territory, but the benefit here is that you’re still getting an x86 processor optimized for business computing.
More CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, such as video editing or light gaming, would require more power, but in general, Ryzen’s power efficiency is excellent. Similar usage would result in battery life ranging from six to eight hours on a comparable Intel 12th Gen CPU, implying that the Z13’s AMD chipset provided twice the battery life on a single charge.
The ThinkPad Z13 scored 2,567 points on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark with the integrated AMD Radeon processor, which is to be expected for a laptop without discrete graphics. When I was doing light photo editing, I didn’t notice any slowdowns. Video encoding is a little slower than on a laptop with discrete graphics, so if you’re a designer, the Z13 might not be the best choice.
In terms of gaming performance, the Ryzen 6000’s integrated Radeon graphics are ideal for casual gamers who prefer to play at 1080p resolution. Though you won’t get anywhere near 60 frames per second on notebooks with entry-level discrete laptop graphics, the Ryzen 6000 delivers playable 30fps on a variety of modern titles with lower game settings. This level of performance, particularly with integrated graphics, is quite impressive for a laptop of this size and weight.
Lenovo chose AMD’s silicon over Intel’s on other ThinkPad models because the Ryzen/Radeon combination delivers stellar performance while retaining solid battery life. Under duress, the fans kick in. If you’re gaming with sound on, you won’t notice the whirling fan blades, but the noise is noticeable in quieter environments.
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Webcam and Audio
The ThinkPad Z13 is an excellent machine for content consumption. Aside from watching office training videos, the two downward-firing speakers at the bottom are loud and powerful, providing a rich and immersive audio experience ideal for watching videos and movies. The speakers are tuned for Dolby Atmos, which provides a simulated surround sound experience.
In addition to a great audio experience, the ThinkPad Z13 has a good 1080p webcam. Though the webcam’s performance won’t match that of some of our top 4K models, it delivers solid performance in low light, but it muddles out a lot of detail and definition from your skin.
The IR camera on the Z13 shines, as it can be used for facial authentication with Windows Hello as well as presence detection. Lenovo’s intelligent software can detect if you are in front of the computer and keep the screen on, as well as lock the PC when you move out of the camera’s range. An electronic shutter completes the camera experience, but we would have preferred to see a physical shutter.
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Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 release date and price
Lenovo’s latest ThinkPad Z13 is not your father’s ThinkPad, with its luxurious leather and contrasting copper trim. The modernized version of Lenovo’s iconic business-class laptop starts at $1,355. The base configuration includes an AMD Ryzren 5 Pro 6650U mobile processor, Windows 11 Home, 16GB of LPDDR5 soldered memory, a 256GB solid-state PCIe Gen4 drive, and an all-metal 13.3-inch WUXGA non-touch display.
After Lenovo’s discount, our upgraded review unit costs $1,851. The upgraded configuration includes a vegan leather lid, a Ryzen 7 6850U processor, Windows 11 Pro, 16GB of soldered LPDDR5 6400MHz RAM, 512GB of PCIe Gen4 solid-state storage, and a 13.3-inch WUXGA touchscreen display instead of the all-metal design. All models include a 1080p webcam and an infrared camera for biometric security, as well as a fingerprint reader and Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 support.
After a discount, the maximum configuration of this laptop costs $2,267, which increases the memory to 32GB and the storage to 1TB. Lenovo also offers an upgraded OLED touchscreen display with a resolution of 2.8K 2880 x 1800.
The ThinkPad Z13 comes with a one-year on-site limited warranty. Because this is a business laptop, Lenovo provides several options for expanding your coverage or extending your warranty for added security.
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