Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold - An Author's Review

I love exploring new technologies, and the folding-screen laptop category is so exciting! In this case, my excitement unfortunately had to meet reality. I still enjoy the Thinkpad X1 Fold, but it's a pretty bad device, from its cramped keyboard to its terrible battery life. What do you think?

Next week, I'll be exploring a laptop I love -- and one I used to write an entire novel!

[ishyandmikkischannel]

This is the Gen 1 - your review is fairly accurate. We use it same way you do.

[Lerpzoid]

I have the x1 fold currently. Installing windows 11 and updating drivers in the last 6 months has all but removed the lag for me on the device. It's pretty solid at this point

[Belgarathe]

Love you insight. Was very tempted but the lack of ports and keyboard key travel was what really killed it for me.

[PaulWagner]

Out of curiosity, are you running Win 11 or 10?

[bellissimo]

I am interested in a device like this only as a portable, foldable large screen, to do work from locations like hotel rooms. I'd use my own portable mouse and mechanical keyboard anyway. And battery life doesn't concern me, as I'd keep it on socker power anyway. I just need to have decent screen real estate.

[feklee]

Good points! But to get full potential of a tablet device, I suggest putting it at a comfortable height on the table, then putting the keyboard on the lap. My device is a ThinkPad X1 Tablet 3rd gen. (not foldable). Using it on a couch with kickstand is no problem. In any case, I don't want to go back to a laptop anymore. With a laptop the keyboard is way too close to the screen.

[kahlancypher]

If your unit does not charge the keyboard wirelessly you got a broken one. The g1 fold does charge the keyboard that way the fold 16 removed that feature.

[FreakMC]

It's funny you bring up how cramped the keyboard is when I have a small folding keyboard I use with my phone that is way smaller and can type just fine (besides a few of the keys which can be hard to hit)

[andaroo]

I was about to buy it until I saw this. You've just saved me £600

[jayplay]

and here I am wishing for a laptop with a mechanical keyboard ... one can dream

[michaelsan]

INCREDIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, DO NOT BUY X1 fold, OR ANY LENOVO PRODUCT, we purchased one for first time, barely used it maybe 10 times and by the 4th month it failed, wouldn't start up, called Lenovo, explianed situation and they approved to send us a replacement, they flat out lied to us because 6 days later we received an empty box to ship it for repair, not replacement as we we're promised. So we shipped for repair. 10 days later not having heard from them we called, it turns out that the repair was on hold, they were charging us $1337 to replace the motherboard, when Ii remind them it's 4 months from purchase and barely used, they excuse themselvesby lying again saying it had water damage, it had been stored in office drawer for most of the 4 months, they couldn't even have cliamed it had dust damage due to it have been put away withot use. Total lies.

[Mmeedo]

The sluggish CPU performance and the fact it cannot do any GPU acceleration without going crazy with screen flickering is killing my soul. And don't let me start with the buggy screen switching when attaching the physical keyboard. I tried everything to improve the performance but none helped. I wasted 3K on this garbage.