Review: Lenovo ThinkPad Z13

If you were looking to buy a laptop for work, you must have considered Lenovo’s ThinkPad series of laptops in your shortlisting process. The company’s ThinkPad series has stood the test of time and have emerged as one of the top choices for business laptops. With the new ThinkPad Z series, which includes the Z13 and the Z16, the company has totally refreshed the design of the laptops.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 comes packed in a beautiful body. The company has used sustainable materials such as recycled aluminum and recycled black vegan leather to build the laptop. The company also has its sights on sustainability – this philosophy extends to the packaging of the laptop, which is made using 100% renewable bamboo and sugarcane. In addition, the AC power adapter of the laptop uses 90% Post-Consumer Content (PCC).

As mentioned earlier, the company has used black vegan leather on the lid, while the edges have a brushed bronze metal look and feel. The overall build quality is quite robust. Open up the lid and you get a 13.3-inch WQXGA OLED touchscreen display that offers a peak brightness of 400 nits. The display supports an aspect ratio of 16:10, offers a 91.6% screen-to-body ratio, and is Eyesafe certified. The display also supports Dolby Vision and Low Blue Light functionality.

On the top of the display, you will also find what Lenovo calls the “Communication Bar”. This includes a 1080p webcam, an integrated Windows Hello IR camera, and dual microphones. The laptop is also the first Lenovo ThinkPad to come packed with a trackpad that uses haptic feedback. This means the trackpad doesn’t have a physical click mechanism at all. This one uses haptics to simulate the feeling of a click, even if there’s no depression of a button whatsoever.

In terms of connectivity, the Z13 has one USB-C port on each side. This means the laptop can be conveniently charged on either side. On the right edge, you also get a 3.5mm audio jack, the Power button, and a Nano-SIM card slot. In terms of security, you can either use your fingerprint or your face to unlock the device, thanks to the Windows Hello integration.

Other security features include the eShutter option. Instead of using a physical shutter, the camera can be locked electronically by pressing F9. Another new feature is the Microsoft Pluton security chip, which performs the task of a dTPM chip. It also blocks a Linux installation by default, but this can be easily changed in the BIOS.

Under the hood, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is powered by an AMD Ryzen PRO 6850U processor running at a clock speed of 2.70GHz. You also get Radeon Graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. Wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. The laptop also weighs 1.25-kgs. Inside the box, you get the 65-watt power adapter along with the laptop, but that’s it. If you need additional connectivity options, you may need to buy a connectivity hub.

The ThinkPad Z13 also offers a two-stage backlit keyboard, which is quite similar to the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano. It offers a key travel of 1.35 mm. In addition, Lenovo has included a standard-width keyboard on the ThinkPad Z13. This means the keyboard has very minimal borders on the sides. Using the keyboard and the trackpad was a great experience. And Lenovo has also included the iconic ThinkPad TrackPoint, too.

The overall performance of the laptop was very good. We ran a few benchmarks to gauge the real-world performance of the laptop. On PCMark 10, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 was able to clock 5517 points. In CrossMark, the laptop was able to clock an overall 1417 points. In AIDA64’s Memory Copy benchmark, we registered 47109 MB/s, while in the Memory Read benchmark, we got 38065 MB/s. In AIDA64’s Memory Write benchmark, we got 50118 MB/s. In 3DMark 11, The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 scored 6860 points.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 also scored really well in our battery life tests. On a single charge, we clocked over 12 hours of day-to-day usage. This is really good considering the target audience this laptop is aimed at – mobile professionals.

Lenovo seems to have nailed it with the new ThinkPad Z13. With the Z13, what we get is a very beautifully designed laptop, that does not skimp on features and performance.

I would have personally liked more USB-C ports on this thing, but frankly, since I also carry a tiny dock around, which offers a few more USB-C ports, standard USB ports, and an HDMI port, it isn’t a biggie.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 thus comes across as highly recommended!

Price: AED 7350 onwards