Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Review: Supercool But Room For Improvement

When opened fully, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold offers an expansive display.

On the inside, you get a 16.3-inch folding OLED screen that is downright palatial when opened fully, and still large enough to be serviceable (approximately 12 inches diagonally) when you place the keyboard over the lower half of the screen for “laptop mode.” The keyboard also magnetically attaches to the stand you can use to prop the opened screen up in either portrait or landscape depending on your workflow.

With the previous generation of the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the keyboard slipped in between the two folded halves of the screen. That is not the case with this laptop, since this screen folds flat. While that has (thankfully) become the trend with foldable phones, I think Lenovo missed on this point. Having the keyboard live in between the two halves made a lot of sense and kept the keyboard fully charged—and this is what we like to call “foreshadowing.”

Instead, the keyboard and stand fold together and attach magnetically to the top or bottom of the laptop. This is a step back in the design. The previous generation also had an integrated kickstand which was admittedly not amazing, but it had “not having to carry it separately” going for it. Plus the battery life on the keyboard (800 mAh) is very short. I had to charge the keyboard twice during my two-week evaluation period, which is not great.

The keyboard attaches magnetically to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold and, unfortunately, its battery life leaves something to be desired.

Speaking of battery life, it should come as no surprise that the battery life on this laptop is not amazing. Granted, a 16-inch screen is going to suck up a lot of juice, but I couldn’t get through a full day, even in laptop mode. When using the full screen, I averaged around four to five hours, and with the keyboard on the bottom half (with the bottom half off) I barely eked out eight hours. Again, this is not a surprise, but considering the average laptop is pushing eight hours and change without breaking a sweat, I suggest adding a battery pack to your laptop bag when you leave the office with this computer.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold: Keyboard And Stand

Meanwhile, the other two accessories you’ll be tossing into your bag are the aforementioned keyboard and stand. These accessories let you stand the laptop up so you can take full advantage of that huge screen. The stand is solid metal with a soft-touch fabric coating it, front and back. The bottom of the stand has a bar that slots magnetically into the back of the keyboard and allows you to detach the keyboard for laptop mode.

While this implementation is acceptable on the Yogabook 9i—Lenovo’s dual-screen laptop launched last year—it feels clunky on this device, especially since the previous generation device did it so much better.

The good news about the keyboard is that it’s larger than the previous generation and easier to type on. The keys have good pitch and travel and it types smoothly. It’s also not prone to the double letter and occasional letter skips that the last generation keyboard had.

The keyboard on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is large and proved easier to type on than the previous generation’s.

Two major improvements include the built-in fingerprint reader which is rarely necessary since the camera does a spectacular job of locking and unlocking your laptop when you step away and return to it respectively. The other great addition is the trackpad, which, while it’s still considered small by today’s standards, is enormous compared to the postage stamp–size trackpad on the Gen 1 device.

I only have three gripes about the keyboard—four if you include the short battery life. First, I dislike the switched “CTRL” and “Fn” buttons in the bottom left corner of the keyboard—something that Lenovo seemingly randomly assigns to its keyboards. Another issue is that the “Page Up” and “Page Down” buttons are shoehorned in around the arrow keys on the keyboard. I have accidentally shot up and down a page many times during my review period.

Finally, the trackpad on the keyboard is hella sensitive. Even with sensitivity turned to its lowest setting and with taps on the trackpad disabled, sometimes the trackpad just decides it’s going to go crazy with taps. Instead of the cursor smoothly sliding across the screen, you’ll feel a series of taps under your finger and suddenly windows are flying, text is getting selected and buttons are being pushed. It’s extremely off-putting. Between this and the “Page Up”/“Page Down” buttons, there have been times I wanted to just throw away the keyboard and carry around a third-party option.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold: Software

The ThinkPad X1 Fold runs Windows 11 and, for arguably the first time, the operating system is not a hindrance on a nontraditional form factor. It’s not all that good, but it’s also not sabotaging the experience either. Placing windows and snapping them where you want them to go is easy, as is stacking windows on top of each other or placing them side-by-side. Windows doesn’t freak out when you switch orientations, even when you remove the keyboard from the laptop and stand it up on the stand in one motion.

I’m not saying that Windows has figured out how to touch-optimize its operating system, but I am saying that Windows may have figured out how to no longer blow up the experience. The only lingering issue comes in the form of the virtual keyboard (VKB), which popped up every time I tapped on a text field even though I completely disabled the VKB. So I set it to its smallest size and moved it off to the side where it was out of the way. Plus, once I hit a key on the Bluetooth keyboard, the VKB seemed to realize that its services were no longer required, and it backed out of the room. Baby steps.

Lenovo still bundles in its Lenovo Vantage software, which is fine and easy to ignore. The software can help you get some vital statistics on your machine and its performance and request help when something goes wrong, but otherwise it’s just there to remind you that you’re using a Lenovo laptop and you should be… happy about it or something.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold: Other Features

The laptop stand can be positioned at any angle up to about 40 degrees. That gives you a lot of flexibility to position the screen how you prefer. The hinge of the foldable display itself can also be placed however you want it, so you can really find the configuration that works best for you.

When you’re finishing up using the computer in laptop mode while the keyboard covers the bottom half of the screen, there are no fewer than six steps required to stow this laptop before you can put it in your bag. You need to remove the keyboard, close the laptop, attach the keyboard to the stand, close the keyboard and stand together, power off the keyboard, and then magnetically attach the keyboard and stand to the laptop. Then and only then can you slide it into your bag. It’s laborious compared to simply closing a laptop and standing up.

The folding screen does not pass the one-handed opening test. The hinge on the folding screen is far too tight to be able to lift the lid of the laptop to open it.

The X1 Fold does pass all of Lenovo’s in-house specifications for durability, including military specifications. This is a tough laptop, though the textured surface on the back of the laptop catches dirt and holds on to it for dear life. Speaking of design, all the USB-C ports are on the top half of the folding screen, so your dongles might dangle. Also, when in laptop mode, the volume rocker is on the front face of the laptop which is odd placement, all things considered.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold: Verdict

Overall, this is a fun and versatile laptop that corrects a lot of the problems that the first generation had, but then “fixed” a couple of “problems” that it didn’t. While I appreciate that the laptop folds flat, I miss the ability to stow the keyboard inside the closed laptop. At the time, having the keyboard inside the laptop felt like a good workaround to a problem that existed four years ago. Now, the alternative feels like a worse workaround.

The X1 Fold starts at $2,500 and goes up to more than $3,500. That is a lot of money for a laptop with a two-year old processor, but it’s also half the price of the other option—the HP Spectre Fold 17.

This laptop is also more configurable than that one, so you have to feel good about that. But at $2,500, you’re in high-end laptop territory, and while this is a high-end laptop, it’s not the same kind of high end.

But it is supercool, and for some, that’ll be enough. Don’t come into this laptop hoping for a powerhouse gaming rig, and don’t plan to edit videos (or even do a lot of intense graphic work) on here. But if you want a great web-surfing, writing and editing box with a ton of versatility, this is a very solid solution. Lenovo has made progress in this area, and I hope it doesn’t take another three years to see the next one.

My Expertise

I’m a Chicago-based freelance reviewer and have been writing about consumer electronics for over a decade with a particular focus on mobile phones and cellular technology, including the birth of 5G. I’ve also tested most phones on the market over the past several years and have written about the best smartphones you can buy as well as e-readers and other devices.

When I’m not testing the latest and greatest flagship phones, I’m hosting the Benefit of the Doud podcast/YouTube channel with my cohost Clifton M. Thomas and editing technology news articles for SlashGear. In addition to Forbes and SlashGear, I have bylines at Android Central, Reviewed.com, Android Authority, Lifewire and more.

How I Tested The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold

In order to thoroughly test this laptop, I used it as my primary PC for three weeks. I alternated between using it fully opened and with the keyboard affixed on the lower half. I took the laptop to several locations including a local coffee shop, a doctor’s office waiting room and even in the car.

I used the laptop primarily for writing, but also for editing copy and images in several different content management systems. Additionally, while performing these tasks, I played music in the background and performed some multiwindow workflow procedures. I did this both while the laptop was plugged in and on battery to get a feel for overall battery life and the difference in performance between the different states.