ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 review: Bringing Windows tablets to new places

You might remember the original ThinkPad X1 Fold. It came when Microsoft was dreaming up Windows 10X, and a new wave of dual-screen laptops. A few years later, Lenovo is one of the few laptop OEMs that are still sticking with what Microsoft has moved on from. Best seen with the dual-screen Yoga Book 9i, the company isn’t afraid to innovate on what others have left behind.

This is why the new ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 is different from its predecessor and some newer competitors like the Asus Zenbook Fold 17 and the HP Spectre Foldable. It brings a lot of improvements over the first version that brings Windows tablets to new places. It has a bigger 16.3-inch screen, that can fold down to the size of a 12-inch laptop, a new fold-flat hinge, an improved keyboard, and new battery options. Some elements like the stand have also been improved, making it much easier to use.

Of course, all these cool features come at a big price, a crazy $2,500. So this isn’t a PC for everyone. It’s rather niche, just like modern folding phones. But if you want to look cool and are tired of traditional convertibles or Windows tablets like a Surface, and want a glimpse into the future way of computing, you’ll want to add this to your shopping cart. Just keep in mind it still takes a lot of setup, since you have to carry around the keyboard and the included stand.

ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: Specs

ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: Price

You can buy the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 today at Lenovo.com. Pricing starts at $2,500, but that is the “Build your PC” version. My unit has a few upgrades that bring the price up a bit, including the Intel Core i7-1250U CPU, and Windows 11 Pro. It also comes with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. The keyboard was also added, for an additional $300. That brings my unit up to $3,306 through the Build Your PC configuration. It’s also $3,600 as a standalone unit, including the Lenovo Precision Pen.

Design

The design of the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 is what proves this isn’t an ordinary Windows tablet. Indeed, this is a foldable device. It has squared-off edges, which makes it feel like an iPad in your hands. The top cover is also made of a woven material that just feels nice in your hands. It’s a change from the all-aluminum and plastic laptops you might be used to.

What makes this device unique, though, is the hinge down the middle and the Fold Flat design where you can fold the 16-inch screen in half. This is a big change from the original 13-inch version, which had a gap in the middle where the hinge is when it is folded shut. The new model now has what Lenovo is calling a “bell-shaped” hinge, that has over 200 parts, letting the display fold into a bell shape to avoid creasing. This means it looks thinner when closed. It also means you don’t see the fold of the hinge when the device is on your desk in direct light and you’re looking at the screen. Magnesium and carbon fiber alloy frames under the display keep it strong, too. I never felt it flexing too much.

Unfortunately, unlike the new Asus Zenbook Fold 17, the hinge design also means you can’t store the keyboard inside the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 while you’re traveling with it. That means you’ll have to consider using the different form factors that I’ll get into next.

Modes of operation & accessories

The ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 is designed to be used in five ways. There’s a Carry Mode, where you’ll magnetically attach the keyboard and stand accessory to the bottom of the X1 Fold. There’s the Portrait Mode, where you can place the X1 Fold into the stand vertically with the keyboard attached or detached for a taller screen. There’s also Landscape Mode, which gives you a desktop feel since the screen is wider for stacking windows side by side. I can’t forget the Clamshell Mode either, where you can prop the keyboard onto the bottom screen and use the X1 Fold like a 12-inch laptop. The last of the modes is the Book and Tablet mode, where you can hold the device like an e-reader and fold it open.

As you can guess, the Portrait, Landscape, and Clamshell modes all depend on using the included keyboard accessory and the stand. I spent a lot of my time using the X1 Fold in Landscape mode at my desk since it found that it could replicate my monitor thanks to the 4:3 aspect ratio. It’s perfect for productivity.

Lenovo improved the stand this year so it’s no longer folio style like the first gen, and is more like a Surface Pro kickstand, at least in concept. You first magnetically attach the device to the front of the stand and then pull the kickstand outwards from the back. You can also move the display for better viewing angles. This makes the device easier to use on a desk or a solid surface. Yet I still did find it a bit troublesome, and I was constantly finding myself hooking and unhooking the keyboard from the front of the stand to make sure it was safely magnetically attached when I used the thing in my lap. When I was on the go, meanwhile, I had to unfold everything and put things into the Carry Mode, which takes some time to get used to. This isn’t a simple close the lid and go laptop.

The coolest mode of operation, though, is definitely that Clamshell Mode. 12-inch laptops are rare in 2024, and when you magnetically prop the keyboard accessory on the bottom screen, that’s what you end up getting. It’s just so small and compact, and amazing to look at. This can easily be used in situations where space is limited, like an Airplane or a car.

As for the final mode, it’s the most clunky of them all. Detaching all accessories, you can use the ThinkPad X1 Fold as a traditional e-reader and tablet. I will admit, it is really weird holding a giant 16-inch screen in my hand, but the fold down the middle helps in usability. I propped Microsoft Edge on one screen, and OneNote on the other, and was able to take notes while browsing the web using the included Lenovo Precision Pen 2. It sort of felt like holding a book, but after a while, the 2.73-pound device weighed down my hands. This is a dense feeling tabet.

To help you in using this device as a tablet, Lenovo includes its own Lenovo Mode Switcher app. It runs as an overlay on top of Windows 11’s Snap layouts. You’ll be able to move apps from one side of the screen to the other and will see a red box laying it out for you. This is about as optimized as Windows 11 will get for dual-screen and foldable laptops. Apps like OneNote don’t adapt to the screen layout like they do on dual screen or foldable like Surface Duo or Galaxy Fold at all. You have to do it manually.

Ports

The ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 comes in at about 0.69 inches in thickness, so that means there’s not a lot of room for ports. There’s one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports onboard. There’s not even a headphone jack. I had to pull out the dongle when I used this device at my desk, but that’s alright. I’m used to it by now, but if you plan to travel with this tablet, remember to keep your dongle handy.

Keyboard

It costs an extra $300, but the ThinkPad Bluetooth TrackPoint Keyboard and Stand are worth the purchase. As I mentioned, both are critical for using this device as an actual laptop or desktop replacement. The original ThinkPad X1 Fold also had an optional keyboard, but it’s minuscule compared to this year’s model. You now get a full-size keyboard, with a haptic touchpad. There’s even the TrackPoint nub, which when you double tap it, you’ll get a quick menu for camera and microphone settings and even the haptic feedback. The keyboard magnetically attaches to the bottom screen, and also to a holster at the bottom of the stand. It can be used separately, too.

Generally, the typing experience on this keyboard is pretty good. It’s backlit, and the keycaps are nice and snappy and have a soft but light feeling to them as they are jammed into the chassis. The all-glass haptic touchpad is pretty decent, too, though it’s not as spacious as I’d have liked. The clicking feeling on it, while it feels natural, isn’t as “solid” feeling as a Mac’s or the one in the Surface Laptop Studio. Annoyingly, the keyboard tends to go to sleep after a while, too, and you have to manually wake it up.

Another annoying thing? The keyboard needs to be recharged via USB-C. Lenovo includes a cable for you to use, as it’s bundled in the box, and can be plugged into one of the device’s ports. The new HP Spectre Fold can recharge by being propped on the screen. Still, a full-size keyboard is a nice treat, as it means you don’t have to use Windows 11’s clunky on-screen keyboard for typing.

Display and speakers

The ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 features a new 16.3-inch OLED display. Unlike what you’ll get on other laptops that are 3:2 or 16:10, the display is set in the 4:3 aspect ratio, almost like a perfect square. It also comes in the 2560×2024 resolution, with some uniform bezels around the edge. Put all that together, and things end up pretty incredible. The display is sharp and bright, hitting 440 nits of brightness in my testing. It’s fairly color-accurate, too, since it covers 95% of the Adobe RGB spectrum. In technical aspects, the display supports Dolby Vision and HDR.

To test the display, I watched a YouTube video featuring an aquarium, and I was impressed. The fish looked clean and bright yellow. The water looked clear, and the browns in the rocks on the floor of the tank were really deep. OLED displays always excel when it comes to color accuracy, and this shows why.

Note that there’s also a webcam in this display, but its orientation might vary. If you hold the display vertically, it’s at the top. Use it horizontally and it’s to the left side. If you use the device horizontally, your camera feed is automatically rotated in the software to match. The webcam is pretty good since it’s a 5MP webcam. I didn’t look too pixelated on my calls and I sounded great, too, since there are 3 speakers, and 4 microphones onboard. The device is smart enough to select which one is needed based on the orientation, so you get top-notch audio and microphone quality.

Performance and battery life

Under the hood of the ThinkPad X1 Fold are 12th-generation Intel U-series CPUs. These CPUs are now about two years old and are something to stay away from if you’re a video editor or gamer. The CPUs run with 9 watts of power, so it makes this ThinkPad X1 Fold for productivity only. You’ll have to keep to simple web browsing and office work on this foldable.

My device featured the Intel Core i7-1250U, which has 10 CPU cores. That’s two performance cores and eight efficiency cores. It’s a similar CPU to what is in other foldables like the HP Spectre Foldable or even the Asus Zenbook Fold 17. And yes, this is a fanless CPU. Lenovo has tweaked the thermals under the hood by using graphite sheets for even heat transfer. I never noticed the device getting too hot. Anyway, some of my benchmarking numbers can be seen below. I tested when plugged into power and on performance mode. Testing on battery and in performance mode yielded little different results.

These results are not too crazy. The Geekbench scores show the productivity strength of the device. I ended up multitasking in Edge with 4-8 tabs without issue, but pushing things beyond that with heavy multimedia tabs like YouTube did bring some slight lag. The 3DMark scores are well below 1,000, showing you can’t game. I tried Fornite, and well, it was unplayable at under 15 frames. The low Cinebech scores, meanwhile show where the 9W CPU tanks out. It’s not for video editing.

As far as battery life goes, it is hit-and-miss, depending on how you use the ThinkPad X1 Fold. I have a unit with a bigger 64Wh battery, but a smaller 48Wh option is available. I used the X1 Fold in the traditional clamshell mode for a day and got about 7 hours of battery life. When I used it in the Landscape mode, it was about 4 hours of battery life. As power efficient as the 9W CPU is, the OLED screens do take up a lot of juice, too. So keep expectations in check.

Should you buy the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16?

I’m used to convertibles where you flip the screen around, and 2-in-1s where you detach a keyboard or pull out a kickstand. So, I’ll say the ThinkPad X1 16 isn’t your ordinary Windows tablet. The only problem is that it carries a high price of $2,500. If you have that kind of money, you definitely might want to buy this device. It’s cool, thanks to the folding screen since you can use it in so many different ways, as a tablet, as a laptop, and even as a desktop. The performance is a little lackluster, though, so it’s only something that you’d want to use for productivity. And you’ll have to carry around a lot to use it on the go.