If you were making a Windows tablet designed to make Microsoft's Surface Pro look a bit dull and dated, you'd make the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet.
(The base model starts at $1,269; it costs $1,547 as tested.) Both tablet families offer a choice of Core i5 or Core i7 power, but Lenovo's uses Intel's newest-gen quad-core chips versus the older dual-cores in the Surfaces.
Both have sunny IPS screens, but the X1 Tablet has a 13-inch, 3,000-by-2,000-pixel panel to the Surface Pro's 12.3-inch, 2,736-by-1,824 display.
And while Microsoft's slate has just a usual USB 3.0 port, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet has two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The Surface Pro retains one key crown—battery life—but this Lenovo slate is good enough to spirit away our Editors' Choice for high-end detachable hybrids.
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Sparring With the Surface Pro
The $1,269 starter model($749.00 at Lenovo) combines a 1.6GHz Core i5-8250U processor with 8GB of memory, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), and Windows 10 Home.
Stepping up to our $1,547 tester brings a 512GB PCI Express-bus NVMe SSD, Lenovo's ThinkPad Pen Pro and Gen 3 Thin Keyboard, a fingerprint reader, and Windows 10 Pro.
That's a grand total of $12 less than a comparably equipped Surface Pro with a Surface Pen, a Signature Type Cover, and only half the storage.
Real power and real savings come with the Core i7-8650U model, which teams that 1.9GHz CPU with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and the pen and keyboard for $2,132, versus $2,959 for a similar Surface Pro.
Roamers will note that, while the ThinkPad X1 Tablet has a nano SIM slot and can be configured with mobile broadband at ordering time, Lenovo doesn't offer separate LTE Advanced models as Microsoft does.
The second-generation X1 Tablet had a unique design that accommodated optional docking or projector modules plugged between the tablet and keyboard.
The 2018 model is a more conventional 2-in-1 competitor, with a hinge halfway up its matte-black back for the kickstand.
The stand props the tablet at any angle from near-vertical to near-horizontal.
Like all detachables with kickstands, it's a little wobbly in your lap but sits securely on a desk or table.
The removable keyboard can either lie flat or stick magnetically to the bottom bezel at a slight tilt for an inclined typing angle.
Hey, Tablet Tough Guy
The magnesium and aluminum tablet has passed MIL-STD tests for surviving shock, vibration, and environmental extremes.
It weighs 1.96 pounds or 2.79 pounds with the keyboard, making it a bit heftier than the smaller-screened Surface Pro.
(Microsoft's tablet comes in at 1.75 or 2.41 pounds, respectively.) It's also a fraction larger than the Surface Pro, at 8.9 by 12 inches lying flat and 0.35 inch thick.
(It's 0.59 inch thick when you factor in the keyboard.)
X1 and ThinkPad logos decorate opposite corners of the back, which also sports a 3,200-by-1,800-pixel camera...
The front, naturally, consists mostly of the Corning Gorilla Glass-covered screen, surrounded by thumb-grip-sized bezels.
There's a 1,920-by-1,080 webcam centered above the display and a Windows Hello fingerprint reader at the right.
Both cameras capture well-lit, crisp images, better than most tablet cams.
On the tablet's left edge are a micro SD card slot, the two Thunderbolt 3 ports (either of which works with Lenovo's supplied USB Type-C charger), a lockdown notch for a security-cable tether, and an audio jack...
The right edge holds the power button, a volume rocker, and a slot for a slightly clunky plastic gadget (not shown) that holds the pen...
Alas, the Lenovo pen (more about which in a moment) doesn't stick to the tablet's side magnetically, as Microsoft's Surface Pen stylus does.
You'll want to keep the volume rocker turned all the way up, as the X1 Tablet's minuscule speakers just aren't up to rock and roll.
The sound is pretty good, but the maximum volume level is weak, and driving percussion sounds anything but; it's faint and flat.
For switching from MP3s to Skype conferences, of course, audio is fine.
A 3K Feast for Your Eyes
The ThinkPad X1 Tablet's 3K display, with a 3:2 aspect ratio, is a highlight, with rich, saturated colors and wide viewing angles.
Brightness and contrast are both superb, with inky blacks and glowing whites.
Plus, the glosscoat provided by the Gorilla Glass helps to enhance the perceived vividness of the panel under the right lighting conditions.
Fine details, indeed, look crystal clear at the 3,000-by-2,000-pixel native resolution.
That said, the resolution proved too fine for my clumsy fingers in some touch operations.
The tablet arrives with Windows' screen-element zoom set to 250 percent.
You may want to tweak that to your liking, depending on your eyesight and your fat or skinny fingers.
Of course, you can't fix fingers, so to solve that, there's the ThinkPad Pen Pro, a two-button, battery-powered stylus that offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
The pen kept up with my fastest swipes and scribbles, and the screen was a good sport, showing good palm rejection as I brushed the glass in my sketching trials with the side of my hand.
As you'd guess by the Gorilla Glass panel, though, the pen's tracery on the screen yields a slick and glassy, rather than paper-like, feel.
The keyboard cover is arguably best in class—the class being "keyboards that snap onto and off of detachable 2-in-1s." Given the removable design, it can't match the near-perfection of some Lenovo ThinkPad laptop keyboards, such as those in the ThinkPad T series, with their highly refined switches and inimitable keyfeel.
But it's excellent for what it is.
My one quibble: I wish the Fn and Ctrl keys in the lower left corner were swapped.
Also, the travel is undeniably shallow, and the backlighting dim.
But that the keyboard has backlighting at all is a plus, and given that this is a tear-off/snap-on design, it has a solid, responsive typing feel.
Beyond just reveling in the key feel, ThinkPad loyalists will be happy to find an embedded pointing stick, as well as a smooth-gliding touchpad.
The latter required a firm rap instead of my usual gentle tap to register a click, but its lower corners worked well as mouse-button substitutes.
You also get a set of dedicated left- and right-click buttons to use with the pointing nub; they're positioned forward of the pad, between it and the spacebar.
Lenovo backs the tablet with a one-year depot or carry-in warranty.
The handy Lenovo Vantage utility merges various system functions in a software preload that otherwise skews toward casual games like Candy Crush Soda Saga and Hidden City.
Also, the company promises Amazon Alexa voice-command support in the near future.
Speed Tests: For a Detachable, It's Got Pep
The ThinkPad X1 Tablet scored 2,873 points in our PCMark 8 office productivity benchmark, narrowly missing the 3,000 that we consider excellent and essentially tying the Core i5-based, LTE-equipped Microsoft Surface Pro that we tested in March 2018...
Also, its quad-core processor gave it a sizable advantage in our Cinebench CPU measurement and Handbrake video-editing exercise, where it joined its mid-price cousin, the Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 520, atop the ratings among our competitive set.
The Miix 520 has the same processor but fewer pixels to push, thanks to its full HD screen.
That fact made it the winner in the native-resolution segment of our Heaven and Valley gaming simulations...
All of these tablets, however, rely on Intel's integrated graphics in a host of similar flavors—the Core i7 Intel Iris Plus 640 samples you see above being the best of a ho-hum lot—so scores in our graphics tests were low across the board.
Detachables are made for everyday productivity work, sketching and pen tasks, and after-hours Netflix or Web surfing, not for grinding workstation apps or any kind of serious gaming.
See How We Test Laptops
Speaking of after hours, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet won't give you much runtime beyond an average workday.
It lasted 8 hours and 49 minutes in our battery rundown test.
That's not bad (it beats the Miix 520, for instance), but it's no match for the 13-plus hours of the two Microsoft Surface Pro slates.
If unplugged life is your top priority, a Surface Pro will be your preferred choice.
Two Thumbs Up for This 2-in-1
The battery life, we can live with.
Factor in the more than $800 in savings between loaded Core i7 models that we discussed earlier, and Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Tablet deserves an Editors' Choice nod among high-end Windows slates.
On the plus side of the tally sheet are its superb screen and keyboard cover, forward-looking Thunderbolt 3 ports, and up-to-date CPU.
If you like to sketch or do pen input at least part time, and will make enough use of the tablet mode to justify a removable-keyboard design like this one, you'll find the redesigned ThinkPad X1 Tablet an ingenious alternative to a conventional laptop—and maybe even to a Surface Pro.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet (3rd Gen)
The Bottom Line
With its redesigned ThinkPad X1 Tablet, Lenovo serves the Surface Pro notice.
This 13-inch showpiece Windows 10 slate packs a fine pen, a top-shelf keyboard cover, and Thunderbolt 3 support.
