There’s a ridiculously good and very limited deal on Lazada right now for a second-hand 5-year-old Thinkpad Carbon X1 and the reason I’m letting you know about this is because I already bought one.
First off, there are a few options to choose from, but I’m specifically talking about the X1 Carbon which came out in 2018 with an Intel Core i7-8650U, 16 GB of memory, and 512 GB of solid-state drive storage.
Plenty of power in a portable package
Part of the reason why I bought this particular configuration was that it’s the oldest generation of Intel processors that is supported by Windows 11 and it’s no slouch. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, as well as a base clock of 1.9GHz with a max of 4.2GHz.
As I type this review, I have about 25 tabs open on Google Chrome on a second 1440p monitor, with a few chat web apps loaded in Ferdium, and Spotify playing Tina Turner’s greatest hits (RIP Queen, but more about audio later).
It’s very snappy with CPU load bouncing between 6% to 25% and memory utilization at 68% (11GB). I’ve even tried a bit of light gaming on its Intel UHD Graphics 620, and League of Legends and X-Com: Enemy Unknown are comfortably playable.
But what makes this a really good deal is that this respectable performance is housed inside a carbon fiber body that weighs a mere 1.13kg and is just 1.6cm thick, and it came with a battery that lasts an entire 8-hour workday.
Suffice it to say, if you’re using this for work or for study, you will be very very happy bringing it around and using it.
But there’s more.
Every input and output you need
On the right side, you get a Kensington lock, one USB-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo port, but on the left side you get two USB-C Thunderbolt ports (one doubles for power, the other for docking which I haven’t tried), another USB-A, and full-sized HDMI port.
That last one is useful for presentations. No fiddly dingly dangly dongles are required while you’re trying to deal with your public speaking anxiety.
On top of all that, it also has a Windows Hello compatible webcam and a fingerprint scanner if you prefer logging in like that, a nice touchpad and a fantastic feeling backlit keyboard, as well as a 14-inch 1080p touchscreen (really, a TOUCHSCREEN for under RM2,000).
It can also take a sim card and microSD card around the back, so you can stay connected anywhere, but there are some cons to this laptop.
There’s no such thing as a perfect laptop
The biggest disappointment is the speakers. They absolutely suck. They’re tinny and just barely usable. If you’re mobile, get some headphones (remembering that wired is an available option), or get some speakers for your desk.
Aside from that, the laptop has a soft-touch coating which feels great most of the time but was a bit tacky when I first got my hands on it. It’s a fingerprint magnet and is rubbing off in a few spots if you inspect it really closely.
The USB-C charging port on mine is also a little bit wiggly and sometimes needs to be unplugged and plugged back in before it will start to charge.
Also, you can’t open the lid with one finger which is a useless flex most of the time but once in a while will annoy you when you have to put down your morning coffee to start work.
What you get and what you pay
It came with a 65W charger, but the seller also threw in a cheap basic wired mouse (Dell for some reason) and a brandless backpack, but both are serviceable and better than nothing.
To be honest, they actually came as a surprise because I was so focused on the laptop itself.
I’ve had my eye on Thinkpad’s Carbon X1 range for years as they’re very repairable business-class ultrabooks but they were always so expensive at launch.
In 2018 this particular laptop configuration I bought would have gone for somewhere between RM7,000 and RM10,000.
Second-hand and 5 years later, I paid RM1,662 (USD360) plus RM6.30 for shipping in the Klang Valley, and if you hurry up and click HERE, so can you.
