Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G12

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 offers an unquestionably alluring package for traveling executives, but only those with big budgets or who are part of an organization large enough to qualify for volume discounts will be able to stomach the price. It's just too high, given that you can get similar performance and features for hundreds less.

For $2700, the X1 seriously lacks performance. Unfortunately, the Ultra 7 chip did fail to keep up with the completion. You'd be amazed at its portability and gorgeous display, but it's not easy to ignore the power you're getting for such a big price.

The price, however, is something of a problem. The X1 Carbon has always been expensive, but now things are getting downright silly, with the unit I reviewed running $2,703 as tested—and that’s one of the cheaper specs. That’s dramatically more expensive than most other ultralights on the market and a tough pill to swallow in today’s era of business (and personal) belt-tightening.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 could have been the greatest business laptop of 2024, but at over $2,000 it came up short of expectations with disappointing battery life and a tiny touchpad.

You'll still find no finer business ultraportable than Lenovo's 12th-generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but the latest model suffers from terminal sticker shock for simply decent performance.