Lenovo Announces The ThinkPad X13s Laptop, Powered By Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3

During the MWC 2022 trade show in Barcelona, Lenovo unveiled the first laptop powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip, the ThinkPad X13s. Using a passively-cooled design, Lenovo is claiming that the ThinkPad X13s has a long battery life with up to 28 hours of video playback, as well as boasting plenty of wireless connectivity, including support for 5G mmWave, Wi-Fi 6E, and is all housed in a 90% recycled magnesium chassis.

Over the last couple of months, we've dedicated a number of column inches to Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. It uses four Arm Cortex-X1 prime cores at 3.0 GHz, four smaller A78 efficiency cores operating at 2.4 GHz, and it also includes the company's latest Adreno graphics.

The biggest challenge for Qualcomm with the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and the Windows on Arm project has been application compatibility. Qualcomm has been working closely with Microsoft and software vendors to allow its Arm-based processors to work with x86 apps, and last year's launch of Windows 11 added x86-64 application compatibility as well. So these days it's less a matter of what will work on WoA laptops, and more about how quickly x86 applications will run.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 SoC Marketing from Snapdragon Tech Summit Dec 2021

For more details on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor, as well as our interviews with Qualcomm SVP Alex Katouzian and VP For Windows and Chrome PCs at Qualcomm, Miguel Nunes, check out the links below:

• Qualcomm's 8cx Gen 3 for Notebooks, Nuvia Core in 2022/2023
• Interview with Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm SVP: Talking Snapdragon, Microsoft, Nuvia, and Discrete Graphics
• AnandTech Interview with Miguel Nunes: VP For Windows and Chrome PCs, Qualcomm

Focusing on Lenovo's big announcement at MWC 2022, it has launched several new notebooks for 2022, but all eyes are on the ThinkPad X13s. Lenovo, of course, is a large and respected name in the productivity laptop space, so their willingness (or unwillingness) to adopt new CPUs/SoCs is often a good barometer of overall OEM interest in new chips.

Aside from being the first consumer-based notebook powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor, the ThinkPad X13s has a wide variety of features for users on the go, both focusing on productivity and longevity, all housed inside a 0.53-inch thick frame.

A big talking point surrounds the battery life of the ThinkPad X13s, with Lenovo claiming an impressive 28-hours of usage between charges. While this sounds impressive on paper, the onus is on the types of workloads being used, with Lenovo quoting video playback figures with its 49.5-Wh Li-ion Polymer battery. It has dimensions of 11.76 x 13 x 0.53-inches (WxDxH), is constructed from 90% certified recycled magnesium, and weighs just 2.35 lbs making it ultra-portable and lightweight.

Lenovo offers the ThinkPad X13s with three different display types: an IPS AG 300-nit panel, an IPS touch AG 300-nit panel, and a low-power IPS AG display with 400-nits of brightness. All three display types include a 13.3-inch screen with an aspect ratio of 16:10 and an output resolution of 1920 x 1200p. 

Housing within the central section of the top bezel, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s can be equipped with two different webcams, one of which has 5MP RGB, while the other is a 5MP IR camera with support for Computer Vision presence detection. In terms of connectivity, the ThinkPad X13s has two USB 3.2 G2 Type-C ports, with one 3.5 mm audio jack and a SIM card slot. The SIM card slot allows users to access either 5G sub6 or 5G mmWave depending on the configuration. At the same time, Lenovo also offers users the choice of Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E wireless networking.

Lenovo has stated that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 powered ThinkPad X13s will be available in May, with prices starting at $1099. It also states that in the US, the ThinkPad X13s will be available on carriers including AT&T and Verizon sometime in 2022.

Source: Lenovo

Related Reading

• Qualcomm's 8cx Gen 3 for Notebooks, Nuvia Core in 2022/2023
• Interview with Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm SVP: Talking Snapdragon, Microsoft, Nuvia, and Discrete Graphics
• AnandTech Interview with Miguel Nunes: VP For Windows and Chrome PCs, Qualcomm
• Qualcomm Shows Off Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows on Arm Development