Add Thunderbolt 3 to the Iconic ThinkPad Look with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017)

The ThinkPad has been consistently serving as a business laptop targeting professional users since its IBM days, but after Lenovo's takeover of the brand, the price points have gotten a lot lower so that even casual users can afford a ThinkPad. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) keeps the easily recognizable ThinkPad look and feel but now adds Thunderbolt 3 technology and the 7th Generation Intel chipset.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) is a more premium offering from Lenovo which comes with two Thunderbolt 3 enabled USB Type-C connectors that is more powerful than the single Thunderbolt 3 supported by earlier ThinkPad models like the Lenovo ThinkPad T470  and Lenovo ThinkPad P50 Mobile Workstation. Each Thunderbolt 3 port supports Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s), DisplayPort 1.2 to connect with 4K@60hz displays, and uses USB Power Delivery to charge USB Type-C devices. You can also use any one of these Thunderbolt 3 ports to charge the notebook.

After we purchased the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) at Lenovo's online store, the plain cardboard box it came in looked dirtied which had a lot of black stains all over it. In contrast, the Lenovo ThinkPad P50 Mobile Workstation which we had bought from B&H Photo & Video's online store came in better packaging (see here for our unboxing).  

One way to keep the price very affordable is for Lenovo to offer the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) to be installed with only  Windows 7 Professional without any free upgrades to Windows 10. Windows 7 was well loved by its users but if you need Windows 10, you would need to buy an upgrade.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) has the standard AC power adapter, power cord, and documentation. The battery pack  already came pre-installed on the bottom of the notebook. 

The AC power adapter that came with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) is a USB Type-C charger that supports up to 65 watts (20 volts @ 3.25 amps) output to the notebook, as well as 45 watts (15 volts @ 3 amps), 18 watts (9 volts @ 2 amps) and 10 watts (5 volts @ 2 amps) power profiles using USB Power Delivery fast charging technology. Comparatively, the Lenovo Yoga 920 also shares the same AC profiles through its own power adapter accessory, but previous ThinkPad models like the ThinkPad T470 can only get up to 45 watts (20 volts @ 2.25 amps). 

The AC charger comes with a USB Type-C cable connector which is used to plug in to a Thunderbolt 3 port on the notebook for rapid charging through USB Power Delivery. Previously, you can't use the USB Type-C port on earlier ThinkPad's like the Lenovo ThinkPad P50 Mobile Workstation and ThinkPad T470 to charge the notebook.

The Dolby Audio enabled speakers are located at the bottom front sides of the notebook.

While Lenovo has claimed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) as the most compact ThinkPad PC to date, style-wise the notebook still offers much of the legacy ThinkPad look and feel.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) is still as flexible as its family to be able to fold out up to 180 degrees so that the display is totally flat with the keyboard.

On one side of the notebook, you'll find two adjacent Thunderbolt 3 ports, one USB Type-A port supporting USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s), one HDMI 1.4 port, and one mini Gigabit LAN port.

The Thunderbolt 3 ports can be used to quickly charge the notebook when plugged in with the supplied AC power adapter. 

When connected to any of the Thunderbolt 3 ports, the neighboring LED indicator will light up green.   

The other side of the notebook carries another USB Type-A port supporting USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) and microSD card slot.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) still has the TrackPoint pointing stick for mouse navigation which uniquely differentiates the ThinkPad's with other notebook PC's.

Similar to the ThinkPad T470, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) also provides a fingerprint reader which is useful just in case you happen to forget your password. You can quickly log in to the notebook simply by touching the fingerprint reader which supports Windows Hello’s fingerprint technology.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we can see that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) makes use of a 2.5 watts (5 volts @ .5 amps) fixed PDO as well as variable power supply of 2.5 to 10 watts range (5-20 volts @ .5 amps) for charging. Note some compliance failures were observed.

DUT Information

Manufacturer	Lenovo
Model Number	X1 Carbon
Serial Number	Comm

Test Information

Date and Time:

20180302_010236

Controller and Instrument Information

Parameter	Value
GRL USB-PD_C2 Serial No.	024.048.024.000.041.
GRL USB-PD Software Version	1.3.3.8
GRL USB-PD Firmware Version	1.3.3.0.7
Board Calibration	Calibration Success.
App Mode	COMMUNICATION_ENGINE_TESTS
Tx Mask	true
Rx Mask	false
RX mask Power selection	Neutral Power
Device Type	DRP
Cable IR drop Imp(R)	0

Product Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
UUT_Device_Type
Vendor_Name	Lenovo
Product_Name
Version_Info
TID	0x0
Type_C	NONE
SOP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Debug_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Debug_Capable	NONE
Manufacturer_Info_Supported_Port
Manufacturer_Info_VID_Port
Manufacturer_Info_PID_Port
USB_Comms_Capable	NONE
DR_Swap_To_DFP_Supported	NONE
DR_Swap_To_UFP_Supported	NONE
Externally_Powered	NONE
VCONN_Swap_To_On_Supported	NONE
VCONN_Swap_To_Off_Supported	NONE
Responds_To_Discov	NONE
Attempts_Discov	NONE
Chunking_Implemented_SOP	NO
Unchunked_Extended_Messages_Supported	NO
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Src	NONE
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Snk	NONE
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Src	NONE
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Snk	NONE
XID
Structured_VDM_Version	V1.0
Data_Capable_as_USB_Host	YES
Data_Capable_as_USB_Device	YES
Product_Type_UFP_SOP
Product_Type_DFP_SOP	Undefined
Modal_Operation_Supported	YES
Security_Msgs_Supported_SOP	NO
USB_VID	0x17EF
PID	0xA303
bcdDevice	0x0
SVIDs Min	1
SVIDs Max	1
SVID Fixed	-
SVID1SOP	17EF
SVID1Modes Min	1
SVID1Modes Max	1
SVID1Modes Fixed	-
SVID1Mode1 Enter Mode	NO
SVID2SOP	17EF
SVID2Modes Min	1
SVID2Modes Max	1
SVID2Modes Fixed	-
SVID2Mode1 Enter Mode	NO

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_Power_as_Sink
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	YES
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NO
Higher_Capability_Set	NO
Num_Snk_PDOs
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x32(.5A)
Supply Type #2	Variable
Min Voltage #2	0x64(5V)
Max Voltage #2	0x190(20V)
Op Current #2	0x32(.5A)
Supply Type #3	Battery
Min Voltage #3	0x64(5V)
Max Voltage #3	0x190(20V)
Op Power #3	0xA(2.5W)
PD_Power_as_Source
Rp Value
USB Suspend may be cleared	NONE
Send Ping	NONE
No of Source PDOs
Supply Type #1	-
Min Voltage #1	-
Max Voltage #1	-
Supply Type #2	-
Min Voltage #2	-
Max Voltage #2	-
Supply Type #3	-
Min Voltage #3	-
Max Voltage #3	-
Supply Type #4	-
Min Voltage #4	-
Max Voltage #4	-
Supply Type #5	-
Min Voltage #5	-
Max Voltage #5	-
Supply Type #6	-
Min Voltage #6	-
Max Voltage #6	-
PD_Power_as_Sink
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	YES
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NO
Higher_Capability_Set	NO
Num_Snk_PDOs
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x32(.5A)
Supply Type #2	Variable
Min Voltage #2	0x64(5V)
Max Voltage #2	0x190(20V)
Op Current #2	0x32(.5A)
Supply Type #3	Battery
Min Voltage #3	0x64(5V)
Max Voltage #3	0x190(20V)
Op Power #3	0xA(2.5W)

Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	BMC-PHY-TX-EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	BMC-PHY-TX-BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	BMC-PHY-RX-INT-REJ	FAIL
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	BMC-PHY-RX-BUSIDL	PASS
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	BMC-PHY-TERM	PASS
7	TDA.2.2.1	BMC-PROT-SEQ-GETCAPS	PASS
10	TDA.2.2.5	BMC-PROT-DISCOV	PASS
12	TDA.2.2.7	BMC-PROT-BIST-NOT-5V-SRC	PASS
14	TDA.2.3.1.1	POW-SRC-LOAD-P-PC	FAIL
15	TDA.2.3.1.2	POW-SRC-LOAD-CP-ACC	FAIL
16	TDA.2.3.2.1	POW-SRC-TRANS-P-PC	NA
19	TDB.2.2.9	BMC-PROT-GSC-REC	FAIL

BMC Eye Diagram

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) was also seen in the below load trace through the GRL-USB-PD C2 Compliance Test Solution App to support several voltage and current levels for charging.

With just about all the interfaces a professional user would need to support any sort of workflow is one of the nice things that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) can offer. Do look out for our next coming reviews where we'll be testing the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017) with various USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 peripherals.