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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen 2017)

by Lenovo

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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.

GRL

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


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.

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