The Best ThinkPads 2026 February: a solid business notebook

280

The ThinkPad brand from Lenovo has long been known for business devices. IBM first made and sold ThinkPads at their Yamato labs in Japan. In 2005, Lenovo bought IBM’s personal computing business, which included the ThinkPad line. Even with the change, the laptops still have the Lenovo brand, and they still work for the people they were made for. Even though all ThinkPad laptops are made for business users, each model stands out in its own way. If you’re looking for the best ThinkPads on the market, we’re here to help you make a smart choice.

Even if you know you want a ThinkPad and have a budget in mind, there are a lot of other things to think about. Lenovo has more than a dozen different ThinkPad models in more than one product line. Even though these laptops look similar, they are very different in size, price, screen quality, performance, battery life, and so on. Some are even better at making keyboards than others. There is a ThinkPad for everyone, whether you are an average business user, an artist who needs a professional tablet, or someone who needs a powerful workstation. For more information, check out our most recent review of the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra.

Best ThinkPads Comparison Table

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10

Check Price

Specification	Description
Processor	11th Gen Intel Core i5/i7/i9
Memory	Up to 32GB LPDDR4x
Storage	Up to 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	14″ WQHD or UHD IPS anti-glare display
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Battery	Up to 15 hours
Weight	Starting at 2.49 lbs (1.13 kg)
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI, RJ45
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

It is easy to transport this small, lightweight laptop. Although I’ve seen narrower, Lenovo claims that the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 10) benefits from its narrow screen bezels. The desktop footprint of the chassis is 315.6 by 222.5 millimeters, and it is 14.95 millimeters thick at the back with a slight taper toward the front edge.

In order to provide plenty of space between the rows of the keyboard, Lenovo sacrificed some wrist-rest depth and the trackpad itself seems a little small by contemporary standards. This choice may have disappointed some users, perhaps those with larger hands, though I wasn’t impacted by it.

Lenovo ThinkPad Z13

Check Price

Specification	Description
Processor	11th Gen Intel Core i5/i7
Memory	Up to 32GB DDR4
Storage	Up to 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	13.3″ Full HD IPS anti-glare display
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Battery	Up to 12 hours
Weight	Starting at 2.76 lbs (1.25 kg)
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI, RJ45
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

With a sleek, minimalist design made of 95% recycled aluminum and, in the case of the model we reviewed, vegan leather made from used water bottles. (Though Lenovo has used leather before, it has here switched to a faux material that is optional.)

The keyboard on the deck is edge-to-edge and has two levels of backlighting. A vintage red TrackPoint is located between the G, H, and B keys. Additionally, there is a sizable touchpad made entirely of glass that responds to clicks with haptic feedback. In contrast to many previous ThinkPads, the Z13 lacks dedicated buttons for TrackPoint users above the touchpad. Nub lovers must use a location on the top of the haptic touchpad.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano

Check Price

Specification	Description
Processor	11th Gen Intel Core i5/i7
Memory	Up to 16GB LPDDR4x
Storage	Up to 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	13″ 2K IPS anti-glare display
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Battery	Up to 15.5 hours
Weight	Starting at 1.99 lbs (0.9 kg)
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

Given the all-black color scheme, stealthy is a good word to describe the X1 Nano. It has a glossy black “ThinkPad” logo on the deck and lid, subtle “X1 Nano” branding on the bottom bezel, and a “Lenovo” tag on the lid. The X1 Nano, a stylish laptop that is a ThinkPad, is covered in a soft-touch matte-black material, with the illuminated ThinkPad “i” and red trim on the touchpad serving as the only accents of color.

Our unit’s lid is flat and matte black, but if you prefer, you can have it woven to highlight the interior carbon materials. Any surface you choose will leave a lot of smudges to clean up; every time I touched the X1 Nano, a glossy fingerprint appeared.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (Gen 6)

Check Price

Specification	Description
Processor	11th Gen Intel Core i5/i7/i9
Memory	Up to 32GB LPDDR4x
Storage	Up to 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	14″ WQHD or UHD IPS anti-reflective touchscreen
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Battery	Up to 15 hours
Weight	Starting at 2.99 lbs (1.36 kg)
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB 4.0, HDMI, RJ45
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6 is one of the best 2-in-1 laptops on the market. It combines strong performance with a great 16:10 display and Intel Evo vPro certification, but it comes at a price that puts it in the premium laptop class.

There’s also the fact that the device looks kind of boring. Since it’s a business laptop, we’re not expecting anything like the RGB lights on a gaming laptop, but the “storm gray” body doesn’t make as much noise as a tin can half full of pennies. This laptop is for you if you want to blend in at work so that your boss never sees you in meetings.

Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable

Check Price

Specification	Description
Processor	11th Gen Intel Core i5/i7
Memory	Up to 16GB LPDDR4x
Storage	Up to 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	12.3″ Full HD IPS anti-reflective touchscreen
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Battery	Up to 10 hours
Weight	Starting at 1.76 lbs (0.8 kg)
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

On the right side of the keyboard of the X12, there is a pen loop. It’s not as nice as Dell’s hidden pen storage, but Lenovo does come with a pen. Even though the pen isn’t very responsive (the Apple Pencil is hard to beat in this way), it works fine for taking notes.For $1,100, the ThinkPad X12 base model comes with an Intel Core i3 processor from the 11th generation, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD.

It’s expensive, but at least the computer comes with it. The type Lenovo sent me is a step up. It has a Core i5 processor from the 11th generation, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD. This arrangement will cost you $1,279. It’s the one I’d tell most people to choose. You can save some money by going back to 8 gigabytes of RAM, which is enough for light-duty work.

Lenovo ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook

Check Price

Specification	Description
Processor	AMD Ryzen 3/5/7 Pro
Memory	Up to 32GB DDR4
Storage	Up to 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	13.3″ Full HD IPS anti-glare touchscreen
Graphics	Integrated AMD Radeon Graphics
Battery	Up to 10 hours
Weight	Starting at 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg)
Ports	2 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A, HDMI, MicroSD card reader
Operating System	Chrome OS

The backlit keyboard is easy to type on and has the standard Chromebook layout, with a search/menu key in place of Caps Lock and browser and system control keys along the top row. The TrackPoint cursor controller has three buttons south of the space bar. This gives Chrome OS users who don’t like the standard two-finger tap a real right-click button to play with. Both the touchpad and the TrackPoint work easily and quickly.

The 720p camera and the 2,592-by-1,944-pixel keyboard cam take pictures that are pretty clear, colorful, and well-lit, but it’s hard to take a picture while holding the system in tablet mode. The sound from side-mounted speakers is tinny and muffled. The bass is weak, and songs that overlap are flattened. Lenovo offers a one-year guarantee for the ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook.

FAQs