Lenovo has announced that its flagship Arm-powered laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, is now available to buy from Verizon, in addition to Lenovo's own website. Right now, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s is the best Windows on Arm laptop available, mostly because it's the first and only one to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chipset.
Qualcomm announced this new processor at the Snapdragon Summit late last year, and it's packing four Kryo Prime cores based on Arm's Cortex-X1 platform, and four Kryo Gold cores based on Cortex-A78. It promises an 85% increase in CPU performance and 60% increase in GPU performance compared to the Gen 2 model, which is a huge leap forward. In addition to the powerful processor, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s comes with up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, though the model available from Verizon sticks to 16GB and 512GB, respectively.
Of course, the variant Verizon is selling also includes 5G support, including mmWave, or 5G Ultra Wideband, as Verizon calls it. That's a feature you can only really find on Arm-powered laptops, since even Intel or AMD laptops that support 5G usually only work with sub-6GHz networks.
Aside from that, you get a 13.3-inch panel with WQXGA resolution (1920 x 1200), meaning it comes in a 16:10 aspect ratio, just like most premium ThinkPads. You can also count on other classic ThinkPad design elements like the black chassis, red accents, and the red TrackPoint with duplicate mouse buttons above the touchpad. The laptop is very thin, at 13.4mm, so mobility is clearly a big focus, which makes sense for an Arm-powered device.
Buying the ThinkPad X13s from Verizon means you have a few payment options, including a 36-month payment plan where it costs you $40.27 per month. Otherwise, you can pay the full retail price up front, which is $1,449.99. If you want, you can also buy it on Lenovo's website, which gives you a few more configurations to choose from. Right now, the laptop is available starting at $1,301.40, but that doesn't include 5G support.
Lenovo ThinkPad X13s
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s is the first laptop powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor, and the firrst Arm-powered ThinkPad in general.