Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Lenovo's ThinkPad family has a lot of fans, but not everyone can spend ThinkPad money on a laptop. Designed for small business customers (and regular consumers who want a more privacy-focused machine), Lenovo's new Thinkbooks seem like an experiment to boil the essence of a ThinkPad down into its most important parts and put those pieces in a more affordable package.
On paper, it seems Lenovo has done just that: the new Thinkbook 13s has a stress-tested aluminum body, comfortable keyboard, webcam privacy shutter, fingerprint reader, and other things that you'd find on a ThinkPad machine. But the Thinkbook's attractive starting price of $734 truly helps it stand out as an option for anyone who wants not just a ThinkPad alternative but a relatively affordable Windows machine as well.
Look and feel

Specs at a glance: Lenovo Thinkbook 13s
Worst Best As reviewed
Screen 13.3-inch 1920×1080p anti-glare IPS non-touch
OS Windows 10 Home 64
CPU Core i5-8265U Core i7-8565U Core i5-8265U
GPU Intel UHD Graphics 620
RAM 4GB 16GB 8GB
Storage 128GB*PCIe SSD 512GB PCIe SSD 256GB PCIe SSD
Networking 802.11AC (2 x 2), Bluetooth 5.2
Ports 2 x USB-A 3.1, 1 x USB-C, 1 x HDMI, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x power port
Size 12.11×8.52×0.63 inches (307.6×216.4×15.9 mm)
Weight 2.95 pounds (1.34 kg)
Price $734.30 $1,154.30 $832.30
Other perks Webcam shutter, fingerprint reader on power button


Lenovo Thinkbook 13s

$734.30 from Lenovo




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Lenovo tried to give a ThinkPad machine the "modern ultrabook" makeover, and the result is the updated Thinkbook. That's not a derogatory statement—the Thinkbook 13s is quite attractive, and I wouldn't guess that it's a notebook with a $734 starting price. It has a slate gray color scheme that uses a lighter gray color on its anodized aluminum chassis, a darker gray on its keycaps, and shiny accents on the edges of the trackpad and a few other locations. Overall, it looks most akin to an IdeaPad notebook with some design influences from the ThinkPad X lineup.

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