Lenovo announces second-gen ThinkPad X1 Fold

Lenovo has revealed the follow-up to 2020’s ThinkPad X1 Fold. Announced at this year’s IFA conference in Berlin, the new ThinkPad X1 Fold is shaping up to be a drastic improvement over its predecessor, which received a mixed reception when it launched two years ago.

Like the Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED (also announced at IFA 2022), the ThinkPad X1 Fold looks like a 16in tablet that can fold in half along a hinge that runs horizontally across the device. When folded in half, the OLED panel measures 12in across the diagonal; Lenovo includes a Bluetooth keyboard that can connect magnetically to the lower half of the screen, obscuring it from view and turning the X1 Fold into a traditional laptop.

The panel has a total resolution of 2,560 x 2,024, is rated for 600 nits peak brightness in HDR (400 nits in SDR) and supports Dolby Vision.

This iteration of the X1 Fold has slimmed down dramatically: the bezels are noticeably thinner and the device measures 8.6mm when open (down from 11.5cm). It’s also packing powerful innards: beneath the panel sits a 12th-gen Intel Core U9, i5 or i7 processor alongside Intel Iris Xe graphics and up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. 

There are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports for video and data transmission plus a third USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port for receiving power from the bundled 65W charger. You’ve got a fingerprint sensor embedded in the bottom half of the screen (in portrait orientation) plus a volume rocker on the bottom edge and Windows Hello-compatible webcam at the opposite end. The battery is a 48Wh affair that can be increased to 74Wh with certain configurations.

In terms of networking/wireless connectivity, the X1 Fold supports nano-SIM cards, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. It’s due to arrive at retailers in Q4 2022 and will start at $2,499 in the US. There’s been no word of a UK price or release date yet.