Lenovo ThinkBook 13s pairs solid business features with consumer-friendly touches

Lenovo’s ThinkBook 13s is a deliberately intriguing combination of a business notebook with consumer flourishes, aimed at the vaguely-defined space between a home business and a more traditional consumer PC. It largely succeeds.

The ThinkBook 13s (also known as the ThinkBook 13s-IWL) sacrifices just a bit on the performance front for including an 8th-gen Whiskey Lake processor, but places it inside a sturdy chassis with a very good keyboard on top. It includes a combination of legacy USB-A and forward-looking USB-C ports, an excellent audio system, with decent battery life. And at a price hovering between $700 to $800, you’re left with a pretty solid midrange laptop for general use.

BASIC SPECS

Lenovo claims that the suggested retail price of the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s we tested is over $1,100, but we couldn’t find a single price suggesting it was over $1,000. Online, the prices we saw at press time averaged about $800 or slightly less, and should eventually fall. Otherwise, there’s a healthy mix of features catering to consumers and small businesses.

Display: 13.3-inch (1920 x 1080) IPS anti-glare (non-touch)

Intel 1.6GHz, as tested); 1.8GHz Core i7-8565U