Why I recommend this Lenovo laptop the most for business travel (and it's not a ThinkPad)

The ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 is an ultraportable featuring a modular Magic Bay that connects peripherals via magnetic pogo pins. The laptop ships with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (2.4 GHz) and can be upgraded to an Intel Core Ultra 9, which increases price by over $400. A unit with the Ultra 5 handled multitasking smoothly across productivity apps and multiple browser tabs on two displays. The 13.5-inch panel offers 500 nits of brightness and a 120Hz variable refresh rate but may feel cramped compared with larger laptops. SSD benchmarks in PCMark 10 showed solid read and write speeds.

"Despite its bite-sized form factor, the is a powerhouse. Lenovo first showcased this ultraportable at CES 2024, and initial impressions centered on the return of Magic Bay, a modular family of peripherals that connect to the laptop via magnetic pogo pins (think MagSafe, but for laptops). Also: Laptop battery dying too soon? How to check its health in one click But even though the Magic Bay products might be the most attention-grabbing, this Lenovo laptop has a lot more going for it under the hood. In fact, this laptop is surprisingly versatile."

"The ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 comes with the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H processor (2.4 GHz) but can be supercharged with the Intel Core Ultra 9 -- an option I was surprised to see for this laptop -- which propels it to be in line with other performant enterprise machines (raising the price over $400 in the process). The review unit I tested was snappy enough with the Ultra 5 and had absolutely no problems multitasking with a handful of productivity apps and multiple browser tabs across two displays."

"But then I started working on the 13.5-inch display, and I remembered. Don't get me wrong, the display on the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 looks good -- really good, actually, with 500-nit brightness and a 120Hz variable refresh rate. But its size, even at max resolution, results in a screen that can seem a little cramped if you're used to more real estate. Ultimately, it comes down to a personal preference tradeoff."

Read at ZDNET