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Lenovo launched its new ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura AI laptop in China, giving us a preview of tech we’ll likely see in Lenovo’s upcoming products for the U.S. The laptop’s most noteworthy new hardware includes its CPU, which is an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, and a PCI-E 5.0 solid-state drive (SSD).
With the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon aimed at AI applications, the ultra-speedy PCI-E 5.0 SSD makes sense. AI-related software is notoriously resource-hungry and is driving innovation in several computer hardware categories. And as fast as PCI-E 4.0 can be, PCI-E 5.0 is a beast. Our colleagues tested the Crucial T705 1TB SSD in a desktop PC bench and watched it blow away the 4th Gen competition.
Now, we’re seeing a 5th-generation PCI-E SSD in a laptop. This is a first for Lenovo and likely one of the first times the new SSDs have appeared in a laptop. The issue with getting one into the cramped space of a laptop is dissipating the heat, which is a bigger issue with 5th-gen SSDs than 4th-gen. To give you an idea of just how important the heat issue is, take a look at the heatsink of the Crucial T705 1TB SSD, which is designed for desktop PCs. The heatsink is massive. Unsurprisingly, we haven’t seen laptops with Gen 5 PCI-E SSDs become mainstream yet.
PCI-E 5 SSDs like this Crucial T705 1TB produce plenty of heat.
Credit: PCMag.com
But Lenovo appears to have the heat issue figured out. Not only does the Aura AI laptop carry a 5th Gen SSD, but it packs the storage device into a (very slightly)slimmer form factor than the previous X1 Carbon, as WCCF Tech notes. And the Aura AI laptop also has a heatsink for the PCI-E 5.0 SSD, though it appears to be significantly slimmer than what we’ve seen on desktop SSDs. Lenovo offers the laptop with 1TB or 2TB of storage. We’d speculate that both storage configurations will be available when models appear in the U.S.
The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is another big upgrade for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura AI. As we saw when PCMag reviewed the Dell XPS 13, Lunar Lake’s power efficiency can mean a real improvement in battery life. However, we won’t know how much difference it makes for the battery life of the Aura AI laptop until it’s been put through its paces. Lenovo has a 57Whr battery in the laptop.
The Aura AI also has 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 RAM and a 14-inch OLED display with support for a 120Hz refresh rate. Pricing is roughly $2,200 (1TB laptop) and $2476 (2TB laptop), respectively, but prices are expected to be lower when the laptop reaches these parts.