Perhaps no business ultraportable is better known than the Lenovo ThinkPad X series, headlined by the long-running ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The ThinkPad X390 (starts at 9; ,484 as tested) is the latest in the famous lineup, now packed with Intel's "Whiskey Lake" silicon and delivering more than 14 hours of battery life in our testing. Its trimmed-down design allows it to fit a 13.3-inch screen in a footprint similar to that of the 12.5-inch ThinkPad X280 that it replaces.
Input Excellence
The communicative keys and practical layout quickly make me forget that the keyboard on the X390 isn't full-size, measuring 10.6 inches wide instead of the 11.25 inches of the ThinkPad T490. You'll spot dedicated Home and End keys at the top right, while the arrow-key cluster has a familiar, preferred inverted-T layout. The lower-left Function (Fn) and Ctrl keys are flipped, in usual ThinkPad style, but you can swap them in the pre-installed Lenovo Vantage software if that bothers you.