The ThinkPad Z13 is a premium, portable business laptop featuring AMD Ryzen PRO 6000 U-Series APU. This is also the first premium ThinkPad featuring Ryzen APUs and comes with a haptic touchpad, unlike other ThinkPads.

Built for mobility and efficiency, the APU is built on power-efficient 6nm technology and comes with 8 -fast cores. The 51.5Wh battery promises deliver up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge, The laptop also supports fast charging with the supplied 65-watt charger.

The 13-inch laptop is incredibly light and portable with a weight of just 1.26kg. The ThinkPad Z13 works perfectly for today’s work-anywhere lifestyles with its powerful hardware, beautiful 2K 13-inch display and ThinkPad’s proprietary security features.

Specifications

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U Processor (2.70 GHz, up to 4.70 GHz Max Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16 MB Cache)
RAM	16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz (dual channel, soldered)
GPU	Integrated AMD Radeon 680M Graphics
Storage	512GB PCIe SSD Gen4
Display	OLED 13.3″ 2.8K (2880 x 1800) Anti-reflective, anti-smudge, touchscreen with Dolby Vision 400 nits, low blue-light display
Ports	2 x USB-C Headphone / mic combo
Connectivity	WiFi 6E 802.11AX (2 x 2) Bluetooth 5.2
Camera	IR & FHD 1080p hybrid, with E-camera shutter
Audio	Dolby Atmos Speaker System Dolby Atmos headphone 2 x mics with Dolby Voice
Battery	51.5Wh lithium-polymer battery Type-C 65W power adaptor
Dimensions	295mm x 200mm x 13.99mm (WxDxH) Approx. 1.26 kg

Read the full specifications here.

Packaging, Design & Build Quality

The ThinkPad Z13 arrives in a brown cardboard box. Inside are the laptop, charging adapter and manuals.

The ThinkPad Z13 is sleek and has a minimalist design and is made out of sustainable materials. The lid is enclosed in black vegan leather. The laptop has a recycled aluminum chassis making it super light and durable. The sides are also made of metal and the palm rest has a matte glass surface. Plastic is only found on the base cover and the display bezels.

With its dimensions of 295mm x 200mm x 13.99mm and a weight just under 1.3Kg, it can be easily carried around wherever you go.

Ports

There are just two ports on the ThinkPad Z13, one on either side of the laptop. On the right is also a 3.5mm headphone / mic combo.

In terms of wireless connectivity, it comes with a built‑in dual‑band WiFi 6E (802.11ax) wireless network card and Bluetooth 5.2.

Display

The ThinkPad Z13 features a matte 13.3-inch display. The OLED display has a 2K resolution (2880 x 1800). It features a refresh rate of 60Hz and 100% DCI-P3 color coverage. The display also supports Dolby Vision.

Colors are rich, vibrant and really pack a punch with no signs of stuttering or ghosting, and the viewing angles are good. At the top of the display is a HD webcam with support for Windows Hello facial recognition and can be disabled via a privacy shutter key. Located here are also the dual microphones.

Keyboard & Trackpad

The edge-to-edge keyboard has two levels of brightness intensity to choose from. It has a short key-travel and offers good resistance. The first row of function keys are smaller in size which allows adjusting simple things like screen brightness, multimedia controls etc. Typing experience is good and has solid feedback.

The laptop features a fingerprint sensor, so you don’t have to go through multiple steps or worry about forgetting your password.

Coming to the touchpad, the ThinkPad Z13 features a glass haptic TouchPad. Click feedback is fantastic, it’s easy to navigate and multi-touch gestures are recognized and handled properly. The ThinkPad Z13 also features the iconic ThinkPad TrackPoint that lets you control the mouse pointer.

Performance

Powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U APU, The ThinkPad Z13 offers 16GB of LPDDR5 6400MHz RAM, integrated AMD Radeon 680M graphics and 512GB PCIe SSD Gen4 storage.

CPU

The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U APU has eight cores at a clock frequency of 2.70 GHz each reaching up to 4.70 GHz with eight threads, offering good multitasking performance.

GPU

The ThinkPad Z13 is powered by the integrated AMD Radeon 680M graphics which is powerful enough for daily tasks, work and photo editing. However, gaming performance is really poor and most games fail to achieve playable frame rates in full resolution/quality.

RAM

In terms of RAM, the ThinkPad Z13 is equipped with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM at a frequency of 6400MHz.

STORAGE

Our review unit came with a 512B M.2 NVMe SSD. However, depending on the region, they may be different. The SSD offers respectable performance with read speeds of up to 3,222MB per second and write of up to 3,133MB on CrystalDiskMark.

BENCHMARKS

In Cinebench R20 tests, the i7 1160G7 scored 550 in single core benchmark and 3,809 in multi-core benchmark. In PCMark 10 Benchmark, the ThinkPad Z13 scored 5,751.

Since this isn’t a laptop built for gaming, we haven’t benchmarked any games with the ThinkPad Z13 With the said the hardware can run games at low-res with low quality

BENCHMARK	SCORE
Cinebench R20 single core	550
Cinebench R20 multi core	3,809
PCMark 10 Benchmark	5,751
3DMark Time Spy	2,199
3DMark Fire Strike	5,308
3DMark Night Raid	20,173

Temperature & Noise

With typical day-to-day tasks and using the silent profile, the noise and heat remained at very low levels. With resource-intensive tasks, while the noise is minimal, laptop does get somewhat warm.

Upgradability

In terms of upgradability, the RAM is soldered on board and isn’t upgradeable. There is no slot for a second NVMe SSD either.

Battery & Audio

The ThinkPad Z13 comes with a small 51.5Wh lithium-polymer battery a 65W USB-C power adaptor. It supports rapid charging and can charge up to 80% in 60 minutes. On paper, it’s rated for about 18 hours of battery life.

On a full charge, based on the usage and screen brightness, the laptop lasts between 12 to 14 hours.

There is Dolby Atmos audio on the ThinkPad Z13, with two speakers below the laptop offering rich sound. The volume isn’t very loud but works great for phone calls and music. But as with most laptops, we recommend using a headset.

Verdict

The ThinkPad Z13 is and impressive laptop built for portability productivity. It is made primarily for frequent travelers and business use. The Z13 is lightweight, slim and features powerful hardware for its size. In addition to the great battery life, the ultralight laptop features a 2K 13-inch display and modern security features.