It's not often that we write about more business-focused laptops. But the ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 is a bit different than your average, being the first we've seen to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8Cx Gen 3 processor - which was announced back in December 2021 at the company's Snapdragon Tech Summit.

Lenovo (which owns the ThinkPad brand) says it sees the X13S Gen 1 as a whole new category for its ThinkPad business, with its focus being for an on-the-go workflow. That's a clear benefit of Snapdragon 8Cx Gen 3: it features a modem that's super fast, meaning 5G is available on both Sub-6GHz and mmWave, the latter delivering speeds up to 10Gbps.

Of course mmWave isn't especially widespread just yet, but 8Cx Gen 3 also benefits from Wi-Fi 6E if you've got a compatible router.

In short: this ThinkPad wants to latch onto the fastest possible networks wherever you are, whether that's at work, at home, or when out and about.

As with any Snapdragon product, there's a focus on battery life capability too, with the X13S Gen 1 said to offer up to 28 hours per charge. That's about double what you'll find from many equivalent Intel or AMD machines, and while you might shrug that off as make-believe, earlier Snapdragon chipsets in Windows laptops (such as the Galaxy Book S from Samsung) have really proven their worth.

The integrated 5-megapixel camera also takes some other Qualcomm technologies on board, using noise suppression and auto-framing to firm up those video calls as best as possible.

Lenovo is also particularly keen to point out the ThinkPad X13s Gen 1's use of recycled materials: its built from 90 per cent recycled aluminium, where applicable, while the packaging of the product is made from 100 per cent recycled material.

While much of this sounds great, we still have a big lingering question mark over just how well the Windows and Qualcomm handshake will function in Windows 11. As EXE apps won't be available on this platform, for example, will it truly suit a wide range of bussiness applications?

The ThinkPad X13s will be available from May 2022, starting at $1099. We don't have word on UK/EU pricing at this stage.