Dealmaster: Get Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop for just $849

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals today. Topping our list is a pre-Memorial Day doorbuster from Lenovo for a very popular ThinkPad machine. Now you can get the 5th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon, featuring an Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD for just $849.

The X1 Carbon is a favorite of many, including a few Ars staffers, for its no-nonsense, yet sleek design as well as its power and practicality. Its carbon fiber chassis keeps it lightweight, and at about 16mm thick, it’s quite thin as well. Its keyboard stands out as one of the most comfortable we’ve ever used on a laptop, and TrackPoint ball users will appreciate that Lenovo retained that beloved trackpad alternative. Every model also comes standard with a fingerprint sensor on the palm rest area as well as a versatile array of ports that includes two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, and a full-sized HDMI port.

The 5th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon isn’t the newest model—it debuted in 2017 and was updated in 2018 with newer processors and small changes, including a new physical camera shutter over the webcam and an optional IR camera. Lenovo is also gearing up to debut the 7th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon later this year, which will include Whiskey Lake chips, an optional 4K display panel, and the high starting price of $1,709.