Is Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 The Most Sustainable Laptop Ever? | Tom's Guide

  • 7 months ago
Tom's Guide took a trip to Lenovo's US HQ to tour their design labs and go hands-on with some of the company's latest computers, including the new Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2.
ThinkPad features a flaxseed cover and majority recycled aluminum frame. Plus, plastic-free packaging made of bamboo and sugarcane makes this one of the most sustainability-minded laptops we've ever seen.

But that's not all. At the offices, we also saw some of the sustainable materials Lenovo is testing, from post-consumer plastics to the discarded carbon fiber from airplane fuselages. We checked out how Lenovo is implementing water-cooling in data centers, too.
Transcript
00:00 The Lenovo Z Series Gen 2 is not your typical ThinkPad.
00:06 It's the first PC to market with a flax-fiber top cover, and I'm here in Lenovo's U.S.
00:11 headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina to take a closer look at some of the company's
00:15 sustainability innovations and how they materialize in a machine like this.
00:21 The Z13 Gen 2 is 13.99mm thick and features a 13.3-inch 2.8K OLED touchscreen display
00:29 with a claimed 400 nits brightness.
00:31 There's a standard-looking keyboard, but it has the iconic track point with a quick
00:35 menu.
00:36 More of the navigation gets done with this 120mm haptic force pad with three configurable
00:41 areas.
00:42 This machine is powered by the AMD Ryzen Pro 7000, but you can beef it up with up to 64GB
00:47 RAM and 2TB SSD.
00:49 Battery life will depend on your use, but Lenovo estimates over 18 hours of juice.
00:57 The coolest part is that flaxseed isn't the only sustainable material that Lenovo is working
01:01 on.
01:02 While we were at their headquarters, we got to see all of the innovations they're working
01:05 on in the area of sustainability specifically.
01:10 In Lenovo's Design Innovation Lab, there's a team focused on the sustainability of the
01:14 company's products.
01:16 This lab is testing plastic-free and compostable packaging, plus recycled and responsibly sourced
01:21 materials for the products themselves.
01:23 Carbon cork and post-consumer plastics and even discarded carbon fiber from an airplane
01:27 fuselage that are all being repurposed in a way that still makes for a well-designed
01:31 laptop or keyboard or computer mouse.
01:35 We also took a look at some of Lenovo's data center efforts, namely water cooling technology
01:39 that is more sustainable for computer performance than cooling fans.
01:43 Water cooling discharge is much easier to capture and manage than, say, hot air from
01:47 fans that just escape into the environment.
01:50 Implementing these types of things is important to recognize so that we can come to expect
01:53 higher degrees of eco-consciousness from the companies we test and purchase products from.
01:59 So you might have seen these before.
02:03 These are flaxseeds.
02:04 They're grown to be enjoyed in smoothies and foods, but when farmers are harvesting them,
02:10 there are stalks that are discarded and instead of having them go to waste or be used for
02:15 whatever else they would be at a farm, these threads are saved.
02:20 The flax fibers then get pressed down and secured with a bio-based resin.
02:26 This then gets attached to the aluminum base, which I might add is 75% recycled aluminum.
02:33 And this is the final product you see on the ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2.
02:38 The commitment to sustainable materials doesn't stop there.
02:40 The packaging also has quite a few sustainable elements.
02:43 We have this bamboo linen bag and then we have a bamboo and sugar cane cardboard alternative
02:49 that protects the laptop during shipping.
02:52 And instead of styrofoam, the laptop ships with the same material, bamboo and sugar cane
02:57 cushions.
03:03 Now that you've come with me behind the scenes, I'd love to know what you think about the
03:06 sustainability strides that Lenovo is taking.
03:08 Are they steps in the right direction or is there still work to be done?
03:11 Be sure to let me know in the comments.
03:13 You can also check out some more behind the scenes looks from Lenovo's headquarters on
03:16 social, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @tomsguide.
03:20 And as always, I'm @katekosich.
03:21 Thanks for watching.
03:22 I'll catch you next time.