Is The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 The Most Eco-Friendly Laptop?

Tom's Guide

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.

Transcript

00:00The Lenovo Z Series Gen 2 is not your typical ThinkPad, it's the first PC to market with

00:07a flax-fiber top cover, and I'm here in Lenovo's U.S. headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina

00:13to take a closer look at some of the company's sustainability innovations and how they materialize

00:17in a machine like this.

00:21The Z13 Gen 2 is 13.99mm thick and features a 13.3-inch 2.8K OLED touchscreen display

00:29with acclaimed 400 nits brightness. There's a standard-looking keyboard, but it has the

00:33iconic trackpoint with a quick menu. More of the navigation gets done with this 120mm

00:39haptic force pad with three configurable areas. This machine is powered by the AMD Ryzen Pro

00:447000, but you can beef it up with up to 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD. Battery life will depend

00:50on your use, but Lenovo estimates over 18 hours of juice.

00:57The coolest part is that flaxseed isn't the only sustainable material that Lenovo

01:00is working on. While we were at their headquarters, we got to see all of the innovations they're

01:05working on in the area of sustainability specifically.

01:10In Lenovo's Design Innovation Lab, there's a team focused on the sustainability of the

01:14company's products. This lab is testing plastic-free and compostable packaging, plus

01:19recycled and responsibly sourced materials for the products themselves. Thin cork and

01:23post-consumer plastics and even discarded carbon fiber from an airplane fuselage that

01:28are all being repurposed in a way that still makes for a well-designed laptop or keyboard

01:32or computer mouse.

01:35We also took a look at some of Lenovo's data center efforts, namely water cooling

01:38technology that is more sustainable for computer performance than cooling fans. Water cooling

01:44discharge is much easier to capture and manage than, say, hot air from fans that just escape

01:48into the environment. Implementing these types of things is important to recognize so that

01:52we can come to expect higher degrees of eco-consciousness from the companies we test and purchase products

01:57from.

01:58So you might have seen these before. These are flax seeds. They're grown to be enjoyed

02:05in smoothies and foods, but when farmers are harvesting them, there are stalks that are

02:11discarded and instead of having them go to waste or be used for whatever else they would

02:16be at a farm, these threads are saved.

02:20The flax fibers then get pressed down and secured with a bio-based resin. This then

02:26gets attached to the aluminum base, which I might add is 75% recycled aluminum. And

02:33this is the final product you see on the ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2.

02:38The commitment to sustainable materials doesn't stop there. The packaging also has quite a

02:42few sustainable elements. We have this bamboo linen bag and then we have a bamboo and sugar

02:47cane cardboard alternative that protects the laptop during shipping. And instead of

02:53styrofoam, the laptop ships with the same material, bamboo and sugar cane cushions.

03:03Now that you've come with me behind the scenes, I'd love to know what you think about the

03:06sustainability strides that Lenovo is taking. Are they steps in the right direction or is

03:10there still work to be done? Be sure to let me know in the comments. You can also check

03:13out some more behind the scenes looks from Lenovo's headquarters on social, Facebook,

03:17Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at Tom's Guide. And as always, I'm at Kate Kosich. Thanks

03:22for watching. I'll catch you next time.

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