Another benefit is the better use of the available space, hence “space frame”. By putting some components on the other side of the new mid-frame, like the display connectors and the Wi-Fi antennas, Lenovo was able to free up valuable space, which was used to increase the size of the cooling system – enabling to cool up to 30 W under full load instead of just 22.5 W on the previous X1 Carbon Gen 13 (available on Amazon). This is especially handy with the new Panther Lake CPUs, as the Intel Core Ultra X7 needs more energy to perform signifcantly better than the previous Lunar Lake CPUs. Additionally, with the new smaller motherboard, Lenovo was able to make the USB C ports modular and put some of the other ports on a seperate daughterboard.
But that is not all: Thanks to the space frame design, the trackpad size of the X1 Carbon increases, at least when you choose the haptic version. On earlier models, the haptic trackpad had to have the same dimensions as the mechanical option, which was limited, as the dedicated TrackPoint buttons can only have a certain width before their function is impaired. With the new cover design, the haptic touchpad can have a bigger cutout and thus can be much larger than before.
ThinkPad keyboard: Changes always have the potential to be controversial
While the space frame design is something most customers will no doubt welcome, the changes that Lenovo are doing to the ThinkPad keyboard may be a slightly different story. With the new X1 Carbon Gen 14, Lenovo is changing the keyboard font, the position of the print on the keys and also the layout, by shifting the fingerprint sensor, which also acts as a power button, to the top right corner. The last change means that the insert keys is sacrificed, and of course, having the fingerprint sensor here may interfere with trying to hit the Delete key, which formerly occopued this position.
