The adaptive keyboard strip is a notable exercise in innovation but falls short on usability. Other modes include Home which displays volume and screen brightness controls, quick access to Search, Windows 8 Apps and the Snipping Tool Web Browser mode which has back, refresh and new tab buttons and finally Web Conference mode which has microphone settings and levels. Different functions display depending on the mode for example the standard Function layout displays the traditional – keys. This is what Lenovo calls an adaptive keyboard – notice that the top-row Function keys (, and so on) are absent a touch-sensitive strip resides in their place with a digital background. The X1 Carbon has a full-size ‘Chiclet’ style keyboard it has white LED backlighting with three levels of brightness including fully off. Right: USB 3.0, Ethernet dongle connector, cooling exhaust vent, Kensington lock slot Left: AC power jack, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, USB 3.0, headphone/microphone combo jack All picture descriptions are left to right. Unfortunately there is no built-in media card reader, so you’ll need an external card reader if you want to transfer images from your digital camera. Ethernet connectivity is provided via dongle (the chassis is too thin to accommodate the port, apparently). The X1 Carbon has a limited selection of input/output ports as expected from an Ultrabook but covers the basics with two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort. Besides the SSD, the only user-changeable component is the wireless card and the X1 Carbon already comes with the best currently available, the Intel Dual-Band Wireless AC-7260. It accepts only the new M.2 specification SSDs which are new and have limited selection at the time of this writing. The X1 Carbon’s options for user upgrades are very limited the RAM is non-upgradeable since it’s soldered to the motherboard and there are no open slots. Seven screws hold the X1 Carbon’s bottom cover to the rest of the chassis these are fortunately Phillips screws unlike other Ultrabooks which use Torx or another proprietary design.

Lenovo x1 print screen