Mobile World Congress, The annual trade fair dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry is back in Barcelona. While it’s not the first year of MWC since the pandemic began (it’s now officially called MWC, probably because Mobile World Congress sounds more interesting as a legislative body), 2023 is the first with more halls than 2019 and before.
What was announced there? True, manufacturers have made a habit of revealing their flagship devices at their own events—but there were still plenty of new technologies at MWC 2023.
Lenovo ThinkPads get a rethink
Photographs: Andrew Williams
Proving that “mobile” doesn’t mean cell phones, Lenovo announced several updates to its excellent, if reassuringly expensive, ThinkPad line at MWC 2023.
The ThinkPad X13 Gen 4 gets new-generation Intel Core I-series processors and, as senior product manager Matej Mystyuric explained, one of the heat transfer vents has been moved to the back. If the bottom is closed, this will stop the laptop from overheating.
Light weight and an OLED panel bring a little 2023 shine to one of the most respected lines of business laptops.
Want a more clear gloss? Lenovo Thinkpad Z13 Gen 2 line by ThinkPad elements as a high-end ultraportable, reverses the order of priority. At first glance, not much has changed here in the use of 7000-series AMD processors.
But Sensel Haptic tells us its touchpads have a very vague feel on the Thinkpad Z13 Gen 1. “Lenovo wasn’t happy with their solution for various reasons, so we went in for Gen 2,” he says. Sensei Mark Rosenberg. To closely mimic a mechanical button, you want the crisp click to feel like it’s on fire and vibrates quickly—otherwise, you’ll feel it and it’ll sound clunky, which is unpleasant.
