Lenovo ThinkPad X240 review

A 1.36 kg carry-first ThinkPad from the Haswell era

The ThinkPad X240 (2013) is built around one idea that still holds: carrying it is nearly free. At 1.36 kg it sits 15 percent under the business-class median of 1.6 kg, and that featherweight chassis is the machine's measured top strength. Around it, the years have taken their toll — the Core i7 4600U posts a performance index of 14.9 against a median of 41.5, reliability reads 13 against 42.5, and the graphics silicon of the era scores nothing against today's baseline. At $142 you are buying a light, honest typing machine, not a performer.

The strength is the carry, the ceiling is the silicon

The X240's value case is the subnotebook form factor: the i7 4600U with 16GB of RAM handles documents, mail, and browsing comfortably in single-stream work. But three axes read far below their peers — performance, reliability, and graphics — and no game or software coverage was measured for this configuration. The honest scope is classic light business: text, tabs, and a full day of portability, with no gaming or GPU-adjacent ambition on the table.

A decadelong slide in price

The depreciation record is textbook for a premium business line: from a $1,300 launch price down to $142 today, a steady 6.23 percent per year, with a projected $125 (a further 12.1 percent) two years out. The curve has flattened — most of the value loss is already behind this machine.

Against its price neighbors

In the $122–163 band the X240 competes with the HP 250 G7 at $155 and ProBook 450 G1 at $152 above it, and the 250 G3 at $122 and ProBook 430 G2 at $132 below. The ThinkPad offers the lightest chassis and the best keyboard of that group; the newer budget units offer newer (if still modest) silicon. None of these neighbors will outrun the other in any meaningful way — the differentiator is the carry weight.

Bottom line

For a writer, a student, or anyone whose workload is text and tabs and whose priority is a bag that stays light, the X240 at $142 delivers its one measured strength honestly. Treat it as a purchase of portability and a proven chassis — with performance expectations set firmly in the 2013 bracket, and no gaming claims made.