The Framework Laptop 13 with AMD Strix Point is now shipping that as detailed in our review earlier this month can provide for a very capable Linux laptop for Linux developers, creators, and enthusiasts. But for those hesitant about the high price and still weeks away before they have shipped all their pre-orders, if you are principally concerned about battery life, and/or after proven build quality backed by on-site warranty and other warranty/support options, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition ends up being a solid option for a very reliable and well-engineered laptop for Linux use. Here is a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition on Linux that is powered by Intel Lunar Lake.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition has been shipping for several months already and pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows 11 while Lenovo engineers have been working to certify the Linux support on this premium Lunar Lake laptop. In my testing of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, it’s been working out well on the likes of Ubuntu 25.04 and Fedora Workstation 42 as very modern Linux distributions… If you are on a very recent Linux kernel and/or Mesa, you should be in good shape for the Xe2 integrated graphics, even working web camera support, and more. The one big exception though is with the current CPU frequency behavior.
As outlined in an article last week around the Xe2 graphics between Windows and Linux, the X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition currently has an issue where the CPU clocks can become stuck at 400MHz. But the easy workaround is just switching to the “performance” ACPI Platform Profile and it overcomes this big limitation. Lenovo is working to rollout new firmware (BIOS and EC update) for this laptop that will address this issue. Obviously if stuck at 400MHz for the eight CPU cores the performance is atrocious, but at least there is an easy workaround and hopefully the new firmware will be all addressed soon. More so as another advantage to Linux on Lenovo laptops is the Fwupd/LVFS support for easy firmware updating under Linux as those new versions roll-out.
With modern Linux distributions like Fedora Workstation 42 or Ubuntu 25.04 on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, you end up with a very nice and well-built laptop experience. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 delivers similar quality what we’ve come to previously experience out of the X1 Carbon line. The build quality is great, the Gen 13 model is powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 2 “Lunar Lake”, and the display is gorgeous. This laptop has a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with HDR support, 120Hz refresh rate, 400 nits brightness, and low blue light. The display really is great.
The X1 Carbon Gen 13 as tested at Phoronix was with the Core Ultra 7 258V with eight cores / 4.8GHz boost frequency / Intel Arc Graphics 140V and 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory on package. It would be great if there was an AMD Ryzen option in the X1 Carbon line albeit not the case currently. Lunar Lake with this laptop is nice for delivering a great single-threaded experience if primarily running a web browser, office suite, and other typical office type workloads. But just the eight physical cores (no SMT/HT with Lunar Lake) and on-package memory topping out at 32GB is disappointing for a high-end laptop. Though on the plus side for Lunar Lake, the CPU power efficiency is great and ultimately great battery life out of the X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition – even on Linux.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition pricing with the Core Ultra 7 258V with 32GB LPDDR5X-8533, 2.8K display, and 1TB SSD is in the $2400~2500 USD space. However, between sales at Lenovo and other major Internet retailers it can be found occasionally in the $1800~2000 space. At that price it’s much more competitive for this several month old model, the Linux support in the finishing stages of settling, and putting it more comparable to the somewhat higher pricing seen out of the new Framework hardware. And the X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition is very well built and backed by Lenovo’s solid warranty program.
In using the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition for about three weeks so far, it’s been pleasant with the likes of Ubuntu 25.04 and Fedora Workstation 42 once working around the firmware / 400MHz clocking issue. I really appreciate the build quality of the X1 Carbon Gen 13 and its great 2.8K OLED display that is complete with HDR support and working on the very latest Linux distributions/desktops for high dynamic range. The Core Ultra 7 258V is capable for desktop Linux use from Thunderbird to Firefox / Chrome browser use and other typical desktop/office workloads. The performance isn’t as great as the upper-tier AMD Ryzen AI 300 series SoCs, but its plenty capable outside of demanding multi-threaded code compilation / creator type workloads. The Intel Lunar Lake SoC also contributes to the great battery life of the X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition that was significantly longer than the Framework 13 with Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 that’s recently been tested.
For those curious about the power/performance potential of the X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, I’ve carried out a number of benchmarks of various Intel and AMD laptops under Ubuntu 25.04.
