I was ready to write off this new ThinkPad, but it surprised me

There’s a big shake-up and lots of excitement happening in the laptop world right now.

Intel will soon release its Lunar Lake lineup of laptop chipsets, which have better AI support and are aimed at rivaling Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 lines.

For now, though, Intel’s Meteor Lake chipset continues to be released in new laptops, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. It might seem like these laptops are falling too far behind — they’re certainly not the most exciting thing in the world.

But after spending time with the relatively unchanged ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, now in its 9th generation, I was surprised. It’s reasonably fast, offers great support for businesses, and gets fairly good battery life. It’s expensive, but if its price drops at all, it would be worth a look for enterprise customers.

Specs and configurations

As usual with ThinkPads, you have several components that you can configure for the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. The base model is $1,779 for an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U chipset, 16GB of RAM (the only option), a 512GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch Full HD+ IPS display. You can select a Core Ultra 7 155H ($268) and a Core Ultra 7 165H with vPro ($447), up to 2TB of storage ($775), and up to a 14.0-inch Full HD+ display with Lenovo’s ePrivacy Filter ($208). Upgrading to a 2.8K OLED display costs $74.

When fully configured, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 costs $2,771 for a Core Ultra 7 165H, 16GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, and the ePrivacy Filter display. This includes the 2160p webcam; a Lenovo Slim Pen costs $45.

These are very expensive prices for a 14-inch 2-in-1. You’re paying for a variety of services and capabilities that are aimed at Lenovo’s business user customers who are willing to pay more for a laptop (or have lower contracted pricing). But if you’re a consumer looking for a machine, you can get a lot more computer for a lot less.

An example is the Lenovo Yoga 7 14 2-in-1 that’s just $765 in a similar configuration as the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 base model. The HP Spectre x360 14 is a more premium 2-in-1 that’s still a lot less expensive at a starting price of $1,000.

Design

There was a time when every ThinkPad shared the same aesthetic: an all-black chassis with various red accents. Lenovo changed that up a few years ago, introducing different colorways while retaining that blinking red “i” in the ThinkPad logo on the lid and the red TrackPoint nubbin on the keyboard. There’s also Lenovo’s increasingly common reverse notch on the display that houses the webcam and other electronics.

While there’s enough ThinkPad left that you can distinguish it from the Yoga 7 14 2-in-1, it’s no longer such a standout design. And when compared with the HP Spectre x360 14 that’s a lot more attractive, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 looks a bit boring — which is probably more in line with a corporate environment.

While the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 might sport a rather minimalist design that may not attract every user, its all-metal build quality will appeal to everyone. It’s as solid as any 14-inch laptop made today, with a chassis, keyboard deck, and lid that resist all bending, flexing, and twisting. That’s not unique, though, with both the Yoga 7 14 2-in-1 and Spectre x360 14 being just as solidly built for less money.

The ThinkPad is thinner and lighter than both, though, and its thin display bezels make it overall a bit smaller than other 2-in-1s with the usual larger bottom chins to accommodate a hinge that allows for clamshell, tent, media, and tablet modes.

Judged as a 2-in-1, the ThinkPad X1 is very well done. Its display swivels 360 degrees from clamshell to tablet mode, with a hinge that’s light enough to allow opening of the lid with one hand, but firm enough to keep the display in place when typing. It’s thin and light enough to make for a reasonably usable tablet.

So, what’s special about the ThinkPad as a business-class laptop? Specifically, it’s various enhanced security and manageability features, such as ThinkShield Security, which provides additional hardware security features. Lenovo also tends to offer a higher level of support for ThinkPad customers. In addition, the availability of Intel vPro technology means the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 can be plugged into enterprise management solutions.

Keyboard and touchpad

Another change from earlier ThinkPads is the keyboard, which has gone from the iconic highly sculpted keycaps and deep switches that required considerable force to less sculpted keyboards and shallower, lighter, and snappier switches. It’s a similar keyboard to those used on other, non-ThinkPad laptops, and I like the change. It’s more like Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which is my favorite, in terms of overall feel. If you prefer deep keyboards that require more pressure, then you won’t like the change. ThinkPad fans will appreciate the TrackPoint nubbin, which provides an alternative way to control the user interface.

The touchpad is a typical mechanical version, although is buttons have quieter clicks than many others. It’s smaller than it could be due to the set of buttons that support the TrackPoint. The ThinkPad Z13 is another device in Lenovo’s updated ThinkPad line, and it has a haptic touchpad that’s much better. It has more swipeable area and its TrackPoint buttons are virtual. I would much rather have seen that design carried over here.

The display is both touch- and pen-enabled. The pen works well, and it attaches to the side of the laptop with very strong magnets. It’s a $45 add-on, and in my opinion should be included at these prices.

Connectivity and webcam

Connectivity is a strong point relative to most other 14-inch machines. It has a useful mix of Thunderbolt 4 and legacy ports. Its biggest omission is an SD card reader. Wireless connectivity is highly configurable, including up to Wi-Fi 7 and cellular connectivity. It’s a little confusing as to how to select those options in the Lenovo configurator, and it’s likely something that’s most available to corporate customers.

There are two webcam options, 1080p and a 2160p versions, and they depend on the configured display. My review unit had a Full HD+ display that comes with the 1080p webcam. It was fine, and I’m not sure how much value there really is in the 2160p webcam. Both have infrared cameras for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition, and there’s also a fingerprint reader on a key next to the right Ctrl button on the keyboard.

Performance

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is built around the Intel Meteor Lake, Core Ultra U-series lineup of 15-watt chipsets. These are soon to be supplanted by Intel’s Lunar Lake lineup, which will introduce several advancements, including a much faster Neural Processing Unit (NPU). That puts the ThinkPad at a distinct advantage until it inevitably receives Intel’s latest.

I reviewed the laptop with the Core Ultra 7 155U, a 12-core/14-thread chipset running at up to 4.8GHz. It faces more than just Intel Lunar Lake, with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 chips offering better performance and, in the case of Qualcomm, much better efficiency. And Apple’s M3 chipset offers both competitive performance and the best efficiency in laptops today.

In our benchmarks, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1’s low-powered CPU fell significantly behind most competitive laptops that use more power-hungry chipsets. In the case of both Qualcomm and Apple M3 laptops, the more efficient Arm architecture provides better performance while burning even less power (as we’ll see below).

The ThinkPad X1 2i-in-1 is a good enough productivity performer, but it’s going to seem a bit slower than many similar laptops. There’s the option of a Core Ultra 7 165U with vPro, enabling better management and security for corporate users, and its performance would be similar.

Battery life

There’s just 57 watt-hours of battery capacity in the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, which isn’t a lot for a 14-inch laptop. At the same time, my review unit used a low-power Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS display. We haven’t tested many laptops with the Core Ultra 7 155U, but it was a decent performer.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 did well, coming in behind the AMD and Qualcom machines on our list in the web-browsing test and doing exceptionally well in our video-looping test. It even exceeded all but the MacBook Air 13 when running the Cinebench 2024 multi-core test. It’s likely to last close to a full day when running typical productivity tasks.

Display and audio

I reviewed the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 with the low-power 14.0-inch Full HD+ IPS option. There are also 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED and Full HD+ ePrivacy Filter options. The latter will be of interest mostly to business users who are particularly keen on keeping their information private, while the OLED panel will provide much brighter colors and inky blacks at the cost of worse battery life.

According to my colorimeter, the IPS display was par for the course, meaning it hit the typical averages for IPS displays that are a lot better today than they were just a few short years ago. Brightness was good at 380 nits, well above the 300 nit standard that we should probably revise upwards. Colors were reasonably wide at 100% of sRGB, 76% of AdobeRGB, and 76% of DCI-P3, while accuracy was just OK at a DeltaE of 1.95 (less than the 2.0 cutoff for good displays, but not as good most IPS displays we’ve tested lately). Finally, contrast was good for IPS at 1,450:1, well above our 1,000:1 baseline that should also be revised.

The display is more than good enough for its business productivity users. Creators and media consumers will want to consider the OLED display.

Audio is provided by dual upward-firing speakers with Dolby Atmos support that radiate through the keyboard. Volume was surprisingly loud, and mids and clears were clear. Bass was lacking, but overall, I was impressed by how much sound the laptop put out. Others, like the MacBook Air 13, offer quad speaker setups that have more bass, but the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 did unusually well by comparison.

A good business laptop that needs a price drop to stay relevant

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is extremely well built, with features and functionality that will appeal to business users. It’s reasonably fast and has great battery life. All of that’s enough to keep it relevant even as Windows chipsets continue to advance.

The problem: It’s too expensive in its current iteration. Laptops with better performance and close to the same battery life can be had for a lot less, albeit without the business-friendly features. If its price drops (or is irrelevant to you), though, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 will be well worth considering.