Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 Aura Edition Review: A Solid Business Laptop With Some Quirks

Step aside, aged boy. The ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Edition is making maine hide each astir the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, nan astir renowned business laptop for complete a decade. Of course, Lenovo isn’t doing distant pinch nan X1 Carbon, but the X9 bid surely seems for illustration nan company’s experimental project for nan aforesaid premium category. It’s not perfect, but I for illustration wherever Lenovo is going pinch it.

Much emotion has been packed into nan X9-14’s impressively ultraportable design, including a stunning 14-inch OLED screen, beardown speakers, agelong artillery life and coagulated capacity for casual business users. The problem is that it costs a chunky $1,283 for low-end specs, it doesn’t travel pinch a USB Type-A larboard and it’s failing nan bequest of fantabulous ThinkPad keyboards.

That doesn’t extremity nan ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Edition from doing nan champion pinch what it’s got, and it’s sewage a lot.

Lookin’ sleek and fresh for travel

I’ve ever been a instrumentality of bold, colorful laptops, but I understand that successful a business mounting you’d want to blend in. The ThinkPad X9-14, however, manages to do truthful successful style — it won’t tie your coworkers successful from crossed nan room, but you’ll perceive a bully ol’ “ooo” erstwhile they get a person look. The acheronian grey aluminum framework looks for illustration it was carved retired of a abstraction stone and past blasted pinch soil (or oxide, some springiness that sparkly grainy look). Of course, there’s nan iconic ThinkPad logo successful nan apical near area of nan lid pinch a reddish LED, but there’s besides a X9-14 logo astatine nan very top, which sits connected an oblong land giving machine-look vibes.

The interior sports much of nan aforesaid minimalist design, pinch my favourite ocular artistic being nan keys. It looks for illustration personification carved distant nan bottommost of each 1 to adhd a spot of flair, and I’m each astir it. And if you’re not a instrumentality of bezels, they return up very small room connected nan display. There’s a 4K webcam connected nan lip, which you tin disable pinch nan F9 fastener erstwhile you’re retired of meetings. I’d do it successful meetings too, because of its mediocre video value — my features were fuzzy and my look was red.

The ThinkPad X9-14’s chassis maintains a remarkably bladed 0.26-inch floor plan up until you get to nan ports, wherever it expands to a neat 0.68-inch artifact that besides holds nan fans. There’s only 4 ports, but astir of nan essentials are covered, including 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI slot and a headphone jack. The captious miss is nan deficiency of a USB Type-A port, which nan 15-inch exemplary supports.

Despite that drawback, nan X9-14’s bladed framework mixed pinch its 2.8-pound chassis make for an exceptionally ultraportable business laptop that won’t beryllium a symptom to propulsion retired astatine a TSA checkpoint.

Pretty connected nan eyes, euphony to my ears

Nothing will make maine gush much than a beautiful OLED screen, and nan ThinkPad X9-14 had maine blushing for illustration a pinkish Starburst. In my experience, OLED panels are little straining connected nan eyes (although this taxable is somewhat of a debate), but I for illustration them erstwhile I’m moving each day. Even erstwhile you’re each done pinch your business, you won’t beryllium capable to propulsion distant from this 14-inch surface pinch its 2,880 x 1,800 resolution. That’s crisp capable to seizure each strand of hairsbreadth connected your favourite furry Disney sidekick. And whether you’re scrolling done endless rows of information connected your spreadsheets aliases making your measurement done your indie-game library, nan X9’s 120Hz refresh complaint will alteration smoother visuals than nan mean business laptop. The 1 point I hate, though, is nan rounded edges because it cuts disconnected immoderate of nan visuals.

I watched an section of Steven Universe, which is iconic for its pastel colour palette, and my eyes practically swam successful nan crystal bluish water of Beach City. The speech sounded a spot quiet, but tinkering pinch nan Dolby Atmos settings gave it nan boost it needed.

I couldn’t extremity myself from jumping into a lucifer of Marvel Rivals to support my play situation streak running, and nan ThinkPad’s OLED allowed maine to soak successful each of nan game’s vivid colors. I tried retired Phoenix for nan first clip and blasted enemies pinch her cosmic flames, creating a ocular spectacle of orangish and yellow. The cacophony of explosions were chopped and well-balanced connected nan audio broadside arsenic well, I could perceive that jabroni (Star Lord) screaming “Legendary!” connected my backline. The dual-speaker setup produced well-rounded audio for a business laptop. Tracks for illustration “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters (my caller obsession) popped pinch crisp vocals and bassy synths, truthful consciousness free to return disconnected your sweaty headphones and vibe astatine nan extremity of nan workday.

Mushy click-clack and haptic feedback

Like Rumi’s narration pinch Jinu (I told you I’m obsessed), my narration pinch this keyboard is complicated. I’m clicking distant astatine this review, and nan ThinkPad X9-14 is comfortable to type on, but it’s not arsenic clicky as I want it to be. There’s immoderate decent travel, but nan keys are just… mushy. Sure, I tin type connected it each time arsenic nan buttons are very well-spaced, but they’re not satisfying to use. I ideate for astir folks that mightiness beryllium fine, but aft testing hundreds of laptops, I tin opportunity for definite location are amended keyboards retired there.

On nan different hand, nan touchpad was truthful soft that my fingers slid crossed its glassy aboveground for illustration a fig skater astatine nan Olympics. Its haptic feedback offers capable consequence to mimic nan existent thing, and I’ve really grown to for illustration haptics more than existent touchpads, which are terribly inconsistent.

In summation to nan trackpad and keyboard, you tin besides usage nan ThinkPad X9's touchscreen to get activity done. I knowledgeable immoderate guidance erstwhile rearranging immoderate of my browser windows, truthful it’s not great if you’re conscionable utilizing your fingers. But I’m judge folks that request to sketch will admit it, particularly since nan OLED show will do justness to your art. (For immoderate reason, Lenovo’s website doesn’t opportunity that its pens are compatible pinch nan ThinkPad X9-14, but a Lenovo typical confirmed they are, and nan laptop itself besides features nan Lenovo Pen Settings app.)

The ThinkPad X9's performance: Business casual

I’ve enjoyed my clip pinch nan ThinkPad X9-14 truthful far, and that’s pinch its bottom-of-the-barrel CPU, nan Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, positive 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. I expected immoderate lackluster performance, possibly moreover a small slowdown, but it really felt beautiful smooth.

I utilized nan ThinkPad X9-14 to do a small activity connected nan imagination novella I’m writing, which, if you cognize thing astir nan genre, requires maine to person an obscene number of tabs open. I divided my surface successful three, betwixt Campfire, Google Docs and Legend Keeper, my unholy trinity of world building. The ThinkPad kept up pinch my shenanigans, truthful it’ll do good pinch astir casual agency workflows.

If you’re really crunching numbers, though, nan Intel Core Ultra 5 226V is nan lowest performing CPU you tin get successful nan X9-14, which isn’t needfully a bad thing, until you spot nan value (I’ll spell into that below). Its benchmark scores aren’t acold disconnected from nan Zenbook A14, but ASUS’ chosen Snapdragon X X1 CPU sewage marked for its slow performance. That’s apt because nan Zenbook needs to emulate Windows apps owed to its ARM architecture. While nan Zenbook A14’s scores are a smidge amended than nan ThinkPad X9-14, astatine slightest pinch nan second you don’t person to interest astir nan latency of emulating apps aliases moving into compatibility issues.

Since nan MacBook Air has been getting cheaper, I’d beryllium remiss not to see it arsenic a competitor to nan ThinkPad X9, either. If you’re shopping for immoderate spirit of ThinkPad arsenic a business laptop, you’re apt looking for information features, aliases distant guidance devices (if you’re successful IT), and MacBooks connection both. The MacBook Air M4 13-inch is astir 50 percent much powerful than nan ThinkPad and nan Zenbook. Again, nan ThinkPad X9-14 still offers decent performance, conscionable don’t expect to do thing taxing for illustration video-editing.

Now, if you’re reasoning astir cutting retired immoderate activity and doing much play, nan X9-14’s Intel Arc Graphics iGPU is amazingly capable. You’re not going to beryllium playing AAA games connected max settings, but I hopped into a fewer matches of Marvel Rivals and managed a decent 40 to 55 frames per second. I maintained nan autochthonal solution but cranked everything down to Low pinch Ultra Performance and Frame Generation enabled.

The ThinkPad X9-14 crushed nan Zenbook A14 successful position of graphics, and while nan MacBook Air delivered stronger capacity wide for video-editing and designing, it can’t comparison to nan gaming compatibility that nan X9-14 offers.

And for illustration astir modern laptops, nan ThinkPad X9-14 has an NPU. If your occupation requires you to activity pinch natively-run AI features, nan ThinkPad X9-14 will aggregate those spreadsheets for you (and create cursed memes of, say, your boss’ look connected a dog’s body).

A artillery for business hours and beyond

I spent rather a spot of clip pinch nan ThinkPad X9-14 earlier it yet ran retired of steam. It survived maine moving connected this review, jumping to my book astatine nan extremity of nan time and a precocious nighttime Discord chat pinch friends. On our video rundown artillery test, it lasted 11 hours and 51 minutes. That’s much than capable to transportation connected your business and moreover adhd immoderate overtime (or, you know, footwear backmost and relax to immoderate chill videos).

The title is stiff, though. Last year’s ASUS Zenbook S14, which has an Intel chipset, clocked complete 4 hours longer than nan ThinkPad X9-14. Meanwhile, Snapdragon X laptops rustle each those Intel machines retired of nan water, pinch systems for illustration nan ASUS Zenbook A14 coming successful astatine 18:16. Still, while Lenovo's notebook mightiness autumn short of those awesome runtimes, astatine slightest it doesn't person nan aforesaid app limitations that clasp those devices back. It’ll get nan occupation done, and that’s what matters.

Is it worthy nan business tax?

So really overmuch does this each cost? Well, nan exemplary I reviewed comes pinch an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, 16GB of RAM (though only nan 32GB configuration is presently available) and a 512GB SSD. That totals retired to $1,283 connected Lenovo's website (with 32GB of RAM). For context, I’ve seen much powerful gaming laptops that costs less. But you’re not buying a business laptop for its power, you (or your IT manager) are buying it for its features.

While galore non-business laptops are designed to beryllium durable, you are still getting a military-grade chassis, which has been tested against drops, shocks and utmost temperatures. Then there’s Lenovo’s ThinkShield Security suite. That’s conscionable a fancy word for saying nan ThinkPad X9-14 includes a modular dTPM information chip, a fingerprint reader, a IR webcam for Windows Hello, an e-shutter for nan webcam (F9) and Intel’s Threat Detection Technology (TDT) that uses AI to uncover cyberattacks. Intel TDT is included pinch Intel vPro, which tin beryllium utilized for distant management.

Now, if you want that laundry database of business features and top-tier performance, it’s going to hurt. To upgrade to an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V pinch a 1TB SSD, it’ll costs $1,939. Yep, that’s rather nan leap for specs we’ve seen successful importantly cheaper laptops (like nan Dell 16 and 14 Plus).

It’s important to note, however, that business laptops for illustration nan ThinkPad X9-14 aren’t really intended for individual consumers but alternatively businesses looking to bargain successful bulk. There are business laptops priced astatine a level that mightiness entreaty much to nan mean consumer, for illustration nan $1,399 ASUS ExpertBook P5 (P5405), but those are much uncommon than I’d like. For that price, nan ExpertBook comes pinch a Core Ultra 7, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Wrap-up

I thought I’d beryllium much disappointed pinch nan ThinkPad X9-14 considering its low-end CPU, but it’s perfectly suited for mundane tasks and made for a awesome penning companion. What really sold maine was nan OLED surface and audio, which are awesome not conscionable for watching training videos aliases slideshows but besides (and arsenic important) for aft activity erstwhile you get immoderate play in, whether that’s virtually playing games aliases binging your favourite caller series.

I besides admit nan artillery life and portability, positive each of Lenovo’s information features packed into a military-grade chassis.

However, I can’t warrant nan mean user paying $1,283 for nan ThinkPad X9-14 pinch specs you’d find successful laptops that costs hundreds of dollars little (minus nan RAM, of course). For mini business owners, I urge waiting for a waste aliases see a business laptop marketed much toward you (again, nan ASUS ExpertBook P5 (P5405) is simply a awesome choice). But if you’re nan IT personification astatine a institution looking for a laptop to bargain successful bulk, past yes, nan ThinkPad X9-14 is simply a worthy purchase.