If money is no object, this new ThinkPad X9-15 is the business laptop you want

It’s hard not to think of a ThinkPad when imagining a business laptop, which is why I was excited to get my hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition, and see if this new generation of ThinkPads has what it takes in this cutthroat corporate world.

Well, it certainly made a great first impression. Opening up the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 revealed a drop-dead gorgeous display. Navigating around with the haptic touchpad felt great, and then finally playing some tunes hooked me into this lovely multimedia device. For business users, you’re going to enjoy this for two workdays in a row before you have to plug it in.

Despite that, the price-to-performance ratio is egregious. While that’s to be expected for a business laptop, it’s worse that you cannot configure the ThinkPad beyond an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor. I also have some minor complaints about the keyboard, but the performance is tough to get over.

However, if you’re someone who doesn’t plan on lifting heavy workloads onto your laptop, then the Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition could be a great choice for you. And regardless of its flaws, it may even make an appearance on our best business laptops page. But before that, let’s see if the ThinkPad X9-15 is right for you.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Specs and benchmarks

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Price and configurations

If you don’t know already, business laptop pricing is not intended for individual consumers, so I’d call none of the following options a good value. (But there are business laptops like the Asus ExpertBook P5, which are very well priced.)

The ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 that I reviewed costs $2,024 right now, and it’s outfitted with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, an Intel Arc 140V 16GB iGPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 15.3-inch, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED touchscreen display.

The base model comes in at $1,345, dropping you to a Core Ultra 5 226V, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a non-touch version of the display we have. If you really dig the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1, you can bump up to the $2,686 model, which includes the Core Ultra 7 268V CPU (that will give you much better performance, although still not worth the price).

If you’re looking for something cheaper, check out the best laptops under $1,000.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Design

Could the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 be more colorful? Yes. Is it still stylish anyway? Also yes. What distinguishes its dark gray chassis is the anodized aluminum texture and the lip where the webcam would be, which features a pill-shaped design accompanied by an “X9-15” logo.

Then there are the ports and underside, which jut out in a block, designed to make more room for heat management. It might sound goofy, but the whole chassis gives off a very machine-like look reminiscent of minimalist sci-fi films.

Meanwhile, the interior reinforces that minimalist look with a tight black keyboard in the center and a large touchpad just beneath it. There’s a webcam up top, but there’s no manual privacy shutter. There’s a kill switch on the keyboard, but nothing physical is happening to the camera, which doesn’t make me feel the most secure at a glance.

At 3.06 pounds and 13.37 x 9.0 x 0.27~0.7 inches, the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 is hecka thin and light for a 15-inch laptop. Here’s how it compares to 15- and 14-inch competitors:

• MacBook Air 15-inch M4: 3.3 pounds, 13.4 x 9.35 x 0.45 inches
• HP EliteBook Ultra G1i AI: 2.6 pounds, 12.35 x 8.55 x 0.48 inches
• Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Gen 1 Aura Edition: 3 pounds, 12.28 x 8.35 x 0.51 inches

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Ports

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For a business laptop, the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 is missing a few ports I’d like to see, including a microSD card slot and an additional USB Type-A port. Since one USB Type-C port will be taken for charging, you don’t have too many connections. Despite that, you do get an HDMI port, which is a plus.

• 2 x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4, USB 40Gbps)
• USB-A (USB 10Gbps)
• Headphones / mic combo
• HDMI 2.1 (supports resolution up to 4K@60Hz

Need more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Battery life

While the new Intel chips were designed for efficiency in mind, we've had some hit-or-miss runtimes in the wave of laptops we've reviewed. Despite that, the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 is on point.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which programs it to continuously surf the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the ThinkPad outlasted all its competition at 16 hours and 24 minutes, including its sibling (10:09).

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Security and durability

Like its sibling, the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 features ThinkShield, a fancy term for Lenovo’s security solution across hardware and software. This includes a dTPM security chip, IR webcam for Windows Hello facial login, Intel Threat Detection, a webcam privacy e-shutter (F9), and a fingerprint reader in the power button (which we dislike).

It also earned its MIL-STD-810H certification after taking a beating from drops, vibrations, extreme temperatures, and more.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Display

My eyes! The ThinkPad X9-15 is rocking a 15.3-inch, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED touchscreen display that's just oozing with color, backed by strong brightness.

I watched the new Lilo & Stitch, and the dynamic duo practically jumped off the screen. They were so vibrant, from Stitch’s fuzzy blue fur and Lilo’s red flowery shit. The waters of Hawaii also looked so vivid that they brought me back to my first trip six years ago. Since it’s a glossy panel, there’s some glare, but it’s bright enough to combat most of it. And it’s also sharp enough to capture the details in Lilo’s hair.

The ThinkPad X9-15 is nearly as bright as the MacBook Air, and it’s more colorful than all of its competitors.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Keyboard and touchpad

My fingers had a comfortable time typing away on the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1, but it isn’t anything more than decent. The keys are a bit mushy, but they’re also bouncy as well, so I’m a bit mixed on it.

At first, I walked away with a dismal 64 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing, falling way below my 81-wpm average, but after a few tries, I got up to 84 wpm. The way the keys are curved at the bottom and more defined at the top definitely tripped me up since most laptop keyboards are flat. Overall, the keyboard works, but it might take some getting used to.

When I was first introduced to the haptic touchpad, I didn’t really know how I felt, but now I’m in love with them. They’re so smooth and offer a decent click when the haptics are maxed out. The ThinkPad X9-15’s 5.3 x 3.1-inch touchpad is no exception.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Audio

It’s not often I compliment a set of bottom-firing speakers, but the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1’s got some bangin’ audio.

I listened to “Dangerous” from Epic: The Musical and immediately started vibing to the acoustic guitar and vocals, which produced a bright and crisp sound. Even the background synths were present, sitting just behind the vocals. The percussion didn’t get a whole lot of bass to back it up, but it had enough to support the song. Most importantly, all of the instruments were distinguishable from one another.

You can adjust the audio with the Dolby Access app, which features the presets: Dynamic, Movie, Music, Voice, and Gaming. There are also three custom presets where you can manually adjust the EQ.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Performance and heat

Despite its price, you’re not getting the best specs you could for your money, leaving you with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V and 32GB of RAM. It’s more than enough for light browsing and the primordial domain of spreadsheets you might find yourself in. And I’m speaking from experience, juggling a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos with little slowdown.

Ironically, the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 performed the second best in the Geekbench 6 overall performance test and our HandBrake benchmark. But, unfortunately, that’s not quite the victory we’d want it to be. You see, the EliteBook Ultra is rocking an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V while the X9-14 features an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V.

The power hierarchy between these laptops is so confusing. The problem is that the EliteBook Ultra is supposed to be stronger than the ThinkPad X9-15, but it’s not. And the X9-14 isn’t even all that much weaker than either laptop.

That means no matter what processor you configure the ThinkPad X9-15 with, you’re going to get shortchanged on performance, which is not a good look on an absurdly priced business laptop. Meanwhile, the (ironically) significantly cheaper MacBook Air’s M4 surpassed all three laptops by a wide margin.

Despite that, the ThinkPad’s 1TB SSD is quite fast, clocking a transfer rate of 1,677 megabytes per second. That’s faster than the Windows-based competition.

At the very least, since this is a light performer, you won’t have to deal with a ridiculous amount of heat. The hottest it got was actually on the keyboard, between the F9 and F10 keys, coming in at 92.9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is safely below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Gaming and graphics

If you want to hop on a few matches of your favorite competitive game after work, the ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1’s Intel Arc 140V 16GB iGPU might be able to serve your needs. Don’t expect to play the latest AAA games at max settings, but you might be able to get away with a few big titles at the lowest settings.

Jumping into the latest Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, we saw an average of 66 frames per second on Medium, 1080p settings, and 38 fps on High settings. Anything above 30 fps is playable, so you can most certainly game on the ThinkPad X9-15. In fact, the ThinkPad does it better than the rest of its competitors.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: AI features

As with any new laptop in the modern era, we’ve got to talk about AI. The ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1’s Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU features an NPU, so it’s capable of handling any AI processes natively. However, the only real use you’ll get out of this out of the box is Copilot. You’ll get features like Recall, Live Captions, and Cocreator.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Webcam

This is one of those rare moments when I don’t completely tear apart a laptop webcam. The ThinkPad X9-15’s 4K IR webcam might not be perfect, but it’s decent.

It captured the bright and dark colors of The Witcher 3 poster behind me, as well as the rose color in my cheeks. It’s sharp enough to capture the thin dots of post-shave stubble on my face. However, it doesn’t handle contrast all that well, as the window and ceiling behind me were overexposed white sheets of paper. I don’t think it’s necessary to get one of the best webcams unless you’re frequently in very bright spaces.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition: Software and warranty

You get the same software you would with any Windows device with the addition of Lenovo-branded software like Lenovo Commercial Vantage, which features device settings and details, Wi-Fi security settings, hardware scans, and warranty information.

The ThinkPad X9-15 comes with a one-year limited warranty.

Bottom line

There’s a lot to love about the Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition. It practically cast a siren song upon me between its beautiful OLED display and its punchy speaker system. The battery life and sturdy chassis are also great. The problem is: Performance.

If you need a high-performing business laptop, especially for a price that warrants it, then you’re much better off going with the MacBook Air 15-inch M4. It’s faster, supports nearly as much battery life, and it gives you access to the whole macOS suite of apps.

However, if you need a Windows device that supports a stunning OLED display, none of the competitors can keep up with the Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 Aura Edition.