Lenovo has done something unheard of: a ThinkPad without a red «spade» on the keyboard. The ThinkPad X9 15 is the company’s attempt to combine corporate reliability, premium design and the latest technology in a 1.4 kg ultrabook. It features an OLED display, Core Ultra processor, and a claimed battery life of up to 20 hours. ThinkPad openly challenges Apple’s legendary MacBook Air. Does it betray the spirit of ThinkPad? Or maybe it’s its evolution? Let’s find out in the editorial review.
Pluses:
High-quality OLED display with high brightness and 120 Hz; excellent keyboard and haptic touchpad; battery life; light and thin body and high-quality metal construction; fast charging; three-year warranty.
Minuses:
OLED flickering at low brightness (PWM); no TrackPoint; only one USB-A port; the price is still not for everyone; no card reader.
Content
- 1 Technical specifications of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 2 Components and packaging of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 3 Design, ergonomics and materials Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 4 Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 display
- 5 Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 camera and sound
- 6 Proprietary software
- 7 Working performance of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 8 Gaming performance of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 9 Battery life, temperatures and noise Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 10 Experience using Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
- 11 Price and competitors
Technical specifications of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
| Screen | 15.3 inches (2880×1800), brightness — 500 nits (peak — up to 1100 nits), 120Hz, OLED, 10-point Multi-touch, HDR, Dolby Vision |
| Processor | Intel Core Ultra 7 258 (8 cores: 4 P-core + 4 E-core), up to 4.8 GHz. |
| RAM | 32 GB LPDDR5x-8533 (soldered on the motherboard) |
| Storage devices | 1 TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD |
| Video card | Intel Arc 140V (integrated) |
| Cooling | 2 fans |
| Wireless interfaces | Wi-Fi 7 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax), Bluetooth 5.4 |
| Camera | 8 megapixel IR camera with electronic shutter, ToF sensor |
| Audio system | 2× 2 W speakers |
| Wired interfaces |
2x Thunderbolt 4 (DisplayPort, Power Delivery) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 1x HDMI 1x 3.5 mm combined audio jack (microphone/headphone) |
| Power supply | 65 W; 20 V, 3.25 A |
| Battery | 80 Wh; up to 20 hours |
| Weight | 1.4 kg |
| Dimensions | 339.55 x 228.5 x 12.9 mm |
| Other | TPM 2.0; fingerprint scanner |
| Warranty | 3 years |
Components and packaging of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
The shipping box — ordinary, without any special design tricks. Except for the eco-friendly style and execution. Cardboard with the ThinkPad label and a restrained Lenovo logo. Without any amazing effect.
Inside — the packaging of the laptop itself, which is distinguished by the fact that it is made of eco-friendly material and has an embossed ThinkPad inscription diagonally, which occupies almost the entire area.
The 65W power adapter is quite compact and lightweight, with a USB-C connector. It hardly ever gets hot and doesn’t take up much space in your bag.
The set of documents is minimal: a warranty card, a leaflet, and a short guide.
No additional accessories were delivered either. There’s not even a fabric case, just the laptop and charger. But given its ultra-compact dimensions, you can carry the X9 in a regular backpack, not even a laptop one.
Overall, the ThinkPad X9 15 — is minimalism in its purest form.
Design, ergonomics and materials Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
The first thing that catches your eye is the size: 12.9 mm thick and 1.4 kg. This is very good for a 15-inch laptop with an aluminum body and a full keyboard. ThinkPad has officially learned to be elegant.
Premium materials — anodized aluminum with a matte finish. Pleasant to the touch, does not slip in the hands. Prints remain, but not too much. The surface is easy to clean with microfiber.
The color of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 is a deep dark gray shade, which is trivially called Grey.
The hinge is reliable and allows the screen to be opened up to 170°. The lid holds tight, does not play, does not click. You can open it with one hand without distortion. The MacBook name test has been passed.
On the left side of the laptop is a full-fledged HDMI 2.1 for connecting modern monitors and consoles, as well as USB-C 4.0 with Thunderbolt 4 support.
On the right is another USB-C 4.0 port with Thunderbolt 4, which is useful for connecting fast drives, docking stations, or external displays. Next to it is a classic 3.5 mm audio jack, as well as USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 with Always-on function, which allows you to charge gadgets even when the laptop is turned off.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 display
The main feature of the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 is its 15.3-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2880×1800. This is 2.8K with thin bezels and a 16:10 aspect ratio.
Color gamut is — 100% DCI-P3, which means bright, vibrant colors that don’t «fade» compared to most conventional displays. Factory calibration is very accurate.
The brightness is about 500 nits, and the peak brightness is 1100 nits. This is a good indicator for OLED. On a bright sunny day, the image remains readable, although glare is possible — the coating is glossy, and nothing can be done about it.
There is one thing to note: flicker. There is PWM at low brightness levels. It’s not as bad as with older OLEDs, but it can still be noticeable to sensitive users. If your eyes get tired — turn on a dark theme and avoid minimum brightness.
HDR support is up to par. Windows 11 displays HDR content adequately, Netflix and YouTube HDR work without complaints.
The screen is equipped with a 10-point multi-touch, which adds convenience when working with gestures. Although for many people the absence of a touch layer means fewer fingerprints and a cleaner matrix, Lenovo went the other way — they relied on versatility and the ability to quickly interact with content with your fingers.
The bezels are thin, especially on the sides. The top one is a little thicker and houses the webcam, sensors, and microphones. The bottom one is almost invisible. Thanks to this, the display looks like the entire body, and produces the effect of a modern flagship.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 camera and sound
It has an 8-megapixel module that produces quite high-quality and sharp images up to 4K. The usual Full HD cameras that are still used even ingaming laptops for UAH 200,000look so-so against this module. Somewhere in the corner, «Cosmos» is nervously smoking.
A whole set of sensors works together with the camera: infrared for Windows Hello, ToF for depth, and autofocus. As a result, we have not just a webcam, but a full-fledged biometrics and privacy system.
Video calls in Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet — no complaints. The picture is clear, the colors are natural, and the background is blurred by hardware.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 doesn’t have a physical webcam shutter. Instead, it uses an electronic blocking via the ePrivacy chip.
Microphones — two, with noise reduction. The voice recording quality is good: the voice is loud, without echo, and extraneous noise is muffled. Ideal for conferences and podcasts (well, almost).
The maximum volume of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 is enough to watch a movie in a large room. The sound does not wheeze and does not fall into a «can», as is the case with cheap speakers. But don’t expect much depth either.
When listening to music, the sound is pleasant, the vocals are well readable, and the middle does not collapse. It’s more than enough for background music or Netflix after work.
Proprietary software
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 runs Windows 11 Pro, with a full package of corporate functions: BitLocker encryption, Hyper-V virtualization, and access to Active Directory.
The preinstalled Lenovo Vantage package is a kind of think tank. It allows you to set up energy profiles, manage charging, switch microphones, and adjust the keyboard backlight.
Why is there an Aura Edition in the name? Because the laptop has Aura Edition Smart Modes. This is one of those features that sounds nice on paper, but in real use raises more questions than «wow» effect. Lenovo tries to adapt the laptop’s operating mode to your actions.
It all looks like the evolution of familiar user profiles, but with artificial intelligence under the hood. The idea itself — automating the little things that usually require a few clicks — is a good one. But the implementation is still raw.
Microsoft’s Copilot is integrated and ready to go. It is supported by both CPU and NPU, so certain tasks, such as transcribing or summarizing text, are performed locally without accessing the cloud.
Windows 11 here is clean and adequate. This is a huge plus. Lenovo constantly releases updates for its software. The system stability is — on the level, almost no bugs were noticed. Everything works as expected, without freezes or strange behavior.
Working performance of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
| Benchmark | Result |
| Speedometer 3.1 (PSU) | 33.5 |
| Speedometer 3.1 (battery) | 30.6 |
| WebXPRT 4 (PSU) | 333 |
| WebXPRT 4 (battery) | 266 |
| Google Octane 2.0 Plus (PSU) | 111261 |
| Google Octane 2.0 Plus (battery) | 103025 |
| Google Octane 2.0 Plus Multi Core (PSU) | 506671 |
| Google Octane 2.0 Plus Multi Core (battery) | 489346 |
| CPU-Z Single (power supply) | 757.7 |
| CPU-Z Single (battery) | 700.8 |
| CPU-Z Multi (power supply) | 5022.4 |
| CPU-Z Multi (battery) | 4690.5 |
| 3DMARK Steel Nomad Light | 3235 |
| 3DMARK Port Royal | 12021 |
| 3DMARK Time Spy Extreme | 1984 |
| 3DMARK CPU Profile (Max threads) | 5911 |
| PCMARK 10 Extended | 6984 |
| Cinebench 2024 Single | 121 |
| Cinebench 2024 Multi | 580 |
| Cinebench R23 Single | 1752 |
| Cinebench R23 Multi | 9119 |
| Blender CPU 4.4.0 | 124.13 |
| Blender GPU 4.4.0 | 550.00 |
| Corona Benchmark | 2968039 |
| RAM read MB/s | 86546 |
| RAM write MB/s | 106556 |
| SSD read MB/s | 5205.23 |
| SSD write MB/s | 4875.31 |
In Speedometer 3.1, the laptop scores 33.5 points from the network and 30.6 on battery, which is typical for Core Ultra. WebXPRT 4 scores 333 and 266, respectively, which guarantees comfort in browser tasks.
In Octane 2.0 Plus, the system delivers 111k in single-threaded and over 506k in multi-threaded mode, and on battery — slightly less. CPU-Z records 757/5022 «parrots», Cinebench R23 — 1752/9119, and Cinebench 2024 — 121/580. This is enough for office, cloud services and basic editing, but not for heavy rendering.
PCMark 10 Extended scores 6984 — a typical score for a business ultrabook. Blender — 124 (CPU) and 550 (GPU), which is closer to the minimum for 3D. Corona Benchmark — just under 3 million rays, no surprises.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15’s memory is fast: 86.5 GB/s for reading and 106.5 GB/s for writing. The SSD is also in good shape — more than 5 GB/s for reading, almost 4.9 GB/s for writing. This ensures fast startup, stability, and no lag in file-based tasks.
Graphics: 3DMark Time Spy — 1984, Port Royal — 12021, Steel Nomad Light — 3235. CPU Profile Max Threads — 5911.
All in all, the ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition — is ideal for everyday work, but not for workstations or mobile production.
Gaming performance of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition is not positioned as a gaming device, and benchmarks confirm this. And although Intel is actively promoting its own GPUs, even within the iGPU framework, the real results remain modest. Especially in the high resolution of 2880×1800, which is used by the built-in OLED display.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — playing on Unreal Engine 5, a challenge for any system, even on discrete graphics. On the Low preset with XeSS enabled in Ultra Performance mode, the laptop delivers an average of 37 frames per second. This is minimal comfort in combat scenes, although texture loading and dynamic lighting sometimes cause a drop to 28-30 FPS. Visually, there is a noticeable loss of clarity due to aggressive upscaling, but the controls remain quite responsive.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (classic version without next-gen updates) on Low-preset runs at 24 FPS on average. This is the limit of playability, which is constantly felt — in Novigrad, during battles or when the weather changes, the frame rate drops below 20. Considering that this is a 2015 game, this indicates the limited performance of the Arc 140V.
Alan Wake Remastered, again on the Low preset, shows 28 frames per second. The situation here is a bit better than in The Witcher: the frame rate is steadier, although the overall picture is far from attractive.
The general trend is the same: all three games on the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 had to be run at minimum settings, with no hope of 60 FPS, even with upscaling. The high screen resolution only complicates the situation, because the iGPU is simply not capable of outputting 1800p without significant compromises.
Battery life, temperatures and noise Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
80 Watt-hours of battery life is one of the highest among ultrabooks. And Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 knows how to squeeze the most out of it. In office mode (Chrome, Word), the laptop works for up to 15-17 hours.
If you watch a video in VLC at medium brightness, it lasts about 18 hours. That’s almost a whole day without charging. In «mode, it just stands there and does nothing» — up to 22 hours.
Intensive work (Photoshop or 100+ tabs in Chrome) takes 7-9 hours. And that’s great too. For comparison, most AMD-based ultrabooks have roughly similar battery life, and last year, Intel models were in many cases inferior due to higher power consumption. However, this is more of a trend than a rule.
Gaming or rendering drain the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 battery in 2-3 hours. This is expected, and no one expects more.
Charging is pretty fast. The 65W USB-C adapter charges from 0 to 80% in an hour, fully in 1:45. If you connect a more powerful adapter (for example, 100 W) — it also works, but the laptop still takes no more than 65.
The temperatures are perfect. In office mode, the case is cool, the fans do not turn on at all. In Cinebench or Blender — up to 91-93°C on the cores, but throttling is insignificant.
Cooling of the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 — is passive-active. The fans are quiet and start up gradually. At maximum load, they are audible, but the noise does not exceed 38-40 dB.
The energy efficiency of the new chips is noticeable. And although it’s not a MacBook M-series, ThinkPad X9 has almost caught up with the ARM world in terms of battery life. And it did it with Windows.
Experience using Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 makes a good impression. It is comfortable, productive and pleasant to the touch. Weighing 1.4 kg and being less than 13 mm thick, it’s comfortable to carry around, although you can find even lighter and thinner options among competitors.
The keyboard is great. You can write on it for a long time without fatigue. The case is sturdy and does not bend when pressed. The touchpad is large and accurate. You get used to it quickly and don’t even want to go back to the usual buttons. Gestures work without any problems.
The OLED screen pleases with bright colors and good contrast, although PWM at low brightness levels can tire the eyes in the evening. In my case, there was some discomfort.
The performance of Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 is stable, everything works smoothly even with dozens of open windows.
The ports are conveniently located, but one USB-A is definitely not enough. Charging is versatile and lightweight, which is convenient on the go.
All in all, the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 is a reliable and comfortable laptop without bells and whistles, but with a few compromises. It is designed for those who appreciate classic style and stable performance.
Price and competitors
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 now costs from UAH 98,149 to 116,906. This is a representative of the top business class with a 15.3″ OLED display (2.8K, 120 Hz), Core Ultra 7, 32 GB RAM. And competitors also have something to show.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (from 73,849 to 91,099 UAH) — a lightweight laptop on the ARM platform. It has a 3:2 IPS display with a frequency of 120 Hz, is well optimized for long-term use, but still has limited compatibility with classic Windows software.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9 (from 70,048 to 76,190 UAH) — a classic ultrabook with a 2.8K IPS display, Intel Core Ultra 5, 32 GB RAM. It offers a good balance between price and quality, but does not have OLED.
Apple MacBook Air 15 (from 90,999 to 100,647 UAH) — ideal for those who use macOS. Lightweight, productive, up to 18 hours of battery life. The laptop has completely passive cooling without a single fan inside. The display is not OLED, but it has good color reproduction and brightness.
Asus Vivobook S 15 OLED (from 53,999 to 66,993 UAH) — the most affordable option on the list with an OLED display (2.8K, 120 Hz), Ryzen AI, 32 GB RAM. Ideal for content, studying, or light creativity, although the body is less premium.
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