ThinkPad X9 14: Good AI laptop but outclassed by ARM competitors
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition impresses with its solid design, 120Hz OLED display, and excellent keyboard. However, the performance of the Intel Core Ultra chip is a major weakness when compared to more powerful and competitively priced ARM competitors.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is a business laptop positioned as a PC Copilot+, equipped with an Intel Core Ultra CPU. Although it has many advantages in design, screen and input experience, the performance of the device shows a significant loss when compared to competitors using ARM architecture, especially products from Apple with more competitive prices.
Familiar design and valuable improvements
The ThinkPad X9 14 retains the iconic ThinkPad aesthetic, but with a more modern twist. The 14-inch display bezels are slimmer, and the top bezel protrudes to house the webcam, microphones, and sensors, creating a focal point and making it easier to open. Weighing in at 3 lbs (1.36 kg), it's light and sturdy.
A notable point is the speaker system placed on both sides (side-firing), helping the sound not to be obstructed when typing or placing the device on different surfaces. The sound quality is considered detailed and clear, superior to many other ultra-thin laptops.
Top-notch input and display experience
The ThinkPad X9 14's keyboard continues to be a highlight, providing a bouncy, comfortable, and accurate typing experience. The touchpad is spacious and responds well to swipes and gestures. The 8MP webcam takes sharp images and supports facial login via Windows Hello, in addition to the integrated fingerprint sensor.
The device is equipped with a 14-inch OLED screen with 2.8K resolution (2880 x 1800) with a refresh rate of 120Hz. This screen provides vivid colors, high fidelity, reaching 121.7% of the sRGB color spectrum and an average brightness of 443 nits. However, the touch screen version has a rather glossy surface, which can cause reflection when used outdoors.
Performance War: Intel Core Ultra vs. ARM
This is the ThinkPad X9 14's biggest weakness. While it's a powerful machine for office tasks, the Intel Core Ultra 5 CPU is weaker than ARM-based chips in both performance and energy efficiency. Performance test results clearly show this difference.
In our battery test, the device lasted 10 hours and 9 minutes of web browsing, which is enough for a full work day. However, with heavier tasks like image processing or running local AI models, the actual battery life can drop to 5-6 hours.
Performance comparison table
To see the difference clearly, below are the performance comparison results between ThinkPad X9 14, ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 (also using ARM chip) and Apple MacBook Air M4.
| Index | Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition | Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition | Apple MacBook Air M4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeekBench 6 (single-core) | 2545 | 2,762 | 3,751 |
| GeekBench 6 (multi-core) | 10,049 | 11,131 | 14,947 |
| Handbrake (video transcoding) | 7:46 | 7:36 | 5:34 |
| Battery life (hours:minutes) | 10:09 | 11:28 | 14:51 |
The results show that the MacBook Air M4, with its lower starting price, is completely superior in performance and battery life, which puts the ThinkPad X9 14 in a difficult position in the price/performance competition.
The Promise of AI: Marketing Beyond Reality?
The ThinkPad X9 14 is heavily marketed as a Copilot+ PC with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) capable of up to 48 TOPS. However, in practice, utilizing this AI power locally is still limited. Most AI experiences still rely on cloud connectivity and applications like Office 365. With 16GB of RAM, it struggles to handle large language models (LLMs) on-premises. Therefore, the Copilot+ badge is not currently a deciding factor when choosing this product.
Conclusion: A solid but not optimal choice
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is an excellent business laptop when it comes to build quality, keyboard, and display alone. It performs well for office use and has a durable design. However, at around $1,459 for the review unit, its performance can’t match ARM competitors like the MacBook Air M4, which is more powerful and has a more attractive starting price. Unless you have a compelling need to use Intel’s x86-only apps, you should consider other options that offer better performance for the same price.
