Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) review – Premium Professional Convertible, But There’s One Rival That’s Better!

When you see “ThinkPad X1 2-in-1,” you expect the best – a no-compromise blend of performance, portability, and premium features. And the Gen 9 certainly makes a strong first impression with its sleek design, fantastic keyboard, and a truly jaw-dropping 2.8K OLED screen. It feels every bit the high-end convertible.

It certainly ticks many boxes. But is ticking most boxes enough when you’re paying a premium? Can it handle demanding tasks without breaking a sweat? More importantly, can it last through your workday without needing a charger, especially when competitors are setting records?

So, should you invest in this impressive piece of ThinkPad engineering, or is that “better” rival the smarter buy? We’ve pushed the X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 to its limits – read on for the detailed breakdown, performance numbers, and the crucial comparisons you need before making a decision.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-2-in-1-gen-9/

Contents

Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box

Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-2-in-1-gen-9-type-21ke-21kf/downloads/driver-list

What’s in the box?

The box is beautiful but it doesn’t contain any surprises. Looks like the goodies are region-based and in Europe you only get the laptop and its little 65W charger. But you may also get an HDMI to VGA Monitor Adapter, or a USB-C to Ethernet Adapter (1Gbps).

Design and construction

Picking up the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9, you’re immediately greeted by that unmistakable ThinkPad DNA. It exudes a sense of purposeful elegance; there are no flashy colours here, just a sleek, professional grey finish that says “let’s get down to business.” This isn’t a machine designed to distract; it’s built to blend seamlessly into a productive workflow.

True to the X1 lineage, it feels exceptionally well put-together. Crafted from aluminium for both the top and bottom covers, the chassis exhibits impressive rigidity – there’s simply no flex or weakness here, reinforcing the premium feel Lenovo targets with its X1 series. A very practical touch is the finish, which does an excellent job resisting fingerprints, keeping the device looking clean even through a busy workday.

Despite its robust build, the X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 remains remarkably portable. Measuring just 15.49 mm (0.61 inches) thick and with a starting weight of only 1.35 kg (2.97 lbs), it’s effortless to carry around. Lenovo has clearly refined the thin-and-light formula for this generation.

Opening the lid is a smooth, satisfying one-handed operation, revealing hinges that are perfectly tuned – firm enough to hold the screen steady, yet fluid enough not to require wrestling the laptop open. And because this is a 2-in-1, those hinges rotate a full 360 degrees, allowing you to effortlessly switch between laptop, tent, stand, and tablet modes.

Once open, the display is framed by impressively thin bezels on the sides and bottom. The top bezel features a slight ‘bump’, but it’s there for a good reason, housing a sophisticated camera array. Even the standard setup includes a sharp FHD 1080p webcam paired with an IR sensor for secure Windows Hello login, complete with temporal noise reduction for better low-light performance. Certain configurations boast an even more advanced UHD 8.0MP camera with IR, MIPI interface, and Computer Vision capabilities. Crucially, regardless of the camera option, Lenovo includes a physical privacy shutter – a small but essential feature for peace of mind.

Moving down to the keyboard deck, Lenovo continues its tradition of excellent typing experiences. There’s no dedicated NumPad – space is at a premium on a 14-inch convertible – but Lenovo has used that space wisely, affording generously sized main keys. The Enter key, in particular, is almost comically large, perfect for those confident keystrokes! It’s a backlit keyboard, naturally, making it easy to work in dim lighting. What’s particularly noteworthy for a laptop this size is the comfort; the key travel and feedback are superb, and even the arrow keys, often shrunk to near-unusable dimensions on compact machines, are relatively large and easy to use here.

To the right of the right Control key sits the integrated fingerprint reader, offering another quick and secure login method. Below the keyboard lies the trackpad. While perhaps not the tallest trackpad around due to the keyboard’s generous layout, it’s plenty wide for comfortable gesturing. And of course, it wouldn’t be a true ThinkPad without the iconic red TrackPoint nubbin nestled in the centre of the keyboard, complete with its dedicated physical click buttons just above the trackpad, offering that precise cursor control favoured by longtime ThinkPad users.

Ports

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 offers a practical selection of ports geared towards professional use. On the left side, the standout features are two USB-C ports equipped with Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 technology. These ports deliver high-speed data transfer (up to 40Gbps), support charging via USB Power Delivery 3.0, and can output video using the modern DisplayPort 2.1 standard, enabling connection to high-resolution external monitors. Alongside these is a USB-A port operating at 5Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds), which includes an ‘Always On’ function for charging devices even when the laptop is off. Certain configurations (like ours) may also include a Nano-SIM card slot on this side for WWAN connectivity, though this is an optional feature.

Turning to the right edge, you’ll find another USB-A port, also rated for 5Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1), providing symmetry and convenience for legacy peripherals. A welcome inclusion is a dedicated HDMI 2.1 port, specified to support resolutions up to 4K at 60Hz, suitable for most external displays and projectors, although it doesn’t leverage the highest refresh rates possible with the full HDMI 2.1 specification. Completing the right-side selection are a standard 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack and a Kensington Nano Security Slot for physically securing the device. It’s worth noting that there is no built-in Ethernet port, so users needing a wired network connection will require a USB adapter or docking station.

Display and Sound Quality, Get our Profiles

Viewing Angles

Viewing angles are good. We take photos from different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

Color Coverage

The whole “sail-shaped” map below (Fig. 1) consists of all the colors we can see, while the black crooked line shows all the colors from real-world scenes and nature around us.

Then, we’ve drawn some of the most important and interesting color spaces, compared to the colors the panel of Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) can show:

Standard/For Web: sRGB – widely used color space for most consumer devices, ideal for Web design and development
For Print: AdobeRGB – used in professional photo editing, graphic design, and print
For Photographers/Video Editors: DCI-P3 – used in high-end film production, post-production, and digital cinema
Premium HDR: Rec.2020 – the widest consumer ITU color standard, covering a massive 75.8% of the visible spectrum, a benchmark for premium HDR content

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel): the yellow dashed triangle (– – – – – –) represents the range of colors this monitor can display.

In our tests, we calculated the total color coverage of the monitor at 100% of the sRGB color gamut and 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

(Fig.1) Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) covers 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut

Brightness and Contrast

The maximum brightness in HDR mode is 600 cd/m² at 8% white fill and 385 cd/m² on a full white screen.

The maximum brightness in SDR mode is 420 cd/m² in the center of the screen and 419 cd/m² averaged across the surface with a maximum deviation of 1%.

The Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) on a white screen at maximum brightness is 6190K.

The contrast ratio of OLED panels is excellent because the pixels turn off completely when displaying black.

Uniformity: Luminance, Contrast, and Color Deviation

The figure below shows the results from our uniformity test across different sections of the screen. It’s measured at 181 nits (Windows slider = 72%) — a brightness level we consider typical for standard working conditions.

DeltaE values below 4.0 are acceptable for regular users. For those working with colors, screens with DeltaE values no higher than 2.0 are recommended.

Color Accuracy

Let’s check the difference between real colors and those you’ll see on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel). We measure that distance in DeltaE – the higher the number, the more different they look.

Values below 4.0 are acceptable for regular users, while values below 2.0 are suitable for color-sensitive work. A value below 1.0 means the difference is indistinguishable to the naked eye.

For the next graph, we’ve selected 24 common colors, including dark/light skin, blue sky, green grass, etc.

Before our calibration of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel), the Average color accuracy was 2.3 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Design and Gaming profile, it lowered to 1.6 dE (Fig. 3).

Comparison in the Display P3 color space.

Health Impact: PWM (Screen flickering)

Some use PWM to regulate their brightness, which means that instead of reducing the light intensity, they pulse or flicker. Our brain merges the image, so it appears darker, but this strains both it and our vision, especially when the frequency of the pulses is low. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

In the graph below, you see the intensity of light at different brightness levels—on the vertical axis is the brightness of the emitted light, and on the horizontal axis—time.

The luminance of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) display is PWM controlled up to about 70 cd/m2. When the brightness is higher, we observe ripples of limited amplitude. Therefore, we consider the display to be sufficiently comfortable for vision in the considered aspect.

Health Impact: Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile reduces harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate.

If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Health Impact: Screen Reflectance

Glossy-coated displays can cause eye fatigue in high ambient light conditions due to reflections. We measure the level of screen reflection with the display turned off, at a 60° angle.

The reflectance of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1’s screen is 118 GU. It’s not great but it’s acceptable.

High Gloss: >70 GU
Medium Gloss: 30 – 70 GU
Low Gloss: <30 GU

Get our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) configurations with ATNA40YK20-0 (INT3480), 2880 x 1800, OLED panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

Sound

Lenovo ThinkPad X1’s sound, emitted by 2x speakers with Dolby Atmos Audio, is of very good quality.

Performance: CPU, GPU, Storage

The tests are conducted with the Best Performance mode set in Windows. The Lenovo Commercial Vantage doesn’t allow further performance customization, and the performance setting in BIOS matches the one set in Windows.

CPU and Work Performance

You have a choice between two Core Ultra 5, and two Core Ultra 7 processors:
– Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
– Intel Core Ultra 5 135U
– Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
– Intel Core Ultra 7 165U

We chose the Ultra 7 155U as it’s just about 7% slower than the Ultra 7 165U while being much more affordable. With that said, the difference between the Ultra 7 and the Ultra 5 variants is pretty small as well.

The CPUs are energy-efficient and aren’t focused on high performance. This is clear from both Single-Core and Multi-Core test results where ASUS Zenbook DUO (2025) is the king with its Intel Core Ultra 9 285H. From the more affordable models, the Acer Swift 14 AI is pretty solid with its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

GPU and Gaming Performance

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 doesn’t have configurations with discrete GPUs so it relies on the integrated graphics in the Core Ultra CPUs. For all the aforementioned CPUs, that’s the Intel Graphics (4-Cores).

You can find the performance rating of all the GPUs on the market in our Top Laptop Graphics Ranking.

Gaming tests

This Intel Graphics is not designed for gaming, nor is the ThinkPad X1. We’ll try the CS2 anyway.

90 FPS on average, at Low Settings / 1920 x 1200 resolution is okay for an integrated GPU. The game is playable (48 FPS) even in X1’s native resolution – 2880 x 1800. And it looks good.

You’ll be able to casually play some light games on Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9.

Counter Strike 2	HD 1200p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1800p, Low (Check settings)
Average FPS	90 FPS	48 FPS

Storage performance

We ordered our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) with 1TB SSD, and it came with SK Hynix HFS001TEJ9X162N. It’s one of the fastest SSDs on the market, with 7.2GB/sec sequential read speed, and 5.7 GB/sec sequential write speed.

We expected it to be soldered but good news – the engineers at Lenovo have found space for an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 slot!

Temperatures and Comfort, Stability

Temperatures

All measurements are taken 5 minutes after starting the test.

Test	CPU	GPU
Idle	54ºC	–
Watching YouTube videos in 4K	60ºC	–
CPU Rendering	80ºC	–

Stability

In the first 10 seconds, the CPU frequency skyrockets to around 3.2 GHz and remains above 3 GHz for at least 30 seconds. This performance covers almost every possible task for most users; however, keep reading if you plan to do video editing or 3D rendering.

After 40 seconds, the CPU temperature exceeds 95ºC and stays at that level for 2 minutes and 20 seconds, after which the notebook cools down to approximately 80ºC and the CPU frequency is reduced to around 2.4 GHz.

After the initial 5 minutes, the CPU maintains a frequency of about 2.4 GHz for an extended period, with temperatures ranging between 80ºC and 85ºC.

Battery Life

10 hours on a single charge is not a bad result at all but it’s still much less than what the competition offers.

It is due to the small 57Wh battery. The capacity is the lowest of all models we decided to put the ThinkPad X1 against. Interestingly, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is just as thin and light but it gets a 75Wh unit. So if the battery life is important to you, get the Yoga 9i, it’s a record breaker!

Disassembly, Upgrade options, and Maintenance

Disassembly of this model begins by removing the four screws securing the bottom panel. This can be easily done using a Philips PH1 screwdriver.

Once the screws are out, a thin plastic pry tool can be used to detach the clips holding the bottom cover in place. It’s best to start near the hinge area and work your way around. After unclipping, the bottom panel lifts off smoothly.

The internal battery is secured with six captive screws, which can be loosened using a Philips PH0 screwdriver. These screws remain fixed in their positions and do not fall out. After loosening them, the battery can be gently pulled out of its slot. Notably, there are no cables between the battery and the motherboard—only direct contact with the board. The battery is a lithium-ion unit, model L22D3P77, rated at 57 watt-hours with a nominal voltage of 11.7 V.

To remove the SSD, first unscrew the two screws holding its protective cover. The SSD can then be carefully extracted from its M.2 slot.

The installed SSD is a 1TB SK Hynix Gen 4 NVMe drive, in the standard 2280 size. It’s the same model found in other ThinkPad devices like the T14s Gen 4 (detailed review). There are no additional SSD slots available in this system.

Wi-Fi connectivity is handled by the Intel AX211D2W module.

The cooling system consists of two individual fans connected by a shared thin, flat heat pipe.

Unfortunately, the memory is soldered directly to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded. Some configurations are available with up to 64GB of LPDDR5x-7500, but due to platform limitations, it runs at LPDDR5x-6400. The memory operates in 8-channel mode.

Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 (14, Intel) carries the torch of the ThinkPad legacy with undeniable competence. It impresses immediately with its exceptional build quality, utilising premium aluminium for a rigid yet remarkably thin and light chassis that feels both durable and professional. The classic ThinkPad design elements are all present, including the superb keyboard offering a comfortable and precise typing experience, complemented by the iconic TrackPoint and its dedicated buttons. The versatility of the 2-in-1 design, enabled by smooth and sturdy 360-degree hinges, allows seamless transitions between laptop, tent, stand, and tablet modes, catering to a variety of workflows.

Undoubtedly, the star of the show is the stunning 14-inch OLED display. With its sharp 2880 x 1800 resolution, vibrant 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, excellent contrast, good brightness, and smooth 120Hz refresh rate, it’s a joy for both productivity and media consumption. Color accuracy is excellent when paired with our profiles.

Practical features like the FHD webcam with IR sensor and a physical privacy shutter, along with a useful port selection including two Thunderbolt 4 ports and HDMI 2.1, further enhance its appeal for professionals on the move. The inclusion of a very fast NVMe SSD and the welcome surprise of it being upgradeable (M.2 2280 slot) adds future-proofing value.

However, the X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 isn’t without its compromises. Performance, while adequate for general productivity thanks to the efficient Intel Core Ultra U-series processors, won’t satisfy users needing sustained power for heavy tasks like video editing or 3D rendering, trailing behind more powerful options like the ASUS Zenbook DUO (2025) or even the Acer Swift 14 AI in demanding benchmarks, as the system throttles significantly under prolonged load.

Perhaps the most significant drawback is the battery life; while 10 hours isn’t terrible, it falls noticeably short of key competitors like the record-breaking Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1, largely due to its smaller 57Wh battery. Furthermore, the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, meaning upgrades are impossible post-purchase – potential buyers must choose their desired configuration carefully from the outset. While the OLED screen is gorgeous, its glossy finish results in noticeable reflections in bright environments.

Ultimately, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 is a premium, highly portable, and versatile machine tailored for professionals who prioritise build quality, an exceptional display, and a best-in-class keyboard over raw sustained performance and maximum battery endurance. It excels in typical business and productivity scenarios, offering a refined and reliable experience, but those with more demanding workloads or a critical need for longer unplugged time might want to weigh its strengths against competitors like those mentioned.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-2-in-1-gen-9/