Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 review – it’s pricy but is it worth it?

We are observing an interesting trend in the mobile market. Smartphones are getting wider (in terms of aspect ratio), while laptops are getting narrower. This has some significant implications in media consumption, where 16:9 has been the gold standard for quite some time now. However, if you are creating content, or working with large amounts of data, the taller screen might actually be pretty useful.

This is why the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 now comes with a 16:10 display. It is not only taller but has a larger screen size than the last generation, going from 15.6 up to 16 inches. Gladly, this doesn’t mean you get a larger device. Instead, the top and bottom bezels are now smaller.

Remaining at the same form factor didn’t prevent Lenovo from offering the device with up to a Core i9-11950H and an RTX 3080 graphics card. Moreover, the latter has 16GB of VRAM, which is ideal for huge 3D scenes, or crunching large numbers.

Interestingly, the laptop is marketed as one that will “take your imagination to the extreme”, which implies that it’s meant for content creation. This statement is further enhanced by the fact that it uses NVIDIA Studio drivers. However, we are pretty sure that it will handle workstation-grade tasks perfectly. Well, provided that it lives up to the expectations. Let’s find out!

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-extreme-gen-4/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - Specs

  • MNG007DA1-4
  • Color accuracy  3.0  1.4
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 4000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 + 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4  See photo
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 90Wh, 90Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum, Carbon, Magnesium alloy
  • Dimensions
  • 359.5 x 253.8 x 17.7 ~ 18.2 mm (14.15" x 9.99" x 0.70")
  • Weight
  • 1.81 kg (4 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.1
  • Card reader
  • SD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • FHD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Far-Field Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Dolby Atmos
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Nano Lock Slot

All Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we find two pretty thick black cardboard boxes. One of them houses the laptop and the paperwork, while the other is meant for the power cord and the charger. Keep in mind, that depending on the graphics card, you will get either a 135W (iGPU only), 170W (RTX 3050 Ti), or a 230W (RTX 3060, RTX 3070, RTX 3080) unit.


Design and construction

Since you are paying a premium, it is only natural that you expect to get a premium product. Lenovo really gets you covered in this regard. It uses a Carbon fiber hybrid for the lid and aluminum for the base. Interestingly, the bottom panel has a print that states the usage of magnesium for the chassis, but there is no information on this in Lenovo’s official documentation. Nevertheless, the laptop is pretty sturdy, with a bit of flex in the lid.

It’s worth mentioning that the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 complies with the MIL-STD-810G standards for toughness and durability. Another great thing about it is that it weighs 1.81 kg and has a profile of 17.7mm. These are the values for the non-touch unit, while the touchscreen one is a bit thicker (18.2mm), and a bit heavier (1.86 kg).

More good news – the lid can be opened with a single hand. And indeed, the bezels around the display are pretty thin, which makes the laptop look fresh. However, we were more impressed by the Web camera, which has a 1080p resolution, a privacy shutter, and an optional IR face recognition sensor alongside.

Now, let’s switch our focus to the base. It is no less intriguing, as it features a backlit, spill-resistant keyboard. It has no NumberPad, which is a bit unfortunate, but this means the board is centered, which is more comfortable for some people. Speaking of comfort, the key travel is long, and the feedback is clicky, which is perfectly in line with the expectations from a ThinkPad device.

It’s good to see that the power button has its own place in the top right corner of the base. It’s also equipped with a fingerprint reader for one-touch sing-ins. In addition, there is a TrackPoint, and adjacent buttons placed above the touchpad. A touchpad, which is covered by glass, offers smooth gliding, and pretty accurate tracking.

So, one of the reasons to drop the NumberPad is to provide space for the two speaker grills. They are 2W Dolby Atmos-enabled runners that shoot towards the user and sound fantastic. Well, they are significantly less powerful than the behemoth 6-speaker system of the MacBook Pro 16, but the laptop still sounds better than most of its competition.

Turning the laptop upside-down reveals a pretty substantial ventilation grill. Its middle portion is closed off, while the parts directly above the two fans are wide open to provide the maximum airflow possible. We hope that this doesn’t result in a lot of dust build-up in the heat sinks, which are placed towards the back.

Ports

The I/O here is nothing short of impressive. You get a dedicated power plug on the left, followed by two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, an HDMI 2.0 (or 2.1 for dGPU models), and an audio jack. Respectively, the right side houses a Kensington Nano security slot, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and an SD card reader. It’s only missing a LAN port to make it a clean sweep on this front.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To access this laptop’s internals, you need to undo a total of 7 captive Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel starting from the back, and lift it away from the chassis.

Inside, we find a 90Wh battery pack. The first thing you need to do is to unplug the connector from the motherboard. Then, undo all 4 Phillips-head screws holding it to the body. After that, carefully unlatch the speaker cables from the battery. We found it easier if you gently lift one of the runners, which loosens the tension of the cables.

Here, we see two SODIMM slots, which fit up to 64GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM in total. Storage-wise, you get two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, one of which supports Gen 4 drives.

As for the cooling, there are two heat pipes, two heat sinks, and two fans doing the hard work. Additionally, we see two heat spreaders, which cool the VRMs and the graphics memory.


Display quality

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 in the configuration we tested has a 60Hz WQXGA IPS panel – MNG007DA1-4 (LEN41B0). Its diagonal is 16-inch (40.6 cm), and the resolution is 2560 х 1600 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:10, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 189 ppi, and a pitch of 0.13 х 0.13 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 46cm (18″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

We measured a maximum brightness of 398 nits in the middle of the screen and 386 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 7%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6430K – slightly warmer than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the main display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is very good – 1800:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 91% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 with the default settings – left, and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile – right.

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 18 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness at any point. This means it is comfortable for long gaming sessions without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the 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.

Buy 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 Extreme Gen 4 configurations with 16″ WQXGA IPS MNG007DA1-4.

*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.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4’s Dolby Atmos speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its, low, mid, and high tones are clear, while the maximum volume is pretty high.


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-extreme-4th-gen-type-20y5-20y6/downloads/driver-list

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. Here, the 90Wh battery lasts for 13 hours and 58 minutes of Web browsing, or 10 hours and 22 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

The processor options here include the Core i7-11800H, Core i7-11850H, and Core i9-11950H. All of them are 8-core, 16-thread CPUs with 24MB of cache.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

If you want to keep the price down, and you don’t really need any extra graphics power, you can pick a version with only an integrated GPU inside. Otherwise, you can choose from the RTX 3050 Ti, RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and the 16GB version of the RTX 3080.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Average FPS98 fps46 fps22 fps

Borderlands 3Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Average fps85 fps60 fps46 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
Average122 fps81 fps73 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average fps82 fps75 fps65 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-11800H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 minMax Fans
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 43.74 GHz (B+63%) @ 96°C @ 99W3.51 GHz (B+52%) @ 96°C @ 83W3.03 GHz (B+32%) @ 93°C @ 60W
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)3.46 GHz (B+50%) @ 96°C @ 78W3.14 GHz (B+37%) @ 96°C @ 61W2.80 GHz (B+22%) @ 95°C @ 49W
Acer Predator Helios 500 (PH517-52)3.88 GHz (B+69%) @ 99°C @ 111W3.84 GHz (B+67%) @ 99°C @ 107W3.66 GHz (B+59%) @ 99°C @ 99W3.66 GHz (B+65%) @ 99°C @ 101W
ASUS TUF Gaming F17 (FX706, 2021)3.56 GHz (B+55%) @ 92°C @ 104W3.54 GHz (B+54%) @ 94°C @ 90W3.30 GHz (B+43%) @ 89°C @ 75W
MSI Sword 153.16 GHz (B+37%) @ 94°C @ 60W3.01 GHz (B+31%) @ 95°C @ 56W2.98 GHz (B+30%) @ 95°C @ 54W
Dell XPS 15 95103.41 GHz (B+48%) @ 99°C @ 82W3.00 GHz (B+30%) @ 99°C @ 63W2.71 GHz (B+18%) @ 93°C @ 48W
Lenovo Legion 5i (17″ Intel, 2021)3.84 GHz (B+67%) @ 96°C @ 113W3.69 GHz (B+60%) @ 96°C @ 101W3.36 GHz (B+46%) @ 81°C @ 80W
Dell G15 55113.67 GHz (B+60%) @ 97°C @ 100W3.54 GHz (B+54%) @ 98°C @ 91W3.43 GHz (B+49%) @ 93°C @ 79W
Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH317-55)3.67 GHz (B+60%) @ 90°C @ 103W3.66 GHz (B+59%) @ 99°C @ 103W3.40 GHz (B+48%) @ 99°C @ 84W
ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU6033.87 GHz (B+68%) @ 95°C @ 106W3.90 GHz (B+70%) @ 95°C @ 109W3.58 GHz (B+56%) @ 86°C @ 80W
MSI Creator Z16 (A11Ux)3.12 GHz (B+36%) @ 96°C @ 68W3.03 GHz (B+32%) @ 95°C @ 62W2.76 GHz (B+20%) @ 95°C @ 53W2.90 GHz (B+26%) @ 95°C @ 59W
MSI GE76 Raider (2021)3.22 GHz (B+40%) @ 95°C @ 67W3.11 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C @ 62W3.14 GHz (B+37%) @ 94°C @ 61W3.26 GHz (B+42%) @ 94°C @ 64W
ASUS TUF F15 (FX506, 2021) (Turbo Mode)3.98 GHz (B+73%) @ 86°C @ 102W3.88 GHz (B+69%) @ 95°C @ 100W3.44 GHz (B+50%) @ 87°C @ 77W
MSI Pulse GL763.16 GHz (B+37%) @ 95°C @ 65W3.00 GHz (B+30%) @ 95°C @ 59W2.87 GHz (B+25%) @ 95°C @ 55W
MSI Pulse GL662.94 GHz (B+28%) @ 94°C @ 58W2.76 GHz (B+20%) @ 94°C @ 52W2.77 GHz (B+20%) @ 94°C @ 52W

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 holds up pretty well at the beginning of the stress test. However, as time passes by, the frequency drops down to around 3.00 GHz, with the temperature of the package remaining very high.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 TiGPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max fan)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 41576 MHz @ 77°C @ 60W1586 MHz @ 76°C @ 60W
HP Envy 15 (15-ep1000)1681 MHz @ 87°C @ 75W1376 MHz @ 74°C @ 48W
ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 OLED (UM535)1530 MHz @ 66°C @ 50W1529 MHz @ 68°C @ 50W
HP Pavilion Gaming 15 (15-dk2000)1613 MHz @ 65°C @ 60W1576 MHz @ 73°C @ 60W
MSI Sword 151633 MHz @ 73°C @ 60W1605 MHz @ 79°C @ 60W1644 MHz @ 69°C @ 60W
Dell XPS 15 95101187 MHz @ 74°C @ 40W1293 MHz @ 75°C @ 44W
Dell G15 55111882 MHz @ 71°C @ 88W1878 MHz @ 72°C @ 89W
Dell G15 55151857 MHz @ 76°C @ 80W1850 MHz @ 77°C @ 80W
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-57)1616 MHz @ 70°C @ 66W1607 MHz @ 72°C @ 65W1632 MHz @ 69°C @ 66W
MSI Katana GF761619 MHz @ 76°C @ 60W1594 MHz @ 82°C @ 60W1632 MHz @ 70°C @ 60W

Interestingly, the frequency and temperature values of the RTX 3050 Ti are better at the final stage, than they are at the beginning of the test. This is due to the fans spinning up faster as heat builds up and fully saturates the cooling system. Still, the GPU is able to take advantage of its full 60W power budget.

Gaming comfort

We are pretty confident that the fans of this laptop can spin faster. In practice, they are pretty quiet, even under an extreme workload. That’s great for a machine in this class. Additionally, the warmest spot of the base is in the middle of the keyboard, while the WASD area is significantly cooler since the fans draw some of their air through the keyboard.


Verdict

Lenovo has definitely put a lot of time and effort into this laptop. It has one of the best-sounding speakers out there and looks super industrial – as a ThinkPad should look. It features a great keyboard and a decent touchpad, which rounds up a very appealing input device combo.

This laptop’s 90Wh battery is good for up to 14 hours of Web browsing, or around 10 hours of video playback. Keep in mind that the hardware will eat through it a lot quicker if you intend to do some productivity tasks, and you will want to bring a charger on such occasions.

Speaking of the hardware, short tasks are no issue for the Core i7-11800H we had in our unit. It is under extreme workload scenarios that the cooling crumbles under the heat-pumping Tiger Lake H45 chips. With that said, it can still maintain a frequency higher than 3.00 GHz, which is good.

As for the graphics, well, you get what you expect from a 60W RTX 3050 Ti. It is not very competitive when put against a better-cooled gaming device like the Dell G5 5511, especially considering high-resolution gaming.

It is good to know though, that Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4’s IPS panel has a high resolution, comfortable viewing angles, a very good contrast ratio, and a high maximum brightness (about 400 nits). Additionally, it sports a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is great for productivity. Also good in this aspect is the 91% sRGB coverage, and the accurate color representation of the display, which is credited to our Gaming and Web design profile. This will let you work with content, where the colors are essential. Also, the screen doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment, which makes it safe for long periods of use.

What a professional device should provide is upgradability down the line. And you sure have it with this laptop. There are two SODIMM slots for memory expansion of up to 64GB in dual-channel, while one of the two M.2 storage slots supports Gen 4 SSDs.

The port selection on the outside is equally impressive with two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, two USB Type-As, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an SD card reader. This makes editing photos and videos straight out of the camera as easy as possible. Indeed, we would have loved to see a LAN port, but the optional 5G support will justify the high price of this product.

For the next generation ThinkPad X1 Extreme, we really hope to see an OLED or Mini LED display. This will surely elevate the viewing experience, and will hopefully provide even more diversity in the created content.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-extreme-gen-4/

Pros

  • Thin and light outfit
  • Strong chassis
  • Covers 91% of the sRGB color gamut and has accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (MNG007DA1-4)
  • High resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio (MNG007DA1-4)
  • No PWM (MNG007DA1-4 (LEN8A97))
  • 2x Thunderbolt 4 + SD card slot
  • Optional 5G support
  • 1080p camera + IR face recognition + fingerprint reader
  • NVIDIA Studio drivers
  • 2x SODIMM slots + 2x M.2 PCIe x4 slots (one is Gen 4 compatible)


Cons

  • RTX 3050 Ti version doesn’t boast a great cooling
  • No LAN port

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