The processor might be as much as a 200 sequence Core Extremely 7 class, and it has a 14-inch 2.8K OLED show and a 4K 8MP webcam. Integral Thunderbolt 4 ports, straightforward inner accessibility for upgrades, with each prime and backside covers produced from 50% recycled aluminium, make this a sensible and strong design.
And, for those who use it, this can be a Copilot+ PC for these embracing Microsoft’s model of AI.
For these contemplating buying this tools, the marginally lower cost than different model opponents may be barely offset by the need for a docking station. Nonetheless, most Core Extremely 200 sequence laptops seem to wish one.
Total, Lenovo did an inexpensive job delivering a high-quality possibility with loads of bells and whistles at a palatable value. The one caveat is that in comparison with a number of the AMD Ryzen machines at present showing, this platform isn’t the quickest answer.
The Intel 200 sequence has its limitations, however the construct high quality of this machine and its aggressive value make it extremely prone to be included in our round-up of the best business laptops .
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version: Worth and availability
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
How a lot does it price? From $1240/£1250When is it out? Obtainable nowThe place are you able to get it? Direct from Lenovo
The mannequin that Lenovo despatched for evaluation makes use of an Intel Core Extremely 7 258V, which has 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, costing round $1700 / £1700.
Taking the Core Extremely 7 268V processor possibility provides one other £200.
An entry-level possibility utilizing the Intel Core Extremely 5 226V CPU with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1200 decision show begins at £1,250 inclusive of VAT.
American costs begin at $1,239 for the bottom mannequin and rise to $1,989 for the evaluation degree system. The highest possibility utilizing the identical 268V CPU prices $2,149.
When you think about that the Dell Professional 14 Premium I just lately reviewed prices $2661.50 for a machine with the Core Extremely 7 268V CPU, then the X9-14 seems like one thing of a cut price, being at the least $500 cheaper for a machine with a greater show and webcam.
Acer has the Swift 16 design that utilises the identical structure, is even cheaper, and has a bigger battery, however we’ve but to see that {hardware} to see the way it compares in particular person.
Total, what Lenovo is asking for the X9-14 appears affordable, and the costs I’ve quoted are solely retail numbers, not the price to companies who would possibly purchase in bulk.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version: Specs
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Merchandise
Spec
{Hardware}:
ThinkPad X9-14 Gen 1
CPU:
Intel Core Extremely 7 258V vPro
GPU:
Intel Arc 140V GPU
NPU:
Intel NPU
RAM:
32 GB LPDDR5x SDRAM 8533 MT/s
Storage:
1TB M.2 NVMe SSD WD SN740
Display screen:
14? 2.8K (2880 x 1800), OLED, Anti-Reflection/Anti-Smudge, Contact, HDR 600 True Black, 100percentDCI-P3, 500 nits, VRR 30-120Hz, Low Blue Mild
Ports:
2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, 1x HDMI 2.1, Audio Combo Jack
Digital camera:
8MP HDR + IR Digital camera with Presence Detection, Temporal Noise Discount, Digital camera Shutter, Microphone
Networking:
Intel BE201 Wi-Fi 7 2×2, Bluetooth 5.4
Dimensions:
311.2 × 216.7 × 17.95 mm
Weight:
1.141 kg
OS:
Home windows 11 Professional (pre-installed)
Battery:
3 Cell, 60 Wh, Li-ion, ExpressCharge 1.0, ExpressCharge Enhance
Energy provide:
64.98W (19V 3.42A)
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version: Design
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
Solidly constructed Minimalist aesthetics Solely three ports
Typically, advertising and marketing individuals in large firms provide you with issues that I’m positive sounded epic within the boardroom and but remarkably dumb when it arrived in the actual world.
I point out this as a result of while you energy this machine on, it declares that the “Lenovo Aura Version was imagined with Intel”. Actually, Intel has ‘creativeness’?
Properly, that’s a revelation that I didn’t have on my bingo phrases card for 2025.
Passing over the mutual appreciation society run completely between Intel and Lenovo, the ThinkPad X9-14 Gen 1 struts some immaculate strains and a cool-to-the-touch aluminium pores and skin.
The place laptops are sometimes ignored, the engineers of this one made the underside spectacular with a rippled floor, and it has two air vents that measure roughly 4cm sq. on all sides for pulling cooling air in. It seems just like the vent is facet to facet, however when the underside is eliminated, it reveals that the majority holes on this part are an aesthetic element and aren’t a way to move air by.
Air is vented by a wider slot hidden by the display hinge when the machine is closed, hopefully preserving it from being uncomfortable for these utilizing it on a lap.
There are two slots, one on all sides nearer the entrance, directing sound out of the case, leaving the entire working space to the keyboard and trackpad.
Evidently, the pink rubber mouse different has lastly bit the mud for this ThinkPad, and as a substitute, Lenovo has a haptic trackpad that I discovered a lot simpler to make use of. The keyboard might have been larger, leaving a niche left and proper, however the spacing of the keys is sweet for avoiding unintended keystroke overlaps.
Within the prime proper nook of the keyboard is the fingerprint reader, which is about 1.2cm sq., with at the least 1cm sq. being the sensor space. For individuals who don’t like these, the 4K webcam is Home windows Whats up appropriate, enabling it to recognise you visually.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
So it’s possible you’ll be questioning what’s not so good with the X9-14. There is just one important annoyance: the shortage of ports.
Beforehand, I gave the Dell 14 Professional Premium a tough time as a result of it solely had 4 ports, however Lenovo went one higher on this design, with solely three, for those who exclude the audio jack.
On the left is an HDMI port for an exterior show and a single Thunderbolt 4 port, and on the correct is one other Thunderbolt port and the audio jack.
Whereas the transition away from USB-A to USB-C is properly underway, not together with any USB-A seems to be forcing the swap with pointless haste.
The shortage of ports successfully mandates the necessity for a docking station right here, except you by no means plug something into your laptop computer. The one mitigation to that is that the X9-14 solely wants 65W of charging energy, so an costly dock isn’t required, and a less expensive Thunderbolt hub ought to work tremendous.
Total, except for the poor port choice, the X9-14 is a well-made and efficient design.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version: {Hardware}
Intel Core Extremely 200 sequence CPU One improve OLED show 4K digital camera
For a few years, Intel has led the world with its Core sequence processors, with ever-increasing core counts and the multiplier impression of hyperthreading.
Then, Intel engineers presumably realised that path was taking its silicon within the unsuitable route, particularly with respect to energy effectivity.
Initially, it tried the strategy that the majority telephone SoCs use by creating efficiency and effectivity cores, and when it launched the Extremely sequence, it did away with hyperthreading.
The 200 sequence is the second incarnation of that route change, and the Intel Core Extremely 7 258V vPro in our evaluation X9-14 has solely eight cores, 4 every of efficiency and LP (low energy) effectivity.
Since Intel supplied cell CPUs with twenty-thread processing a few years again, this appears a dramatic step backward.
Nonetheless, these new chips present distinctive energy effectivity, enabling them to simply present a working day of use with out the necessity for a recharge. Conversely, they’re not good at multitasking, and energy customers would possibly discover they lack the efficiency wanted for essentially the most demanding duties.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
Contained in the X9-14 is a replay of what I skilled with the Dell 14 Professional Premium, the place the reminiscence is surface-mounted, and the one storage possibility is a single M.2 2230 SSD.
Due to this fact, if you would like 32GB of RAM, you could buy that pre-installed as a result of you possibly can’t order 16GB after which enhance the reminiscence later.
The 2230 NVMe can be a limitation, though you will have a USB-C caddy useful if you wish to clone an present system to a bigger drive, since there is just one slot.
At the very least Lenovo does supply this machine with a 2TB drive on this type issue, which is the most important capability you possibly can sometimes get on 2230 M.2.
On condition that that is the second laptop computer utilizing this Intel platform that has these limits, I’m inclined in charge Intel for these selections. Fairly why Intel gave the 200 sequence such a wonderful PCIe lane choice that’s massively underutilised in most laptops is a thriller. However at the least these would possibly get some use on Mini PCs that use this platform finally.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
What’s nice about this design is that it has two options lacking from some branded Extremely designs: the OLED show and an 8MP digital camera.
As I’m positive you’re conscious, OLED know-how gives a number of the greatest color illustration, and the 14” 2.8K (2880 x 1800) on this one delivers HDR 600 degree blacks and as much as 500 brightness, in keeping with Lenovo. It additionally has an Anti-Reflection/Anti-Smudge coating on this panel, which is most helpful for many who use the contact performance.
A few of the cheaper fashions on this sequence have a 1080p IPS show, however the OLED possibility is unquestionably price the additional expense in case your finances will stretch to it.
The display is a notch above the norm, and so is the webcam.
Whereas nearly all of conferencing is finished at decrease resolutions, the flexibility of the digital camera to ship as much as 4K streaming and 8K picture seize elevates it to a wholly new degree. These capabilities may very well be particularly helpful for these demonstrating merchandise, because it avoids the need of attaching an exterior digital camera.
However be conscious that for those who didn’t get a full quota of magnificence sleep, the 4K mode received’t spare you a lot if utilized in conferencing mode.
I ought to point out that this digital camera additionally makes use of Infrared for Home windows Whats up identification, but it surely lacks a bodily privateness shutter. Should you don’t belief the software program shutter, some tape could also be required.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version: Efficiency
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Laptops
Header Cell – Column 1
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version
Dell Professional 14 Premium
CPU
Row 0 – Cell 1
Intel Core Extremely 7 258V
Intel Core Extremely 7 268V
Cores/Threads
Row 1 – Cell 1
8C 8T
8C 8T
TPD
Row 2 – Cell 1
8W-17W
17W-37W
RAM
Row 3 – Cell 1
32GB LPDDR5X
32GB LPDDR5X
SSD
Row 4 – Cell 1
1TB WD SN740
1TB PVC10 SK Hynix
Graphics
Row 5 – Cell 1
Intel Arc 140V GPU
Intel Arc 140V GPU
NPU
Row 6 – Cell 1
Intel NPU (47 TOPS)
Intel NPU (48 TOPS)
3DMark
WildLife
27,146
20,738
Row 8 – Cell 0
FireStrike
9170
9375
Row 9 – Cell 0
TimeSpy
4104
4335
Row 10 – Cell 0
Metal Nomad.L
3250
2899
CineBench23
Single
1846
1831
Row 12 – Cell 0
Multi
9017
9567
Row 13 – Cell 0
Ratio
4.88
5.23
CineBench24
Single
117
125
Row 15 – Cell 0
Multi
564
665
Row 16 – Cell 0
Ratio
4.82
5.31
GeekBench 6
Single
2639
2531
Row 18 – Cell 0
Multi
10607
11143
Row 19 – Cell 0
OpenCL
29415
30382
Row 20 – Cell 0
Vulkan
35136
34370
CrystalDIsk
Learn MB/s
5277
6569
Row 22 – Cell 0
Write MB/s
4944
5844
PCMark 10
Workplace
7139
7232
Row 24 – Cell 0
Battery
16h 10m
21h 23m
Battery
Whr
55
60
WEI
Rating
8.8
8.8
The apparent candidate to pitch the X9-14 towards is the just lately reviewed Dell Professional 14 Premium, which additionally makes use of the same 200 sequence CPU/GPU. These machines compete in the identical ultra-laptop enterprise house, even when the pricing isn’t extremely shut.
The primary element is that the X9-14 makes use of a barely decrease specification processor, the Intel Core Extremely 7 258V, and never the Intel Core Extremely 7 268V on the Dell.
The quicker Intel Core Extremely 7 268V is an possibility on the X9-14, but it surely wasn’t put in on the evaluation {hardware} Lenovo despatched over.
The variations between these two Luna Lake era processors are that the Intel Core Extremely 7 258V has a 200 MHz slower clock turbo enhance, 4.8 GHz versus 5 GHz, the Arc Graphics core is clocked 50 MHz slower, 1.95 GHz versus 2.0 GHz, and the AI is simply rated at 47 TOPS, not 48. In brief, paying far more for the Core Extremely 7 268V would appear foolish.
Total, the Core Extremely 7 268V on the Dell does beat the Core Extremely 7 258V on the X9-14 by a small margin in lots of checks, however the distinction is usually lower than 5%.
Nonetheless, this prompted some forehead furrowing, and there are some outcomes the place the X14-9 carried out higher, particularly within the graphical checks.
Of those, the one I mistrusted most was the 3Dmark Wildlife take a look at, which appeared to deduce that the X9-14 was almost 31% faster than the Professional 14 Premium. This end result appeared so odd that I reran these benchmarks on each machines, however the consequence was the identical.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
I additionally discover it fascinating that the Metal Nomad Lite take a look at was additionally in favour of the decrease specified machine, suggesting that Lenovo had set one thing on the Arc Graphics that Dell missed in its configuration. I’ve no definitive reply to why the Lenovo machine is quicker at fixing graphics issues. It simply is.
Dell wins out in these outcomes principally in its battery life, the place it managed to function for one more 5 hours and 13 minutes longer. Nonetheless, it has a bigger battery, so the additional working time is undoubtedly a mixture of the larger battery and the decrease energy consumption of its IPS show in comparison with the OLED used on the X9-14.
If you need the longest potential working time on a battery, then Dell has the sting, however Lenovo does supply at the least two working days of energy, which is past first rate.
Taking a look at these outcomes total, Dell clearly went for energy effectivity for its construct, whereas Lenovo made a barely extra performance-oriented laptop computer that sacrificed some battery life to ship a greater person expertise.
Neither path is definitive; all of it will depend on the way you envision utilizing a laptop computer.
At this value level, the efficiency of this {hardware} is suitable.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version: Remaining verdict Those that learn my evaluation of the Dell Pro 14 Premium might need realised that I appreciated the X9-14 far more than that machine for a number of essential causes, even when they share the identical underlying structure.
Regardless of the omission of the pink management thingy that was a ThinkPad icon, the X9-14 delivers on a lot of the different signature options for which this model is understood. It’s robustly made, easy, and direct to make use of. It has a wonderful trackpad and keyboard, and the display is right for engaged on detailed paperwork.
Whereas the battery life doesn’t match some opponents that use a bigger battery, it nonetheless has greater than sufficient working time for many enterprise individuals, even when the working day extends into the evening. Buying and selling battery life for efficiency makes the machine extra appropriate for creatives and enhances the person expertise.
I nonetheless suppose the entire AI PC idea is lacking a killer use. Nonetheless, Intel and Microsoft by some means satisfied all of the laptop computer makers to leap on board this bandwagon till all of us accepted that regionally processed AI fashions would by no means compete with cloud-based ones.
What Lenovo managed to create with the Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 Aura Version is a stable answer that delivers Home windows 11 Professional in a type that the majority workers received’t destroy instantly and at a value that received’t bankrupt the businesses shopping for it.
Up to now in 2025, this is likely one of the higher laptops I’ve encountered and one I’d fortunately use day by day.
Must you purchase a Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14?
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Worth
An inexpensive value for a high-specification system
4 / 5
Design
Strong building and chic styling, however restricted ports
4 / 5
{Hardware}
200 sequence CPU, DDR5 and ARC GPU make for energy effectivity, and storage might be upgraded.
4 / 5
Efficiency
The identical weaknesses as all 200 sequence, however first rate graphics energy and battery life
4 / 5
Total
An excellent 14-inch laptop computer, although you could purchase a dock with it
4 / 5
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
For extra choices, we reviewed the best Dell laptops .
