X9 15P Review
For anyone who is deciding between an X9 15p thinkpad or other similar laptop here’s my review of X9 15p after putting it through it’s paces. I’ve been a long time Thinkpad enthusiast and have in my collection the T60, X220, X230, and T480s. The X9 breaks from a lot of Thinkpad traditions so I thought I’d give my opinion since I’m use to a lot of the more classic Thinkpad designs. I'm currently running it on Win 11 but plan to switch to Fedora in the future once better webcam support is enabled.
I got the X7 358H with 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. Price before tax after all coupons: $1680 USD
Build/Durability: Solid and feels more similar to a Macbook Pro than a Traditional T-series Thinkpad. I do have some concerns if it can withstand falls the same way my T480s can as traditionally laptops with an aluminum chassis tend to have frame dents than being able to shrug them off like the magnesium/carbon frames can. It also has the unique “engine hub” which is a plastic housing that expands out the back to allow better air flow and bigger fans. The plastic housing feels pretty well constructed, although it is a noticeable weak point that we will have to see how it holds up with time. One benefit of the X9 15p vs the X9 15 versions is that this newer version seems to have a reinforced metal frame in the middle of the engine hub that is missing from the original 2025 X9 15. This should offer better durability when picking it up by the back like a book. The mesh itself might also be metal but I’m not too sure. I just know on the x9 15 2025 it can dent if you put too much pressure on it. See:
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1vjgydm/does_the_new_x9_15p_plastic_dent_prone_in_the/
Screen: Gorgeous. I had concerns the Pixel arrangement of OLEDs would make reading and working with text irritating on my eyes but this does not appear to be the case. Colors are accurate and vibrant. I tend to keep my laptops for a long time so I do have some concerns regarding OLED Burn in. I wouldn’t normally worry about it on a thinkpad since the older models are easy to replace screens but I’m not sure how it would work with the X9.
Speakers: This was shockingly good. People often talk about the Macbook pro 16 in speakers breaking their brain on the unbelievable quality of sound from a laptop – I felt like I had the same experience with the X9 15p speakers. Clarity, instrument separation, and volume were absolutely fantastic. Bass was punchy and crisp which was overall pleasant although true bass heads will likely want more as there are limits to how deep it can get on this frame - but I’m guessing they wouldn’t really be listening to laptop speakers. To put it in perspective, since purchasing the X9 15p, I no longer feel tempted to constantly use my headphones and instead I opt to use the laptop speakers instead for convenience – my headphone collection includes Sennheiser 6xx, HIFIman Sundura, Focal Clears and Blessing 2 Dusks. I have the laptop connected to a Samsung M7 monitor and the speakers from the laptop sound better than the larger speakers in the external monitor so opt to choose the laptop speakers instead.
Keyboard: Out of all my thinkpads, I would say the X9 15p is ranked at the very end. It’s not bad, but comparing it to a classic 7 row or early chiclet keyboard is no contest. The keyboard does have more travel than my Macbook Air but it doesn’t have the same sort of tactile sensation that I’ve grown accustomed to on my old thinkpads and even my macbooks. It has a more softer/mushier sensation that I’m not use to. If you’re a person that uses an old thinkpad for the keyboard and are thinking on upgrading to the X9 I would encourage you to try it out first at a store near you first. Again, it’s not a bad keyboard and it’s better than the Acer, ASUS and MSI laptop models that I’ve tried at Costco. On the plus side, it’s much quieter than my other keyboards so using this in a hotel at night when everyone else is asleep is quite nice but that’s a very niche use overall.
Battery life: It looks like I should be able to get 10+ hours easily with browsing, office documents and netflix/youtube in the background. I honestly haven’t really tried using it on battery too long since I’ve been really taxing it’s performance with plugging it in. Much better than other x86 laptops but my Macbook Air M4 seems to drop % slower compared to the X9.
Performance: This was quite a jump going from my old thinkpads to a modern one. I’ve been able to run 15-20 Chrome tabs/apps, Handbrake decoding a video in the background, a second AI related video processing app in the background, and playing netflix/youtube at the same time while on external monitors as well without any problems. The RAM hovers at 26 GB of use and my CPU and GPU are constantly blasting at 97-99% with this workload. The laptop stay relatively cool even with this setup which is nice and there is zero stutter using it with the background processes.
Price: Without coupons this thing sells for around 3000 USD and I don’t think it’s worth it at that price. However, I think it’s pretty good at the price I for it for. I originally ordered a framework 13 Pro and was in Batch 10 until they dropped my RAM from 32 to 16 gb and the respec to 32 gb would have put the price to around 2600-2800 USD. After seeing how much RAM and multi tasking I am doing on the X9 I am thankful to have found this alternative as I don’t think I would have been happy with the 16 gb of RAM or paying almost 1000 dollars more for similar specs.
Concerns: I do have some concerns regarding the longevity of this machine. It’s a pretty unique device in Lenovo’s lineup and I’m hoping to still be using it in a decade. I partly enjoy thinkpads because of the repair ability aspect but the X9 is not a model with a long track record. It does have easy to replace batteries and from what I read the USB-C ports on both sides are on separate daughter boards so replacement should be easy if part are available. However, unless corporations are buying this en mass, I can imagine replacement parts being harder to find in the future. Individual purchases may also be low since people may instead try to be opting for a more traditional T or X1 carbon series.
One of the things I realized I enjoy about my older thinkpads is the ability to abuse them. I love just throwing my T480s around, chucking it into the trunk with other items and not worrying that it will get damaged – or it it does get damaged knowing that there are cheap replacement parts galore online for the T480s. For right now I’ve been kind of babying the X9 since this is my first new vs old corporate thinkpad. I’m guessing with time I’ll start treating it like I do my other laptops.
I also had some concerns initially if the RTX spark laptops that were recently released would make this laptop immediately obsolete but after release and reviews of those this does not appear to be the case.
Overall: So overall a fantastic laptop that I would recommend as long as the caveats above don’t bother you.
