Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition review: A wonderfully vibrant prosumer device — with one catch

Lenovo's business laptops are usually incredibly stiff and serious, largely reflected in the design. This is the complete opposite of their sleek and stylish consumer models, which tend to be easier on the eye. But the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition attempts to straddle these two camps, marrying the best of both worlds in a compact and lightweight package with an intriguing purple-tinted gray chassis and one or two more ports than you would normally find in an ultraportable.

There are so many 14-inch machines to pick out these days — so we're always looking for something that stands out. Although this laptop features the same second-generation Intel Core Ultra hardware found in many new devices, what sets it apart is its explicit "prosumer" feel and a stunning 2.8K OLED display that dazzles on first glance, potentially making it one of the best devices for photo editing you can grab right now.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition review

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition: Design

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The first thing that stands out is the particular shade of gray Lenovo adopts for this device's ultrathin aluminum chassis — a gray mixed with a touch of red to produce a rather sharp color that certainly lives up to the moniker. There is an aura about this laptop.

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Despite ditching the standard carbon fiber matte black of Lenovo's business machines, this relatively lightweight machine retains the MIL-STD 810H certification — which means you'll be protected against shocks in transit — and there is a baked-in robustness that you feel as you hold it, use it, and handle the display too. What's equally impressive is its 2.73-pound (1.24 kilogram) weight, making it the same weight as the MacBook Air 13-inch, which also weighs 2.7 lbs (1.24 kg). There are only a few laptops that are actually lighter than this without dropping your screen size to 13 inches.

Its dimensions are also highly compact, with its sleek nature shining through, given its minimal height of 0.51 inches (13 millimeters). Only the HP EliteBook Ultra 14 G1q and MacBook Air are thinner, both with a height of 0.44 inches (11.2 mm). But the trade-off here is that you benefit from an additional port in the form of HDMI connectivity.

The keyboard, meanwhile, adopts an interesting design, with indentations at the base of its relatively small but spaced-out keys, and no touch point (a Lenovo business laptop staple). Some still use it, but the touch pad is spacious and looks sharp, meaning the touch point is a little redundant, and the overall look and feel of the device is better off for its absence.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition: Display

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The 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800-pixel) 120 Hz OLED HDR display in the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is a force of nature and one we thoroughly enjoyed using across all kinds of domains — from editing photos to watching videos.

We registered a high peak brightness in this device of 470 nits — which is brighter than almost all other machines we've tested in recent years. Only the Surface Laptop 7 edged it with a brightness of 474 — and most devices are around 100 nits dimmer on average.

The good news doesn't end there, with this machine's color accuracy also incredibly strong. Although the white balance needs some minor tweaking to get right (greens are oversaturated while reds and blues are ever-so-slightly undersaturated), its coverage of the three color spectra we test against were outstanding.

Firstly, it's 99.4% coverage of the sRGB color spectrum is great — but fairly standard these days. More impressive was its 94.2% coverage of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 98.5% coverage of the DCI P3 color spectrum. A "professional-grade" result usually falls above 90% and 95% respectively — with most laptops falling well short of this point (registering between 70% and 80% on average). That means we'd wholeheartedly recommend this machine for professional-grade color-based visual work.

As always with OLED displays, there was a 0 nits black level and infinity:1 contrast ratio, underlining the depths of blacks you get with OLEd screens, while the Delta-E rating (a measure of how distorted colors appear across the panel against a baseline) was 0.3 on average with a maximum of 0.89 — a fantastic result.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition: Keyboard and touchpad

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We only have good things to say about the keyboard and touchpad in the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition. Although the keys are a little smaller than you might find on other devices, they're well spaced and we had no issues getting a feel for the machine and touch typing at pace within minutes.

The travel distance feels deep, and there's a satisfying level of force feedback — without too much of a loud snap. The dents on the base of each key seem more an aesthetic choice than one necessitated by any functional need — but they do give the keyboard a bit of visual character that sets it apart from the rest of the pack.

The touchpad, similarly, was a joy to use — striking the perfect balance between being slippery smooth and just enough resistance so your cursor doesn't glide away. It was also highly responsive in all instances, with both the left-click and right-click buttons delivering a perfect dose of feedback, and dragging is fairly simple.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition: Performance and battery

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While all aspects of this device thus far have been close to exceptional, the performance left us wanted. This machine is fitted with Intel's latest chip, the Core Ultra 7 258V, which is fitted alongside an Intel Arc Graphics chip and an Intel AI Boost NPU with 48 TOPS. You also benefit from 32 GB LPDDR5x RAM alongside a 1 TB SSD — which is pretty standard in most machines of this standard.

Benchmarking, however, showed that this hardware is not utilized to its fullest — with a single-threaded performance score of 2,718 and a multi-threaded benchmarking result of 10,684. Why? While the single-core performance is certainly a considerable improvement (and more than enough for 99% of tasks), the multi-core result represents only a marginal improvement on the Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 1) chips in last-generation machines. The HP Spectre x360 14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H), for example, registered 2,110 and 10,480. Newer machines, like the Dell Pro 13 Premium (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V) hit 2,828 and 11,196 in the same benchmark.

This story carries through to poor graphics performance against the baseline for the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips. A result of 23,033 is much lower than the Dell 13 Pro Premium's 29,925, for example, and the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14's 28,037. Another benefit of the new Series 2 chips is a much higher efficiency, which should translate to a longer battery life. For example, the new HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 lasted 17 hours and 49 minutes in our battery test, versus the HP Spectre x360, which lasted 14 hours and 29 minutes. But this machine lasted just 11 hours and 51 minutes — a very poor result considering many machines now hit near-20 hours and even go beyond that.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition: Ports and features

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Part of the dip in performance may be a question of the incredibly slimline form factor. For a machine as thin as this, we were surprised to see an HDMI port included. This is fitted alongside two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is no room for USB-A, however, or an SD card slot — which means you'll likely need a dongle anyway. Wirelessly, you can benefit from the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards, making this a future-proof device. The Dolby Atmos speakers, meanwhile, are passable — with the bass perhaps a little more present than you'd expect for a device as thin as this. Its camera, meanwhile, is a sharp 4K 8MP device with a webcam privacy shutter that works digitally — rather than a physical switch that many other devices come baked in with.

Thanks to the 48 TOPS NPU, the Lenovo also features a number of AI tools — including Modes. Tapping F8 takes you to the Modes interface, which lets you configure your device if you're hoping to achieve specific goals. These include Attention Mode, to block distracting sites or notifications, as well as Power Mode, to boost your performance, alongside others. There's also the standard AI tools you get in Windows 11, including Studio Effects.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition: Should I buy it?

We loved using the ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition — and its screen is absolutely stunning — but there are certainly a few drawbacks to it, including its slightly weaker performance against the norm as well as a lower battery life. There is plenty that's great about this machine, including its sleek dimensions and connectivity options, as well as how zippy and great it feels to type with, but we certainly wanted more punch from a "prosumer" laptop that marries the best of consumer machines and professional-grade devices.

If the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition isn’t for you

We enjoyed using last year's Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, and this machine reminds us a lot of Microsoft's Snapdragon-powered alternative. Although its single-threaded performance and graphics output is slightly weaker, the multi-threaded performance battery life is far superior. Alternatively, the newer HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 is a fantastic alternative that is only slightly more powerful, but features an even better screen and a much better battery life. Given the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is pitched as a MacBook Air replacement, it's always worth considering the new MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) too.