Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4

The 16-inch X1 Extreme is a ThinkPad fan's Macbook Pro—the big, powerful, photo- and video-editing machine creatives lust after. It's not cheap, but as they say, you get what you pay for. In the case of the X1 Extreme, you get a lot for your money.

The biggest change in the fourth version of this Lenovo laptop is the new 16-inch display, with its 16:10 aspect ratio. The previous model had a 16:9 ratio. It seems minor, but in practice, that extra height in screen space is really nice; the perfect aspect ratio for a laptop. Lenovo also now offers a version with a 4K screen resolution, making it easier to compare this machine to one of our favorites, the Dell XPS 15. 

If you like ThinkPads, then there's no comparison to the Dell. All the signature ThinkPad elements are here. The understated matte-black design is interrupted only by a small X1 label in red on the lid, as well as the red nub between the G, H, and B keys. ThinkPad keyboards aren't what they used to be—this is no X220—but it's still pretty great. It has 1.8-millimeter keys, which is about as heavy as you can find these days.

Photograph: Lenovo

If you're not a ThinkPad fan though, then you might like the fact that Dell offers an OLED display option for the XPS 15. It just makes the screen so much nicer, and it's a shame Lenovo couldn't offer it here. But the three IPS screens Lenovo has (one of which is 4K) come close in quality. 

You certainly get more ports on the laptop than the Dell: There are dual Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, along with HDMI 2.1 (which can drive a 120-Hz external monitor), an audio jack, and an AC power port on the left. The right side has two USB Type-A ports and a full-sized SD card slot. 

Every laptop should have a full-size SD card slot, said every photographer. I can't remember the last laptop I tested with a full-size SD card slot, so kudos to Lenovo for keeping that alive (and Apple too, though it's partly why we're in this mess).

Photograph: Lenovo

The lack of an OLED panel is disappointing, but the screen I used (2,560 x 1,600 resolution) is fantastic. The color gamut support is good, with 100 percent sRGB coverage and 83.5 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The latter is a mere 0.5 percent behind the OLED of the Dell XPS 15. And the panel gets plenty bright at 400 nits.

Both the Lenovo and Dell use the same 11th-gen Intel processors, with both Core i7 and Core i9 configurations available. I found some slight differences in performance, but they were pretty minor and not something I noticed in everyday use. If benchmarks are your thing, the Dell came out slightly ahead. 

But the Core i7 model I tested features a GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, 16 gigabytes of RAM, and a 512-gigabyte SSD. Where the X1 Extreme really stands out is the option to upgrade the graphics card to an RTX 3080, making it one of the most powerful Windows laptops for editing video. Even the massive Dell XPS 17 tops out at the RTX 3060. 

The very nice 1080p webcam and a pair of speakers on either side of the keyboard round out the X1 Extreme's nice extras. The speakers are some of the best I've heard in a laptop—clean, clear audio, and an impressive amount of bass with no distortion.

All this comes with a trade-off: Battery life is not outstanding. If you're just browsing the web and editing documents, you'll get about a full day's work (about 7.5 hours in my testing). But the minute you start editing and rendering video, that number goes out the window. That's true for any laptop, so it's not necessarily a criticism, but something to keep in mind. Pack the charger when you head out the door.

One of my colleagues, who shall remain anonymous, quipped that the Microsoft Surface Studio Laptop is a machine for creatives made by people who'd never talked to any creatives. I don't completely agree, but you know who definitely talked to people who create digital art on their laptops? Lenovo.

Everything my pro photographer friends complain about is solved here. A 4K screen with OK battery life? Check. The power to not just watch movies but also edit and render them? Check. How about an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 dedicated graphics card? Check. Did I mention there's a full-size SD card slot? How about HDMI 2.1 for monitoring shoots? 

My biggest gripe with this laptop is one that plagues all of Lenovo's laptops: the insane list price. The top-tier model has a retail price of more than $4,500. But Lenovo is selling it for what appears to be a permanent sale, about $2,600. That's still a lot of money for a laptop, but if you need the video editing power on Windows, the X1 Extreme is a good choice.