Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura review: In Higher Spheres

Lenovo gives its iconic ThinkPad series a new look and provides a new name. At its core, nothing changes: the ThinkPad X9 Aura is a capable work laptop.

Lenovo’s marketing team was given free rein to come up with a name for this laptop. Although the word ‘Aura’ doesn’t really say anything about the device’s characteristics, Lenovo creates the impression that this model stands above the others. Those familiar with Lenovo terminology will place more value on the ‘ThinkPad’ label.

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Not only the name, but also the appearance of the ThinkPad X9 Aura is different from what we’re used to from Lenovo. But don’t worry: Lenovo isn’t changing everything. The ‘Aura’ edition is more than worthy of the ThinkPad name.

Red Dot Gone

This is not a typical Lenovo laptop in terms of appearance. The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura stands out for its ultra-thin frame, which keeps the weight of the 15-inch version neatly under 1.5 kilograms. The contrast with the almost two-kilogram ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is noticeable.

Lenovo puts its brand stamp much less visibly on the laptop’s design. The characteristic ‘red dot’ in the keyboard has disappeared. That will take some getting used to for the seasoned Lenovo user. The Lenovo red is almost completely absent: only the dot above the letter i in the ThinkPad logo lights up red when the laptop is on. With a more neutral design, Lenovo may be trying to attract a wider audience to the ThinkPad series.

The port selection is acceptable, with two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, one HDMI port, and an audio jack. The lack of a USB-A port can be annoying, but is no longer unusual and can be solved with a dongle. The way these ports are integrated is special. The frame is so thin that Lenovo has developed a bar – engine hub sounds better – to house the ports.

Colorful OLED

Lenovo alternates between IPS and OLED panels for its business laptops, and the X9 Aura is equipped with an OLED screen (2,880 x 1,800). OLED guarantees colorful images with deep blacks, but the high resolution can come at a cost to the battery. Furthermore, the high refresh rate (120 Hz) and the exceptional screen brightness (504 nits) are worth mentioning. You can work outside with the laptop on a sunny day if you play with the display settings, as glossy screens reflect more light.

With an average DeltaE value of 3.8, the screen is not perfectly calibrated, but still decently adjusted. White is the negative outlier and that, unlike deviations in blue or red, for example, is easier to see with the naked eye if you look closely. White backgrounds appear more grayish than white. It’s not bothersome for average office applications that most people will use this laptop for.

You don’t need to teach Lenovo how to make a screen, and the same goes for keyboards and trackpads. We can’t explain why, but Lenovo keyboards just feel that little bit nicer than competing brands. The trackpad is responsive and scrolls and drags without complaint.

Intel Is Back in the Game

Lenovo embraces Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors. After Intel let Lenovo down with the X1 Carbon Gen 12, things are back on track with the ThinkPad X9 Aura. Intel is competitive again in the business segment and to date, no Core Series 2 laptop has disappointed us, including the ThinkPad X9 Aura. The processor reaches a turbo boost of up to 4.1 GHz, then falls back to a stable clock speed of 2.6 GHz.

The laptop is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V to be precise. In terms of cores, it’s not the most powerful processor in Intel’s stable, and the GeekBench benchmark illustrates this. Per individual core, Intel beats the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, but when you add up the cores, the balance tips towards Qualcomm.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura is primarily an office laptop, so it’s interesting to look at how the laptop performs on popular Microsoft Office applications compared to competitors. The device doesn’t excel in any particular area, but always keeps up well with the pack. If you want the most powerful Lenovo laptop at the moment, you should look more towards the ThinkPad P1 or the Qualcomm variant of the ThinkPad T14s, but for office work, you’re well-equipped with the X9 Aura.

OLED Affects Battery (a bit)

Battery life is becoming increasingly competitive among business laptops. Qualcomm set a new standard with its Snapdragon X chips, and Intel has now surpassed that. As a result, we see significant differences in battery life between laptops today. There’s one factor affecting the battery that processor manufacturers can’t eliminate for now: the display.

OLED screen technology is more demanding on the battery than the classic IPS panel with bright content. Add to that the high refresh rate, and the screen consumes more battery. It’s a trade-off you make between higher screen quality or more energy-efficient consumption. As a result, the Lenovo X9 Aura performs significantly worse in the battery test than the Dell Pro Premium and the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Snapdragon, despite having a similar processor and larger battery.

We put the numbers in perspective: the Lenovo still clocks in at fourteen hours in a test with constant processor load. So you don’t need to worry about not making it to the end of the workday if you don’t have a charger with you. The Intel processor proves its value; it’s the AMD Ryzen AI processor in the ThinkPad T14s that falls short.

Lenovo compensates with fast charging times, which are only matched by Dell. The compact charging block in the box has a capacity of 65 W. With this, you’ll have a half-full battery in 35 minutes, and if you leave the laptop plugged in for an hour, you’ll be at eighty percent.

A touch of AI

It’s 2025, and as a PC manufacturer, Lenovo must keep up with the AI hype. The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor is equipped with 48 TOPS to utilize (the few) AI applications that use local AI computing power. To give the NPU more work, Lenovo introduced AI Now at the end of last year, and we’re getting our first look at the homemade AI assistant.

With AI Now, Lenovo isn’t making an empty marketing promise: the AI assistant indeed runs locally and answers questions based on files you share with it (there’s also a cloud version). This puts Lenovo ahead of HP at the moment. The HP AI Companion makes the same promises but is currently only available as a cloud-connected beta version. Additionally, AI Now can help you find settings on your PC. In a follow-up article to this review, we’ll make an extensive analysis of AI Now’s capabilities.

Finally, the ThinkPad X9 Aura is equipped with an 8 MP webcam for video conferencing. We would have liked to test this it, but during our testing period, we couldn’t get the webcam to work (even AI Now didn’t have a magical solution). After a bit of digging, overzealous security software blocking the webcam turned out to be the culprit. It’s unclear to what extent this problem is exclusively related to our review unit, which has no additional software installed. We can confirm that the sound quality of the microphone and speakers is adequate.

Conclusion

Despite the renewed look and the uninspired marketing name, the ThinkPad X9 Aura offers exactly what you’d expect from a Lenovo laptop. The lightweight chassis, high-quality screen, powerful processor, and good battery condition make the laptop a reliable companion at the office, at home, or on the go. For now, don’t let the whole AI Now situation be a reason to give this laptop more or less attention.

Tested Configuration: Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura, Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 32 GB RAM, Intel Arc 140V, 1 TB SSD, 15 inch OLED screen (2,880 x 1,800, glossy), Windows 11 Pro – 2,056 euros excl. VAT. – 3 year warranty.