Ditch the Bulk, Keep the Brains: X9 Reinvents Business Mobility

If you’ve ever lugged a bulky business laptop through airport security or crammed one into a commuter backpack, you know the struggle. Hefty machines with clunky chargers, loud fans, and battery life that expires before your second meeting aren’t just inconvenient—they’re exhausting. The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition sets out to eliminate that hassle. It's a sleek, modern reboot of the classic business machine—designed for professionals who need endurance, elegance, and enough performance to handle real work, not just email.

This isn’t a laptop that makes you choose between power and portability. With premium materials, a breathtaking OLED display, enterprise-grade security, and battery life that lasts from breakfast to bedtime, the X9 is engineered to slip into your life as easily as it slips into your bag.

Design and Build: A Sleek, Durable Companion

The ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition distinguishes itself with a sleek, slim, and light design that challenges the traditional bulky image of business laptops. Unlike some of its predecessors that relied on magnesium and carbon fibre, the X9's chassis is crafted from partly recycled aluminium, contributing to a more sustainable profile without compromising on robustness. This choice of material not only gives the laptop a premium feel but also ensures it retains the ThinkPad brand's renowned durability, boasting MIL-STD 810H certification. This military-grade testing guarantees resilience against various environmental hazards, including shock, vibration, and extreme temperatures, making it a reliable companion for professionals on the go.

Weighing in at a mere 2.74 pounds, the X9 14 comfortably falls into the ultraportable category, making it significantly lighter than the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 (3.4 pounds) and on par with the 13-inch MacBook Air. This lightweight construction, combined with its compact dimensions (0.51 by 12.3 by 8.4 inches), ensures that the laptop is easy to carry, whether you're commuting between offices or travelling for business. Despite its slender profile, the build quality is evident, with minimal flex observed when grasping the screen corners or pressing the keyboard deck.

Lenovo has also implemented a clever design feature with a special barrel-like housing for ports and cooling. This innovative approach provides ample internal space for efficient CPU cooling and accommodates a decent array of ports without sacrificing the laptop's slim form factor or overall performance. This thoughtful design ensures that users have the necessary connectivity options while maintaining the laptop's aesthetic appeal and portability.

A Visual and Auditory Feast: Display and Audio

One of the standout features of the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is its stunning display. The laptop offers a gorgeous 2.8K OLED touch screen, with the top-tier configuration boasting a 2,880-by-1,800-pixel resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. This OLED panel delivers exceptionally bright visuals, richly saturated colours, and true inky blacks, providing a visually immersive experience whether you're working on detailed spreadsheets, editing images, or enjoying multimedia content. The display is also capable of dynamically switching between 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rates, a smart feature designed to conserve battery power without compromising on visual fluidity when it matters most. While the touch glass may exhibit some reflections at extreme off-angles, the broad viewing angles and sky-high contrast ensure crisp details and no pixelation, even around the edges of text.

Complementing the impressive visuals is the X9's above-average audio performance. The front-corner speakers, while not thunderous, produce enjoyably clear sound that is more than sufficient to fill a room. They offer a defined bass, punchy highs, and lively mid-tones, ensuring that audio is not harsh or tinny even at maximum volume. The preinstalled Dolby Atmos software further enhances the audio experience, providing various presets (dynamic, game, music, movie, voice) and an equalizer to tailor the sound to your preferences. This attention to audio quality makes the ThinkPad X9 a capable device for video conferencing, presentations, and casual entertainment.

Performance and Connectivity: Powering Your Productivity

The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, with configurations ranging from the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V to the Core Ultra 7 vPro chip. These processors, part of Intel's new 200 series chips, are designed to deliver efficient performance for everyday business tasks. While some reviews note that the CPU performance might be underwhelming for power users compared to some AMD Ryzen machines, it is more than adequate for the target audience of small and mid-sized businesses and professionals who prioritise portability and battery life. The inclusion of a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with up to 48 trillion operations per second (TOPS) with the latest Intel Core Ultra processors also positions the X9 as a Copilot+ PC, ready to embrace Microsoft's version of AI.

Memory configurations start at 16GB of RAM, with options to double it, and storage options go up to a 512GB SSD, with a 256GB SSD as the base model. The review unit tested by PCMag featured a Core Ultra 5 226V, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, running Windows 11 Pro.

Connectivity options on the ThinkPad X9 are modern and efficient. The laptop features two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, one on the left flank alongside an HDMI monitor port, and another on the right side with an audio or headphone jack. While the absence of a traditional USB-A port or an SD/microSD card slot might be a minor inconvenience for some, the Thunderbolt 4 ports offer versatile connectivity for peripherals and external displays. Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth, ensuring fast and reliable connections.

Unique Features and User Experience: Smart and Secure

Lenovo has integrated several smart features into the ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition to enhance the user experience and productivity. The

Aura Edition moniker signifies the inclusion of ancillary AI features co-developed with Intel. Pressing F8 reveals Smart Modes such as Attention, which helps reduce distractions and provides focus timers, and Wellness, which offers posture reminders and eye breaks. F11 launches Intel Unison, enabling a seamless connection to your smartphone for transferring photos and managing calls and texts.

The laptop's 1440p webcam, housed in a convenient ridge above the screen, delivers high-quality video and stills, with sharp details and vibrant colours. It supports Windows Hello for facial recognition logins, and a fingerprint reader is integrated into the power button for an additional layer of security. The webcam also incorporates privacy-enhancing features, such as dimming the display when you look away and waking the system as you return. For added peace of mind, the F9 key toggles the webcam on and off.

While the keyboard on the X9 is snappy, some reviewers have noted that it is not Lenovo's best, with a noticeably shallow typing feel that might be uncomfortable for extended typing sessions. The touchpad, however, is large, smooth, and responsive.

Final Verdict: An Excellent Choice for the Modern Professional

The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition successfully carves out a niche for itself in the crowded business laptop market. It offers a compelling combination of a premium design, a stunning OLED display, and a host of smart features, all at a sensible price point. While it may not be a MacBook killer in terms of raw performance, it presents a strong case as a more affordable and equally stylish alternative for small and mid-sized businesses and professionals who value portability and a rich feature set.

Should You Buy It?

If you are a professional looking for a sleek, lightweight, and feature-packed laptop for everyday business tasks, the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition is an excellent choice. Its gorgeous OLED display, robust build quality, and smart AI-powered features make it a joy to use. However, if you are a power user who requires top-tier CPU performance for demanding applications, you might want to consider other options. Additionally, the lack of a USB-A port and an SD card reader might be a deal-breaker for some.

Unlocking Productivity: Why the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 is the Smart Choice for Business on a Budget