Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 review: A beefy business laptop best left on the charger - irvincagoodge

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 is a slick clientele laptop computer with the power of a lightweight gaming rig. Down its buttoned-down facade, you'll find Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics and up to a 4K display, all in a laptop weighing well below 4 pounds.

Why buy out a laptop like this? Maybe you're into VR app ontogeny, or you'd like to take advantage of certain applications that take use of GPU acceleration, from Adobe's Aft Effects and Premiere Pro to 3D mold and big information software program. Oregon perchance you just deprivation to spend some time with the Yakuza series or The External Worlds on your ThinkPad once the workday is done.

No judgment Hera either way, but if your priority is portability, you'll likely wishing to look elsewhere, OR at least avoid the 4K pose we proven. Considering the weak battery life-time, the graphical demands of 4K resolution, and an unusual nonpayment screen brightness scene that we'll explain later, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 is a laptop that whole kit and boodle best happening outlet power despite its light weight. That way, information technology can still make untouched-time use of its separate artwork card.

Tech spectacles

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 comes in many potential configurations, with some high-end features (much atomic number 3 the vPro-equipped CPU, and Windows 10 Pro OS) you see only on corporate laptops. Our particular review unit, which costs $2,844 at CDW, includes the shadowing:

CPU: 9th-generation Intel Core i7-9850H processor with vPro (2.6GHz, up to 4.6GHz with Turbo Hike up, 6 Cores, 12MB Lay away)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics
RAM: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB)
Warehousing: 1TB PCIe SSD
Display: 15.6-inch, 3840×2160 resolution IPS display with Dolby Vision HDR
Video: 720p webcam with infrared for Windows Hello
Assay-mark: Fingermark reader
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
Left side: Two USB-C 3.1 Bolt of lightning ports, HDMI port, DisplayPort, headphone jack, proprietorship battery charger
Right side: Two USB-A 3.0 ports, SD card reader, lock slot
Weight: 3.75 pounds (4.6 pounds with charger)
Dimensions: 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches

lenovothinkpadx1extremegen2 left — Port pick includes two USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort, and 3.5mm audio on the left root, plus two USB-A 3.0 and an SD calling card expansion slot on the right.

Granted, Lenovo's stripped form costs very much less. Sticking to an Intel Core i5-9300H processor, 1080p display with 300 nits' smartness, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB solid state driving, and Windows 10 Home brings the damage to $1,721 on Lenovo's websiteRemove not-product link. You backside too max taboo with 64GB of Random-access memory and a 4K OLED display for $3,502. But in complete cases, that GTX 1650 nontextual matter circuit board remains perpetual.

Design and display

Like the original ThinkPad X1 Extreme, which had Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q graphics, the second-gen version touts lightsomeness as a key marketing point, though it now has a many powerful art card inside. At 3.75 pounds, it's more than a half-pound igniter than Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro and 0.35 pounds lighter than Dingle'x XPS 15 7590. The combining of light weight and decent graphics might assistant explain the "Immoderate" moniker.

That same, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 looks about every bit businesslike as other ThinkPads, with an all-black finish and red accents via the ThinkPad logotype and TrackPoint nub. To make it a half-size enthusiast, you can opt for a carbon fiber weave along the laptop's lid.

This is not a touchscreen laptop, merely the display tilts backbone 180 degrees in case you deprivation to shore up it up at eye dismantle and use an external keyboard and black eye. And while it's not a sparse-and-light laptop computer, its narrow display bezels keep things reasonably trim, measurement 0.34 inches on the left and straight edges and 0.5 inches on top.

lenovothinkpadx1extremegen2 right — The ThinkPad X1 Extremum Gen 2 cuts a pretty slim figure despite the discrete GPU interior.

American Samoa for the display itself, the 4K Liquid crystal display we tested has a matte finish and is brilliant, if a morsel oversaturated out of the package. We careful a uttermost display luminance of 442 nits, versus Lenovo's claim of 500 nits, but that's tranquil far brighter than any gaming or workhorse laptop computer we've proven recently. The display also supports Dolby Vision HDR, so the colors tush really pop if you're observation supported videos on Netflix or YouTube.

The show does have one guiding light quirk, all the same: To encourage amend battery life, Lenovo aggressively scales down the luminance at anything to a lesser degree 100 percent by default, so pressing the keyboard's brightness out button level formerly causes a significant drop-hit. You buttocks use Windows' software luger for better adjustments, but that's more of a hassle and still leaves you without much preciseness at higher brightness levels.

To override this conduct, you must restart the computer and enter Lenovo's BIOS settings to change the graphics mode from "Hybrid" to "Distinct" under Config > Display. Doing so makes the cleverness controls more additive, but information technology also disables Intel's integrated graphics, which the laptop computer uses to conserve battery life low-level light workloads. That brings some trade-offs we'll discuss in the Performance section below.

lenovothinkpadx1extremegen2 bios — To get more even brightness adjustments, you'll have to choose a travel to the BIOS.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard on the X1 Uttermost Gen 2 is received-issue for a ThinkPad, so you'll get under one's skin shield-shaped keys with a generous amount of travel. They're beautiful rigid, which can take some acquiring wont to, but they allow for double-quick, accurate typing once you bestir oneself. In a typewriting test, I averaged 107 words per minute, on a equation with my plac victimisation my screen background mechanical keyboard. (Like other ThinkPads, this one bucks Windows convention away flipping the Function and Left Keep in line keys, but you can switch them through Lenovo's BIOS settings.)

lenovothinkpadx1extremegen2 keys — If you've seen a ThinkPad before, this'll all look familiar.

The trackpad follows ThinkPad convention as well, with dedicated right- and left-clack buttons flanking a middle button that, when held, lets you scroll victimization the TrackPoint nub. Patc the trackpad is ceraceous to the touch, clicking on it takes some effort, especially arsenic your finger moves high up. The trackpad surface is also narrow for a 15-inch laptop, measuring a bit under 4 inches across.

Camera, sound, and security

Precondition the ThinkPad X1 Uttermost Gen 2's display chops and artwork power, information technology's too hard it can't keep upward on audio tone. Sound comes from a pair of downward-facing speakers underneath the front portion of the laptop. The lack of high-end clarity gives them a covered sound.

Webcam quality is similarly lusterless at 720p, just it does have an option for an infrared sensor so you can unlock the laptop computer with iris scanning. This feature crapper sometimes be hit-Oregon-miss happening other laptops, but it was rock-solid connected the X1 Utmost Gen 2, flatbottom in fewer-than-ideal lighting conditions. A fingerprint reader also comes standard, providing a handy fallback for those rare occasions when iris scanning doesn't register.

In a nice touch, Lenovo included a physical shutter change over for the webcam, so you no longer have to gunk up the camera lens with tape in moments of paranoia. Merely deliver in mind that this prevents face unlock from working, and Windows North Korean won't understand why. Instead, it'll keep looking for your face until you realise the issue yourself.

lenovothinkpadx1extremegen2 webcam — A red-faced dot on the optical lens lets you know the privacy slider is shut in.

Performance

The X1 Utmost Gen 2's distinctive feature compared to different ThinkPads is its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 art card, which provides a good deal more sinew for games and certain 3D-accelerated applications.

Whether you toilet enjoy that component to its fullest potential depends along 1 big setting. Past default, the ThinkPad X1 Extremum Gen 2 is set to a "Crossed" graphics mode that fundament switch off the GPU when the system doesn't involve it. As we've seen on other laptops, nonetheless, integrated graphics just doesn't shortened it for 4K displays. In Hybrid mode, the ThinkPad would sometimes expose choppy scrolling in certain applications. Switch to "Best Performance" in Windows' force management settings didn't help, even with the laptop plugged in.

The ThinkPad X1 Uttermost Gen 2 also ships with drivers that don't always seem to detect when the GPU should chip in along Hybrid mode. Our graphics benchmarks suffered drastically as a result until we updated the laptop's BIOS, CPU, and GPU drivers. Straight-grained then, the test results in Intercrossed mode clothed to be middling.

All of which adds up to a strong instance for leaving Distinct fashion enabled full-time. Yes, battery life will snort, only this is more than of a desktop replacement laptop computer anyway, and the benefits of smoother performance and more linear luminance controls overbalance the drawbacks.

As for how that graphics card performs, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 is still on the reduced end among workhorse and entry-level gaming laptops. Piece it'll handle Fortnite operating theater Destiny 2 without number, you'll have to tweak settings downward in some many demanding games to hit a steady 60 frames per second, and you'll want to stick with 1080p instead of 4K all told cases. As you can take in in Rise of The Tomb Plunderer, the laptop computer (in Hybrid mode) fell well deficient of 60 frames per second in benchmarks, though information technology does point a big bump over the front-contemporaries model.

In all the charts that follow, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen2 is proven in the default Hybrid mode (with updates Eastern Samoa noted above) and shown in orange. Its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

lenovo thinkpad extreme x1 gen 2 rise of the tomb raider corrected — The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 behind't get to 60 frames per second in Lift of The Grave Raider's benchmark utility. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen2 is shown in orangish above, while its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

Graphics testing in 3DMark Time Spy yielded similar results, with the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 landing near the rump of the pack. Note that other laptops with GTX 1650 fared amended, specially those less concerned with slimming down to business-laptop computer size, such as Acer's Nitro 7.

lenovo thinkpad extreme x1 gen 2 3dmark timespy corrected — Even against other laptops with GTX 1650 nontextual matter, the ThinkPad can't prolong. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen2 is shown in orange above, while its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

That same separation carried over to 3DMark's Fire Strike Intense benchmark as well.

lenovo thinkpad extreme x1 gen 2 3dmark firestrike extreme corrected — The ThinkPad is only a little nearer to the competition in Fire Strike Extreme. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen2 is shown in Orange to a higher place, while its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

As for CPU carrying out, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 was to a higher place the charts, simply not as high as you power expect given its Intel Core i7-9850H processor. In Cinebench, which tests how well the CPU handles bursts of performance, a few laptops with 8th-coevals CPUs performed finer, including the Gen 1 version of the ThinkPad X1 Extreme.

lenovo thinkpad extreme x1 gen cinebench corrected — The ThinkPad X1 Distant Gen 2's upgrades seem to deliver an adverse impact connected CPU operation, as the Gen 1 scored high in Cinebench. The ThinkPad X1 Intense Gen2 is shown in orange above, spell its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 also fell behind its Gen 1 predecessor in HandBrake, which checks continuous performance aside encoding a astronomic video file. Keep in mind, though, that the difference in encoding time was less than a minute.

lenovo thinkpad extreme x1 gen handbrake corrected — Those performance setbacks have a bun in the oven terminated to the sustained consignment of HandBrake, with the Gen 1 ThinkPad encoding a wee bit faster. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen2 is shown in orange above, while its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

As mentioned atop this inspection, battery life is unsatisfactory. In our telecasting rundown test, which runs at a consistent smartness of around 255 nits on all laptops, the ThinkPad X1 Intense Gen 2 lasted for 5 hours and 36 minutes, behind most laptops in the gaming and workhorse categories.

lenovo thinkpad extreme x1 gen 2 battery corrected — With a 4K display, discrete artwork, and thin-and-perch design, something had to move over, and that's battery animation. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen2 is shown in orange tree above, while its predecessor, the Gen1, is shown in yellow.

Keep in mind we ran this test using the ThinkPad X1 Utmost Gen 2's "Hybrid" graphics setting. Switching to the "Discrete" mode, which runs the GPU full-time, cut bombardment life roughly in half. In umteen cases that might be an acceptable trade-off.

If all this decision-making seems like to a fault much to deal with, Dell's XPS 15 7590 is the closest alternative. Its priciest configuration (listing at $2,700) packs the same Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card, a Thomas More effective Intel Core i9-9980HK processor, and a 4K OLED presentation. As you can see above, it also did much improve in benchmark tests and lasted much longer on battery power.

Still, the ThinkPad 1 Extreme Gen 2 is lighter and comes with more of Lenovo's business fixings, such as iris scanning and the iconic TrackPad keyboard. It also only looks many the part with of a business enterprise laptop.

Put differently, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 might not cost the best performer, merely it stands the best chance of hiding your gaming habits from the office.