Quick Links

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a very interesting laptop. It comes in that iconic ThinkPad design that's loved by long-time fans of the brand (not me, though), yet it packs a ton of power that makes more sense for a gaming rig than a business laptop. Of course, the idea is that this is a laptop for creative professionals, though I'm left wondering if the people working in design and other creative areas wouldn't also want something that looks and feels a bit more modern than the ThinkPad chassis.

Still, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 is a laptop with a lot to love. It's very fast with its 45W Intel processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics (up to a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti), it has upgradeable RAM and storage, and you can even add 5G support. It also has some great display options, including an Ultra HD+ panel that's prime for creative work.

It's a very expensive laptop, however, even considering its specs. And with some weird design choices that come with most ThinkPads, you really have to want this specific combination of performance, classic design, and business features to warrant the price tag.

About this review: Lenovo sent us the ThinkPad X1 Extreme for the purposes of this review. It did not see the contents of this article before publishing.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5

With powerful 12th-generation Intel Core processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is made for business users who need all the power they can get while keeping the classic ThinkPad look.

Brand
Lenovo
Storage
Up to 8TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
CPU
Up to Intel Core i9-12900H
Memory
16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR5 4800MHz
Operating System
Windows 11 Pro
Battery
90Wh battery
Ports
2 x Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, SD Express 7.0 card reader, nano-SIM card slot (optional)
Camera
Full HD 1080p webcam with Windows Hello IR
Display (Size, Resolution)
16-inch IPS, 3840 x 2400 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, 600 nits
Weight
Starting at 4.14 pounds
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
Network
Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 + Bluetooth 5.1
Speakers
2 x 2W stereo speakers with Dolby Audio Premium
Price
$2,609.57 (varies)
Model
ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5
Adaptor and Battery
230W power adapter (proprietary)

Pros

Cons

Lots of performance for demanding workloads or gaming

The price is too high for the specs

Relatively lightweight and premium design

Fn and Ctrl keys are switched compared to most other laptops

Fantastic 4K display with X-Rite Pantone calibration

The red TrackPoint and mouse buttons feel pointless in this day and age

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5: Pricing and availability

  • The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme launched last summer and is available directly from Lenovo
  • Official pricing starts at $2,049

Lenovo announced the ThinkPad X1 Extreme during MWX 2022 at the end of February and released it in June. It's been available to buy for a while, and the easiest place to find it is Lenovo's website, but you can also try to find it through reseller partners. Big third-party retailers like Amazon or Best Buy don't typically carry expensive business laptops like this.

Officially, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme starts at $2,049, but you can often find it for far less because Lenovo is almost always running some kind of promotion on its website. At writing time, the configuration used in this review costs $2,609.57, but that could be different by the time you're reading this.

Design and ports: It looks sleek, for the most part

  • Looks-wise, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme is exactly what you expect from a ThinkPad
  • It has a solid supply of ports, including Thunderbolt 4

I've always been vocal about my distaste for the ThinkPad design language, but my gripes mostly have to do with the keyboard and touchpad. In terms of looks alone, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 is pretty much the same as its predecessor, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The black surfaces do give it a modern, subdued look, and while I'm not a fan of the red accents, they're not too distracting (the glowing red dot on the ThinkPad logo on the lid might attract some attention if you're using the laptop in public, though).

A Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 laptop seen from the front at a left-side angle with the lid open at roughly 60 degrees

The model Lenovo sent me also includes a woven carbon fiber pattern on the lid, and that's a legitimately cool touch. It adds distinction to the laptop without making it flashy, and it feels nice to the touch. In fact, all the laptop's surfaces feel smooth, and it's a pleasure to use it. My wrists feel very comfortable resting on the keyboard base, which isn't something I usually think about. The chassis is made of a mix of magnesium and carbon fiber, but it doesn't feel at all like the magnesium on something like the LG gram 17 I reviewed recently. This chassis really feels premium and very comfortable to use.

Overhead view of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 laptop with the lid closed, showing the carbon fiber pattern on the lid, along with a Lenovo logo in the bottom right corner and a ThinkPad X1 logo in the top left

A nice touch is that instead of having small bumpers around the display or the keyboard for when you close the lid, the entire frame of the display has a rubber-like material to absorb that impact. It's unique and very effective, but this material is prone to smudges from your hands and is a bit harder to clean.

It starts at 4.14 pounds, which is fairly light for a laptop that includes 45W processors and discrete graphics.

This mix of materials also allows the ThinkPad X1 Extreme to be relatively light, considering the powerful specs inside. It starts at 4.14 pounds, which is fairly light for a laptop that includes 45W processors and discrete graphics. Carbon fiber and magnesium are very lightweight materials that can achieve similar durability to aluminum without the same weight, so Lenovo often uses them in its more premium ThinkPads.

A left-side view of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 laptop, showing a charging port, two Thunerbolt 4 ports, HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack

As for ports, it's really hard to complain about the ThinkPad X1 Extreme. Being a business laptop — and a relatively large one at that —it has space for plenty of ports: with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack on the left side, along with the proprietary charging connector. On the right, you get two USB Type-A ports and a full-size SD card reader, rounding out very solid connectivity.

A right-side view of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 laptop, showing an SD card slot, two USB Type-A ports, and a Kensington lock slot

In some models, you'll also have a nano-SIM card slot, but you can't get that if you have a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU or higher, because these powerful GPUs take up too much space inside the chassis. You have to choose between extra GPU performance and cellular connectivity here, which makes some sense considering a laptop with a powerful GPU won't be the most portable machine out there anyway.

Keyboard and trackpad: Comfortable, classic design

  • The keyboard is comfortable to type on, but some key placements are bad
  • The red Trackpoint and mouse buttons are unnecessary

Before I get into the negatives, let's be clear: Typing on this keyboard is great. Like most Lenovo laptops, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme has very comfortable keys, with a nice travel distance and actuation force without being too harsh when they bottom out. In fact, I don't feel like I'm hitting the bottom of the keyboard base when the key actuates. I also like that the arrow keys are all the same height, something a lot of laptops tend to sacrifice to save space

Overhead view of the keyboard and touchpad on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 laptop

My biggest complaint with this keyboard is the position of the Fn and Ctrl keys on the left side. For whatever reason, the Fn keys are on the far left, opposite to pretty much every other keyboard I've used — even Lenovo's ThinkBook series has a sensible placement for these keys, but not the ThinkPads. This results in a lot of mistakes when it comes to keyboard shortcuts, selecting text, and so on. Unless you only use ThinkPads, this is terrible.

The other complaints I have are mostly aesthetic. The red TrackPoint and accompanying mouse buttons feel out of date in this day and age, and they have for years. They're a classic feature in ThinkPads that are kept around to avoid alienating old-school fans, but they're unsightly and, in my opinion, completely useless when we have great touchpads available.

Close-up view of the mouse buttons and red TrackPoint on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5

Thankfully, you can just ignore it and use the touchpad, which is great. Of course, having big mouse buttons at the top means the touchpad is smaller than it could be (another reason to question this decision), but thankfully the chassis is spacious enough that the touchpad is still fairly large and doesn't feel cramped. The smooth surface of the touchpad feels great to the touch, and there isn't much to complain about here.

Display: A color-accurate 4K panel for creative professionals

  • The ThinkPad X1 Extreme has a 16-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio
  • This model comes in 4K resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate
  • It also has a 1080p webcam

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 keeps the 16-inch 16:10 panel we saw in last year's model, and the configuration Lenovo sent me comes with an Ultra HD+ (3840 x 2400) panel, which is the top-tier configuration. The base model has a Full HD+ panel, and a new addition this year is a Quad HD+ option with a 165Hz refresh rate, which is ideal if you want to use this laptop for gaming in your free time. The Ultra HD+ model also has optional touch support, which isn't included in my unit.

Close-up view of the display on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 showing the default desktop background

As you might have expected, the 4K display looks fantastic. Colors look great and it's incredibly sharp (probably sharper than most people will need). Plus, it's great for work since the high pixel density increases how much you can see on the screen. The display features X-Rite Pantone calibration, and the X-Rite Assistant app lets you choose different color profiles depending on the color space of whatever project you're working on. You can use Adobe RGB, Display P3, Rec. 709, and more. The display also supports DisplayHDR 400, so yes, you can enable HDR in Windows 11 for movies and games.

The 4K display looks fantastic.

Lenovo touts 100% coverage of Adobe RGB, which is extremely impressive for a laptop display, and it makes this ideal for color-sensitive work. I found this to be accurate, with my measurements showing 99% coverage of this color space, in addition to 100% of sRGB, 91% of P3, and 96% of NTSC.

Screenshot of the color gamut coverage test results for the LEnovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme using a non-calibrated display profile

Changing color profiles in the X-Rite Assistant app will change the color coverage, and the results above were for the non-calibrated profile. Oddly enough, the results were ever so slightly lower when using the Adobe RGB color profile, but these results only how much of a color profile is covered by a display, and not how far the display goes outside of it. Looking at the measurements when using the Adobe RGB profile setting, you can see that the shape is a bit closer to a perfect match for that color profile.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme color coverage

As for brightness, Lenovo claims up to 600 nits, and in my tests, it falls just short of that, reaching 587 nits. That's still plenty of brightness, and the display will be easily visible when you're outside. The contrast goes up to 1320:1, which is pretty good for an IPS display.

Screenshot of the test results for the brightness and contrast test on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme using the non-calibrated display profile

Again, these measurements are taken with the non-calibrated color profile. Using the Adobe RGB color profile severely impacts the contrast of this display, mostly because blacks aren't as dark, though the maximum brightness is about the same. This is because the calibrated color profiles are laser-focused on color accuracy, rather than brightness.

Above that display, Lenovo is using a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello facial recognition. Unlike many other laptops, this one already had a 1080p camera in last year's model, so not much has changed here. It's now fairly standard, so it would've been interesting to see an even better camera. Still, this is quite good.

Close-up view of the webcam on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5

For audio, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme has two top-firing 2W speakers, which get fairly loud. Most importantly, they sound very clear even at max volume, and having top-firing is always great to see.

Performance: Plenty of speed for gaming and content creation

  • This model comes with an Intel Core i7-1200H and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
  • Battery life is pretty good considering the specs

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme features 12th-generation Intel Core H-series processors, up to a Core i9-12950H with vPro, and you can get up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU, which will give you all the power you'll ever need. My review unit came with an Intel Core i7-12700H and a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, which is closer to the base configuration. It also includes 16GB and a 512GB SSD.

If you're buying this laptop with an Nvidia RTX 3060 and you want to use it for gaming, you're not going to get the 4K display, so I tested game performance using a Full HD 144Hz monitor. And even with this cheaper model, you get a lot of performance for gaming. I tried playing a few different games, and it handled them just fine. I understand this isn't a gaming laptop, but that's one of the best and easiest ways to test GPU performance in real-life scenarios. Here's a rundown of how performance was in a few games:

Game

Graphics setting

Average framerate

Halo Infinite

High preset

74FPS

Apex Legends

High (default)

125FPS

Forza Horizon 5

High preset

140FPS

Forza Horizon 5

Ultra preset

83FPS

Rocket League

Max

144FPS

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Very high

51FPS (with stutters)

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

High

67FPS

I also tried an 8K video export using DaVinci Resolve 18. This is a compilation of four 8K videos, which add up to 4 minutes and 2 seconds. In my best test, the final 8K video was rendered in 6 minutes and 54 seconds, though I tried a few more times, and it was usually closer to 7 minutes and 16 seconds.

For benchmarks, I ran the usual tests, and indeed, this is a very fast PC, with both the CPU and GPU packing a lot of performance. It pulls ahead of a few other machines with similar specs, though if you want the most GPU power, you obviously want to upgrade to an RTX 3070 Ti or even higher.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Intel Core i7-12700H, RTX 3060

Lenovo ThinkBook 16p AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, RTX 3060

HP Envy 16 Intel Core i7-12700H, RTX 3060

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, RTX 3070 Ti

Geekbench 5

1,766 / 12,722

1,554 / 9,206

1,712 / 10,848

1,579 / 10,278

Cinebench R23

1,805 / 15,312

1,556 / 13,064

1,814 / 12,149

1,546 / 14,167

CrossMark

1,722 / 1,573 / 2,033 / 1,375

1,731/1,608/1,981/1,444

PCMark 10

6,917

6,336

6,789

6,856

3DMark Time Spy

7,430

7,078

6,250

11,194

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

3,522

3,418

---

5,487

VRMark (Orange/Cyan/Blue)

9,160 / 2,753 / 2,142

8,610 / 6,515 / 1,989

9,331 / 2,750 / 2,097

---

The odd result here seems to be VRMark Cyan Room, which always got the same exact score in every run. What's weird is that if that score was accurate, the Blue Room test should perform much worse, but that one is in line with what you'd expect. We experienced something similar with the HP Envy 16.

Day-to-day use is fast and smooth on a machine this powerful, and you shouldn't expect any struggle.

Otherwise, performance is as good as you would want it to be. Day-to-day use is fast and smooth on a machine this powerful, and you shouldn't expect any struggle. However, the 16GB of RAM may not be that great for very demanding workloads, which you're probably doing if you're buying this laptop. Thankfully, you can go up to 64GB to negate the problem. The PCIe 4.0 SSD is plenty fast with sequential read speeds at around 6670MB/s based on our tests, and sequential writes around 4353MB/s.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 laptop seen from the front at a right-side angle. The dispkay is fully visible, with part of the keyboard also visible at the bottom

Surprisingly, despite the powerful specs and the 4K display, battery life on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is pretty good. I ran my usual test playing back a 720p YouTube video until the laptop died, and that took a reasonable 6 hours and 34 minutes. In real-life usage, my measurements ranged from 4 hours and 23 minutes at the lowest to 5 hours and 54 minutes. Most often, the scores were around the 5-hour mark, either slightly below or above that. These measurements are with my usual methodology: Display brightness at 40%, display power savings disabled, balanced power mode, and battery saver kicking in at 20% battery.

This is the kind of laptop that expects you to have a charger on you most of the time, but frankly, I expected battery life to be much worse. These results are what I would expect from a laptop with a P-series Intel processor and a Quad HD display, so it's great in that context.

Should you buy the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme?

You should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 if:

  • You want a business laptop that can handle demanding workloads or gaming
  • You work on color-sensitive projects and the 4K display is important
  • You don't want a super-heavy workstation

You shouldn't buy the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 if:

  • You're looking for a relatively affordable gaming laptop
  • You don't need a ton of GPU performance
  • You hate the ThinkPad design language

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a machine with a lot of performance for content creation, gaming, and other demanding workloads, but it still manages to offer solid battery life. The 4K display is fantastic for work or media consumption, there's a good webcam, and the laptop feels very premium and durable all around. I don't agree with some of the design choices, but this is an otherwise fantastic laptop.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 4

The biggest hurdle for getting this laptop is the price tag. Configuring the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme on Lenovo's website currently costs $2,609.57 (though the price fluctuates a lot) and for that price, you can find laptops with a lot more performance. If you don't need this lightweight magnesium and carbon fiber design, or the classic ThinkPad design elements, you're better off looking at a gaming laptop, maybe even Lenovo's Legion 5 Pro. But if you really want a laptop that you can take to work for demanding workloads, or something you can take back home to play games on, not many laptops offer what X1 Extreme has.

Angled rear view of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 facing right
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5

With powerful performance and a stunning 4K display, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a great, albeit expensive laptop for creative professionals and users with demanding workloads.