In my latest video, I take a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5, a premium laptop that delivers close to gaming laptop performance in a business oriented ThinkPad.
As we approach the time of the year when prices tend to drop on these, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take this high end model out for a spin.
The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 starts at around $1,800, and the model I reviewed was configured at about $2,600.
My review loaner features an Intel i7 12700H processor, an Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of video RAM, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Both the RAM and storage are upgradeable. It has a 16-inch 4K IPS display with a 3840 x 2400 resolution, which is Adobe certified and X-Rite calibrated. This laptop is also HDR 10 and Dolby Vision compatible, making it useful for creative work and media consumption. The display is nice and bright with a decent contrast ratio for a non-OLED.
Weighing just over 4 pounds (1.88 kilograms), the laptop is made out of carbon fiber and magnesium. It has a solid, well-balanced design and a backlit keyboard with a 1.5mm key travel. It comes with a variety of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI output, two USB-A ports, a full-size SD card reader, and a headphone/microphone jack. The laptop also has a 1080p webcam with a physical shutter and decent speakers.
The battery life on this high-performance machine isn’t exceptional, with around six hours on minimal use. As expected, the laptop performs well for basic tasks like web browsing and video playback.
It does well at higher end tasks too like photo and video editing thanks to its CPU and GPU. But it may experience performance degradation under heavy sustained load as its cooling system is not as robust as what might be found in a gaming laptop. “Bursty” tasks like video editing should do fine but work that hits the CPU & GPU over longer periods of time will see a performance drop after a few minutes at full load.
Despite this, I was pleased with the overall performance, look, and feel of the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5, especially for those who appreciate the traditional ThinkPad design. For many the cooling issues will not have much of an impact but for those needing something for more long duration work a gaming laptop is the better choice.