Lenovo ThinkPad X1 14" Gen 10 2024

The ThinkPad X1 Gen 10 nails portability, durability, and a bright touchscreen for business on the go. Performance is just okay, and the 512GB base storage feels tight. It's a solid buy around $1600, but over $2k you can do better.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Gen 10 is a business 2-in-1 that doesn't mess around. It's built light, at 1.3kg, and the 360-degree hinge means you can flip the 14-inch touchscreen into a tablet for note-taking or presentations. The 1200p IPS panel hits 500 nits and covers full sRGB, so it's bright and color-accurate right out of the box. Wi-Fi 7, a bevy of ports (Thunderbolt, HDMI 2.1, both USB-C and A), and a backlit keyboard check all the practical boxes for a road warrior.

Under the hood, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225U with integrated Arc graphics handles everyday business apps just fine. It's part of the Copilot+ PC club, so you get the NPU for AI-accelerated tasks like Windows Studio Effects. Just don't expect fireworks. This chip sits in the middle of the pack for CPU performance, and the GPU is strictly integrated graphics territory. That means spreadsheets, web apps, and video calls are smooth, but heavy rendering or gaming will make it sweat. The 16GB of soldered LPDDR5X is enough for multitasking, though the 512GB SSD is a bit stingy at this price.

The Core Ultra 5 225U delivers where it counts for a business machine: responsive Office work, fast app launches, and good video conferencing. In our database, CPU performance hovers around average for this class, and the integrated Arc graphics are a small step above older Intel HD fare but nowhere near a discrete GPU. You'll edit photos and do light 1080p video edits, but anything more demanding will feel sluggish. The 16GB RAM keeps things smooth with 20 browser tabs and Slack open, though we wish Lenovo had bumped the storage to 1TB at these prices. The 57Wh battery gets you through a standard workday with the brightness set sensibly, but don't leave the charger at home if you're pulling long hours or running the screen at full tilt.

Pricing is all over the map, from $1639 to over $2200 across vendors. At the lower end, you're getting a well-built, ultralight business convertible with a nice screen and great connectivity. That's a fair deal. Creep toward the $2k mark, though, and you're in MacBook Pro M5 Pro or premium ultrabook territory with faster chips and better displays. Be sure to shop around because that $600 spread is wild. If you can find it near the $1600 mark, the value proposition sharpens up nicely for a corporate workhorse.

Stacked against the MacBook Pro M5 Pro, the ThinkPad trades blows: it's lighter and more flexible with the 2-in-1 hinge, but Apple's chip demolishes the Core Ultra 5 in raw speed and efficiency, and the Mac's mini-LED screen runs circles around this IPS panel. The ASUS ROG Flow is a different beast entirely, built for gaming and creator work with a discrete GPU, which the X1 can't match. An MSI Prestige or Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro gets you a more vibrant OLED screen in a similarly slim body, while the HP ZBook Ultra G1a targets the same business crowd with comparable specs. The ThinkPad's main weapon is its legendary keyboard and MIL-STD durability, a combo none of the others quite nail.

Skip this if you do any sort of gaming or GPU-intensive creative work. The integrated graphics are a weak spot, and you'll be frustrated. Also, if you need more than 16GB of RAM or a high-refresh-rate screen for fluid scrolling, there are better options from ASUS or even Lenovo's own Yoga line with OLED panels at similar prices.

The ThinkPad X1 Gen 10 is the laptop you buy when you need a road-ready machine that won't let you down, not the one you buy to crunch numbers all day. It's a perfect fit for execs, consultants, and IT managers who rotate through airports and need a dependable, light daily driver. If that's you, you'll appreciate the no-nonsense design and excellent input devices.