Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 laptop review: Performance flagship with 16:10 touchscreen

[Greg]

@Benjamin,

thanks for the tip. I always skip Intel chips with vPRO, but that's exactly the one (11850H) which gives the option I was looking for.

[Brad Collins]

While I love my carbon gen 9 I'd like to see a slimmer 16" carbon product - is there anyone else who is interested in a proper X or carbon product without a graphics card but with a larger screen?

You can config ure the x1 extreme and p1 with igpu only, you need to upgrade to the 11850hk cpu than you can choose to use integrated graphics only.

True, but you still end up at 1.8kg. If the T14 and T15 are compared there is a ~300 gram difference in weight so perhaps a theoretical X1 Carbon 16" could be around 1.4-1.5kg. I would have 100% purchased that instead of my Gen 9 Carbon

[Alexandre]

I'm never buying a Thinkpad again.

I'm a photographer and videographer. For my work, I have a very powerfull PC at home, and I also have a powerful laptop to work photos and video when on the field, on gigs.

After having owned a PNY Prevail Pro 3000 for a few years it was time to buy a new laptop.

I went for a 5 500$ CAD Thinkpad: the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 Intel (16"):

• Processor
• 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-11950H Processor with vPro® (2.60 GHz, up to 5.00 GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 24 MB Cache)
• Operating System
• Windows 11 Pro 64
• Graphics
• NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3080 with Max-Q 16GB
• Memory
• 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz
• Storage
• 1 TB PCIe SSD

I ordered it directly from Lenovo. I received it, I set it up, but didn't needed it until 1 month after having received it (because I don't need a laptop on every gig I have).

So the first time I really used it on a gig was to record a powerpoint like I a did dozens of time with both my PC and my old laptop. But after 35min of recording, the laptop froze. I thgought it really sucked because that had never happened before with my other machines. So the next day I called Lenovo customer service. They told me to update a bunch of things. And then they told me to run a diagnosis. In the mean time the Laptop froze a few times doing simple tasks as browsing the web. Then I spent a few hours on the phone with abunch of people. And finally they told me I had to re-isntall Windows. So they sent me a USB key to reinstall Windows. It took a few days to arrive. I reinstalled windows and re-installed all my programs. And I was ready for the next gig on which I needed my laptop.

This gig was a 3 day event phtoography event with one of my good client. Usually, with this client, I set up my laptop and than, through the day, I transfer, edit and then uplaod directly the photos for my client to use right away. So from 9am to 10am, I took a bunch of pictures and at 10am I began a first transfer. After transfering a couple of photos to the laptop, it froze. I had to hard-reboot it by pressing the power button for 10 seconds. Just to transfer and to edit this first batch of photos, I had to reboot my laptop this way 5 times. It just kept freezing. At lunch time, the reboot count was at 12.

So during lunch, I call the """customer service""" (again), and I told the guy that i had done all what they wanted, that I had reinstalled Windows, but that the laptop was still freezing all the time and was now barely usable. I asked again (it was not the first time) for a whole replacement unit because I obviously had received a lemon, but the guy told me they wouldn't replace it. Instead, they would try to repair it. The guy told me they were gonna order a new motherboard (I would have to wait for them to get the part) and then they were going to send a technician to replace the part... But in the meantime I would be stuck with a unreliable machine. The next 2 days of my gig where a nightmare, I had to hard-reboot the Thinkpad at least 20 times per day. It made me look so unprofessionnal in front of my good client.

So this is where I am now. I have paid 5500 $ for a laptop because I wanted a powerfull machine a peace of mind. But now, I'm stuck with a machine that is unusable that freezes all the time.

At least if Lenovo and Thinkpad were owning their misktake and they were willing to replace the machine, I would be understanding. I get it, I got a lemon. It happends. But I should not penalized because Lenovo can't deliever working machine 100% of the time.

I'm so mad. It's been a week now and they still have not received the motherboard. And when they're going to receive it God knows how much time it's gonna take for them to book a technician to come to replace the motherboard.

I'm so angry at Thinkpad. They don't value their customer at all. They treat me like s***.

So, for your own sake, run from this company. They product is not what it used to be and their custumer service is a joke.

[mehdi]

I'm never buying a Thinkpad again.

[...]

I went for a 5 500$ CAD Thinkpad: the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 Intel (16"):

• Processor
• 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-11950H
  
• NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3080 with Max-Q 16GB

[...]

It's a bad idea to buy this model with a Core i9. It already struggles to use the Core i7 to its full potential.  Because the laptop is slim, it can't eliminate efficiently heat. I've seen lot of complains, but mostly from people that didn't get the base model (core i7 with rtx 3050 ti).

It seems that the latest model "gen 5" eliminate better heat, but there's not that much reviews. I suggest you get the P16 instead. More cumbersome, heavier,  but at least it can eliminate heat efficiently.

[Indycat]

It's a bad idea to buy this model with a Core i9. It already struggles to use the Core i7 to its full potential.

In that case it should throt-t-t-t-tle, not freeeeeze.

[NikoB]

I'm never buying a Thinkpad again.

I'm a photographer and videographer. For my work, I have a very powerfull PC at home, and I also have a powerful laptop to work photos and video when on the field, on gigs.

After having owned a PNY Prevail Pro 3000 for a few years it was time to buy a new laptop.

I went for a 5 500$ CAD Thinkpad: the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 Intel (16"):

• Processor
• 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-11950H Processor with vPro® (2.60 GHz, up to 5.00 GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 24 MB Cache)
• Operating System
• Windows 11 Pro 64
• Graphics
• NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3080 with Max-Q 16GB
• Memory
• 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz
• Storage
• 1 TB PCIe SSD

I ordered it directly from Lenovo. I received it, I set it up, but didn't needed it until 1 month after having received it (because I don't need a laptop on every gig I have).

So the first time I really used it on a gig was to record a powerpoint like I a did dozens of time with both my PC and my old laptop. But after 35min of recording, the laptop froze. I thgought it really sucked because that had never happened before with my other machines. So the next day I called Lenovo customer service. They told me to update a bunch of things. And then they told me to run a diagnosis. In the mean time the Laptop froze a few times doing simple tasks as browsing the web. Then I spent a few hours on the phone with abunch of people. And finally they told me I had to re-isntall Windows. So they sent me a USB key to reinstall Windows. It took a few days to arrive. I reinstalled windows and re-installed all my programs. And I was ready for the next gig on which I needed my laptop.

This gig was a 3 day event phtoography event with one of my good client. Usually, with this client, I set up my laptop and than, through the day, I transfer, edit and then uplaod directly the photos for my client to use right away. So from 9am to 10am, I took a bunch of pictures and at 10am I began a first transfer. After transfering a couple of photos to the laptop, it froze. I had to hard-reboot it by pressing the power button for 10 seconds. Just to transfer and to edit this first batch of photos, I had to reboot my laptop this way 5 times. It just kept freezing. At lunch time, the reboot count was at 12.

So during lunch, I call the """customer service""" (again), and I told the guy that i had done all what they wanted, that I had reinstalled Windows, but that the laptop was still freezing all the time and was now barely usable. I asked again (it was not the first time) for a whole replacement unit because I obviously had received a lemon, but the guy told me they wouldn't replace it. Instead, they would try to repair it. The guy told me they were gonna order a new motherboard (I would have to wait for them to get the part) and then they were going to send a technician to replace the part... But in the meantime I would be stuck with a unreliable machine. The next 2 days of my gig where a nightmare, I had to hard-reboot the Thinkpad at least 20 times per day. It made me look so unprofessionnal in front of my good client.

So this is where I am now. I have paid 5500 $ for a laptop because I wanted a powerfull machine a peace of mind. But now, I'm stuck with a machine that is unusable that freezes all the time.

At least if Lenovo and Thinkpad were owning their misktake and they were willing to replace the machine, I would be understanding. I get it, I got a lemon. It happends. But I should not penalized because Lenovo can't deliever working machine 100% of the time.

I'm so mad. It's been a week now and they still have not received the motherboard. And when they're going to receive it God knows how much time it's gonna take for them to book a technician to come to replace the motherboard.

I'm so angry at Thinkpad. They don't value their customer at all. They treat me like s***.

So, for your own sake, run from this company. They product is not what it used to be and their custumer service is a joke.

I don't know how it is in your country, but in my country, if the seller / importer or manufacturer does not replace / repair the goods within 3 days, then the consumer is paid 1% of the price of the goods every day, or he must transfer to the buyer a temporary working exactly the same item until it fixes or replaces the old one. And all other violations are also added to the counter, i.e. 1% + 1%, etc.. Refund of money for a maximum of 10 days (including weekends) or again counters with penalties and fines (which the court will also award in favor of the buyer).

I'm pretty sure that if you read your local consumer law, it turns out that for all the wasted time you would have returned at least 30% of the cost of the laptop, or even more, and every day this amount would snowball...

[NikoB]

While the goods are not working, the money actually paid to the seller / manufacturer for the goods, which, during the warranty period, is a priori considered as lending to the seller and manufacturer, for which they must pay an interest rate to the buyer, as well as banks. And the size of this interest rate for the use of other people's money is specially chosen as such (we have 1% per day of the price of the goods) in order to force the seller / importer or manufacturer to return the correct product or money to the buyer as soon as possible. Otherwise, this is a free use of other people's money. And this should not be in this world.

I always demand that the same product be provided at the time of repair or replacement, if it is not yet legally possible to demand money. And so the seller has only 3 days to resolve the issue, and then 1% to my wallet from the price of the goods every day, which is very good with expensive goods. An ideal investment if the seller doesn't move quickly...

[RobertJasiek]

in my country, if the seller / importer or manufacturer does not replace / repair the goods within 3 days, then the consumer is paid 1% of the price of the goods every day

Which is your blessed country with such consumer-friendly laws?