Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition first-look review

Lenovo made a bunch of announcements around AI at Lenovo Tech World ’24, but didn’t release many new actual products. The most notable exceptional was the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, which I spent some time with at the show. I share my early thoughts on it in this first-look review, as well as covering all of its key features.

First impressions of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition

Let’s get some stats out of the way. This is a laptop with a 14in screen that weighs 1.3kg, and it measures 18mm thick. Compare that to the thoroughly gorgeous Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, announced last month at IFA, which weighs 980g, is 14.4mm thick at its rear and includes a 13.3in screen – and which is frankly far more appealing.

The key difference here, though, is not only a slightly larger screen but also the meaty hinge that allows the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 to swing through 360 degrees and turn into a tablet. Not one that you’d want to hold in one hand for too long, I should add, but still great if you want to scrawl notes onto the screen.

Naturally, it feels sturdy. I felt like I could drop the ThinkPad X1 onto the showroom floor and it would survive fully intact. I’m not personally convinced by the grey finish – at a glance, it looks almost plasticky – but I suspect it will still look as good after three years as it does on day one.

Keyboard, screen and a new Yoga Pen

A ThinkPad’s keyboard is crucial; users have high expectations after all. I’m sure they’ll be happy here, with plenty of travel and Lenovo’s usual attention to layout (note those grouped function keys to make them easier to hit and the concave top to the keys). Nor was there any obvious flex when I gave them a good bash.

The touchpad is a great example of its type, but nothing fancy is happening here (that I spotted at least). There’s a Trackpoint, of course, and with it a pair of physical button keys. Always handy.

I looked at the ThinkPad with a 2.8K OLED panel, and predictably colours looked superb and packed a real punch. As it should, with a 500cd/m2 peak brightness and promised 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut.

Lenovo will also offer the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition with a choice IPS screens. These have a lower resolution – 1,920 x 1,200 – and cover 100% of the sRGB gamut (so around 70% of DCI-P3). One is tuned for low power, the other for privacy – so press a switch and only you will be able to see the screen, not people sitting either side to you.

All three panels are touchscreens, of course, and a new Lenovo Yoga Pen will ship in the box. This attaches magnetically to the chassis, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to try it.

Power and battery life

So far we know that the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition will include Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors… but we don’t know which ones. In a chassis this thick, though, I imagine that it will cover the range from Core 5 to Core 9.

Every Core Ultra 200V processor includes eight performance cores, with the main differences between them being how high a frequency they boost to. I would expect even the lowest spec ThinkPad to be responsive for years to come, and my guess is that there’s a strong cooling system in place to help them achieve their maximum.

But the two main benefits of Core Ultra 200V chips over first-gen Core Ultras are their support for Copilot+ PC features – thanks to a more powerful NPU – and the supreme battery life they offer.

Lenovo doesn’t say anything about battery life yet, but there’s a 57Wh battery here. If you choose the low-power IPS panel, I would expect over 20 hours of life in tests and a full 12 hours or so in regular use. Choose the OLED panel and that figure will probably drop to around 16 and ten… but these are only best guesses based on what I’ve seen before.

Repairability and responsible design

Lenovo is saying all the right things about repairability of its new ThinkPads, making more components easy to replace by end users without needing to take them to a repair shop. I know that the battery will be easy to replace, and judging from the four crosshead screws keeping the base secure it should be easy to get inside.

We also know that the packaging will be made of bamboo and sugarcane, so 100% plastic-free, while the speaker enclosure, AC adapter and battery frame are made from 90% PCC recycled plastic. The keycaps are 85% PCC recycled plastic.

Parts of the chassis are made from recycled aluminium, too. Not the lid, or the frame around the screen, but the C cover (75% recycled) that surrounds the keyboard and the D cover (55%) that you and I would call the laptop’s bottom.

What makes it an Aura Edition?

Lenovo announced its Aura Edition laptops at IFA 2024. This is an exclusive partnership between Intel and Lenovo that takes advantage of the new Intel Core Ultra 200V processors, which include a far more powerful NPU than the previous-generation Intel Core Ultra chips.

Here, that means a bunch of AI-powered “Smart Modes”. that aim to automatically enhance things like security (for example, detecting that you’re on a public Wi-Fi network and applying extra security measures).

It’s also possible to share files between your phone and an Aura Edition laptop by tapping it against the side of the chassis.

ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: price and availability

So far, we only have US price and availability for this 2-in-1 device. Lenovo says it “will be available starting February 2025, with an expected starting price of $2,199”

Early verdict on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition

It’s encouraging to see that Lenovo is rolling out its Aura Edition features to more laptops, and my advice here is quite similar to what I say whenever I review 2-in-1 laptops. You’re paying a literal price and a physical one for that hinge, so make damn sure you’re going to use it.

I don’t have any concerns about performance, build quality or the essentials such as the keyboard, but I wouldn’t buy this until I found out exactly how good the battery life was with the OLED screen. For that is the version I would likely recommend IF the battery life is good enough.

I say that because I worry a little about the IPS screens. Privacy-focused displays tend to have poor viewing angles even when the privacy setting isn’t applied, while the low-power nature of the other IPS screen could mean that it’s not great to look at. I saw an awful low-power screen on a Dell XPS 13… but I’ve also seen great lower-power screens. It very much depends on which category Lenovo’s choice falls into.

Official photos