Lenovo ThinkBook X Series 14x (14" Intel) Luna Grey 2024

The ThinkBook 14x is a stunningly light and well-built laptop that's perfect for business travel and student life. Its best-in-class portability and a gorgeous 120Hz screen are the main attractions, but the weak integrated graphics and small 512GB SSD hold it back. It's a killer deal if you find it priced low, but a tough sell at full price.

For everyday productivity, this ThinkBook is a champ. The Core Ultra 7 256V handles a million browser tabs, Slack, and Office apps without breaking a sweat, landing it in the top third of our database for CPU performance. The 16GB of RAM is solid, though it's soldered, so what you see is what you get. The real bottleneck is the integrated Intel Arc Graphics. It's fine for streaming and light photo edits, but it's a total non-starter for gaming, where it lands in the bottom fifth of all laptops we've tested. The 512GB SSD is also a bit of a letdown, coming in well below average for storage space in this class.

Stacked against the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition, the ThinkBook trades blows nicely, offering a higher refresh rate screen and more ports in a similarly premium package. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 will run circles around it in any graphical task, but it's also heavier and pricier. The real elephant in the room is the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max. It's in a different universe for performance and battery life, but it's also a much bigger investment. The ThinkBook's sweet spot is for Windows users who need something lighter than a MacBook Air with a better port setup than a Surface, and are willing to sacrifice raw power to get it.

Pricing on this model is all over the map, with a spread of over $550 across different vendors. At the lower end of that range, around $1400, it's a compelling ultraportable for business users who value build quality and a great screen above all else. But if you're creeping toward the $2000 mark, the value proposition falls apart fast. You're getting a cramped 512GB drive and no dedicated GPU, which is a tough pill to swallow when more powerful machines are available for less. If you can snag it on a deal, it's a fantastic travel companion, but do not pay full retail.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 14x is basically the laptop equivalent of a tailored suit. It's crazy light at under a kilogram, feels premium, and the 14-inch 120Hz display is genuinely nice to look at. This thing was built to be thrown in a bag and forgotten about until you need it, and for that, it absolutely nails the brief. The Intel Core Ultra 7 chip keeps things snappy for office work, and the port selection is better than you'd expect for something this thin. But don't let the sleek looks fool you into thinking it's a powerhouse. The integrated graphics and limited storage mean it knows its lane and stays in it.

Gamers and creative pros should look elsewhere immediately. The integrated graphics are a dead end for any serious 3D modeling, video rendering, or modern gaming. If you need more than 512GB of storage without juggling external drives, this single-drive limitation will drive you nuts. Power users who like to upgrade their machines over time will also hate the soldered RAM.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 14x is a fantastic choice for the road warrior who lives in Excel, Outlook, and a web browser. It's one of the best ultraportables we've seen for pure business and student use, provided your workload doesn't touch video editing or gaming. If you need a Windows machine that's as light as possible without feeling like a cheap toy, this is it. Just be realistic about the storage and graphics limitations, and you'll be very happy.