Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 Overview
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 has a carbon fiber and magnesium alloy chassis which not only is made for durability, but feels really good in the hand. It will however pick up fingerprints quite easily, so keep that it mind. For those wondering about durability, ThinkPad laptops are tested against 12 military-grade requirements and more than 200 quality checks to ensure they run in extreme conditions. Being a ThinkPad there isn’t much styling on the laptop except a ThinkPad X1 logo on the top corner of the lid and a smaller Lenovo logo towards the bottom.
The laptop has official dimensions of 14.9mm x 314.5mm x 221.6mm / 0.59″ x 12.38″ x 8.72″. Since this is a 14-inch laptop it technically has a larger footprint than other thin and light laptops out there, but it is definitely the lightest I’ve ever reviewed at only 2.49 lbs. Being this light really makes it easy to carry along with you or simply throw in a backpack. When it comes to ports starting on the left-hand side you how two Tunderbolt 4 (Type-C) ports, a USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-A port, and a HDMI 2.0 port. On the right-hand side there is a combo audio jack, a second USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-A port, and a Kensington Lock port.
There are no ports on the rear of the laptop as almost all of it is taken up by the hinge. The X1 Carbon Gen 9 makes use of a single-hinge design, which is an upgrade from the previous design. It allows you to open the laptop with a single hand and once you have the screen at your desired angle it does not wobble all that much.
As we open the laptop up we are greeted by the 14-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS display. I really like that Lenovo has gone with a 16:10 as it opens up more vertical room, which is great for productivity. Lenovo offers a total of 4 different IPS panel options, three of which are 1920 x 1200: the normal screen with 400 nits brightness, a touchscreen with 400 nits brightness, and a touchscreen with PrivacyGuard with 500 nits brightness. The 4th option is 3840 x 2400 glossy screen with HDR 400 and 500 nits brightness.
Sitting above the display at the center is a 720p webcam that does have a privacy shutter. It does have support for Windows Hello so you can easily unlock or login to your laptop. For those who may be thinking about taking calls or going to Zoom meetings with this laptop it does have four 360-degree far-field microphones, more on that in a bit.
Moving down to the keyboard and trackpad area we have standard ThinkPad layout with the red trackpoint (hate it or love it!) right at the center. If you’ve used a ThinkPad in the past you know hey keys just feel amazing, in my opinion they are the best laptop keyboard to type on. They give such a satisfying feeling when doing your daily tasks. On top of feeling great the keyboard is still resistant.
The trackpad is decently large and has a glass finish. You have your standard left, right, and center buttons and the trackpad itself can be pressed (with tactile feedback).
Above the keyboard towards the right side is a small power button, which also doubles as a fingerprint reader. It is pretty impressive just how small it is and how well it works. For the security people out there the laptop does feature a discrete TPM 2.0 module.
