Notebookcheck published its fall 2026 laptop list on September 20 after 49 machines. The ThinkPad X9-15p Gen 1 Aura Edition scored 89.9 percent and got filed as a MacBook Pro alternative for creators: more performance, ports, and storage than a MacBook Air, and not quite the Pro. That sentence is the review. Everything else is whether you can live with soldered RAM and an SSD that throttles.
We already put Framework 13 Pro against the M5 MacBook Pro 14 on battery hours. That was a 13-inch repairable versus a 14-inch sealed slab. This pair is a 15.3-inch OLED Windows chassis at about €2,500 versus the same Pro. Do not import the 27.5-hour Framework loop onto the ThinkPad. Notebookcheck did not print an hour figure for the X9-15p in that roundup.
ZDNET’s small-business list dated September 23 still hands creatives a 15-inch MacBook Air M5. That is a third machine. If you wanted light and macOS, you are not in this ThinkPad SKU.
What Notebookcheck actually measured
The X9-15p in their table is an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H Panther Lake chip, Arc B390 iGPU, 32 GB of memory, 1,024 GB SSD, 1.5 kg, 18 mm thick, 15.30-inch 2880×1800 OLED at 222 PPI. List price 2,500 euros. They call the chassis all-aluminum, the hinges 180 degrees, the touchpad haptic and first-class. Cooling stays quiet. The six-speaker system is a selling point. Connectivity adds a Thunderbolt 4 port versus the 2025 X9-15.
The same write-up lists the downsides in one paragraph. Memory is permanently soldered. The SSD throttles under sustained load. The webcam is average. The keyboard layout is not classic ThinkPad. Standard enterprise security features are not included. Price in Germany: about €2,500 to €2,800.
That is a creator laptop that borrowed a ThinkPad badge, not an IT-issued X1. If you needed TPM theater and a TrackPoint in the old place, you wanted the other 89.9 percent machine on the same list: ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14.
| Spec (NC table / review) | ThinkPad X9-15p Gen 1 | MacBook Pro 14 (M5) |
|---|---|---|
| Screen | 15.3” 2.8K 120 Hz OLED, glossy | 14” Liquid Retina XDR (Apple’s 14-inch Pro class) |
| Weight / thickness | 1.5 kg / 18 mm | Smaller panel, sealed 14-inch slab |
| Memory | 32 GB standard, soldered | Unified, soldered, chosen at purchase |
| Storage | 1 TB in the tested config; throttles | Soldered SSD, no user swap |
| GPU | Arc B390 iGPU | M5 GPU in the Pro 14 |
| Ports | Extra TB4 vs 2025 X9-15 | Apple’s 14-inch Pro set |
| Street in the NC piece | ~€2,500–€2,800 | Not priced in this roundup |
Do not invent a MacBook watt-hour number this week. We already quoted PCMag’s ~24-hour 720p loop for the M5 Pro 14 in the Framework piece. That loop is not this ThinkPad.
Soldered 32 GB is a configuration, not a virtue
Notebookcheck likes the 32 GB base. Treat that as “you are not starting at 16 GB,” not as “ThinkPad finally lets you upgrade.” The RAM does not come out. If your After Effects timeline wants 64 GB next year, you are shopping again. Framework’s 13 Pro, on ZDNET’s list, still goes to 64 GB and 8 TB because that is the product. Different size, different religion.
Apple soldered the MacBook Pro years ago and charged you for the privilege at checkout. Lenovo doing it on a 15.3-inch Windows machine at €2,500 is the same lock, with a nicer OLED. The honest comparison is not ThinkPad versus modular. It is which sealed 32 GB you wanted: macOS in 14 inches, or Windows in 15.3.
If you compile and run local models, 32 GB is the minimum interesting number in 2026, not the ceiling. The X9-15p’s standard 32 GB is why NC called the base future-proof. Future-proof with a soldering iron in the factory is a brochure phrase. Future-proof would be LPCAMM2, which this SKU did not get.
Buy the ThinkPad only if 32 GB is actually your cap. If you already know you need 64, this review just saved you €2,500.
The SSD throttle is the creative-app tax
NC’s other warning is the one video people will skip. The SSD throttles under sustained load. Exporting, scratch disks, large photo libraries: that is sustained. A benchmark that bursts for thirty seconds will not show it. A Friday night render will.
The MacBook Pro 14’s SSD is also soldered. Apple’s advantage, when it has one, is the controller and the thermal envelope around a chip that was designed as a unit. NC already said the X9-15p does not quite match MacBook Pro performance. Do not argue with their lab by quoting Cinebench from a tweet. If your job is Final Cut, Premiere with hardware that likes CUDA, or a long media encode, the “not quite” is the review. A 1 TB drive that slows down while it is full of 4K proxies is a smaller drive than the box claimed.
Arc B390 is an iGPU. NC says it handles demanding multimedia. That is not a 70-watt laptop GPU, and it is not Apple’s M5 media block either. If you were hoping the ThinkPad badge implied a discrete card in a 15-inch shell, the table already told you no. Kan’s Framework 13 Pro Cyberpunk demo on the same Ultra X7 358H class of chip was a curiosity in our earlier piece. It is still not why you buy either machine.
If your job is 120 Hz OLED for color work in Windows apps, a six-speaker mix check, and Thunderbolt docks, the throttle is a footnote you can live with if you keep the scratch disk off the internal drive. That is a workflow, not a spec win.
We already ran Dell 16S versus Acer Swift 16 AI as a touchpad story. This week’s storage footnote is meaner. A throttle is not a preference. It is a temperature.
15.3 inches is the actual product
People will compare this to a 14-inch Pro because NC used the word Pro. Measure the panel. 15.30 inches, 2880×1800, 120 Hz, glossy OLED. That is a different bag, a different desk, a different airplane tray. The Pro 14 exists because Apple’s 16-inch is the other size and the Air is the thin one. Lenovo put a creator screen in the gap and kept Windows.
Glossy OLED is a color argument and a reflection argument. NC says it impresses visually. It will also impress a window. If you work in cafes, matte IPS still exists. The X1 Carbon Gen 14 config in the same table is a 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS panel at 162 PPI. That is the office machine. The X9-15p is the one that looks like a content tool.
1.5 kg and 18 mm is not a Gram. It is not a 16-inch Pro either. Shoulder-bag people can carry it. One-bag travelers who wanted 14 inches will notice.
The 180-degree hinge is the ThinkPad leftover that still matters on a conference table. The keyboard that is “slightly” not classic ThinkPad is the leftover that will annoy people who type by muscle memory. NC did not publish a key-travel number in the extract we have. Do not invent one. Try the layout if the TrackPoint position is why you stay in the family.
Quiet cooling is the other sentence people will quote without a decibel number. NC said the machine stays quiet while it is high-performance. Believe that as a ranking against last year’s screamers, not as a library rating. A 15.3-inch OLED at 120 Hz will still pull power when the timeline is scrubbing. The six speakers are for checking a mix in a hotel, not for replacing a pair of monitors. If your work is audio for a living, they are a bonus. If your work is a color grade, the panel is the product and the speakers are a podcast.
Ports versus the sealed slab
NC’s “more ports than the Air” line is doing a lot of work. The extra Thunderbolt 4 versus last year’s X9-15 is the only port delta they name. Apple’s 14-inch Pro still has a small, known set. If you live in dongles, you already know which side you are on.
ZDNET’s Framework 13 Pro write-up is the modular extreme: pick the ports, pick Windows or Linux, 3.1 pounds, up to 10 hours of office use in their spec block, up to 64 GB and 8 TB. They tell businesses that want a machine out of the box to look at a MacBook Air M5 or an Asus ExpertBook Ultra instead. That is not this ThinkPad either. The X9-15p is the out-of-the-box Windows creator SKU with a fixed 32 GB and a pretty panel.
We already compared Zenbook S14 to MacBook Air M4. Thin Windows versus thin Apple. This week is thick-enough Windows versus Pro Apple. If you wanted Air money, ZDNET’s 15-inch M5 Air is the creative SMB pick and it is not 120 Hz OLED at 2.8K in their blurb.
Enterprise security not included on the X9-15p is the IT veto. If your company images machines with a checklist, this SKU fails the checklist. Buy the X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition from the same fall list: Ultra 5 325 in NC’s test unit, 32 GB, 512 GB, 1.1 kg, 16.8 mm, Amazon prices in that table from about $1,699 to $2,399. ZDNET’s X1 Carbon Gen 14 spec block is Ultra 7 Series 3 365, 32 GB, 512 GB, up to 2.8K OLED 500 nits, up to 7 hours office, 2 pounds. Two configs, same badge. Do not mix them in a cart.
Winner
Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15p Gen 1, if you are already on Windows, you want a 15.3-inch 120 Hz OLED, and 32 GB soldered is honestly enough.
MacBook Pro 14 (M5) still wins if NC’s “does not quite match” is your job: sustained creative load, Apple’s SSD behavior, a 14-inch bag, resale. We already said the Pro 14 lasted about 24 hours in PCMag’s easy video loop when Framework beat it. This ThinkPad did not publish a number in the fall roundup, so battery is not why you switch.
Do not buy the X9-15p as a classic ThinkPad. The keyboard drifted, the enterprise pack is missing, the RAM does not come out, and the SSD can fall over when you lean on it. Buy it as a 15.3-inch Panther Lake creator machine that costs €2,500 instead of another dongle year on an Air. If that sentence does not sound like you, the Pro 14 is still the Pro.
The webcam is average. That is not a rounding error on a machine this expensive. If your week is Zoom, budget a light and a lens or buy the Carbon. If your week is a timeline on a 120 Hz OLED, the camera is the part you close.