Lenovo ThinkPad keyboards are the stuff of legend; they dominate any discussion of the best laptop keyboards. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium earned a place in my bag for years, in no small part due to its luxurious typing experience. However, there is one feature on every single ThinkPad keyboard that can start an immediate war with laptop keyboard enthusiasts: the TrackPoint pointing stick.
Even if you've never used a ThinkPad and aren't familiar with the term, you almost certainly will know what it is when I describe it. The TrackPoint is a small red nub nestled between the G, H, and B keys on a ThinkPad keyboard. It was invented in 1992 by IBM and has been a fixture on ThinkPads for 32 years. It's a pointing device without equal to many a ThinkPad fan. To others, it's a useless red blot on an otherwise amazing keyboard.
On Tuesday at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Lenovo announced a pair of ThinkPads sure to spark many an argument: the ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition and its 14-inch sibling. They are the first ThinkPads to eliminate the TrackPoint pointing stick, and Lenovo views these laptops as a key component in expanding its already dominant position as the largest PC manufacturer in the world.
The engine driving the ThinkPad X9
While the lack of the TrackPoint nub will be a lightning rod for attention, it's doing this laptop a disservice to focus on what's going away rather than what's been added. The "engine hub" is the key element to this new design-- a narrow bar that runs along the bottom of the laptop toward the back, unlocking far more capabilities than would otherwise be possible in a laptop this thin.
The engine hub houses all of the ports for the ThinkPad X9, allowing for smooth, rounded edges on the rest of the laptop. It also gives Lenovo the room to drop an impressive 80Wh battery inside this laptop, which should deliver solid battery life even with its powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) vPro chipset.
Viewed from the bottom, you can look through the engine hub to see the fans and other internal elements of the laptop. Another benefit of the engine hub is that it makes the laptop far more serviceable, music to the ears of business buyers; you can easily access the battery and SSD through it. After spending a little time with the ThinkPad X9, I also noted that the engine hub gives the laptop a slightly better angle for typing.
The ThinkPad X9 is a high-performance business laptop looking to win over a new segment of buyers to the ThinkPad lineup. While plenty of the familiar Lenovo DNA is there, this isn't a simple evolutionary design step; it's a revolutionary change for the ThinkPad series.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition specs
What's next?
Lenovo tells Laptop Mag that the ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition and X9 15 Aura Edition will be available starting in February 2025. Prices will begin at $1,399 for the 14-inch model and $1,549 for the 15-inch.
While I enjoyed my brief hands-on time with the ThinkPad X9 to get a feel for the new design, I can't wait for us to get this laptop in for review so our lab can put it through our full benchmark testing and we can spend some real time working with it.
While I have no doubt there will be ThinkPad fans that want nothing to do with the X9, this is a far bolder design swing than I would have anticipated for ThinkPad, which could be exactly what Lenovo needs to win over entirely new customers and push ThinkPad's market share even higher.
