Category: Lunar Lake

Auto Added by WPeMatico

Acer Aspire 14 AI review: a good price can’t mask some real disappointments

Acer Aspire 14 AI

MSRP $750.00

2.5/5

★★☆☆☆

Score Details

“The Acer Aspire 14 AI suffers from a bad display and disappointing battery life.”

✅ Pros

Attractive price
Good keyboard and touchpad
Reasonably solid build
Solid productivity performance

❌ Cons

Inferior display
Disappointing battery life
Hinge way too tight

Buy at Costco

Laptops priced between $750 to $1,000 price range fall into a sort of gray area between true budget laptops and midrange machines. As such, there’s a great deal of inconsistency that you don’t find in laptops under $500 (typical compromises made to reach an affordable price) and over $1,000 (generally higher quality). The Acer Aspire 14 AI is one such laptop, and like some others, it’s a real mixed bag.

It’s reasonably priced laptop at $750 for a usable configuration, available from Costco only. But it cuts a corner in the display, something I’ve seen less often over the last couple of years, and it fails to leverage Intel’s Lunar Lake efficiency advantage. Those two flaws, more than anything, make that attractive price something of a tease.

Specs and configuration

	Acer Aspire 14 AI
Dimensions	12.56 x 8.86 x 0.67 inches
Weight	3.05 pounds
Display	14.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS, 60Hz
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 5 226V
GPU	Intel Arc 130V
Memory	16GB
Storage	1TB SSD
Ports	2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera	1080p with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetoth 5.3
Battery	65 watt-hour
Operating system	Windows 11
Price	$759+

There’s just one Aspire 14 AI configuration available today, with an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 14.0-inch FHD+ IPS display. It’s $750 at Costco, and $890 direct from Acer.

The Costco price is an attractive price for the right laptop. However, it’s debatable if this is the right laptop. It’s $250 less than the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4), which is a meaningful drop — except, the MacBook is the best small laptop made today and well worth the extra money if you can afford it. And if you shop around, you can find some better laptops for around the same price, even if they’re a generation or two behind. The Asus Zenbook 14 is one example — I’ve seen on sale for less than $600 with an OLED display, and it’s a great choice.

Design

Acer Aspire 14 AI front angled view showing display and touchpad. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Aspire 14 AI is constructed of a mix of plastic in the keyboard deck and aluminum in the lid and bottom chassis. That shaves a little off the price and perhaps a little from the weight as well, although at 3.05 pounds, the Aspire 14 AI isn’t even close to the lightest 14-inch laptop I’ve reviewed. Unfortunately, the keyboard deck gives a bit with light pressure and the lid is a little bendable. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad build quality, but it feels less robust than laptops that cost $1,000 or like the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4) and Acer’s own Swift 14 AI. I’ve reviewed other laptops for less than the Aspire 14 AI that are more robust, like the Asus Zenbook 14.

Thanks to some relatively thick plastic display bezels (which also contribute to the laptop’s lower price), the Aspire 14 AI isn’t the smallest laptop. It’s wider and deeper than quite a few other machines, and while it’s reasonably thin at 0.67 inches, it’s still a bit less portable. And overall, the impression of quality just isn’t quite there, with a hinge that’s way too firm and requires two hands to pry open the display. I keep referring back to the price, though, because if you need to shave off some of the cost, these aren’t the worst ways to do so.

The aesthetic is fine, with a gray color way that’s unblemished with fake chrome like lower-priced laptops often were several years ago. The lines and angles are streamlined enough that the Aspire 14 AI isn’t bland, and so it’s a good looking enough laptop. Again, those thick display bezels belie that sense of modernity that a lot of laptops display, but you won’t turn this laptop away based on its looks alone.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard has slightly smaller keycaps and the layout is the tiniest bit cramped. Acer could have used up a little more space and made for more comfortable key spacing. But, the switched are reasonably light and snappy, with a bottoming action that isn’t harsh or fatiguing. I do like some other keyboards better, such as Apple’s Magic Keyboard and HP’s version it uses on its latest OmniBook laptops. But, I was able to type this review at nearly full speed without too many mistakes, so I’d rate the keyboard as pretty good.

The touchpad is large enough (although there’s space for a larger version), and for a mechanical touchpad, it’s fine. I don’t expect haptic touchpads on laptops in this price range, and in fact the Aspire 14 AI’s touchpad is quite responsive and its button clicks are quiet and confident. That makes it better than some other lower-priced laptops I’ve used.

Acer includes a touch display, which I think is great at the price. It won’t matter to every user, but there’s no downside.

Connectivity and webcam

There’s a good selection of connectivity, with a couple of modern Thunderbolt 4 connections and some legacy ports as well. That’s plenty for a 14-inch laptop, and better than some. The MacBook Air has just two Thunderbolt 4 ports, although it does benefit from its MagSafe 3 power connection that keeps both ports free while charging. You’ll give on up with the Aspire 14 AI, but you also won’t be required to use a dongle or hub to plug in more than a couple of devices. Many laptops with Intel’s Lunar Lake chipset has Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, but the Aspire 14 AI is stuck one generation back.

Acer Aspire 14 AI front view showing webcam. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The webcam meets the new 1080p standard, which was a welcome change overall, and it provides a quality image with an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition. The Lunar Lake chipset has a fast Neural Processing Engine (NPU) that exceeds Microsoft’s 40 tera operations per second (TOPS) requirement for its Copilot+ PC AI initiative. That means that the various Copilot+ AI features like Windows Studio Effects and (eventually) the Recall functionality will run well on-device using an NPU that’s more power-efficient. Acer also offers a few AI-enabled utilities to enhance video and audio quality and edit pictures. That’s becoming the norm today, with most manufacturers offering a host of AI features, so the Aspire 14 AI is keeping up with the market here.

Performance

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There’s just one 8-core/8-thread Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra Series 2) chipset offered with the Aspire 14 AI, specifically the Core Ultra 5 226V. Like all Lunar Lake chipsets, it runs at a base of 17 watts, and it has the slowest clockspeed in the lineup. Intel designed the new chipsets to focus on efficiency, with performance that’s faster than the older 15-watt U-series Meteor Lake chipsets but slower than those running at 28 watts.

Acer Aspire 14 AI top down view showing vents behind keyboard. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Looking at our benchmarks, the Aspire is as fast as other comparable chipsets and slower than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipsets that are also aimed at efficiency. The MacBook Air 13’s M4 chipset is also a lot faster. The Core Ultra 5 226V also equips the slower Intel Arc 130V integrated graphics, but the Aspire 14 AI did surprisingly well here compared to other Intel Arc 130V chipsets. However, these scores generally aren’t good enough for all but light gaming, and integrated graphics don’t help much with speeding up creative tasks.

The ThinkPad X9-14 will be fine for general productivity tasks. Gamers and creators won’t be too excited, though.

	Cinebench R24 (single/multi)	Geekbench 6 (single/multi)	Handbrake (seconds)	3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Acer Aspire 14 AI (Core Ultra 226V / Intel Arc 130V)	112 / 577	2487 / 9831	93	6038
Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 (Core Ultra 226V / Intel Arc 130V)	113 / 542	2547 / 9965	108	4928
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Core Ultra 5 226V / Intel Arc 130V)	114 / 573	2587 / 10260	92	4740
HP EliteBook X G1a (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 / Radeon 890M)	109 / 1095	2769 / 14786	60	7236
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	116 / 598	2483 / 10725	99	7573
HP Spectre x360 14 (Core Ultra 7 155H / Intel Arc)	102 / 485	2176 / 11980	93	N/A
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	109 / 630	2485 / 10569	88	5217
HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X Elite / Adreno)	101 / 749	2377 / 13490	N/A	6165
MacBook Air (M4 10/8)	172 / 854	3751 / 14801	87	7827

Battery life

Acer Aspire 14 AI side view showing lid and ports. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Aspire 14 AI has a 65 watt-hour battery and a low-resolution IPS display. Combined with the energy-efficient Core Ultra 226V chipset, I expected very good battery life.

What I saw in our battery tests wasn’t terribly impressive compared to other Lunar Lake and Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptops. Setting aside the Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 that had usually bad battery life, the Aspire 14 AI just wan’t terribly impressive. Some of the machines on this list have power power-hungry OLED displays, like the Asus Zenbook S 14, and those did significantly better.

It’s not that this is terrible battery life, especially compared to the previous generation of Windows laptops that averaged a few hours less. It’s just that given the components, the Aspire 14 AI should have done better. You shouldn’t have to compromise in both display quality and battery life the way that you do here.

	Web browsing	Video	Cinebench R24
Acer Aspire 14 AI (Core Ultra 226V)	11 hours, 13 minutes	10 hours, 41 minutes	1 hour, 45 minutes
Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 (Core Ultra 226V)	7 hours, 39 minutes	6 hours, 27 minutes	1 hour, 33 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Core Ultra 5 226V)	12 hours, 50 minutes	19 hours, 30 minutes	2 hours, 18 minutes
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	11 hours, 5 minutes	15 hours, 46 minutes	2 hours, 14 minutes
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V)	14 hours, 16 minutes	17 hours, 31 minutes	2 hours, 15 minutes
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	16 hours, 47 minutes	18 hours, 35 minutes	3 hours, 33 minutes
Microsoft Surface Laptop (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100)	14 hours, 21 minutes	22 hours, 39 minutes	N/A
HP Omnibook X (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100)	13 hours, 37 minutes	22 hours, 4 minutes	1 hour, 52 minutes
Apple MacBook Air (Apple M4 10/8)	16 hours, 30 minutes	20 hours, 31 minutes	3 hours, 47 minutes

Display and audio

Acer Aspire 14 AI front view showing display. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There was a time when laptops priced less than $1,000 generally had inferior displays with low brightness, narrow and inaccurate colors, and low contrast. Over the last several years, though only the least expensive laptops have had less-than-average IPS displays — and that average is much better than it used to be. When I powered on the Aspire 14 AI, I could instantly tell that the display would be one of this laptop’s biggest compromises to reach a price that isn’t really all that low.

The colors are muted and don’t look very natural, and that display doesn’t get all that bight by modern standards. It just didn’t look great to me, and that’s setting aside the spectacular OLED and mini-LED displays I’ve looked at lately. Even compared to the typical IPS display, this one just wasn’t great. And at 14.0 inches and FHD+ (1920 x 1200), the display wasn’t particularly sharp, either.

According to my Datacolor SpyderX Elite colorimeter, the display didn’t benefit from objective measurements either. While it was brighter at 331 nites than our standard of 300 nits, that just demonstrates that we need to establish a new standard. Most displays are closer to 400 nits today, making this one seem too dark by comparison. The colors were very narrow at 62% of sRGB, 46% of AdobeRGB, and 46% of DCI-P3. That’s well below the 100%, 75%, and 75% averages, respectively, of today’s typical IPS displays. OLED displays come in at 100%, 95%, and 100% and mini-LED are somewhere in between, making this display look even worse. And those narrow colors weren’t very accurate either, at a DeltaE of 2.59, above the 2.0 that’s preferred for productivity work and where most displays fall. Contrast was good at 1,200:1, above our still-relevant 1,000:1 baseline.

Ultimately, this just wasn’t a very good display. It’s okay if all you’re doing is browsing the web and working in productivity applications. But it’s not very good for streaming media, which will look muted, and certainly not for any kind of creative work. It’s a corner that I hate to see cut on a laptop like this one.

The audio was pretty average, though. Two downward-firing speakers provide good enough sound for YouTube videos and system sounds, with enough volume and reasonably clear mids and highs and the usual lack of bass.

Conclusion

If you buy the laptop from Costco, you’ll pay $750. That’s not a bad price for a 14-inch laptop with decent productivity performance. It’s not the best-built laptop with the most elegant design, but you don’t expect that for the price.

However, the display simply isn’t very good, with narrow and muted colors and low brightness. Given that I’ve seen laptops with OLED displays at this price, that’s not great. And the battery life is disappointing. Ultimately, I think you can get a much better laptop for the same price if you shop around. Spend a couple of hundred dollars more and you’ll be a lot happier.

April 30, 2025

HP EliteBook Ultra G1i review: a business laptop for everyone, at a price

HP EliteBook Ultra G1i

MSRP $24,320.00

4/5

★★★★☆

Score Details

“The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is solid, gorgeous, and packed with business features.”

✅ Pros

Class-leading design
Lovely aesthetic
Spectacular OLED display
Excellent keyboard and touchpad
Thin and light
Very good battery life

❌ Cons

Expensive
Performance doesn’t stand out

Buy at CDW

The best business laptops are very well-made and robust, conservatively attractive, fast, and have great battery life. Those are feature that consumers look for, too, but manufacturers like HP add a ton of features that make business laptops more attractive to enterprises that require great management and security.

That makes them more expensive, which sometimes pushes them out of the range of many consumer buyers. That’s a shame with the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i, because it’s a great 14-inch laptop that all kinds of users would love — if only its price was a bit more palatable. But for businesses users, it’s one of the better choices.

Specs and configuration

	HP EliteBook Ultra G1i
Dimensions	12.35 x 8.45 x 0.36-0.48 inches
Weight	2.63 pounds
Display	14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (1880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 5 226V Intel Core Ultra 7 256V Intel Core Ultra 7 268V vPro
GPU	Intel Arc 130V Intel Arc 140V
Memory	16GB 32GB
Storage	256GB SSD 512GB SSD 1TB SSD
Ports	3 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera	9MP with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetoth 5.4
Battery	64 watt-hour
Operating system	Windows 11
Price	$1,849+

As a business laptop, the EliteBook Ultra G1i is more likely to be purchased on a group contract. So, its prices listed in its web store (which are heavily discounted from list already) aren’t necessarily as indicative of what the target business customer will pay. However, right now, the EliteBook starts at $1,849 for an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED display (the only option). For $2,432, you get a Core Ultra 7 268V, 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That’s the confirmation I reviewed. There are other configurations available within that range.

So, that makes the EliteBook Ultra G1i a very premium business laptop. The similarly configured HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, which is aimed at consumers, is quite a bit less expensive starting at $1,100 on sale and maxing out at $1,730 (also on sale). The Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4) is also less expensive, starting at $1,000 and maxing out at just over $2,000.

Design

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

I recently wrote an editorial about how Apple’s attention to detail has resulted in some of the best hardware around. But Apple isn’t the only company that manages to make a laptop that feels really great in hand. The EliteBook Ultra G1i is another. It’s one of those laptops that gives me an immediate impression of quality the moment I pull it out of the box.

First, it’s nicely sized. Its display bezels aren’t the smallest I’ve seen, but they’re small enough that the EliteBook Ultra G1i is quite compact with its 14-inch display. It’s also very thin, coming in at a maximum of 0.48 inches in the rear that’s almost as thin as the insanely thin Apple MacBook Air 13’s 0.45 inches (and the HP is even thinner up front at 0.36 inches). The EliteBook is also almost the same weight as the MacBook, so it has that kind of density that avoids a really light laptop feeling flimsy. And 2.63 pounds is plenty light enough to make it eminently portable.

The weight is also very well-balanced, so it’s comfortable to carry around, open or closed. The rounded edges also feel great — better than the MacBook’s edges that border on being a little sharp. The EliteBook’s hinge isn’t quite as smooth, though, and requires two hands to open the lid. Overall, the all-aluminum construction is solid with no bending, flexing, or twisting in the chassis, keyboard deck, or lid. This is a really well-designed and well-built laptop.

Aesthetically, the design is quite elegant with the usual contemporary minimalism but enough identity that it’s not mundane. The rounded edges help here, too, and HP has done a great job with the dark blue color way. My only complaint is the lighter blue color assigned to the function keys, and then the power button (with embedded fingerprint reader) that has a rather bright LED and yet another light blue color. That might be good for accessibility, something that HP has paid a lot of attention to in their recent designs. But I do think it takes away from the look a bit.

Beyond the EliteBook Ultra G1i’s physical design, it’s also a business laptop with several features that make it a great choice for businesses. Primarily, that centers around various utilities that can plug into enterprise management systems to provide enhanced fleet management capabilities and security. HP’s Wolf Security serves the latter function, offering up a host of capabilities that lock the EliteBook down on both a software and hardware level. I won’t go into the details here, but suffice it to say that if you’re looking for a laptop that’s easy to manage and highly secure, then the EliteBook Ultra G1i provides what you’re looking for.

Keyboard and touchpad

HP has been making great keyboards for a while now, starting with their Spectre laptops that were some of my favorites. That’s carried that over to its OmniBook and EliteBook lineups, and HP has maybe even made them a little better given the attention to accessibility I mentioned above. That’s reflected in the bold lettering and careful color scheme that will help the visually impaired. But even more so, the EliteBook Ultra G1i’s keyboard is just about perfect for me, equally as good as Apple’s Magic Keyboard that’s been my overall favorite. The keycaps are large and yet there’s plenty of key spacing with a very comfortable layout. And the switches are exactly as I like them — light and snappy yet with a precise bottoming action. I could type on this keyboard at full speed for hours (as in writing this review) without getting fatigued. Another simple keyboard test for me is whether I can type passwords from muscle-memory on the first try, and the EliteBook’s keyboard passed with flying colors.

The touchpad is equally as good. It’s a large haptic version that takes up all the available space on the palm rest, just like with Apple’s MacBooks. And it’s excellent, with responsive and consistent “clicks.” Windows 11 affords a ton of customization with haptic touchpads, and it’s all here. Apple’s Force Touch haptic touchpad has long been the industry standard for excellence, and it benefits from the Force Click feature where pressing a little “harder” kicks off additional functionality. But otherwise, the EliteBook’s touchpad is just as good.

You can also opt for a touch-enabled display. A great haptic touchpad makes that less attractive for me, personally, but it’s available if you want it.

Connectivity and webcam

Connectivity is pretty good, with three USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support and a USB-A port for legacy devices. I say that’s just pretty good because some 14-inch laptops have more connectivity, with an HDMI connection being fairly common. There’s also no SD card support, which I’d like to see. Wireless connectivity is fully up-to-date with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

HP EliteBook Ultra G1i front view showing webcam. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The webcam is HP’s usual 9MP version, so it provides excellent image quality. It’s backed up by a fast Lunar Lake Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that runs at a very fast 48 tera operations per second (TOPS), easily exceeding the 40 TOPS requirement for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative. That means it will power on-device AI processing more efficiently than relying on the slower CPU or GPU components. HP partnered with Poly Studio to offer the Poly Camera Pro suite of videoconferencing features with enhance background, spotlight, auto-framing, and other functionality, much of it AI-powered using the NPU. There’s probably not another laptop available with quite the same breadth and depth of AI-powered features in addition to what’s provided via Copilot+.

Performance

HP EliteBook Ultra G1i side view showing lid and ports. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

You can choose from several Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra Series 2) options with the EliteBook Ultra G1i, all of them 8-core/8-thread chipsets available running at 17 watts. Lunar Lake is focuses more on efficiency than pure performance, with speeds falling between the previous-generation 15-watt U-series and 28-watt H-series Meteor Lake chipsets. As a business laptop, Intel vPro is a natural option that enables the EliteBook’s excellent manageability and security.

All Lunar Lake versions give similar performance in CPU-intensive tasks, because they only vary by clock speed. And, they’re considerably slower than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipsets, the other Windows efficiency option. AMD;s Ryzen AI 9 and Apple’s M4 chipsets are also considerably faster. The Core Ultra 5 226V has a slower Intel Arc 130V integrated graphics, but the faster Intel Arc 140V in the Core Ultra 7 268V isn’t much faster.

Overall, the EliteBook Ultra G1i is a fast laptop for demanding productivity users, including business users, but gamers and creators will want to look elsewhere.

	Cinebench R24 (single/multi)	Geekbench 6 (single/multi)	Handbrake (seconds)	3DMark Wild Life Extreme
HP EliteBook Ultra G1i (Core Ultra 7 268V / Intel Arc 140V)	122 / 551	2780 / 10685	97	7061
HP EliteBook X G1a (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 / Radeon 890M)	109 / 1095	2769 / 14786	60	7236
Acer Swift 14 AI (Ryzen AI 9 365 / Radeon 880M)	110 / 877	2795 / 14351	56	5669
Acer Swift 14 AI (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	121 / 525	2755 / 11138	92	5294
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	116 / 598	2483 / 10725	99	7573
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	109 / 630	2485 / 10569	88	5217
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	112 / 452	2738 / 10734	113	7514
HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X Elite / Adreno)	101 / 749	2377 / 13490	N/A	6165
MacBook Air (M4 10/10)	172 / 853	3770 / 14798	87	9154

Battery life

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

As I mentioned above, Lunar Lake is aimed more at battery life than pure performance. And generally speaking, that’s been the case in the laptops I’ve tested. Some are impacted by power-hungry high-res OLED displays, while those with more efficient IPS displays compete better with Apple’s highly efficient Apple Silicon chipsets that remain the most efficient overall.

The EliteBook Ultra G1i has a relatively small 64 watt-hour battery to go with a 2.8K OLED display. That shouldn’t be a recipe for the best battery life, even with Lunar Lake. But, the EliteBook does pretty well. Its results in our video looping test was very good at over 15 hours, and it was competitive at almost 2.5 hours in the demanding Cinebench R24 test. It didn’t do as well in our web browsing test, but I had to change the tool we use for testing due to our previous tool being deprecated by Google. Using our older tool, the EliteBook would likely have scored closer to the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 with basically the same chipset, display, and battery capacity and that managed two hours longer.

These are very strong results for a laptop with such a gorgeous display. You’ll get a full day’s work, which isn’t quite as good as Apple MacBook Air (M4), but still much better than previous Windows laptops.

	Web browsing	Video	Cinebench R24
HP EliteBook Ultra G1i (Core Ultra 7 268V / Intel Arc 140V)	9 hours, 5 minutes	15 hours, 10 minutes	2 hours, 25 minutes
Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 (Core Ultra 226V)	7 hours, 39 minutes	6 hours, 27 minutes	1 hour, 33 minutes
HP EliteBook X G1a (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375)	N/A	7 hours, 27 minutes	1 hour, 27 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Core Ultra 5 226V)	12 hours, 50 minutes	19 hours, 30 minutes	2 hours, 18 minutes
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	11 hours, 5 minutes	15 hours, 46 minutes	2 hours, 14 minutes
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V)	14 hours, 16 minutes	17 hours, 31 minutes	2 hours, 15 minutes
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	16 hours, 47 minutes	18 hours, 35 minutes	3 hours, 33 minutes
Microsoft Surface Laptop (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100)	14 hours, 21 minutes	22 hours, 39 minutes	N/A
HP Omnibook X (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100)	13 hours, 37 minutes	22 hours, 4 minutes	1 hour, 52 minutes
Apple MacBook Air (Apple M4 10/8)	16 hours, 30 minutes	20 hours, 31 minutes	3 hours, 47 minutes

Display and audio

HP EliteBook Ultra G1i front view showing display. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There’s just one display option for the EliteBook Ultra G1i, and it’s a 14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display running at up to 120Hz. Like almost every OLED display, it’s spectacular out of the box, with bright, dynamic colors and inky blacks. As I mentioned above, there’s a penalty in battery life, but the EliteBook still manages very good longevity.

My colorimeter liked this display quite a bit. It’s not the absolute brightest at 397 nits (most displays I’ve tested lately are greater than 400 nits), but it’s till a lot brighter than displays were a few years ago. It has perfect blacks with extremely high contrast at 27,780:1. And its colors are very wide at 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, with excellent color accuracy with a DeltaE of 0.58 (less than 1.0 is indistinguishable to the human eye).

It’s a great display no matter what you’re using it for. It’s not fast enough for demanding creativity work, but it provides a great media experience to go.

Audio is provided by a quad-speaker setup, and it sounds pretty good. There’s good volume and clear mids and highs, while bass is somwhat lacking as is typical with laptops. I’d rate the MacBook Air’s audio to be better, but it’s not a night and day difference.

An excellent laptop for businesses, but a little expensive for most consumers

If you’re a business user looking for a well-built laptop that feels great in hand and looks just as good, with decent productivity performance and great battery life, the EliteBook Ultra G1i is a great choice. Toss in a spectacular OLED display for good measure.

In fact, those are qualities that many consumers are looking for. However, the EliteBook comes with a host of business features that most consumers don’t need, which pumps up the price. So, if you have money to burn, then it’s a great laptop for consumers — but I suspect most buyers will be businesses.

April 13, 2025

Acer Swift AI 16 review: a large and lovely OLED display is the difference

Acer Swift AI 16

MSRP $1,250.00

3.5/5

★★★☆☆

Score Details

“The Acer Swift AI 16 has a beautiful OLED display, and that scores some serious points.”

✅ Pros

Excellent OLED display
Solid productivity performance
Good, if slightly cramped, keyboard
Quality build
Attractive price

❌ Cons

Mediocre battery life
Touchpad is too small
Slightly aesthetic

Buy at Best Buy

There’s an argument to be made for laptop that’s reasonably thin and light while still offering up a bunch of screen real estate. While some 16-inch laptops are thicker and heavier thanks to power-hungry components, others manage to be just fast enough to support the multitasking made possible by a larger display while remaining reasonably portable.

The new Acer Swift AI 16 is one such laptop. It uses Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chipsets to provide reasonably fast and much more efficient performance, mated with a 16-inch OLED display. It’s also reasonably priced, making it an attractive option for road warriors who need to do more than one thing at a time.

Specs and pricing

	Acer Swift AI 16
Dimensions	14.02 x 9.92 x 0.58-0.69 inches
Weight	3.37 pounds
Processor	Intel Core Ultra 7 256V Intel Core Ultra 7 258V
Graphics	Intel Arc 140V
RAM	16GB unified memory
Display	16.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz
Storage	1TB SSD
Touch	Yes
Ports	2 x USB4 with Thunderbolt 4 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 1 x HDMI 1 x 3.5mm audio jack
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
Webcam	QHD (2560 x 1440) with infrared for Windows 11 Hello
Operating system	macOS Sequoia
Battery	70 watt-hour battery
Price	$1,250

As of when this review is being written, I’m seeing just one available configuration of the Swift AI 16. It costs $1,250 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 16-inch OLED display.

That’s an attractive price for a well-built laptop with a beautiful display. The Apple MacBook Air 15 and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 both start out lower with less RAM and storage, but they get more expensive as you configure more options.

Design

Acer Swift AI 16 front angled view showing display and keyboard. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Swift AI 16 is a reasonably sized laptop given its 16-inch display, with display bezels that are small enough to keep its width and depth in check. It’s at most 0.69 inches thick, which is slightly thinner than Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 with its 15-inch display and a lot thicker than the Apple MacBook Air 15 that’s an insane 0.45 inches thick with a 15.2-inch panel. And the Acer is reasonably light at 3.37 pounds, compared to the Surface Laptop 7’s 3.67 pounds and the MacBook Air’s 3.3 pounds. Yes, the Swift AI 16 will take up some space in your backpack, but it won’t weigh you down.

Its construction is just okay, though. Its chassis is aluminum, as is the lid, but while the keyboard deck resists flexing the lid is a bit bendable. The Microsoft and Apple laptops are more solid, which certainly comes from the denser construction. The Acer isn’t exactly bad, though. It’s not like you’ll be concerned that it will fall apart anytime soon. I’d say it’s just good enough, and its price helps.

Aesthetically, the Swift AI 16 isn’t exactly exciting. It’s all-black, with a chrome Acer logo on the lid and minimal bling on the inside. The edges are streamlined with a flair to the rear side where the ports are located. Most laptops are minimalist today, but the Surface Laptop 7 and MacBook Air 15 do give off more of an elegant vibe. Again, the Swift AI 16 is good enough, but it’s nothing special.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard has snappy switches with a light touch, something I tend to favor. It’s a little like the Apple Magic Keyboard in this respect, making it comfortable for long-term typing (like writing this review). However, the keycaps are a little smaller and the spacing is more cramped than it needs to be, because Acer squeezed in a small numeric keypad that’s a bit anachronistic today. I suppose if you input a bunch of numbers then you’ll appreciate it, but I think a lot of people would rather have had a more expansive keyboard. The keyboard props up at a bit of an angle when you open the lid, which is nice.

The touchpad is smaller than it could be, as well, and because of the numeric keypad it’s not centered enough. Acer could have utilized some additional space on the palm rest to make it considerably larger, and that’s something you’ll get from the MacBook Air 15’s excellent Force Touch haptic touchpad. In addition, the Acer touchpad is mechanical, and it’s okay. But I look forward to when haptic touchpads make their way to more laptops. The one interesting feature is an LED that lights up in a cool pattern when the Copilot key is engaged, but it seems like more of a gimmick than anything.

The display is touch-enabled, and I appreciate it more given the smallish touchpad. Many users won’t really care about touch, but it’s a nice feature to have with no meaningful downside.

Webcam and connectivity

Connectivity is very good, with a mix of fast, modern ports and legacy connections. You’ll give up one of the USB4 ports for power, something that both the MacBook Air 15 and Surface Laptop 7 avoid with their dedicated power connectors. However, thanks to the extra USB-A and HDMI ports, the Acer has better overall connectivity than those two. Wireless connectivity is fully up-to-date with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, although the former won’t be of practice use for a few years while the new standard rolls out.

Acer Swift AI 16 front view showing webcam notch. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The webcam (complete with reverse notch) is a high-res 1440p version, and it provides a quality image with decent low-light performance. A few Acer-specific utilities, like PurifiedView and PurifiedVoice, help with optimized video and audio during conferences. The Swift AI 16 features Lunar Lake’s fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that runs at up to 47 tera operations per second (TOPS). That comfortably exceeds the 40 TOPS required for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative, so the laptop supports fast and efficient on-device performance for the various Copilot+ features. Those are still rolling out, though, and so far, I haven’t found much use for any of it. But for those who want to use today’s AI features, the Swift AI 16 is ready to go.

Performance

Acer Swift AI 16 rear view showing side and logos. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Intel offers several variants of its 8-core/8-thread Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra Series 2) chipsets, which range from the Core Ultra 5 226V up to the Core Ultra 7 268V. The chipsets different in their clock speeds, but all are 17-watt parts aimed more at efficiency than sheer performance. Depending on the version, Lunar Lake performance falls somewhere between the older 15-watt U-series and 28-watt H-series Meteor Lake chipsets. I reviewed the Swift AI 16 with the only chipset currently available, the Core Ultra 7 256V.

As you can see in our benchmarks, the Swift AI 16 isn’t the fastest of the Lunar Lake machines but it’s not the slowest, either. There’s really not much of a difference between them. But, Apple’s M4 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chipsets are both faster in multi-core tasks. The M4 is the fastest at single-core tasks, and it’s not even close. All of these laptops use integrated graphics and the Intel Arc 140V in the Swift AI 16 is at the low end of performance here, with the MacBook Air 15 is the fastest. But, none of these are gaming laptops.

Ultimately, the Swift AI 16 is fast enough for productivity work and its intended multitasking typical day-to-day tasks. Gamers and creators will want a 16-inch laptop with discrete graphics, however.

	Cinebench R24 (single/multi)	Geekbench 6 (single/multi)	Handbrake (seconds)	3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Acer Swift AI 16 (Core Ultra 7 256V / Intel Arc 140V)	121 / 617	2670 / 10797	92	5001
MacBook Air 15 (M4 10/10)	172 / 853	3770 / 14798	87	9154
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X Elite / Adreno)	105 / 826	2388 / 13215	N/A	5880
Acer Swift 14 AI (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	121 / 525	2755 / 11138	92	5294
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	116 / 598	2483 / 10725	99	7573
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	109 / 630	2485 / 10569	88	5217
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	112 / 452	2738 / 10734	113	7514
HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X Elite / Adreno)	101 / 749	2377 / 13490	N/A	6165

Battery life

Acer Swift AI 16 side view showing lid and ports. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Swift AI 16 has a 70 watt-hour battery, which is reasonable for a 16-inch laptop but not as large as some others. But, it has a more efficient Lunar Lake chipset. I suspect, though, that the high-res OLED display is the main player in the laptop’s battery life.

In short, the Swift AI 16 wasn’t one of the more impressive performers. None of these have the same size display, and several of them have IPS panels. That gives them an advantage. And while the Acer’s battery life wasn’t as good, it would have been just fine a couple of years ago.

You likely won’t get a full day’s work out of the Swift AI 16. But it will get close. Really, that’s the price you pay for such a nice display, as we’ll see below.

	Web browsing	Video	Cinebench R24
Acer Swift AI 16 (Core Ultra 7 256V)	10 hours, 30 minutes	10 hours, 58 minutes	2 hours, 13 minutes
MacBook Air 15 (M4 10/10)	17 hours, 13 minutes	22 hours, 33 minutes	4 hours, 28 minutes
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon Elite)	14 hours, 21 minutes	22 hours, 39 minutes	N/A
Acer Swift 14 AI (Core Ultra 7 258V)	17 hours, 22 minutes	24 hours, 10 minutes	2 hours, 7 minutes
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	11 hours, 5 minutes	15 hours, 46 minutes	2 hours, 14 minutes
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V)	14 hours, 16 minutes	17 hours, 31 minutes	2 hours, 15 minutes
HP Omnibook X (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100)	13 hours, 37 minutes	22 hours, 4 minutes	1 hour, 52 minutes

Display and audio

Acer Swift AI 16 front view showing display. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The centerpiece of the Swift AI 16 is easily the expansive 16-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display. That’s just sharp enough for the screen size, and the fast 120Hz refresh rates keep the Windows 11 user interface operating smoothly. Out of the box, this is a gorgeous display, with OLED’s usual dynamic colors and inky blacks. It’s a great experience.

My colorimeter agreed. To begin with, it’s bright at 407 nits, well above our 300-nit benchmark that’s becoming increasingly archaic. Most laptops are much brighter lately. Contrast is incredibly high, as usual, with perfect blacks. Colors are wide at 100% sRGB, 96% AdobeRGB, and 100% DCI-P3, and accuracy is excellent at a DeltaE of 0.77 (less than 1.0 is indistinguishable to the human eye).

You’ll love this display no matter what you’re using it for. Productivity work will benefit from the perfect blacks against bright whites, and media consumption will be excellent thanks to good high dynamic range (HDR) support. The Swift AI 16 isn’t fast enough for demanding creative work, but for moderate photo editing, the display shines (no pun intended). The MacBook Air 15 and Surface Laptop 7 have very good IPS panels, but the Acer wins this battle.

Audio is provided by downward-firing stereo speakers, and it’s fine. It’s loud enough, which clear mids and highs, but bass is lacking. This is one area where the MacBook Air 15 is much better, thanks to its four-speaker setup with force-cancelling woofers.

An expansive OLED display saves the day

The Swift AI 16 is reasonably priced, decently made, and has okay performance and battery life. On its own, that makes it an okay laptop that simply doesn’t stand out. Toss in a too-small touchpad and a keyboard that’s a little cramped, and it’s not a winning combination.

However, that large OLED display is beautiful. It takes a toll in battery life, but for anyone who loves brilliant colors and deep contrast, it’s awesome. Given that the display is the whole point in a laptop like this, OLED is a saving grace.

April 5, 2025

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 review: an iconic laptop continues to evolve

MSRP $1,659.00

3.5/5

★★★☆☆

Score Details

“The Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 is a well-made ThinkPad that doesn’t really look like one.”

✅ Pros

Solid build quality
Thin and light
Good productivity performance
Great OLED display
Excellent keyboard and touchpad
Range of consumer and business features

❌ Cons

Battery life isn’t great
Expensive
Thinness a bit of a gimmick

Buy at Lenovo

For years, the ThinkPad lineup was easy to spot. Every ThinkPad featured the same iconic design, from the red-on-black color scheme to the keyboard design to the TrackPoint nubbin. Then, Lenovo introduced the ThinkPad Z series that altered the design a bit, and now there’s a new model that takes the lineup even further away from tradition.

The ThinkPad X9-14 is a brand-new design that looks — and feels — even less like the ThinkPad of yesterday. That’s not a bad thing, because the new laptop has a lot going for it — although it doesn’t quite make it onto our list of the best business laptops. But it’s a sure sign that Lenovo isn’t holding onto the past.

Specs and configuration

	Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14
Dimensions	12.28 x 8.36 x 0.26-0.68 inches
Weight	2.8 pounds
Display	14.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS, 120Hz 14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) AMOLED, 60Hz
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 5 226V Intel Core Ultra 5 228V Intel Core Ultra 5 238V vPro Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Intel Core Ultra 7 268V vPro
GPU	Intel Arc 130V Intel Arc 140V
Memory	16GB 32GB
Storage	256GB SSD 512GB SSD 1TB SSD 2TB SSD
Ports	2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera	8MP with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetoth 5.4
Battery	55 watt-hour
Operating system	Windows 11
Price	$1,239+

The ThinkPad X9-14 is a business laptop that most likely will be purchased by companies on contract that will have customized pricing. But, if you were to go to the Lenovo Web store and purchase the laptop yourself, you’ll pay $1,239 for the bast configuration with an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and 14.0-inch FHD+ IPS display. I reviewed the laptop with a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED panel ($100) and a 512GB SSD ($100). You can upgrade up to a Core Ultra 7 268V chipset with vPro for $360, which also ups the RAM to 32GB. Upgrading to a 2TB SSD costs $240. The most expensive configuration runs $2,289.

Those are all expensive prices, but not unusually so for business-focused laptops. Some premium laptops with similar configurations cost around the same or more, such as those from HP and Dell. Even some consumer premium laptops cost the same. So, the bottom line is you’re not paying a huge premium for those business-centric features.

Design

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The first thing you’ll notice when you handle the ThinkPad X9-14 is that it’s incredibly thin — at least outside of what Lenovo calls the “Engine Hub” that houses the critical components and the thermal system to keep them cool. The laptop is the thinnest ever at 0.26 inches in that front portion, even thinner than the Apple MacBook Air 13 at 0.44 inches. But, it bloats up to 0.68 inches at the hub. So, it’s both extremely thin and just very thin at the same time. It’s reasonably light at 2.8 pounds, but not the lightest 14-inch laptop you’ll find. Ultimately, I’d rate the design as just a little bit of a gimmick.

The laptop feels very robust, as do all ThinkPads. It’s subjected to a host of MIL-STD 810H tests, meaning it’s guaranteed to last. That’s thanks to an all-aluminum construction that feels quite solid. It’s as good as any other similar laptop in this regard, and better than most. That’s important for a laptop that’s aimed at business users, who are as likely as any users to be traveling extensively with a laptop in tow.

Aesthetically, the ThinkPad X9-14 doesn’t look much like a ThinkPad of old. It’s all-black and features the iconic red dots over the “i” on the lid and the palm rest logos, but the similarity ends there. ThinkPad’s have historically sported more red throughout the design, even the ThinkPad Z13 that eschewed the all-black aesthetic. The ThinkPad X9-14 cuts a slim figure thanks to the thin front portion of the chassis, but the Engine Hub kind of sticks out a little more than I like. It’s a good looking laptop, but nothing that really stands out to me.

As a laptop aimed at business users, the ThinkPad X9-14 has several features aimed at better security and manageability. You can get Intel vPro capabilities that support enterprise management solutions, along with enhanced security and access to a higher level of support.

It’s also a member of Lenovo’s Aura Edition laptops, with a variety of extra functionality. They include additional privacy guard and alerts, timers for extra distraction-free work, collaboration features, wellness, and power modes to optimize performance. Those aren’t unique to the Thinkpad X9-14, but they’re available to any users who want them.

Keyboard and touchpad

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 top down view showing keyboard. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

ThinkPad keyboards were once indistinguishable. They had highly sculpted keycaps, tight spacing with seven levels of keys, and deep switches that required a bit of force to depress. Really, they weren’t my favorite, because I prefer more key spacing and lighter, more precise switches. That’s exactly why Apple’s Magic Keyboard is my favorite, and the ThinkPad X9-14’s version is very similar. The switches are a little deeper, but they’re still snappy with a bounce in the bottoming action. And there the layout is more traditional (i.e., non-ThinkPad) and spacious, with Ctrl and Alt keys that aren’t annoyingly reversed from the usual. I’d rate it very high on my list in terms of comfortable long-term typing, and an improvement over the old-school ThinkPad keyboard.

Similarly, the touchpad is larger than usual for ThinkPads. First, there’s no red TrackPoint nubbin in the middle of the keyboard and therefore some of the touchpad space isn’t taken for an extra set of buttons. That’s huge departure, dropping on of the most iconic ThinkPad features. I suspect, though, that not too many users will be upset at the omission. The touchpad itself is an excellent haptic version that’s almost as good as Apple’s Force Touch version. Apple’s has the advantage of a Force Click feature where clicking a little “harder” invokes extra functionality. But, the ThinkPad touchpad arguably has more customization options.

The display is also touch-enabled, which I like. Overall, this is probably my favorite ThinkPad I’ve reviewed in terms of controlling things and entering information.

Webcam and connectivity

Connectivity is light for a 14-inch machine. There are two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 and an HDMI 2.1 connection, along with a 3.5mm audio jack. That’s one of the prices you pay for that ultra thin section. Each port is located at the Engine Hub. Wireless connectivity is fully up-to-date with Wi-Fi 7.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 front view showing webcam. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The ThinkPad X9-14 has an optional 8MP webcam, which was on my review unit, and it provided a clear image in my testing. It supports the Aura Edition collaboration features mentioned above, including low light enhancement, better background blur, virtual presenter, and more. In addition, the Intel Lunar Lake chipset has a fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU) supporting Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC initiative for more efficient on-device AI processing.

Performance

Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 top down view showing Engine Hub. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There are several 8-core/8-thread Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra Series 2) chipsets available with the ThinkPad X9-14, from the Core Ultra 5 226V up to the Core Ultra 7 268V chipsets. All run at a base of 17 watts, with various clock speeds. Lunar Lake is primarily focused on efficiency, and its performance falls somewhere between the older 15-watt U-series and 28-watt H-series Meteor Lake chipsets. You can also get versions with Intel’s vPro functionality.

As you can see in our benchmarks, there’s not a huge difference between Lunar Lake versions in performance in CPU-intensive tasks. It’s considerably slower than the other Windows efficiency option, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipsets, and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 and Apple M4 chipsets are a lot faster.. The Core Ultra 5 226V also uses the slower Intel Arc 130V integrated graphics, and that shows up in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark.

The ThinkPad X9-14 is fast enough for productivity work, but gamers and creators won’t be too excited.

	Cinebench R24 (single/multi)	Geekbench 6 (single/multi)	Handbrake (seconds)	3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Core Ultra 5 226V / Intel Arc 130V)	114 / 573	2587 / 10260	92	4740
HP EliteBook X G1a (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 / Radeon 890M)	109 / 1095	2769 / 14786	60	7236
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	116 / 598	2483 / 10725	99	7573
HP Spectre x360 14 (Core Ultra 7 155H / Intel Arc)	102 / 485	2176 / 11980	93	N/A
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	109 / 630	2485 / 10569	88	5217
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)	112 / 452	2738 / 10734	113	7514
HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X Elite / Adreno)	101 / 749	2377 / 13490	N/A	6165
MacBook Air (M4 10/8)	172 / 854	3751 / 14801	87	7827

Battery life

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 side view showing lid and ports. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There’s just a 55 watt-hour battery in the ThinkPad X9-14, likely a result of the incredibly thin chassis in all but the engine hub. Frankly, that’s not a lot of battery capacity for a 14-inch laptop with a power-hungry high-res OLED display. The Lunar Lake chipsets are efficient, but I wasn’t expecting great battery life.

And, I didn’t get it. Compared to the other laptops in the comparison group using today’s more efficient chipsets for Windows, including also Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X, the ThinkPad X9-14 wasn’t even close. Some of those also have OLED displays, although they also have larger batteries. Interestingly, the HP EliteBook X G1a with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 chipset also didn’t get the same kind of battery life as Intel’s and Qualcomm’s latest chipsets. As has been the case for several years, Apple Silicon is overall the most efficient.

The bottom line is that battery life is not a strength here.

	Web browsing	Video	Cinebench R24
Lenovo Thinkpad X9-14 (Core Ultra 226V)	7 hours, 39 minutes	6 hours, 27 minutes	1 hour, 33 minutes
HP EliteBook X G1a (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375)	N/A	7 hours, 27 minutes	1 hour, 27 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Core Ultra 5 226V)	12 hours, 50 minutes	19 hours, 30 minutes	2 hours, 18 minutes
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	11 hours, 5 minutes	15 hours, 46 minutes	2 hours, 14 minutes
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V)	14 hours, 16 minutes	17 hours, 31 minutes	2 hours, 15 minutes
Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V)	16 hours, 47 minutes	18 hours, 35 minutes	3 hours, 33 minutes
Microsoft Surface Laptop (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100)	14 hours, 21 minutes	22 hours, 39 minutes	N/A
HP Omnibook X (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100)	13 hours, 37 minutes	22 hours, 4 minutes	1 hour, 52 minutes
Apple MacBook Air (Apple M4 10/8)	16 hours, 30 minutes	20 hours, 31 minutes	3 hours, 47 minutes

Display and audio

Lenovo ThinkPad X9-14 front view showing display. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There are two display options with the ThinkPad X9-14, both 14-inch panels at a 16:10 aspect ratio. One is a 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED panel running at 60Hz, the other is an FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS panel with a variable 120Hz refresh rate. That’s a mixed bag, with the sharper display offering up brighter colors and OLED’s usual inky blacks and the IPS panel offering a smoother user interface and better battery life.

I tested the OLED display, and my colorimeter found it a little different than most other OLED panels I’ve tested. It was very at 511 nits, brighter than most OLED displays and well above our older 300-nit threshold. My colorimeter couldn’t measure the contrast ratio, something I haven’t seen from an OLED display for a while, but blacks were perfect. Coloers weren’t quite as wide at 100% sRGB, 93% AdobeRGB (most are 97% or higher), and 100% DCI-P3, and accuracy wasn’t nearly as good as usual at a DeltaE of 1.62. Almost every OLED panel is below the cutoff for excellent displays of 1.0.

The display is still great for every user, and its support for Dolby Vision bodes well for media consumption. The IPS panel is for anyone who doesn’t care as much about colors and blacks and wants better battery life than I saw in my testing.

A business laptop with more than just business appeal

There’s a lot to like about the ThinkPad X9-14, and not just for ThinkPad fans. In fact, anyone who came here looking for a traditional ThinkPad design will be disappointed. The ThinkPad X9-14 is much more like other thin-and-light laptops today than that iconic brand, and that’s not actually a bad thing.

While the thin design is a bit of a gimmick, because you still need to contend with an Engine Hub that makes it a more typical thickness, it’s still light enough and well-built enough to be comfortably portable. It’s fast enough for productivity users and has a very good OLED display option — although that has an outsized impact on battery life. Business users will like it a lot, but consumers should consider it as well.

March 29, 2025