The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme line of laptops have been packing high-performance hardware into a compact chassis for years, but the 2022 edition coming this summer is Lenovo’s most powerful to date, thanks to a 12th-gen Intel Core i9 H-series processor, support for up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of storage, a 165Hz display option, and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5
It’s also expensive though – Lenovo says the new ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 will have a starting price of 2749€ ($3100) when it arrives in June.
Lenovo does have several more affordable new ThinkPad laptops on the way though, including models with 12th-gen Intel “Alder Lake” processors or AMD Ryzen 6000 series chips. Here’s a roundup of what’s on the way.
| ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 | |
| Processors | Up to 12th Gen IntelCore i9 H-series vPro Processor |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro |
| Memory | Up to 64GB DDR5 4800MHz |
| Storage | Up to two devices – 4TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD – Maximum 8TB |
| Graphics Options | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 16GB |
| Display Options | 16” 16:10 WUXGA (FHD+) IPS 300nits, non-Touch, 100% sRGB, Low Blue Light 16” 16:10 WQXGA (QHD+) IPS 500nits, non-Touch, 100% sRGB, Low Blue Light 165Hz 16” 16:10 WQUXGA (UHD+) IPS 600nits, non-Touch, 100% Adobe, Low Blue Light, HDR400, Dolby Vision 16″ 16:10 WQUXGA (UHD+) IPS 600nits, Touch, 100% Adobe, Low Blue Light, HDR400, Dolby Vision |
| Audio | Dolby Atmos Speaker System Dolby Voice |
| Camera | FHD 1080p Infrared Hybrid camera with shutter |
| Battery | 90Whr, Rapid charge |
| Chip | dTPM 2.0 |
| Physical | Match-on-Chip Fingerprint Reader on Power button Camera Shutter Kensington 12mm nano lock slot MIL-STD 810H |
| Ports | 1 x HDMI 2.1 |
| 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 | |
| 2 x Intel Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort 1.4) | |
| 1 x SD Express 7.0 Card slot | |
| 1 x 3.5mm audio jack | |
| 1 x Nano SIM slot (optional) | |
| Wireless | WLAN Intel Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 AX (2×2) |
| WWAN Cat20 5G | |
| Bluetooth 5.2 | |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 359.5 x 253.8 x 17.9mm |
| Weight | 1.87kg 4.14lbs |
| Pricing & availability | 2749€ and up June, 2022 |
Lenovo ThinkPad P14s and P16s i
Powered by 28-watt Intel Alder Lake-P processors, Lenovo’s new ThinkPad P14s Gen 3 and 1st-gen ThinkPad P16s are thinner and lighter laptops with lower-power processors, optional support for discrete graphics, and 4G LTE options.
| ThinkPad P16s i | ThinkPad P14s Gen 3 | |
| Processors | Up to Intel vProEnterprise with 12th Gen IntelCore i7 P-series processors | |
| OS | Up to Windows 11 Pro Ubuntu Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux | |
| Memory | Up to 48GB | |
| Storage | Up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | |
| Graphics Options | Intel integrated UHD or Intel Iris Xe, NVIDIA T550 Laptop GPU | |
| Display | 16-inch Narrow Bezel, up to WQXGA, 400nit, Dolby Vision, Low Blue Light, XRite | 14-inch Narrow Bezel, up to WQUXGA, 500nit, Touch, Dolby Vision, Low Blue Light, XRite |
| Audio | Dolby Audio Speaker System | |
| Camera | HD or FHD Infrared Hybrid camera with privacy shutter | |
| Battery | 52.5Wh 86Wh | 39.3Wh 52.5Wh |
| ISV Certifications | https://www.thinkworkstations.com/isv-certifications/ | |
| Chip | dTPM 2.0 | |
| Physical | Match-on-Chip Fingerprint Reader on Power button Camera Shutter Privacy Guard Display option Kensington lock slot MIL-STD 810H | |
| Ports | 1 x HDMI 2.0b 2 x Thunderbolt 4 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet 1 x 3.5mm audio jack | |
| Wireless | WLAN Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 AX (2×2) | |
| WWAN 4G LTE CAT 16 or CAT 4 with eSIM | ||
| Bluetooth 5.2 | ||
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 361.9×255.5×20.5mm 14.25×10.06×0.81in | 317.7x 226.9×17.9mm 12.51×8.93×0.7in |
| Weight | 1.73kg 3.82lbs | 1.39kg 3.06lbs |
| Pricing & availability | 1549€ and up April, 2022 | 1529€ and up April, 2022 |
Lenovo ThinkPad T14, T14s, and T16
Lenovo is also refreshing its ThinkPad T series laptops with several new models sporting 1:10 aspect ratio displays with support for up to a 2.8K touchscreen OLED panel on the 14 inch model or up to a 2.5K screen for 16 inch versions.
These laptops will be available with a wide range of processor options including Intel Alder Lake-U and P series chips or AMD Ryzen Pro 6000 series processors. 16 inch models with Intel chips will also support optional NVIDIA GeForce MX 550 or RTX 2050 graphics.
| ThinkPad T16 | ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 | ThinkPad T14s Gen3 | |||
| Intel CPU | Up to Intel vPro Enterprise with 12th Gen Intel Corei7 processors (U- and P-series) | ||||
| AMD CPU | Up to AMD RyzenPRO 6000 Series processors | ||||
| OS | Up to Windows 11 Pro | ||||
| Memory | AMD models: Up to 32GB | ||||
| Intel models: Up to 48GB | Intel: up to 32GB | ||||
| Storage | Up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | ||||
| GPU – Intel Models | Intel integrated UHD or Intel Iris Xe, NVIDIA MX 550 or RTX 2050 | Intel integrated UHD or Intel Iris Xe | |||
| GPU – AMD models | Integrated AMD Radeon600M Graphics | ||||
| Display | 16-inch Narrow Bezel, up to 2.5K, 400nit, Dolby Vision, Low Blue Light | 14-inch Narrow Bezel, options up to 4K IPS, 500 nit, HDR400, Dolby Vision, Low Blue Light, with Touch option 2.8K OLED option on T14s | |||
| Audio | Dolby Audio Speaker System Dolby Voice | ||||
| Camera | Up to FHD Infrared Hybrid camera with privacy shutter | ||||
| Battery | 52.5Wh 86Wh | 39.3Wh 52.4Wh | 57Wh | ||
| Chip | dTPM 2.0 Microsoft Pluton security processor on select AMD models Intel Hardware Shield, available exclusively on all Intel vPro platform-based devices | ||||
| Physical | Match-on-Chip Fingerprint Reader on Power button Camera Shutter Optional Privacy Guard Kensington lock slot MIL-STD 810H | ||||
| Ports | 1 x HDMI 2.0b, 1 x 3.5mm audio jack – plus: Intel: 2 x Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 AMD T14/T16: 2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1. AMD T14s: 1 x USB-C 4.0, 1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 | ||||
| 1 x RJ45 | |||||
| Wireless | SIM slot | ||||
| WLAN Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 AX (2×2) | |||||
| WWAN 4G LTE CAT 16 or CAT 4 with eSIM | WWAN 4G LTE CAT 20 or CAT 16 or CAT4 | WWAN 5G sub-6 (eSIM) 4G CAT 16 or CAT 4 (eSIM) | |||
| Bluetooth 5.2 | |||||
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 369.9×255.5×20.5mm 14.25×10.06×0.81in | 317.7x 226.9×17.9mm 12.51×8.93×0.7in | 317.5×226.9×16.6mm 12.51×8.93×0.7in | ||
| Weight | 1.64kg 3.61 pounds | 1.21kg 2.65 pounds | 1.22kg 2.7 pounds | ||
| Pricing & availability | 1399€ and up April, 2022 (Intel) June, 2022 (AMD) | 1399€ and up April, 2022 (Intel) June, 2022 (AMD) | 1599€ and up April, 2022 (Intel) May, 2022 (AMD) | ||
People are now finding it’s harder to boot anything besides Windows on these laptops as Microsoft’s Pluton, the on-chip TPM, only trusts Microsoft’s Certificate Authority.
No one really seems to expect this to reverse course.
Why did anyone expect Microsoft to make it easy to use anything other than Microsoft’s own operating system?