Lenovo’s lineup frequently dominates our top picks for 2-in-1 laptops, but the company didn't quite hit the mark this time around. On paper, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition (starting at $2,125, and tested in a $2,336 model) promises classic ThinkPad excellence—premium build quality, an outstanding keyboard, and battery life that can power through a full workday. However, this ThinkPad serves up a disappointingly subpar screen, and even if you go for the flashier OLED model, the machine still ends up quite expensive for the features it offers. For business buyers seeking better value, the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 remains our top choice.

Design: The All-Aluminum Convertible

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10—Lenovo’s top-of-the-line business convertible—features a 14-inch screen and local AI capabilities, thanks to Intel’s “Lunar Lake” Core Ultra V-series processors. (More on those later.) Though similarly named, the current model isn't quite a convertible version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13, opting for aluminum instead of carbon fiber and magnesium, and weighing significantly more (2.97 pounds versus the Carbon’s 2.17 pounds). In exchange, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 offers quasi-tablet functionality courtesy of a screen that rotates 360 degrees.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

As with most convertibles, this ThinkPad gives you a laptop first and tablet second. It’s an armful compared with the Microsoft Surface Pro, which weighs in at a full pound lighter and boasts a more tablet-friendly 3:2 screen aspect ratio. Still, for quick doodles, casual note-taking, and signing documents, the new ThinkPad's convertible design is handy.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The gray chassis stands out with a modern aesthetic, though it lacks the instantly recognizable classic ThinkPad black. Measuring 0.64 by 12.3 by 8.5 inches, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 is impressively compact for a 14-inch laptop, maintaining the same footprint while being slightly thicker than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13. In contrast, the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i has a marginally larger and heavier design, coming in at 0.58 by 12.4 by 8.7 inches and weighing 3.1 pounds.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10's structure feels rigid, resisting flex even when lifted by a corner. Its metal chassis exudes quality and maintains a cool touch. During my time with it, the laptop stayed comfortably lukewarm; only the area near the display hinges—where its cooling vents are situated—got slightly warmer than elsewhere.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The well-rounded port selection includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports (5Gbps), a 3.5mm audio jack, and an HDMI 2.1 monitor output. Both Thunderbolt ports are on one side, though: putting them on the left and right would have allowed flexibility for plugging in the power adapter. On the wireless front, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless come standard, while certain configurations also include a Nano SIM slot for mobile broadband. Biometric features include an infrared webcam and a fingerprint reader—which looks like a regular key—next to the space bar. Lenovo’s standard warranty is one year.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Using the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10: More Laptop Than Convertible

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 works best in laptop mode, offering a keyboard with a delightfully tactile feel that rewards long typing sessions. Longtime ThinkPad users will appreciate the ability to swap the functionality of the Fn and Ctrl keys in the lower-left corner, as well as the retention of the iconic red pointing nub and dedicated buttons, including center-click. The touchpad, while not oversized, delivers a smooth gliding experience and quiet, responsive clicks. Lenovo even includes decent speakers—I could hear ample detail and bass in the music and movies I sampled.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10's display is a different story. The 1,920-by-1,200 resolution delivers enough oomph for productivity purposes, offering a 16:10 aspect ratio, and the anti-glare surface helps minimize reflections in bright environments. The machine also gives you solid touch responsiveness, and the included pen—roughly the size of a standard ink pen—magnetically attaches to the side of the laptop for convenient storage.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Unfortunately, these strengths do little to compensate for some major shortcomings. Again, the screen has some redeeming qualities, but as a high-end 2-in-1 laptop, it ultimately disappoints. While the picture quality isn’t outright bad, nothing about it feels premium. Brightness is the biggest issue. I constantly found myself needing to increase the setting in well-lit rooms, but it didn't get bright enough to suit my needs. Moreover, while colors aren’t washed out, they lack vibrancy and fail to pop. Lenovo started offering a 2,880-by-1,800-pixel OLED screen during our review period, which would likely eliminate all our picture-quality complaints, though the upgrade option makes an expensive laptop even pricier.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The Aura Edition reviewed here includes Lenovo’s AI software suite, offering various modes accessible via the F8 key. Attention mode silences notifications and restricts access to distracting websites like social media for a set period, defaulting to 30 minutes. Shield mode leverages the laptop’s camera to detect unwanted onlookers, with options to either alert you or automatically blur the screen. It also triggers any installed VPN for added security. Collaboration mode activates when the camera is turned on, which adds video effects and improvements to web video calls, like low-light enhancement. Wellness mode encourages healthy screen habits by reminding users to rest their eyes for 20 seconds every 20 minutes and alerting them to poor posture. Finally, Power mode allows users to toggle among efficient, balanced, and high-performance power plans.

While these features aren’t revolutionary or essential, they do add some value to the premium price that an Intel Lunar Lake CPU commands.

Testing the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10: Decent Performance on Tap

We tested a ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor (four Performance and four Efficient cores, 4.8GHz turbo), Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM (which is built into the processor and can’t be upgraded later), and a 1TB SSD.

We haven’t reviewed many business 2-in-1s since revamping our benchmarks, so we’re comparing this machine to the prosumer 2-in-1 Asus ProArt PZ13 and three business laptops: the Dell Pro 14 Premium, the HP EliteBook 1040 G11, and the Panasonic Let’s Note FV4. The Asus uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, while the others have a mix of Intel chips. Dell's laptop is the most comparable to our ThinkPad.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput. 

Three more tests are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution. Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators rates a PC's image editing prowess with a variety of automated operations in Adobe Photoshop 25. (Note that, because the Asus ProArt uses a Qualcomm Arm-based processor, it is not compatible with some of our benchmarks.)

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 scored admirably in PCMark’s main test and had the highest storage test score, though it fell behind the Dell and most others here in Cinebench (multi-core testing) and HandBrake. (It did a bit better in Geekbench Pro.) Meanwhile, the HP EliteBook took home the most wins, with four first-place results in PCMark 10's Productivity Test, Cinebench multi-core, Geekbench multi-core, and HandBrake.

Regardless, the ThinkPad delivers more than enough power for everyday productivity tasks like Microsoft Office. It also handled our Photoshop test without issue, though its display quality limits its suitability for serious photo editing. As I mentioned above, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 emitted minimal heat during testing, and the small cooling fans were nearly silent.

Graphics Tests

We challenge each reviewed system’s graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next pair, Steel Nomad's regular (4K) and Light (1440p) subtests, focuses on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. A fifth test, Solar Bay, emphasizes ray-tracing performance using Vulkan or Metal APIs at 1440p resolution. (Only the Dell and Lenovo laptops were able to finish the Solar Bay benchmark.)

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10's Intel Arc integrated graphics silicon delivered decent performance. While the Dell generally performed better (save for Steel Nomad Light), the ThinkPad easily outpaced the Snapdragon-powered Asus. Meanwhile, the older Arc solution in the HP managed to eke out an overall win in Steel Nomad. Overall, this is a system designed for basic-to-midrange graphics tasks, like streaming video to basic graphical assets rendering. No surprises here, given the class of integrated graphics on these chips.

Battery Life and Display Tests

We test each laptop and tablet's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

Battery life is where the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 shines, achieving 25 hours in our rundown. That said, I found it too dim to use at the 50% brightness setting we use for testing, which registered at a mere 54 nits; the Dell achieved even better battery life with 229 nits of brightness. Still, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 should have no trouble powering through a full workday on battery alone.

The machine's display is its most significant drawback, reaching only 261 nits of brightness, about 150 nits below our preferred level for an IPS panel. It also falls short in color reproduction, covering just 67% of the DCI-P3 gamut, while the Dell achieves 78% and the creative-focused Asus hits a full 100%. As noted, Lenovo has started offering an OLED screen for the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10, which will likely have far superior picture quality, though we can only speculate about its impact on battery life.