Lenovo ThinkPad X1
Ranked 25 of 63 laptops by recommenders
People recommend it for a long lifespan, a good screen and a laptop they like using. Critics mention a loud fan and a hard-to-service keyboard.
People recommend it for a long lifespan, a good screen and a laptop they like using. Critics mention a loud fan and a hard-to-service keyboard.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 9 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Long life with few problems
“Used it for 9 years with no issues at all.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with M5” “it's a bit of troublesome”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Chuwi Minibook X: the netbook we deserve” Great laptop, favourite for owners
“No offense to Lenovo, it's a great laptop.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman” “the X1 is still my favourite laptop!”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Spirit of ThinkPad” Good screen, 4K display
“the screen is definitely going to be better”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Asahi Linux with Sway on the MacBook Air M2” “the 4K display is so good”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Framework Laptop 13 Pro”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Keyboard replacement is a full teardown
“I had to remove everything and the keyboard is the last part you remove before putting the new one on.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729” “a keyboard replacement of my company issued X1 is basically a full teardown”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Lenovo's New ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability” Loud fan and thermal issues
“the whiny fan that's almost always running and the plastic flaking off the "carbon fibre" case”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 Review: RTX Pro 5000 Power in True Workstation Laptop” “colleagues had thermal issues with theirs and the CPU is a bit limp”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Spirit of ThinkPad”
Other laptops people recommend
The four most recommended other laptops, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro | 928 | 688 | 57% | 13 | 5 yrs248 owners | — |
| Apple MacBook Neo | 707 | 355 | 66% | 9 | 1 mo8 owners | — |
| MacBook Air | 633 | 209 | 75% | 12 | 5 yrs130 owners | Approved |
| Apple MacBook | 499 | 348 | 59% | 12 | 9 yrs77 owners | — |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1This page | 16 | 12 | 57% | 7 | 9 yrs3 owners | — |
What people said
25 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“out of the box, the laptops always crash sometime after entry to sleep”
“it was not a good experience”
“they relied on the little rubber feets to lift it up for correct airflow”
“it has been largely trouble free”
“it's a bit of troublesome”
“The only complain is bad battery life.”
“the 4K display is so good”
“No offense to Lenovo, it's a great laptop.”
“the whiny fan that's almost always running and the plastic flaking off the "carbon fibre" case”
“we just pick the most current X1 13in Thinkpad 32/1000 for the windows preferrers”
“the USB-C port breaks within a year”
“The secondhand X1 probably has more RAM, which you will find very nice”
“way less thermal throttling than the X1 I had before”
“a keyboard replacement of my company issued X1 is basically a full teardown”
“Used it for 9 years with no issues at all.”
“there is premium windows hardware on the market, where Linux actually works better than Windows”
“Battery life is comparable to the Mx Macbook Pros I've owned or used.”
“there are some driver issues on Linux”
“the perfect device for me would be a X1 with current gen's AMD!”
“colleagues had thermal issues with theirs and the CPU is a bit limp”
“the X1 is still my favourite laptop!”
“the screen is definitely going to be better”
“basically his least favorite one in his lineup from last week”
“One physical point in favour of the modern Thinkpad though is weight”
“I had to remove everything and the keyboard is the last part you remove before putting the new one on.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.