Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 Review (2020)

[GaryNichols]

Finally, the review I was waiting for! Thank you Lisa - I wasn't going to invest in one before you reviewed!

[joewr]

Thanks, love that you open these up to show ugradability. Great job as always!

[jcmt]

I was not ready for "we're gonna find out why now" instead of "WE'RE GONNA LOOK AT IT NOW"! 2020 really is full of surprises...

[rileycall]

GREAT VIDEO tells me everything i need to know about this before i get 1.

[UltaPowderfinger]

Lisa! Your shirts are always on point! Great reviews too! Glad I found and subscribed to your channel! ROCK ON!

[GameProgrammer]

Good comprehensive review.. looking forward to Thinkpad x1 Carbon Gen 9 2021 refresh.. I would wait for 2021 refresh of this laptop 16:10 aspect ratio screen.

[INSTRUMANROBOT]

Hi! Long time watcher here 🙂 I supremely like your concise and informative reviews! Could you please do a review of the new ThinkPad T15g. Many thanks 🙏

[NafeesMosharrof]

Nice. I like your videos. Can you do comparisons videos? Like performance and reliability between this X1 extreme vs T14, especially.

[harrisonreiner]

As usual, Lisa's reviews are the most accurate I've found on line. In my want to help out people in the community who may be as torn as I was before purchasing, I'd like to add some helpful tips from my personal experience. I was torn between 4k and FHD, so I bought both and am returning the 1080p. There is no comparison between the two. I'd heard grumblings about possible software interface problems with 4k, battery drain etc. I found that the 4k is a superior visual experience by leaps and bounds, it blows 1080p away. People told me originally that the human eye could not detect the difference between 1080p and 4k on a 15.6" screen. Not true at all. In Word, the tool bar icons were pixilated on the 1080p. On the 4k, there was no detectable pixilation and text is as sharp and clean and as beautiful as you'd see on late generation iPads. Maybe even sharper. When I italicized words in Word on the 1080p, in calibri font, the words were seriously pixilated. In 4k, again, zero pixilation. As for power drain from 4k, I left clicked the smaller battery icon and switched to power saver, and got hours of use unplugged. The 1080p maybe got an hour and a half more, not a deal killer since I'm plugged in most of the time. Let's talk about the lid on the 4k. You can't tell from the videos online as compared to a real-life experience how beautiful and cool the 4k carbon lid is. The carbon lid on the 4k adds a semi-rubbery industrial-cool texture that's not on the 1080p and the carbon thread design on the 4k lid makes the laptop look and feel way more premium than the 1080p, no comparison. Fan noise: so Lisa recommended not getting the i9 processor if you want the most chill quiet experience, instead, go with an i7 processor which I did. Since I write for a living, quiet is paramount. When I first started up the computer, when the computer was updating the BIOS etc., the fans came on pretty loud, but after the BIOS was updated and all updates were conducted, and I turned on to battery saver, I haven't heard the fans once in the span of 2 weeks, not even once. So big consensus with Lisa that i7 processor gives you a quieter experience. So fan noise complaints are in my opinion overstated. COLOR: this is a big one. When I first opened the laptop, I was a little horrified that the colors looked garish and neon-like, people's faces on YouTube looked unnaturally and annoyingly red. Well I mucked around and discovered Lenovo Display Optimizer. Out of the box, the computer is set to NATIVE color in Lenovo Display Optimizer. Once I switched from NATIVE to STANDARD, colors were absolutely natural and beautiful and from that point I was utterly in love with the 4k version of the Extreme 3. It's a joy to work on. I was worried to hear there was less key travel on the Extreme Gen 3 as compared to Thinkpads of yesteryear, but key travel is excellent and it's a joy to type on. Last point, I heard that a lot of software don't interface well with 4k. In fact, there were glitches at first with some softwares, but after I either played around and/or called tech support for fixes, everything worked just fine. I have no interface problems at all. None. Love this laptop more than any I've ever had.

[Oleg__]

Well, I was once hoping for a ThinkPad T580 review. Did not happen. Then I waited for the T590 — similarly. Then T15 — apparently, this year is also not destiny. Well, let's hope for a review of the T15 Gen 2 next year. It is a pity that this series, with a numeric keypad, is constantly ignored.

[ruirodrigues]

I have a Gen 2 and it's such a beast!!!

[lucienchu]

I still have no idea why Lenovo still putting 300 nits screen on their Extreme product line. I thought it is along side with the Dell XPS 15 models and they have screen with 500 nits across all configuration. The poor screen is the reason why I try to sell my Gen 2 and get a dell XPS 17. Best keyboard on the world, but moderate screen. I would be back if one the the Extreme comes with a 16: 10 and 500+ nits screen.

[lenovoshopslovakia]

small correction: ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3. does not have optional Smart card Reader beacuse of 4G LTE option, this is the marked difference between of the construction of Gen3 and Gen2 ; another one si absence of Ethernet extension connect - replacable by using USB-C /LAN adapter, (SIM slot is available only on WWAN models)

[thomasricke]

Still rock my 1st Gen :) Thank you for another great review Lisa!

[philipfleming]

Lisa. please review the Thinkpad P1 Gen 3 Xeon with the OLED Touchscreen. The P1 Gen 2 review review was great. I hope the P1 Gen 3 still has a matte OLED touchscreen.

[tangsta]

Maybe you can present the display offerings in a table format which would easier and faster to read.

[haidaralamsyah]

would you test it for gaming? i'm curious about that, thx a lot lisa

[noah]

Hey, love your vids. Think you could get your hands on the Chuwi hipad X? It's an Android tablet with pen support for around $250. Can't find any reviews on it for some reason

[jpvr]

All of us just want the 16:10 aspect ratio, c'mon Lenovo

[jackbean]

Is this good for a programmer doing python? It looks a bit flimsy to me and i tend to rough handle my laptops. My latitude e5430 just died but it was a horse. Thanks for the excellent review