Lenovo yesterday beefed up the X series laptops with new ThinkPad X1 Extreme at IFA 2018 in Berlin. With the launch of an all-new 15-inch laptop, Lenovo has openly challenged a top of the line competitor, Apple. “This is our MacBook Pro killer,” a Lenovo executive explicitly mentioned it to PCWorld.
Lenovo extended its ThinkPad X series, (limited up to 14-inch displays) to Extreme to fit in its exceptionally powerful 15-inch laptop. What’s more, to beat the industry-best performance level of Apple’s MacBook Pro, Lenovo even embedded NVIDIA GeForce graphics card into the X1 Extreme device for the very first time.
Lenovo extended its ThinkPad X series to Extreme to fit in its exceptionally powerful 15-inch laptop. Source: Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme VS MacBook Pro: Design
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a 15.6-inch display introduced to take on Apple’s upgraded 15.4-inch MacBook Pro.
The former company’s designed X1 Extreme with two types of displays. Firstly, Full HD (non-touch),1920 x 1080 resolution with IPS anti-glare technology, brightness level up to 300nits and 72% color gamut.
The second Lenovo display type is4K UHD HDR Touchscreen, 3840 x 2160 resolution with IPS multi-touch, anti-reflective/anti-smudge, 400 nits of brightness, and 100% Adobe 8+2 color depth along with Dolby Vision. Moreover, the Lenovo display supports writing with a stylus on it.
Apple uses its own stunning Retina Display technology on MacBook Pro 15 that presents LED-backlit display with IPS technology, 2880×1800 resolution at 500 nits of brightness and supporting True Tone technology.
Lenovo’s 15-inch laptop measures 14.24 inches (W) x 9.67 inches (D) x .72 inches (H) and weighs 3.76 lbs. On the other side, the MacBook Pro 15 dimensions are 13.75 inches (W) x 9.48 inches (D) x 0.61 inches (H) but it weighs slightly more to 4.02 lbs.
Shipping starting in September, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme gets three options two choose from. The first two models have 16GB DDR4 RAM at 2666 MHz and 512 GB Solid State Drive space but different display types – FHD and UHD. The third one comes with 32GB DDR4 RAM and a massive 1TB storage space.
MacBook Pro 15, operating on macOS High Siera, is offered in two variants, one with 256GB and the other one 512GB. Both the models get 16GB in-built DDR4 RAM, configurable to 32GB. Additionally, it is available in two colors – Silver and Space Gray.
MacBook Pro 15 is available in two variants, one with 256GB and the other one with 512GB. Source: Apple
Lenovo 15-inch Laptop VS Apple 15-inch Laptop: Performance
Both the company’s 15-inch laptops are configured with 8th Gen Intel Core i7, with 6 core processor and Turbo Boost Technology and 9MB cache. However, Apple also offers support to 6-core Intel Core i9 and Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz, with 12MB cache in MacBook Pro 15.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme runs on Windows 10 Home/Window 10 Pro. Lenovo coupled Intel Core processor with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB to demonstrate exceptional performance prowess supporting immersive gameplay and professional editing operations.
It’s a powerful combination when compared to Apple’s Radeon Pro 555X graphics card with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme VS MacBook Pro: Keyboard
The sturdy built quality is the highlight of the Lenovo ThinkPad X series. Similarly, Lenovo keyboard is also benchmark strong point of the line-up. The keys travel a distance of 1.8mm, plus they are coated with spill resistant finish. The entire keyboard gets backlit with white LED lighting. It is even integrated with multi-touch touchpad made of glass.
On the other hand, the innovation giant faced a lot of criticism over its butterfly-switch keyboard in the earlier models of MacBook Pro. The new Apple keyboard is a full-size backlit one with Touch Bar and integrated Touch ID sensor. MacBook Pro 15 keyboard has a large Force Trackpad facilitating pressure-sensitive drawing and multi-touch clicks.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is available at a starting price of $2,079. Source: Lenovo
Camera
Both the 15-inch laptops are integrated with 720p HD camera, however, the Lenovo provides an additional ThinkShutteras a privacy cover.
Furthermore, Lenovo provides an optional infrared camera attachment to X1 Extreme laptop which includes Mirametrix Glance technology. This feature blends face movement with eye and gaze-tracking, which enables the cursor to automatically adjust the focus on the monitor and the application windows change only by eye movements!Â
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme VS MacBook Pro: Battery Life
Keeping aside any company’s claims, the battery life of a gadget depends upon its usage time, display brightness and opened software. Having said that, Lenovo boasts loading extra superfast charging capacity on X1 Extreme’s 80-watt-hr lithium battery. The 15-inch Lenovo laptop lasts for 14 hours of usage on a single charge and a Rapid Charge technology tops up the battery from 0 to 80 percent within an hour.
According to Apple, MacBook Pro houses 83.6-watt hr battery which lasts up to 10 hours on a single charge.
Ports
Lenovo equipped XI Extreme with a series of ports – two USB 3.1 (Gen 1), two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 (enabling transfer up to 40Gbs), one 4-in-1 SD card slot, HDMI 2.0, a network extension and lastly a combined headphone jack for an audio/microphone.
The all-new Lenovo 15-inch laptop can connect up to four independent 4K monitors, making it a suitable device for performing large-scale complex computations.
The upgraded MacBook Pro 15 also expanded its connectivity tray keeping future requirements at the core. It offers four Thunderbolt 3 (USB C) ports, each supporting charging, Display port, Thunderbolt (up to 40 Gbps) and USB 3.1 (Gen 2).
MacBook Pro 15 model with 256GB storage is available for $2,399. Source: Apple
Lenovo 15-inch Laptop VS Apple 15-inch Laptop: Price
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme FHD model is available for$2,079, whereas the UHD, 16GB RAMvariant is priced at $2,789. The price of topmost X1 Extreme featuring UHD and 32GB RAM is $3,149.
At the other side, the MacBook Pro 15 model with 256GB storage is available for $2,399 and the starting price of the superior version is $2,799.
