The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition being showed off at CES 2025 lacks the iconic TrackPoint nub in a nod to a new, modern design that includes Lenovo AI Now.
As a product going after the MacBook Air, that’s fair as long as the regular ThinkPads keep the trackpoint, even if it’s a little vestigial. However I’d think of it as a regular Lenovo with ThinkPad specs. I just helped someone buy a 5 year old E15 that’s got a bent corner and more than a few scratches in its black paint and I love how it looks and feels all the more for it! The screen could definitely be better, but as a beater word processor, it performs well and is satisfying to use. And that’s the romance of a ThinkPad that they’d be foolish to let go of entirely.
As a product going after the MacBook Air, that’s fair as long as the regular ThinkPads keep the trackpoint, even if it’s a little vestigial. However I’d think of it as a regular Lenovo with ThinkPad specs. I just helped someone buy a 5 year old E15 that’s got a bent corner and more than a few scratches in its black paint and I love how it looks and feels all the more for it! The screen could definitely be better, but as a beater word processor, it performs well and is satisfying to use. And that’s the romance of a ThinkPad that they’d be foolish to let go of entirely.