I received a X1 Carbon Gen 9 to review.  As always with X1 Carbons, it is a beautiful unit, and I was pleased to have been asked to do the review.  

Significant improvements:   Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 16:10 display, PCIe 4.0 SSD, 57Wh battery, Thunderbolt 4, Human Presence Detection (HPD), and Dolby Voice (read review here.)   Here is the sales brochure for a high-level look and photos.   Specifically this 20XX model configuration is:  i7-1185G7, 32GB, 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD (Samsung MZL22T0HBLB-00BL), FHD+ 400 nits touch screen, and Wifi & BT (Intel Wi-fi 6 AX201.)  Full system specs are available at the Lenovo PSREF.  The HDMI port is 2.0b. 

Right off the bat, I noticed the trackpad.  The new, larger trackpad is super smooth to the touch, unlike the T15 and prior T-series ThinkPads which have a matt finish, allowing quicker, easier movements, and the size allows for easy edge to edge movement.  Also, the trackpad is solid when double-tapping, while the T15 has a degree of give.  And the clicking action of the pad itself is more positive with a softer, but robust sound.  Excellent tactile feel all-around, better than any that I've used.  My previous experience with a X1 Carbon is a Gen 3, which my GF still uses when traveling (her regular PC is a desktop), so I can't make a comparison to the just prior generations.  

It certainly is quick, booting takes just 12 sec for the Windows login screen, and apps load right after clicking them.  In part due to the PCIe 4.0 SSD, but also the fast LPDDR4x-4266 memory, with double the transfer rate as previously.  The dual fan is audible when running benchmarks, but not offensively so, and is quiet/not running at other times.  The fans ramp up progressively, with no oscillations until the maximum speed, and stayed constant at that speed.  The processor cools off quickly after the benchmark has finished, returning to it's quiet state.   The fan exhaust is to the right of middle, in the rear of the base, exhausting in the gap towards the bottom, rounded part of the lid (intake directly into the two fans through the grill in the bottom.)  It seems effective at removing heat, as the best score of Cinebench was the 3rd run of three back-to-back runs.  

The associated new hinges and lid work well.  The lid itself is surprisingly stiff for being so thin, and the hinges have a nice action, holding position well.  The touch screen (Lenovo model LEN403A) has a matt finish, which is better for reducing reflection, but not as good for touch as a smooth screen, and it works well for how I used them (scrolling; altering the size of text, maps, photos; and advancing pages.)  I feel that the 16:10 aspect ratio is more usable for a laptop, so much so, that I moved the Windows task bar of my usual laptop to the right side to square up the display soon after acquiring.  No need to do so with this one. 

Another surprise was how good the sound is.  With truly impressive volume that can be fully used with little distortion, and a rich, full sound.  (I am happily listening to Youtube Jazz as I type this, at one sixth volume.)   There are USB-C and Thunderbolt (TBT) 3 docks, and a TBT4 dock will be available in a couple of months.
Some models are available today, with normal timeframe delivery.  Although certain features are delayed and vary significantly based on the country.  The biggest example:  cellular, 4G and 5G are both going to come later due to certifications.

I still have features like Human Presence Detection (HPD) to review, but wanted to get this, and the benchmarks out, and open it up for questions.   

Before running the benchmarks, I fully updated the system, loaded the BIOS default settings, and I am using Windows with the default settings from Lenovo, including the 'Balanced' power plan.  I typically ran two of each benchmark back-to-back, and show the second here.  This unit is a pre-release development sample and results may be somewhat different, usually better, with production units as performance is optimized. 

Hello BiggAl,

Thank you for the great review of X1Cardbon 9th Gen
We appreciate for sharing this

Best regards, 
Lorenzo_Lenovo

i am so excited for this!

obv the major hurdle is the price!

from previous generations, is anyone able to forecast when we can expect to see a price drop?

i guess we have to wait at least six weeks anyway going by shipping estimations?

The HWInfo screenshot is telling of the throttling issues on the X1C9 which I am also experiencing on my machine (1165G7, 32GB Ram).  This makes even light gaming on the machine unfeasible as it will stutter/freeze every 3-5 minutes for 2-3 seconds on low-demand games.   This happens in AC mode only.

Hoping that Lenovo will push out a BIOS update to address this soon.

Throttlestop?

@ JEShumMPK wrote:

Throttlestop?

Doesn't work for 11th gen CPUs - you can't undervolt.

@ spoon_25 wrote:

Hi @Charsiubun, I also have a X1 Gen9 with i7-1165G7 and 32Gb RAM, and I also saw thermal throttling very easily when under load. A side question about this to check if my laptop is behaving as intended: does yours also get super hot in the part between the F-keys row of the keyboard and the screen hinges? The new design put there the exhaust of the vents, therefore it does make sense it gets hot under load. But it get really hot! Even warming up the top ranges of keys in the keyboard (still not uncomfortable as thermal throttling at some point make it cool down, but just want to make sure it isn' an issue in cooling or something).Thanks

Yes, the hinge gets extremely hot but only when gaming/thermal throttling.  Under normal usage (e.g. browsing, watching movies, Office) it stays pretty cool.

Do you operate the notebook in a warm environment?