We put the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura inch through our rigorous DXOMARK Laptop test suite to measure its performance in sound, camera and display. In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.
Overview
Scoring
Use-case and feature subscores included in the calculations of the global score
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura
95
camera
61
Microsoft Surface Pro 13-inch
Best: Microsoft Surface Pro 13-inch (93)
36
Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura
Best: Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura (56)
70
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
Best: Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch (84)
75
Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M5; 2025)
Best: Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M5; 2025) (85)
66
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
Best: Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch (146)
100
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
Best: Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch (146)
Pros
- High detail levels across all tested lighting conditions
- Low noise levels in indoor and HDR indoor conditions
- Accurate face exposure in challenging lighting conditions
Cons
- Limited highlight preservation, resulting in detail loss in bright areas
- Visible temporal noise during motion
- Noticeable exposure and white balance instabilities
In our comprehensive evaluation of the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura, the camera delivers a strong performance across the tested lighting conditions, with a particularly high level of detail that makes it well suited for video conferencing.
One of the key aspects delivered by the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura is its ability to preserve a high level of detail across different lighting conditions, allowing facial features and fine textures to remain well defined even when lighting becomes more challenging. Noise is also kept at a low level in indoor and HDR indoor conditions, contributing to a relatively clean image. Another important strength is its accurate face exposure, which remains well balanced even in challenging lighting conditions. This allows faces to remain properly exposed without significantly compromising the overall rendering of the scene.
However, the camera shows some limitations in highlight preservation, with bright areas sometimes losing detail in more demanding scenes. Noise is also visible during motion, indicating that the camera is less effective at maintaining clean image quality when subjects are moving. In addition, instabilities can be noticed in both exposure and white balance, resulting in occasional variations in the overall rendering.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura provides a very strong level of detail and accurate face exposure across a wide range of conditions. Its main weaknesses are related to limited highlight preservation, motion noise and exposure and white balance instabilities.
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14
Test summary
About DXOMARK Laptop tests: For scoring and analysis in our laptop reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluations under controlled lab conditions and real-life scenarios. (For more details about the Laptop protocol, click here.)
The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.
Camera
95
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
About DXOMARK Camera Laptop tests
DXOMARK evaluates the image quality of the built in camera during video calls, whether with a single person or with multiple people, in a variety of lighting conditions. Our camera evaluation particularly assesses the ability of the built-in camera to clearly render human faces during video calls. Other intrinsic camera quality aspects are also evaluated, like color reproduction, texture and noise, as well as artefacts.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Eugene)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels (Diana)
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Eugene)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Eugene)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Eugene)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Eugene)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Diana)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Diana)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Diana)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions (Diana)
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
English
