The ThinkPad has come a long way since the brand fell into Lenovo’s hands about 14 years ago. Following this transition, Lenovo has taken this iconic Windows laptop line in some interesting (although not always popular) directions, and while those of us who loved the old-school T-series ThinkPads will always miss details like mechanical keyboards and hot-swappable UltraBays, there’s no denying that today’s models like the ThinkPad X1 Extreme — now on sale with a limited-time Lenovo coupon code — rank among the best modern ultrabooks that money can buy.
The X series is the cream of Lenovo’s ThinkPad crop, featuring some exceptional models like the X1 Carbon (which is another of our favorites). The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is the cream of the cream, however, and it’s a dream machine for laptop lovers. It packs an eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8750H six-core processor and 16GB of DDR4 RAM which delivers superb performance, and its keyboard is a joy to use — even if it doesn’t have the beloved clicky mechanical keys of yesteryear’s ThinkPads. Its excellent 15.6-inch, 1080p display is also very easy on the eyes.
Most of these slim Windows laptops are designed primarily as ultra-portable work machines, but the ThinkPad X1 Extreme brings its gaming chops to the table with an Nvidia GTX 1050Ti dedicated graphics card. That GPU, combined with the 16GB of RAM and Intel i7 CPU, offers plenty of power for running games at good settings, and the X1 Extreme also has a dual-fan cooling system (a feature that even some dedicated gaming laptops curiously lack).
The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a premium Windows machine that represents some of the best hardware and technology that Lenovo has to offer. That means, naturally, this laptop can get pricey, especially once you start upgrading things. The good news for back-to-school shoppers is that Lenovo has it on sale right now at a very juicy discount: The checkout code THINKQUICK lets you score the ThinkPad X1 Extreme for $1,629 for a limited time, knocking a whopping $1,350 off the steep $2,979 sticker price.
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