Why Did Lenovo Stretch The Thinkpad X1 Extreme To 15 Inches? To Kill The Macbook Pro

The MacBooks Butterfly keyboard vs. the ThinkPad keyboard? No contest.

- Melissa Riofrio

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Extreme has a mission: to kill the MacBook Pro 15. I’m not just saying that to manufacture drama, either. A Lenovo representative straight-out told me, “this is our MacBook Pro killer,” during our briefing on the product.

I could say, “crummy MacBook butterfly keyboard (go.pcworld.com/btkb) vs. legendary ThinkPad keyboard? No contest. End of story.” But the struggle is real: Even though the latest MacBook Pro 15 suffered (go.pcworld.com/15rv) some performance issues before Apple found a fix, the brand still carries some cachet with corporate users. Heck, it’s still what I see most often on my fellow commuters’ laps as I take the train to work.

To face down this formidable foe, Lenovo has stretched its new, top-of-the-line ThinkPad X1 Extreme to accommodate a 15-inch display (14 inches had been the maximum before). It’s even added discrete Nvidia graphics for the first time. Announced at IFA in Berlin, Germany, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme will ship in September with a starting price of $1,860.

No, that isn’t cheap, and the price goes up as you pick higher-end options. But consider this: The lowest-priced MacBook Pro 15 starts at $2,399. So if you select a MacBook Pro 15, you’re over $500 in the hole compared to the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, and you haven’t even upgraded anything yet. Apple has always charged a premium for its products, so this is hardly news. But when a laptop is a business decision, the MacBook Pro’s significantly higher prices compared to the ThinkPad X1 Extreme could very well be what kills it in the end.