Both are great for heavy tasks, but one has inking support, and the other is a lot more powerful.
When it comes to the best laptops to buy in 2022, you might have heard about the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme or the Surface Laptop Studio. Both of these devices are quite different when considering the internals and the design. However, they still pack powerful components inside for tasks like content creation, as well as gaming. They're also both in the same price range (when one of them is on sale, anyway) and are premium options from their respective manufacturers. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is one of the best Lenovo laptops, and the Surface Laptop Studio is a great Surface PC.
If you're not a Microsoft or Lenovo purist, then you might be wondering which one of these you should buy. Well, let's take a look.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 is a powerful business laptop with Intel H-series processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics to handle demanding workloads and gaming.
The Surface Laptop 5 features a sleek design, runs Windows 11, and has a touchscreen. For the money, it's one of the best laptops around right now, and for the 15-inch model, it's one of the lightest.
Both the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 and the Surface Laptop Studio are around the same price, but there's a caveat. That only applies whenever the ThinkPad X1 Extreme is on sale for $1,649.45. Usually, the starting price of the ThinkPad is $2,999. Without sales, the Surface Laptop Studio is cheaper, costing $1,600 for a model without a dedicated GPU.
That price goes up with the Surface Laptop Studio models with dedicated GPUs, starting at $2,099. However, there are more options for the ThinkPad X1 Extreme that can bump the price as high as $3,000 when on sale, and $6,000 when not on sale. If budget is important to you, the Surface Laptop Studio is cheaper if you can't catch the ThinkPad at the sales price.
To begin, we have the all-important design comparison, and it's the thing that most sets these devices apart. The Surface Laptop Studio is a smaller device than the ThinkPad X1 Extreme. It also has a convertible design, whereas the ThinkPad is a traditional clamshell laptop that uses high-end carbon fiber materials.
The Surface Laptop Studio's convertible design, however, is unlike your typical 2-in-1. Instead of using a kickstand or a hinge, this device has a pull-forward screen, so you can rest it near the trackpad and draw it closer to you for drawing or watching movies. It also retracts all the way dow with one more additional movement, so you can hold the device as a tablet. You even can flip the screen all the way around to showcase a presentation. This makes it quite the versatile device.
The 16-inch ThinkPad X1 Extreme, though, is a typical clamshell laptop that isn't close to being as fancy as the Surface Laptop Studio. The only fancy aspect is the carbon fiber lid, which is an optional add-on. This feels quite premium when compared to the aluminum on the Surface Laptop Studio.
Other than that, these products are quite heavy computers that aren't very portable. The ThinkPad is much bigger at 15.57 x 10 x 0.7 inches, over the Surface Laptop Studio's 12.72 x 8.98 x 0.746 inches. It's also heavier — 4.14 pounds against the Surface Laptop Studio's 4 pounds.
These two devices also vary a lot in the display department. As you can tell from the spec sheet, the Surface Laptop Studio has a single display option: a 14.4-inch, 3:2 aspect ratio screen tuned to 2400 x 1600 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme, meanwhile, has a bigger 16-inch screen with a lower 1920 x 1200 resolution as standard and a 16:10 aspect ratio.
However, the biggest difference regards the Surface Laptop Studio's support for the Surface Pen. Not every ThinkPad X1 Extreme display even has touch support (more on this in a bit), although it has more display options for screen resolution, brightness, and refresh rates.
If you're a creative type that depends on drawing a lot in apps like Photoshop, there's no doubt that the Surface Laptop Studio will be better for you. The display is smaller than the one on the ThinkPad, but it has a higher resolution. Plus, you can use the Surface Pen 2 to get a pen-to-paper feel with haptic feedback. The display also has a 120Hz refresh rate, which is good for smooth response rates when drawing or even editing videos.
Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme's display is more for those who will spend more time using a keyboard and mouse. The 16-inch screen is bigger than the 14-inch panel on the Surface Laptop Studio, so it's better for productivity. The 1920 x 1200 resolution option is standard but might feel limiting for some people. Thankfully, there are Quad HD+ and Ultra HD+ versions available. We suggest this Ultra HD+ version as it has touch support. There is also an option for a 165Hz panel, so if refresh rate is important, go for this one.
We understand that ports and connectivity are at the forefront of the laptop buying process. In 2022, no one wants to use a dongle. On that note, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 has better connectivity when compared to the Surface Laptop Studio. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme features two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, an SD card reader, a 3.5 mm combo headphone jack, and a Nano SIM slot. We love the inclusion of HDMI as well as USB-A, since it really helps you avoid dongles.
It's also why we dislike the Surface Laptop Studio. That Microsoft device only has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a Surface Connect port for charging only, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. With the Laptop Studio, you'll need a dongle for almost everything that isn't yet USB-C.
In other areas of connectivity, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme has better Wi-Fi. It features support for Wi-Fi 6E and optional 5G, so you can use your laptop with Wi-Fi isn't available. The Surface Laptop Studio only has Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
In considering the performance of these devices, we want to first note that the Surface Laptop Studio has older components. The 11th-generation Intel CPU inside is a year old, and the ThinkPad X1 Extreme has the latest and greatest 12th-generation CPU from Intel. There are more graphics options on the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, too, which gives it the win here.
Though both of these laptops have Intel's H-class processors, the 45-watt chips inside the ThinkPad are newer than the 35-watt chips inside the Surface Laptop Studio. That means the ThinkPad can benefit from Intel's hybrid architecture of performance and efficiency cores. In the case of the Core i5 and Core i7 12th-generation chips, there are 14 cores total: 6 performance, and 8 efficiency. The ThinkPad also has an option for Intel's Core i9 CPU, which packs a crazy amount of power thanks to the 5.0 GHz operating range. On all models of the ThinkPad, you're going to feel great system performance, especially with tasks that need raw CPU power.
Going back to the Surface Laptop Studio, Intel's 11th-generation Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs are still powerful for most video editing and gaming, or content creation. However, they are only quad-core and only run at 35 watts. This means CPU-intensive tasks will feel a bit slower on the Surface Laptop Studio compared to the ThinkPad X1 Extreme. However, the 35W CPUs inside are a lot less power-hungry than the 45W CPUs inside the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, so despite it having a smaller battery, you'll likely get better battery life with the Surface Laptop Studio.
On the GPUs, it's hard not to pick the ThinkPad just for this reason. There are three different options on the ThinkPad. One is the same Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti as the Surface Laptop Studio, but there is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 with 6GB of GDDR6 memory or the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. A higher-end GPU will result in better performance for gaming, 3D rendering, or other creative tasks. These last two GPUs will outperform the one in the Surface Laptop Studio quite easily since they have more GDDR6 memory.
On the subject of memory, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme lets you upgrade the RAM, and there's a dual-channel DDR5 option. You can't upgrade RAM on the Surface Laptop Studio, but it uses slower DDR4x RAM. There's also secondary storage on the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, which isn't an option on the Surface Laptop Studio, though you can upgrade the SSD if you want.
Both of these are premium laptops with great specs for heavy tasks like gaming or content creation. That being said, if you can afford it, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme wins in this comparison. Buying this might mean you'd miss out on the convertible aspect of the Surface Laptop Studio, as well as inking support and a great display, but the performance will end up being much better. Intel's 12th-generation CPUs and the option for various Nvidia graphics give the ThinkPad a lot of power and make it one of the best ThinkPads on the market.
The Surface Laptop Studio is a versatile and powerful Surface PC with Intel H35 series processors and Nvidia RTX graphics.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5 is a powerful business laptop with Intel H-series processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics to handle demanding workloads and gaming.
I have over six years of experience covering Microsoft, Surface, Windows, macOS and ChromeOS news and rumors for sites like Digital Trends and OnMSFT and WinBeta. I also write laptop reviews and how-to guides. I am a Microsoft fan and I have a drawer full of PCs and other devices. You can follow and interact with me on Twitter if you want to chat! I’m always there making new friends!