Best of the best: Meet Lenovo's best rated (by us) 2026 ThinkPad laptop

Lenovo ThinkPad laptop often achieve very good ratings in our reviews, thanks to the combination of great input devices, many ports and security features, as well as repairability and upgradeability. But none of the 2026 models achieved a rating of more than 90 percent, with the Lenovo ThinkPad X9-15p (89.9 percent) coming very close. Its status as this year's best rated ThinkPad laptop has ended now, as there is another champion on the scene: The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 9, which we recently reviewed. It achieved a rating of 90.7 percent, which comes to a rounded 91 percent rating in our rating system. 

The key for this is the extremely high quality of the ThinkPad P1: It is one of the most expensive models of the business-oriented business series, and this 16-inch workstation delivers a premium quality metal chassis, as well as probably the best input devices of the ThinkPad series. Its keyboard is a bit better than most other ThinkPads, which are already great of course, and the huge haptic touchpad, plus the ThinkPad TrackPoint. This is a key area where the P1 Gen 9 is better than the X9-15p.

Upgradeability and keyboard quality put the P1 Gen 9 over the top

Another factor: Upgradeability. Whereas the X9-15p is barely upgradeable, the ThinkPad P1 G9 has two M.2 2280 SSD slots, as well as upgradeable LPCAMM2 RAM. This makes the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 9 a safer choice for the long term, as you can expand its memory in the future - especially valuable at a time when component prices are so high.

In general, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 9 barely has any real weak points, which is how it achieves a high rating overall. It offers a high performance package with excellent quality, as well as a suprisingly great battery life for a Panther Lake H class workstation with dedicated Nvidia graphics. While the temperatures under load can be a bit high and the stock screen is a bit plain, the main weakness of the ThinkPad P1 G9 is the price: To own it is an expensive privilege, as it currently starts at around €4,000 here in Germany.