Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Review: Light It Up

If you’ve used a ThinkPad before, you probably know 90 percent of what to expect from a ThinkPad X1 Nano. All the staples are here. It features a black carbon fiber chassis, discrete buttons at the top of the touchpad, mechanical privacy shutter, the ThinkPad logo on the palm rest, and (of course) the red indicator nub in the middle of the keyboard.

But one thing about the X1 Nano is unique: it is the lightest ThinkPad Lenovo ever. Starting at just £ 1.99, the Nano is not technically the lightest laptop on the market. But it is still the best combination of portability, build quality and performance that you can buy.

Lenovo has also made some other useful tweaks, although they are not the twins you will necessarily notice when you are looking at the machine. There is not much to uproot from here: it is a small, lightweight ThinkPad. Lenovo did not reinvent the wheel, but the Nano was successful in keeping it updated among current fast-paced peers.

What’s new with the Nano here, apart from its lightweight construction. It has a 16:10 screen, adopting a number of this year’s ThinkPads for the first time. It has a new 11th Gen Intel processor, and is certified through verifying Intel’s Evo program (which includes the latest features of a laptop such as Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, Instant Wake, and Fast Charging). And there are some enhanced security features, including a match-on-chip fingerprint reader and some DTPM 2.0 chip, which will be notable for most business users.

Of course what affects that decision is the price of the Nano. Technically, it starts at $ 2,499 and maxes out at $ 3,719. The good news is that Lenovo’s products are often heavily discounted, and prices range from $ 1,149 to $ 2,231 at the time of the published sale.

Nano is highly customizable. It comes with either a Core i5-1130G7, a Core i5-1140G7, a Core i7-1160G7, or a Core i7-1180G7, all of which support Intel’s vPro. You can select 8GB or 16GB of RAM, 256GB, and a touchscreen or non-touch screen (both with 2160 x 1350 resolution) via 1TB SSD storage. There is even a Linux option. My review model (which runs Windows 10 Pro) is in the middle, with a quad-core Core i7-1160G7, 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and a non-touch display. Those interested in touchscreens should note that those models are heavier (2.14 lb) and also slightly thicker.

You are paying a premium for the weight of the Nano and additional business features. A comparable Dell XPS 13 for my test model, for example, is $ 1,599.99 and 2.64 pounds (half a pound heavier than this unit).

That said, the weight of the Nano is amazing. I feel that I am not doing anything while holding it, even with one hand. I simply keep it in my purse or throw it in my bag and forget that it is there. For some comparisons: This ThinkPad X1 is half a pound lighter than the Carbon General 9. It is a pound lighter than the ThinkPad X13, as well as the latest MacBook Air. These are laptops already known for their portability, and the Nano is Enough thin.

Laptops achieve this without sacrificing durability, which is often a concern with ultra-light devices. The chassis feels strong – the keyboard and screen have a small bit of flex, and I’d feel very comfortable jerking it around in a briefcase. Lenovo states that the Nano has been “tested against 12 military-grade certification methods”, so there it is.

I’m also very happy with the 16:10 display, which is about the same height as a 14-inch 16: 9 screen. In addition to the extra vertical space it provides, it is sharper than the 1080p display, and it delivers a nice picture.

It also has a Dolby Atmos speaker system, which includes two upward-firing and two downward-firing woofers. The laptop comes preloaded with Dolby Access, one of my favorite audio apps. You can swap between presets for movies, music, and other scenarios (as well as custom profiles), and the settings make an audible difference. You can also personalize four-microphone arrays for various uses, including conference calls and voice recognition.

I have a pinch keyboard with the chassis. It’s a nice keyboard, and if you want to use it, the little red nub is there. But the Fn and Ctrl keys are interchanged from places where you would find them on other laptop keyboards – every time I meant to hit Ctrl, I hit Fn. After a week of use, I have not adjusted it yet.

Now, I want to be very clear: I know that it has been the outline of the ThinkPad keyboard since the dawn of time. I also know that you can swap two keys BIOS. Nevertheless, if you are not currently a ThinkPad user, you should note that you will need some time to get used to this keyboard layout or you will be using the wrong key.

Port selection is also limited, although it is not unique among thin devices. You get two USB-C ports and an audio jack, and all of them are on the left side.

Performance-wise, the X1 Nano did an outstanding job. This is not what you want to buy for demanding tasks like heavy gaming or video editing, but rather it has maintained my guts of streaming with Chrome tabs, spreadsheets, and stuttering apps. I never heard any noise from the machine or felt noticeable heat, even when I was doing a lot of loading.

As mentioned earlier, the Nano has a number of new security features that are coming in line with 2021 ThinkPads. What I found most useful was the sensing sensing tool, which automatically locks the device when you are not facing it and unlocks it when you return. The ThinkPad are not the only commercial laptops to adopt this technology, but it is convenient and effective in my testing. You can turn it off if it creeps you out. Elsewhere, a match-on sensor next to the touchpad is the fingerprint sensor (qualifiers mean fingerprint anonymity, pattern storage, and biometric matching all occur directly within the sensor). The sensor also uses AI to differentiate between real and fake fingers, which was your concern.

One feature that is not quite stellar here is battery life. I averaged 6 hours and 38 minutes between charges for my daily workflow (email, Slack, Google Docs and Sheets, with occasional Spotify and YouTube streaming, such as about a dozen Chrome tabs with 200 nits to shine) . This is fine, and not unexpected because the Nano only has a 48Whr battery, but I often see seven hours out of machines at this price. This means that if your workload is similar to mine, you cannot make it through the entire workday on a fee. The 65W charger took 43 minutes to juice the device up to 60 percent.

In the ThinkPad X1 Nano, Lenovo is playing to its strengths. You get a comfortable keyboard and touchpad, a red nub and a robust processor, built into a robust system. The Nano brings a new factor to the table – a chassis that is (just) two pounds. The target audience here is clear: Business users who like and feel the traditional ThinkPad and are willing to pay more for an ultralight machine.

The main compromise you are making is battery life and port selection. None of this is a complete disaster for the Nano, but they mean that a portion of users may find competing laptops more practical. There are many ultra-portable business laptops with great battery life, more usable ports and comparable weight (like Asus’s Expertbook B9450 and HP’s Elite Dragonfly). Said that, for users who are connected to the ThinkPad brand and want the lightest, the X1 Nano will deliver.