Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano weighs only 2 pounds — watch out, XPS 13

The ThinkPad family has a new member and it's the lightest one yet. Announced today, the ThinkPad X1 Nano has a 13-inch display and weighs only 2 pounds, making it one of the most portable business laptops. 

Apart from its weight, the standout feature of this laptop is the 13-inch, 2K display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, the first for a Lenovo laptop. The taller, more narrow display follows recent trends and closely matches the shift Dell made with the XPS 13 and XPS 13 2-in-1. Other highlights of this premium ultraportable (Lenovo's first Intel Evo-compliant product) include Intel 11th Gen CPUs and 5G support.

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Like the excellent ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the X1 Nano will target both enterprise users and everyday customers, meaning it will likely be a competitor to the XPS 13. By combining the practical business features found on all ThinkPads with modern elements, the X1 Nano could be the ideal laptop for when you're working in the office, browsing on the go, or relaxing at home.

ThinkPad X1 Nano price and release date

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Nano will start at $1,399. Lenovo did not announce a release date but it should be available before the end of the year.

ThinkPad X1 Nano design 

Take the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and shrink it. That's a simple description of the X1 Nano's design. The laptop is made of carbon fiber and magnesium alloy, two lightweight yet durable materials. These metals are what allowed Lenovo to create a 13-inch laptop that weighs only 2 pounds. 

We haven't seen the X1 Nano in person but it shares the same design DNA as other ThinkPad X1 products. The lid has a carbon-fiber weave with black-and-red ThinkPad X1 branding. On the inside is a red rubber pointing stick with left- and right-clickers trimmed in red. More ThinkPad branding adorns the deck near a fingerprint sensor to go along with an IR camera for Windows Hello login.

We're interested to see if Lenovo found a way to bring its stellar keyboard to the ThinkPad X1 Nano. It certainly looks familiar but we'll have to wait to tap our fingers on the keys to see if they feel as comfy as those on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon or ThinkPad X1 Extreme. What we do know is that it's backlit and has communication keys on the shortcut row.

Where the X1 Nano differentiates itself from other ThinkPads is with its proportions. The 16:10 display aspect ratio makes the 11.5 x 8.15 x 0.55-inch Nano taller and more narrow than a traditional laptop. It's worth reiterating that the Nano weighs only 2 pounds, nearly a full pound less than the XPS 13.

As expected, the X1 Nano falls short of its larger relatives when it comes to ports. There are only two Thunderbolt 4 inputs, a Kensington lock and a headphone/mic jack.

ThinkPad X1 Nano display 

The X1 Nano has a 13-inch, 2160 x 1350-pixel (2K) display with a peak brightness of 450 nits. The panel is Dolby Vision-certified and covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut, so you can expect vivid colors. The panel is offered in touch and non-touch versions. 

ThinkPad X1 Nano performance 

Powered by up to an Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake Core i7 CPU, the ThinkPad X1 Nano should perform similarly to the XPS 13, HP Spectre x360 13, Asus ZenBook 13 and other laptops in this premium class.

The new processors should provide a solid boost to performance but the big gains come with the Iris Xe graphics. Without a discrete GPU, the X1 Nano will rely on an integrated solution. But these aren't your standard UHD graphics — Iris Xe can supposedly run Borderlands 3, Far Cry New Dawn, Hitman 2 and other AAA titles at 1080p.

Also under the hood of the X1 Nano is up to 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM and a 1TB PCIe SSD. 

ThinkPad X1 Nano battery life 

Lenovo says the 48Whr battery in the X1 Nano can keep the laptop running for 17.3 hours before it powers down. We hope to see similar results when we run our own runtime tests. 

Outlook 

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the ThinkPad X1 Nano. Not only is it the sibling of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it's also the lightest business laptop Lenovo has ever crafted, weighing in at only 2 pounds. The unique 13-inch display with its 16:10 aspect ratio should be great for productivity and you get all the security features you'd expect from a ThinkPad in this small package. 

But there are still some questions we'll need to answer once we get in a review unit. For example, can a laptop this small and lightweight really last for 17 hours on a charge? And is it really as durable as Lenovo claims? 

If the X1 Nano can prove itself in these areas, it could give other 13-inch models, like the XPS 13, a serious run for their money.