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Update | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano: Extremely lightweight 16:10 ThinkPad goes up against Dell XPS 13 9310

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano: Extremely lightweight 16:10 ThinkPad goes up against Dell XPS 13 9310
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano: Extremely lightweight 16:10 ThinkPad goes up against Dell XPS 13 9310
After months of leaks, Lenovo's new 13 inch flagship is here: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano takes Dell's XPS 13 9310 head on, with Intel Tiger Lake, a 16:10 aspect-ratio screen and a much more lightweight chassis.

Lenovo's ThinkPad brand has a new flagship model: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 1 complements the high-end ThinkPad X1 series with a new, much smaller model.

In design, the new ThinkPad X1 Nano is very similar to the existing Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8. You could call the ThinkPad X1 Nano a smaller brother of this model, as it has the same wedge-design and black Carbon fiber top-cover. The key difference between the two: While the X1 Carbon uses 14 inch displays in the more common 16:9 aspect ratio, the X1 Nano comes with a 13 inch screen in the taller 16:10 ratio. By going this route, the X1 Nano provides the same screen height as the X1 Carbon, but in a much smaller package.

X1 Nano: Smaller than X1 Carbon with the same screen height
X1 Nano: Smaller than X1 Carbon with the same screen height

Lenovo Nano: Lighter than X1 Carbon & XPS 13

The chassis is not only smaller, it is also significantly lighter. Lenovo notes that the ThinkPad X1 Nano is the lightest ThinkPad laptop so far, with just 962 g or 2.12 lbs (see the update below) That is not only lighter than the X1 Carbon (1.09 kg/2.4 lbs), but also significantly lighter than the new Dell XPS 13 9310 (1.2 kg/2.64 lbs).

To make a ThinkPad this small and light, there had to be some compromises. Notably, the X1 Nano does not have the impressive array of ports that the bigger X1 Carbon boasts. Instead, the ThinkPad Nano has just two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone-jack. The battery and the keyboard are also slightly smaller in size compared with the bigger counterpart. 

Of course, Thunderbolt 4 already hints at it: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano is powered by Intel Tiger Lake, the first ThinkPad X1 to have these newer CPUs. At this stage, it is not clear if it will feature the UP3 or UP4 Tiger Lake models though. Some additional firsts for the ThinkPad X1 line: 5G and LPDDR4X memory (up to 16 GB). The screen will only be offered with a single 2K level resolution (2,160 x 1,350), which has a brightness of 450 cd/m². Both touch and non-touch are available.

ThinkPad X1 Nano: Pricing & availability

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano will be available in December 2020. It will cost at least $1,599. It will ship with either Windows 10 Pro or Ubuntu Linux.

Update: Lenovo's press material contains conflicting information about the weight of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano. The spec-sheet says 962 g / 2.12 lbs, while their press info stated a weight of 907 g / 1.99 lbs. We have reached out to Lenovo and it turns out that the second, lower number is correct. 907 g or 1.99 lbs is the base weight, so depending on the configuration, the X1 Nano can weight more.

X1 Nano specifications
X1 Nano specifications

Source(s)

Lenovo

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 09 > Update | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano: Extremely lightweight 16:10 ThinkPad goes up against Dell XPS 13 9310
Benjamin Herzig, 2020-09-29 (Update: 2020-10- 1)