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MagyarLenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 laptop review: Intel Core-P at under 1 kg
The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 succeeds last year's ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 by replacing the 12th gen Alder Lake CPUs with newer 13th gen Raptor Lake options. Other than the CPU swap, the super-light chassis remains identical and so our existing comments on the ports and other physical aspects of the X1 Nano Gen 2 still apply here on the X1 Nano Gen 3. This page will instead focus on the performance differences between the two models as well as any other notable changes.
Our test unit has been configured with the Core i7-1360P for approximately $1400 USD retail. Other SKUs include the Core i5-1340P with vPro and non-vPro options up to the i7-1370P, but all configurations at the moment include the same 16 GB of soldered RAM and 13-inch 2K (2160 x 1350) IPS display with optional touch.
Alternatives to the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 include other ultralight subnotebooks like the LG Gram 13, Dynabook Portege X30L, Dell Latitude 9330, or HP Dragonfly G4.
More Lenovo reviews:
Potential Competitors in Comparison
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 89.5 % | 08/2023 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 i7-1360P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 989 g | 14.8 mm | 13.00" | 2160x1350 | |
| 88.9 % | 09/2022 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 Core i7-1280P i7-1280P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 958 g | 14.4 mm | 13.00" | 2160x1350 | |
| 91.9 % | 07/2023 | HP Dragonfly G4 i7-1365U, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.1 kg | 16.3 mm | 13.50" | 1920x1280 | |
| 86.2 % | 05/2023 | Framework Laptop 13.5 13th Gen Intel i7-1370P, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.3 kg | 15.85 mm | 13.50" | 2256x1504 | |
| 89 % | 11/2022 | Dell Latitude 9330 i7-1260U, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.2 kg | 14.1 mm | 13.30" | 2560x1600 | |
| 92 % | 08/2022 | Apple MacBook Air M2 10C GPU M2, M2 10-Core GPU | 1.2 kg | 11.3 mm | 13.60" | 2560x1664 | |
| 86.6 % | 10/2022 | LG Gram 14Z90Q i5-1240P, Iris Xe G7 80EUs | 980 g | 16.8 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1200 |
Case — Still One Of The Lightest
While there are no major exterior changes from the previous year, keep in mind that the touchscreen version is slightly larger than the non-touch version. The extra thickness and weight are hardly noticeable in practice.
| Touchscreen Configuration | 208.1 mm (L) | 293.3 mm (W) | 14.8 mm (H) |
| Non-touch Configuration | 208.0 mm (L) | 293.2 mm (W) | 14.4 mm (H) |
Communication
Webcam
Maintenance
Display — No Other Options
Interestingly, the IPS panel on this year's model is different than the panel on last year's model (MND007ZA1-3 vs. P101ZFZ-BH2). Other than the name change, however, both displays share similar color ranges, response times, brightness levels, and contrast ratios for a similar viewing experience.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 86 %
Center on Battery: 461.2 cd/m²
Contrast: 1590:1 (Black: 0.29 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 1.79 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5.1, calibrated: 0.47
ΔE Greyscale 1.8 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
69.7% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
99.5% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
68.5% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.24
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 MND007ZA1-3, IPS, 2160x1350, 13.00 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 Core i7-1280P P101ZFZ-BH2, IPS, 2160x1350, 13.00 | HP Dragonfly G4 Chi Mei CMN13C0, IPS, 1920x1280, 13.50 | Framework Laptop 13.5 13th Gen Intel BOE CQ NE135FBM-N41, IPS, 2256x1504, 13.50 | Dell Latitude 9330 AU Optronics B133QAA, IPS, 2560x1600, 13.30 | LG Gram 14Z90Q LG LP140WU1-SPF1, IPS, 1920x1200, 14.00 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | -3% | 0% | 0% | 8% | 22% | |
| Display P3 Coverage | 68.5 | 66.2 -3% | 68.4 0% | 68.9 1% | 77.8 14% | 98.4 44% |
| sRGB Coverage | 99.5 | 96.1 -3% | 98.3 -1% | 97.5 -2% | 99.9 0% | 99.9 0% |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 69.7 | 68.3 -2% | 70.4 1% | 71.1 2% | 77.5 11% | 85.9 23% |
| Response Times | -4% | -22% | -34% | -82% | -7% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 39.9 ? | 43.6 ? -9% | 48.8 ? -22% | 54.9 ? -38% | 67.6 ? -69% | 47.5 ? -19% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 25.8 ? | 25.6 ? 1% | 31.3 ? -21% | 33.5 ? -30% | 50.4 ? -95% | 24.5 ? 5% |
| PWM Frequency | ||||||
| Screen | -79% | -14% | -60% | -31% | -62% | |
| Brightness middle | 461.2 | 469.6 2% | 408.8 -11% | 503 9% | 542.3 18% | 341 -26% |
| Brightness | 428 | 460 7% | 399 -7% | 472 10% | 516 21% | 305 -29% |
| Brightness Distribution | 86 | 94 9% | 90 5% | 87 1% | 85 -1% | 87 1% |
| Black Level * | 0.29 | 0.37 -28% | 0.32 -10% | 0.36 -24% | 0.38 -31% | 0.26 10% |
| Contrast | 1590 | 1269 -20% | 1278 -20% | 1397 -12% | 1427 -10% | 1312 -17% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 1.79 | 4.85 -171% | 2.02 -13% | 3.38 -89% | 3.18 -78% | 3.11 -74% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 3.3 | 7.62 -131% | 3.84 -16% | 7.08 -115% | 6.05 -83% | 8.29 -151% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 0.47 | 1.22 -160% | 0.61 -30% | 1.21 -157% | 0.67 -43% | 0.83 -77% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 1.8 | 5.7 -217% | 2.3 -28% | 4.8 -167% | 3.1 -72% | 5.3 -194% |
| Gamma | 2.24 98% | 2.13 103% | 2.2 100% | 2.13 103% | 2.08 106% | 2.037 108% |
| CCT | 6588 99% | 6931 94% | 6203 105% | 6235 104% | 6140 106% | 7571 86% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -29% /
-52% | -12% /
-12% | -31% /
-44% | -35% /
-30% | -16% /
-36% |
* ... smaller is better
The display is better calibrated out-of-the-box for improved color accuracy over last year's model. Average grayscale and color deltaE values would be just 1.8 and 1.79, respectively, compared to 5.7 and 4.85 on the X1 Nano Gen 2. This means that an end-user calibration is not as necessary this time around.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 25.8 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 11.8 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 14 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows relatively slow response rates in our tests and may be too slow for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 56 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (21.8 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 39.9 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 18.7 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 21.2 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 55 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (34.3 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected |  | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18694 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance — Intel Raptor Lake Upgrade
Testing Conditions
We set Windows to Performance mode prior to running the benchmarks below. On most other Lenovo laptops, the Vantage software would have special power settings in addition to the usual Windows power settings. On the ThinkPad X1 Nano, however, Vantage would have no special power settings to reduce confusion.
Processor
Our 13th gen Core i7-1360P would perform almost identically to the 12th gen Core i7-1280P on last year's model. It would sometimes even fall behind the older processor due to steeper throttling as shown by our CineBench R15 xT loop results below. Nonetheless, it's still faster relative to competing subnotebooks powered by Core U-series CPUs like the HP Dragonfly G4 or Dell Latitude 9330 by up to 20 percent.
Cinebench R15 Multi Loop
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 5.5: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 5.5: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
* ... smaller is better
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
System Performance
PCMark scores are slightly ahead of last year's model despite the throttle-prone CPU and integrated GPU. This may be attributed to the SSD in our 2023 model which is faster than the one that shipped on the 2022 model as demonstrated in our Storage Devices section below.
CrossMark: Overall | Productivity | Creativity | Responsiveness
| PCMark 10 / Digital Content Creation | |
| Framework Laptop 13.5 13th Gen Intel | |
| Average Intel Core i7-1360P, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs (5723 - 7612, n=13) | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 Core i7-1280P | |
| HP Dragonfly G4 | |
| LG Gram 14Z90Q | |
| Dell Latitude 9330 | |
| PCMark 10 Score | 5796 points | |
Help | ||
* ... smaller is better
DPC Latency
LatencyMon reveals minor DPC issues when opening multiple browser tabs of our homepage. 4K video playback at 60 FPS is otherwise smooth and with no dropped frames recorded.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Dell Latitude 9330 | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
| HP Dragonfly G4 | |
| LG Gram 14Z90Q | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 Core i7-1280P | |
| Framework Laptop 13.5 13th Gen Intel | |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices — Supports Up To One SSD Only
Lenovo has changed the SSD from the 1 TB Kioxia KBG5AZNT1T02 on last year's model to the 1 TB Kioxia KXG80ZNV1T02 on our 2023 model. The new drive can reach up to 4000 MB/s compared to 3000 MB/s on the older drive, but performance eventually throttles after a minute or so of heavy use.
| Drive Performance Rating - Percent | |
| LG Gram 14Z90Q | |
| Framework Laptop 13.5 13th Gen Intel | |
| HP Dragonfly G4 | |
| Dell Latitude 9330 | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 Core i7-1280P | |