Lenovo X1 Nano Review: A Lightweight and Efficient Laptop

Lenovo X1 Nano: At First Glance

Lenovo laptops are one of the all-time best-selling laptops in the world today. This is probably because they’re of good quality, offer multiple configurations specifications, and have excellent features.

Thankfully, the Lenovo X1 Nano is no different from most Lenovo laptops considering its vast good quality and features. To be more specific, this laptop features a lightweight build as well as a 2K display screen.

However, laptops with such features are usually expensive, and the X1 Nano isn’t an exception. Specifically, when I wrote this article in January 2022, the starting price of this laptop was $1,489.99.

Can a laptop this expensive have all the features to satisfy users’ needs? To find out, continue reading!

Lenovo X1 Nano: Design, Dimension, and Weight

Design-wise, the Lenovo X1 Nano is made of a carbon-fiber body mixed with magnesium. Furthermore, the body of this laptop is coated with a grippy and smooth matte-black texture.

As a result, the laptop’s body cleans up well when scratched. Also, due to its grippy texture, the laptop is very easy to grasp.

Moving on, the Lenovo X1 Nano’s lid comes with a “Thinkpad X1” logo inscribed at the top left corner. In addition to this logo, at the bottom right, a “Lenovo” is also carefully inscribed horizontally.

When you open this lid, you will find a 13-inch display screen staring at you. As an expensive laptop, the Lenovo X1 Nano’s display features a 2K (2160 x 1350) resolution that allows it to deliver excellent picture quality.

Impressively, this laptop’s display screen has a maximum brightness of 450 nits. Therefore, the X1 Nano is a good fit for use in sunny or well-lit environments.

In addition to its impressive maximum brightness, this laptop’s display comes with an anti-glare coating. This coating reduces reflection on the display screen.

Equally important, the display also comes with an anti-smudge coating that prevents smudges and dirt from sticking to its surface. In addition to these coatings to keep the laptop from dirt, this display features thin bezels at the sides.

However, the top and bottom bezels are somewhat thick. Probably the reason why the top bezel is thick is that it features a huge HD webcam in the middle.

Moreover, this webcam comes with a privacy cover that prevents webcam spying. Also, a little bit to the right side of this webcam, there is a hybrid infrared (IR) camera.

This IR camera is for easy login into Windows via Windows Hello facial recognition.

The bottom bezel of the Lenovo X1 Nano’s display, on the other hand, features an “X1 Nano” logo at the extreme edge.

Before proceeding, it is important to note that the Lenovo X1 Nano is available with a touchscreen display. However, this touchscreen display feature comes with an additional cost.

Moving on, the Lenovo X1 Nano comes with the standard chicklet-type keyboard. This keyboard features well-spaced keys, and it is very easy to use.

However, I noticed something tricky on the keyboard. To give more details, the function (fn) and control (ctrl) keys seem to be interchanged.

Normally, the ctrl key comes before the fn key. However, on the Lenovo X1 Nano’s keyboard, the fn key comes before the ctrl key.

This might cause confusion for those who aren’t used to this kind of keyboard setting. Moreover, it may take some time for users to adjust to this setting.

As expected from a Lenovo X1 laptop, the X1 Nano features a red Trackpoint at the center of its keyboard. This Trackpoint is an excellent alternative to the touchpad.

Speaking of the touchpad, the X1 Nano features a small touchpad located just underneath its keyboard. This touchpad comes with a very smooth surface and two clicky integrated click buttons.

Just a bit to the right side of this touchpad, there is the fingerprint sensor. This fingerprint sensor is for security and allows for easy login to Windows with just your finger.

Moving on, there are four speakers on the Levono X1 Nano. These speakers include two tweeters above the keyboard and two bottom-firing speakers at the base of the laptop.

Moreover, these four speakers produce impressive sound quality for watching movies or playing songs. Also, the speakers are loud enough to fill a medium room with sound.

When it comes to port selection, the Lenovo X1 Nano comes with a disappointing number of ports. Specifically, this laptop features only two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone/microphone combo jack on the left side.

It is important to note that one of these Thunderbolt 4 ports serves as the charging port. The right side of this laptop, however, houses only the power button with a small indicator light and fan exhaust.

Moreover, at the back of this laptop, there is a nano sim slot.

For the dimensions and weight, the Lenovo X1 Nano measures 292.8 x 207.7 x 13.8 – 16.7 mm (W x D x H). Also, this laptop weighs only 907 g.

With this weight and dimension, the Lenovo X1 Nano is one of the lightest and slimmest laptops available. Moreover, thanks to its extreme lightweight, users will be able to carry the laptop around freely.

Comparatively, the Lenovo X1 Nano is lighter than the Microsoft Surface Book 3 13-inch. To be more specific, the Microsoft Surface Book 3 13-inch weighs 1534 g and measures 312 x 232 x 13 – 23 mm.

In conclusion, the Lenovo X1 Nano features a sleek design. Also, this laptop is very light, which makes it very easy to move around.

However, due to its lightweight, this laptop comes with a limited number of ports. Therefore, I will rate the Lenovo X1 Nano an eight out of ten in this design review section.

Lenovo X1 Nano: Processor (CPU) Performance

For the processor, the Lenovo X1 Nano uses an Intel Core i7-1180G7 processor. This processor is a 4-core processor with a cache memory of 12 MB.

Also, the processor has a base frequency of 2.20 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.60 GHz.

That said, with this processor, the Lenovo X1 Nano should be able to carry out basically any computing task. To give more details, this laptop will be able to run demanding apps like Adobe Photoshop without slowing down.

To further prove my point, we will now discuss the laptop’s performance on the Geekbench 5.3 test. For clarity, the Geekbench 5.3 test is a cross-platform benchmark test that measures the processor performance of a computer.

Furthermore, on this benchmark test, a high indicates better performance. So, on the test, the Lenovo X1 Nano scored 5,155 points.

This is a solid score because it is well above the category average of 2,000 points. In fact, this laptop performed better than most of its competitors on this benchmark test.

For example, the HP Elitebook 830 G7, which uses an Intel Core i7-10810U, scored only 4,260 points on the benchmark test. Also, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which uses an Intel Core i5-10310U processor, scored only 3,639 points on the benchmark test.

In conclusion, the Lenovo X1 Nano with the Intel Core i7-1180G7 processor proves to be an excellent performer. Besides, this laptop performed better than most of its competitors on a processor benchmark test.

Therefore, I will be rating the Lenovo X1 Nano a nine out of ten in this processor review section.

Lenovo X1 Nano: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Lenovo X1 Nano comes with a standard memory size of 8 GB. However, this laptop features just a single RAM slot, and its 8 GB standard memory is onboard.

Therefore, the laptop’s RAM can neither be replaced nor upgraded. On a positive note, you can purchase this Lenovo laptop with 16 GB RAM.

However, I don’t really think you will need to purchase the Lenovo X1 Nano with 16 GB memory. This is because 8 GB RAM on this laptop is enough for it to carry out practically any computing task, including multitasking.

Speaking of multitasking, this laptop with 8 GB memory will be able to run 30+ Chrome tabs simultaneously without lagging. Also, you will be able to run numerous apps concurrently on the laptop without it showing signs of slowing down.

To further prove the performance of this laptop with 8 GB memory, I will now discuss its result on the PCMark 10 test. For clarity, the PCMark 10 is a system benchmark test for Windows PCs.

Furthermore, this test measures the performance of a PC under office-related workloads such as web browsing and word processing. Moreover, on this benchmark test, a high score means better performance.

So, according to the results from this benchmark test, the Lenovo X1 Nano scored 4,615 points. Comparatively, the Lenovo X1 Nano falls short of another Lenovo laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3).

Specifically, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 was able to score a whopping 5198 points on the PCMark 10 test.

Hence, based on all the information above, I will be rating the Lenovo X1 Nano an eight out of ten in this memory review section.

Lenovo X1 Nano: Storage Options and Performance

The Lenovo X1 Nano comes with a PCIe SSD storage type that supports a maximum storage capacity of 1 TB. Despite not featuring an SD card slot for storage expansion, I believe a 1 TB SSD storage will be enough for most users.

Moreover, as most of us know, SSD is one of the fastest storage drives available. Therefore, with its SSD storage, expect the Lenovo X1 Nano to boot up in less than 30 seconds.

Besides that, also expect the laptop to deliver impressive transfer speed. Speaking of transfer speed, let us now discuss how the laptop performed on a file transfer test.

To give more details, the Lenovo X1 Nano was able to transfer 25 GB of multimedia files at a transfer rate of 424.8 MB/s. This transfer rate is almost on par with the Lenovo X1 Carbon‘s 462.9 MB/s.

However, the X1 Nano’s transfer speed lagged behind the category average of 572.4 MB/s. Also, it falls woefully short of the Dell XPS 13‘s 806.2 MB/s. 

To further prove the X1 Nano’s storage performance, I will be providing you with the laptop’s CrystalDiskMark test result. For clarity, the CrystalDiskMark benchmark test measures a computer’s storage performance by calculating its read and write speeds.

The read speed is the time it takes for a device to open a file. Write speed, on the other hand, is the opposite of read speed, and it measures how long it takes to save data to a storage device.

So, on the CrystalDiskMark test, the X1 Nano recorded a read and write speed of 1670.99 MBps and 1739.42 MBps, respectively. Impressively, this laptop performed well above one of its closest rivals, the HP Elite Dragonfly.

Specifically, the HP Elite Dragonfly recorded a read speed of 1306.33 MBps and a write speed of 502.98 MBps on the test.

Having considered the above tests and comparisons, I will be rating the Lenovo X1 Nano an eight out of ten in this review section.

Lenovo X1 Nano: Graphics Card Performance

For graphics, the Lenovo X1 Nano comes with integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics. Speaking of integrated graphics, it means that the GPU is embedded into the processor.

For this reason, this graphics card shares memory with the CPU to perform tasks that relate to graphics. As a result, the Lenovo X1 Nano won’t be able to smoothly run demanding games and applications.

Notwithstanding, with its Intel Iris Xe Graphics, this laptop will be able to play a few outdated games. For instance, the X1 Nano should deliver around 60 fps (frame per second) when playing Dota 2 Reborn (2015).

Besides being able to play a few outdated games, the Intel Iris Xe Graphics also has other advantages. For example, as an integrated graphics card, this GPU consumes less power which results in the X1 Nano having a longer battery life.

Before moving on, it is crucial to mention that the Intel Iris Xe Graphics has a base frequency of 300 MHz. In addition to its base frequency, this GPU features a boost frequency of 1100 MHz.

That said, I will now be providing you with the Lenovo X1 Nano’s 3DMark test result to further prove its graphics card performance. The 3DMark test is a benchmark test that determines a computer’s 3D and 2D graphics rendering performance.

Furthermore, based on the setting of this benchmark test, the higher the score, the better the graphics performance. Thus, on the 3Dmark test, the X1 Nano scored an impressive 5465 points.

This score is way better than the HP Elite Dragonfly’s score of 1789 points. Surprisingly, this HP Elite Dragonfly laptop uses the same graphics card as the X1 Nano.

In conclusion, even though it features an integrated GPU, the Lenovo X1 Nano delivered a decent graphics performance. Hence, I will be rating the laptop an eight out of ten in this section.

Lenovo X1 Nano: Battery Life and Performance

The Lenovo X1 Nano features a 48 Wh Li-ion battery. This battery was advertised by Lenovo to last up to 13 hours.

However, to ascertain this manufacturer’s claim, I will discuss the X1 Nano’s result on a battery rundown test. Basically, this test involves continuously browsing the web via WIFI while streaming YouTube videos on the laptop till it dies.

Impressively, the X1 Nano’s battery lasted 10 hours and 45 seconds on this battery rundown test. Sadly, this laptop falls short of one of its closest rivals, the MacBook Air M1, which lasted 15 hours.

In conclusion, the Lenovo X1 Nano’s battery life is remarkable, despite falling short of one of its competitors in a battery test. Therefore, I will rate the laptop an eight out of ten in this battery review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Lenovo X1 Nano is a pretty sleek laptop that comes with a lightweight build. Moreover, thanks to its lightweight, users will be able to freely carry this laptop around.

However, due to its lightweight, the laptop comes with a limited number of ports. Besides, this laptop is extremely expensive, coming with a price tag of $1,489.99.

On a positive note, the X1 Nano comes with SSD storage that allows for rapid boot time. Also, this laptop features a CPU that can handle most computing tasks.

Therefore, I recommend the Lenovo X1 Nano for people who wish for a laptop that’s lightweight and also efficient.

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