Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 (2022) famerenana

There are a number of great laptops that meet PCMag's definition of an ultraportable at under three pounds, but notebooks under two pounds are as scarce as hen's teeth. That's why we were delighted by the February 2021 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano, a 13-inch productivity partner that limbo'd under the line at 1.99 pounds. The new X1 Nano Gen 2 (starts at $1,511; $2,147 as tested) narrowly misses that cut, but is still ultralight at 2.13 pounds (2.19 pounds, if you get it with a touch screen). It's a worthy rival to the Apple MacBook Air M2 and the Dell XPS 13 Plus, but it falls a bit short of our favorite, slightly pricier ultraportables, the 13.5-inch HP Elite Dragonfly G3 and Lenovo's own 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10.

The Design: The Score Is 16:10 

Like a growing number of laptops, the ThinkPad X1 Nano trades the familiar 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for a slightly taller 16:10—in this case, a 2,160-by-1,350-pixel IPS panel rated at 450 nits of brightness. The $1,511 base model sports a 12th Generation Intel Core i5-1240P processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB NVMe solid-state drive. Our $2,147 test unit steps up to a Core i7-1280P (six Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 20 threads), 32GB of memory, and a 1TB drive.

(Sary nahazoan-dalana: Kyle Cobian)

Clad in the familiar matte black magnesium and aluminum of other ThinkPads with a carbon fiber hybrid lid, the Nano Gen 2 is a trim 0.57 by 11.5 by 8.2 inches, even more compact than the 2.7-pound MacBook Air (0.44 by 12 by 8.5 inches). The system has passed MIL-STD 810H torture tests for road hazards like vibration, shock, and temperature extremes; there's almost no flex if you grasp the screen corners or press the keyboard deck. 

The screen bezels aren't ultra-thin, but the top bezel makes room for a face recognition webcam with sliding privacy shutter. A fingerprint reader next to the touchpad gives you a second way to skip typing passwords with Windows Hello. As with larger ThinkPads, the touchpad is joined by Lenovo's TrackPoint mini joystick embedded in the keyboard, with three buttons below the space bar. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth are standard, with 4G or 5G mobile broadband optional.

(Sary nahazoan-dalana: Kyle Cobian)

Like the Dell and Apple ultraportables, the Lenovo is short on ports, with only two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports joined by an audio jack on its left edge. There's nothing on the right side except cooling vents and the power button. We're all for skinny laptops, but we hate having to carry adapters to plug in an external monitor or USB Type-A storage device, so we prefer lightweights like the Carbon and Dragonfly that provide HDMI and USB-A as well as Thunderbolt connectors.

(Sary nahazoan-dalana: Kyle Cobian)

Lenovo Knows Keyboards 

ThinkPads are famous for having first-class keyboards, and the Nano is no exception—the backlit keyboard offers a wonderfully snappy typing feel and a fine layout including real Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys instead of double-duty cursor arrows. (The Fn and Control keys are in each other's place at bottom left, but you can swap their functions with the provided Lenovo Vantage utility.) 

Top-row shortcuts include keys to place and end video calls, as well as the usual brightness and volume controls. The touchpad is smallish due to the system's size, but it glides and taps smoothly and clicks quietly.

(Sary nahazoan-dalana: Kyle Cobian)

The face recognition webcam offers 1080p instead of the lowest-common-denominator 720p resolution. It captures well-lit and colorful images with good detail and no static. A User Presence Sensing feature uses face recognition to offer Zero Touch Login and Lock as you approach or walk away, and it can save battery power by dimming the display when you look away. Weirdly, the feature kept working even when I turned it off in Lenovo Vantage; I thought I wouldn't be able to run our battery-life test until I discovered it can be disabled in BIOS setup. (Our battery test relies on the screen brightness being at a constant level throughout.)

Besides the above-mentioned features, Lenovo Vantage offers AI-based Wi-Fi security, audio optimization for VoIP calls, and dynamic, music, movie, game, and voice presets for Dolby Audio. Two upward- and two downward-firing speakers pump out reasonably loud, somewhat hollow sound. Bass is absent, but there's no distortion at high volume, and you can make out overlapping tracks.

(Sary nahazoan-dalana: Kyle Cobian)

The Nano's unusual 2,160-by-1,350-pixel resolution is a good fit for its 13-inch screen, providing sharp detail without making things squinty-small. The IPS panel offers wide viewing angles and high contrast. Brightness is ample, and colors are rich and well saturated, though they don't pop like poster paints. White backgrounds look clean instead of dingy, helped by a screen hinge that goes all the way back.

Testing the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2: Five Under Three Pounds 

For our benchmark charts, we compared the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 to its above-mentioned rivals: the Dell XPS 13 Plus, the M2 version of the Apple MacBook Air, and the HP Elite Dragonfly G3. That left one spot which we filled with a budget-priced ultraportable, the 2.48-pound Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2. You can see their basic specs in the table below.

Andrana vokatra 

Ny mari-pamantarana lehibe amin'ny PCMark 10 an'ny UL dia manao simulate isan-karazany ny vokatra tena izy sy ny fizotran'ny famoronana votoaty mba handrefesana ny zava-bita amin'ny ankapobeny ho an'ny asa mifototra amin'ny birao toy ny fanodinana teny, takelaka, fitetezana tranonkala, ary fihaonambe video. Izahay koa dia manao andrana Full System Drive an'ny PCMark 10 mba hanombanana ny fotoana enta-mavesatra sy ny fandehan'ny fitahirizana solosaina finday. 

Following those, three further benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps manomboka amin'ny famoahana PDF sy ny fanekena ny kabary ka hatramin'ny fianarana milina. Farany, mampiasa ny transcoder horonan-tsarimihetsika misokatra HandBrake 1.4 izahay hamadika horonan-tsarimihetsika 12 minitra avy amin'ny 4K ho 1080p (tsara kokoa ny fotoana ambany kokoa). 

Ny fitsapana vokatra farany ataonay dia ny Puget Systems' PugetBench ho an'ny Photoshop, izay mampiasa ny Creative Cloud version 22 an'ny mpamoaka sary malaza an'ny Adobe mba hanombanana ny fahombiazan'ny PC amin'ny famoronana votoaty sy fampiharana multimedia. Izy io dia fanitarana mandeha ho azy izay manatanteraka karazana asa Photoshop ankapobe sy avoakan'ny GPU manomboka amin'ny fanokafana, fanodinkodinana, fanovana ny habeny ary fitahirizana sary ka hatramin'ny fampiharana saron-tava, famenoana gradient ary sivana.

The X1 Nano Gen 2 easily cleared the 4,000 points in PCMark 10 that show excellent productivity for Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, and it performed well in Photoshop. But its CPU scores were lower than we expected considering its 28-watt Intel P-series rather than 15-watt U-series processor. The cheaper, Core i5-based Surface Laptop predictably brought up the rear. 

Fitsapana sary 

Mitsapa sary an-tsary Windows PCs izahay miaraka amin'ny simulation lalao DirectX 12 roa avy amin'ny UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (mora kokoa, mety amin'ny solosaina misy sary mitambatra) ary Time Spy (mitaky bebe kokoa, mety amin'ny rigs gaming misy GPU discrete). 

Manao fitsapana roa ihany koa izahay avy amin'ny mari-pamantarana GPU cross-platform GFXBench 5, izay manindry ny fomba fanao ambany toy ny texturing sy ny sary avo lenta, toy ny lalao. Ny 1440p Aztec Ruins sy 1080p Car Chase fitsapana, navoaka ivelan'ny ecran mba handraisana fanapahan-kevitra isan-karazany, fanazaran-tena sary ary kajy shaders mampiasa ny OpenGL interface tsara fandaharana sy ny hardware tessellation tsirairay avy. Arakaraka ny frame isan-tsegondra (fps) no tsara kokoa.

We've tested scores of laptops with Intel's Iris Xe integrated graphics and never found one suitable for gaming or graphically demanding apps. This group continues the streak—they're fine for casual gaming or streaming video, but not intended for first-person shooters or workstation-class CGI. 

Fitsapana bateria sy fampisehoana 

Mitsapa ny fiainan'ny batterie amin'ny solosaina izahay amin'ny alàlan'ny filalaovana rakitra video 720p voatahiry eo an-toerana (ilay sarimihetsika Blender open source. Ranomaso vy(Mivoha amin'ny varavarankely vaovao)) miaraka amin'ny famirapiratan'ny fampisehoana amin'ny 50% ary ny haben'ny feo amin'ny 100%. Ataovy azo antoka fa feno tanteraka ny bateria alohan'ny hanaovana ny fitsapana, miaraka amin'ny Wi-Fi sy ny jiro lamosina amin'ny fitendry. 

Izahay koa dia mampiasa sensor calibration fanaraha-maso Datacolor SpyderX Elite sy ny rindrambaiko Windows mba handrefesana ny saturation ny lokon'ny efijerin'ny solosaina iray — firy ny isan-jaton'ny gamut na palette loko sRGB, Adobe RGB, ary DCI-P3 azon'ny fampisehoana aseho — ary ny 50% sy ny tampony. famirapiratana amin'ny nits (candelas isaky ny metatra toradroa).

The MacBook Air and the OLED-screened XPS 13 Plus have the most dazzling, colorful displays here, though the Lenovo's is nice and bright. The Nano managed to outlast the Dell in our battery rundown, but its stamina is far short of the Apple and HP ultraportables'.

Verdict: One of the Lightest and Nicest 

If you can live without luxuries like an OLED screen, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 is a fairly priced, highly capable ultraportable. It misses Editors' Choice honors because of its scanty array of ports and decent but not notable battery life, but wins points for its high-quality keyboard and screen, and available LTE. As for weighing 2.13 instead of last year's 1.99 pounds, well, we're a bit over our target weight ourselves.