NateS
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It's always a big treat to receive a box from Lenovo, from time to time.
Sometimes I know what will be in the box. Other times, it's a complete surprise. This time, I knew what was coming!
It's the new ThinkPad X1 Nano!
I must say, Lenovo has the best packaging for ThinkPads, especially for X1 ThinkPads! The inner black and red box is sleek and classy, just like its contents. The ThinkPad product family ethos is alive and well!
The accessory pack included a (much smaller) 65W USB-C charger and AC power cord, a USB-C to Ethernet adapter, and a mystery item in the little white box on the far left. More on that in a bit...
Even before opening the box containing the laptop, though, I had an irresistible need to know about the specs of this machine. So I queried the serial number at the Product support page at: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/ and I only saw some warranty info. No worries… just fire it up, and dig in! Looking through msinfo32, Device manager, Disk management, and a number of other configuration screens, here's the punch that this pre-release sample packs!
Technical specifications:
Here is what several utilities have to say about this specific X1 Nano.
CPU:
Integrated Intel IRIS Xe Graphics:
WDC SSD:
Fit and finish: This 1st generation X1 Nano is impeccable. It's like that feeling when you close the door of a new, high-end luxury car, and everything fits and aligns perfectly. It's (beyond) very subliminally satisfying. And... it's impossible to describe how light this laptop feels in the hand. Pretty incredible, considering everything included in this machine!
On the left side, from front to back: two USB-C 3.2/Thunderbolt 4 ports w/power delivery, and a combo headphone/microphone jack. Quite minimalistic, but more on that, shortly.
On the right side, from front to back: the exhaust vent, and the Power button.
Along the top edge of the top cover there are four 360-degree microphones (difficult to photograph). These provide quite good performance for audio/video conferencing, in my experience. (Sorry for no picture, but it's hard to capture the details)
Finally, the rear of the laptop is where the SIM slot is located. I don’t currently have a data plan or SIM to try out the WWAN, but I will be exploring which local carriers support the installed card so that I can take advantage of the feature.
Audio: There are two speakers near the hinges above the keyboard, and two more on the underside near the front edge of the laptop. The Dolby ATMOS speaker system on this laptop is a quite good considering the size of the speakers, and the compactness of the laptop.
Laptop panel & Graphics: Lenovo's return to offering a 16x10 aspect screen has been a while in coming, but it is SO welcome! Lenovo does, indeed, listen to its customers. I, for one, welcome the additional vertical space. The 2160x1350 resolution, 450 nit IPS matte panel looks gorgeous on my sample machine. No screen illumination variations, at least to my eyes, nor screen-door effect... and I'm very sensitive to those. I'm not a gamer, and that's not really the target for this type of laptop, but if there's interest I'll try to run some benchmarks if I get recommendations for which tools to use. Watching high-resolution Youtube videos and local video files, though, is a great pleasure!
Since there is some discussion about how the 16:10 13” screen height of the X1 Nano compares to 16:9 14” screens, below are some comparisons with several machines I have at hand.
First, comparing the X1 Nano to a Gen3 X1 Carbon (16:9 14”, 2560x1440):
Next, comparing the X1 Nano to my daily-driver Gen4 X1 Yoga (16:9 14”, 3840x 2160):
Notice, on the two comparisons above, that the vertical screen real estate on the X1 Nano is effectively the same as that of the 16:9 14” laptops. Thinner top and bottom bezels coupled with the 16:10 aspect ratio sure helps. As can be seen in these pictures, on 16:9 panels I always move the task bar to the right side of the Desktop just to gain back a bit of screen height.
Finally, just for something a little different, comparing the X1 Nano to a Gen3 X1 Tablet (3:2 13”, 3000x2000):
And now, the mystery “white box”: I don’t know if this is/will be part of the included accessories, or if it was included for evaluation with my sample laptop, but it’s very cool. It’s a tiny/compact USB-C Port Replicator! Considering the X1 Nano only sports two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, some customers may find a need for ease of connection to other devices, especially in a business setting. Connecting to a projector via HDMI immediately comes to my mind.
Bottom line... This is one beautiful laptop!
Will this lovely little beast dethrone my current daily driver? Stay tuned, and we’ll see!
Over the next days and weeks I’ll be putting this laptop through its paces, but that's it for now! Thanks for reading... I'll try to answer any questions I can, so please don't hesitate to post a reply.
When additional product, support, and documentation pages go live, I'll update this article to include them.
Product sales: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/coming-soon/ThinkPad-X1-Nano/p/22TP2X1X1N1
Product support: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-nano-gen-1-type-20un-20uq
Drivers: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-nano-gen-1-type-20un-20uq/downloads/driver-list
Documentation: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-nano-gen-1-type-20un-20uq/documentation/doc_userguide
PSREF: https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_X1_Nano_Gen_1
Token Ring
@ bananaman wrote:
Nice! I want one! Thank you for including the display comparison pics. How much does it actually weigh?
:-)
This one weighs in at 943g. Interestingly, the product sales page lists 986g for the WWAN/non-touch configuration like this one.
It could just be that my scale is off, though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@ alpavl wrote:
Thank you for the review! What about key travel, keyboard/keys size and overall typing experience?
Thanks for your question.
Key travel seems, at least to my non-touch-typing hands, to be equivalent to the other recent model ThinkPads I have. Pretty amazing that the trademark keyboard feel is maintained in such a thin and light package. No apparent keyboard flex, either, but I'm not a heavy-handed typist.
The key spacing appears to be the same as on my daily-driver Gen 4 X1 Yoga. The alphanumeric and function keys appear to be a tad smaller in the vertical dimension, but appear to be the same in the horizontal dimension. The right-side Backspace, Enter, |\ and Shift keys are narrower, though. It hasn't been any problem for me.
(Nano on top, Yoga underneath in the images below)
Right side of keyboard:
Left side of keyboard:
Hope this helps a bit.
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