This tiny ThinkPad can’t quite keep up with the MacBook Air M2

While the laptop industry continues to move toward 14-inch laptops and larger, the 13-inch laptop remains an important category. One of the best is the Apple MacBook Air M2, with an extremely thin and well-built chassis, great performance, and incredibly long battery life.

Lenovo has recently introduced the third generation of its ThinkPad X1 Nano, one of the lightest laptops we’ve tested and a good performer as well. It’s stiff competition, but which of these two diminutive laptops stands apart?

Specs and configurations

The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 starts at $1,217 for a Core i5-1340P CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 13.0-inch 2K IPS non-touch display. Maxed out, the laptop costs $1,875 for a Core i7-1370P vPro, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a touch display.

The MacBook Air M2 is less expensive in its entry-level configuration, at $1,099 for an 8-core CPU/8-core GPU M2 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina IPS display. With an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU M2, 24GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD, the MacBook Air M2 is quite a bit more expensive at $2,400.

Design

The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 maintains the iconic ThinkPad aesthetic that’s been around for ages. Its chassis is black-on-black with a few red accents, and it’s identifiable from a distance as a member of the ThinkPad line. That’s great if you’re a ThinkPad fan, but to others, the design is getting a little stale. The MacBook Air M2, by contrast, adopts Apple’s contemporary MacBook design that mimics the more expensive MacBook Pros, with simple, elegant lines and no bling.

Both laptops are well-constructed. The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 is made of a mix of carbon fiber in the lid and magnesium-aluminum alloy in the chassis, while the MacBook Air M2 is chiseled out of single chunks of aluminum. The MacBook is incredibly thin and its lid is a little flexible while its chassis is rock-solid. By contrast, the ThinkPad is thicker (but still reasonably thin) and much lighter, with some flexing in the keyboard deck. You can’t fault the build quality of either laptop, but the MacBook does feel sturdier in hand.

The MacBook also sports the best keyboard you’ll find on a laptop today, Apple’s Magic Keyboard with great key size and spacing and the snappiest, more precise switches around. The ThinkPad’s keyboard is the usual version, with large sculpted keys and a firmer feel. The MacBook’s Force Touch haptic touchpad has more usable surface area and offers a more precise feel, compared to the mechanical version on the ThinkPad that loses some size to buttons servicing the TrackPoint nubbin in the middle of the keyboard.

Both laptops have the same limited connectivity, with just a couple of Thunderbolt 4 ports and an audio jack. The ThinkPad has more up-to-date wireless connectivity and offers 4G WWAN for always-connected internet.

Finally, both laptops have 1080p webcams that offer quality images for videoconferencing. The ThinkPad has an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition along with a fingerprint reader in the palm rest, while the MacBook has a Touch ID fingerprint reader embedded in the power button. Both make it easy to log in without a password.

Performance

The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 uses 28-watt Intel 13th-gen CPUs, and we reviewed the laptop with the Core i7-1360P, a 12-core (four Performance and eight Efficient), 16-thread CPU that typically provides excellent productivity performance. Its Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics are weak, however, and don’t do much to speed up creative processes.

The MacBook Air M2 uses Apple’s M2 processor, with eight CPU cores and either eight or 10 GPU cores. We reviewed the latter, and it too provided excellent productivity performance that closely matched the ThinkPad in our CPU-intensive benchmarks. The MacBook is likely to be faster in creative applications, though, thanks to a variety of GPU optimizations.

Performance for most users is likely to be similar, although the MacBook Air M2 does have the benefit of being fanless and so running more quietly. At the same time, its chassis gets a bit warmer than the ThinkPads under high loads.

Display

Apple’s MacBooks have always enjoyed excellent displays, and the MacBook Air M2 is no exception. Its 13.6-inch Liquid Retina IPS panel is sharp and bright, with wider and more accurate colors than average and outstanding contrast. It’s an excellent display.

The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3’s 13.0-inch IPS display is also good, with equally high brightness, slightly higher contrast, but narrower and less accurate colors.

Both displays are great for productivity users, but the MacBook’s panel is better for creators.

The MacBook Air M2 also has better audio, with four speakers and a number of optimizations that simply outclasses the dual upward-firing speakers in the ThinkPad. You’ll be much happier listening to music and streaming video on Apple’s laptop.

Portability

Both laptops are tiny, and each offers something distinctive in terms of its portability. The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 is one of the lightest laptops we’ve tested at 2.19 pounds, while the MacBook Air M2 is one of the thinnest at 0.44 inches.

But there’s no comparison when it comes to battery life. Apple’s Silicon processors are incredibly efficient, and the MacBook Air m2 lasted almost three times as long in our web browsing test and twice as long in our video looping test. It can last a couple of days on a charge where you’ll be plugging in the ThinkPad by lunchtime on the first day.

The MacBook Air M2 is longer-lasting and more modern

The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 is a nice little laptop, with good performance, a solid build, and a generally productivity-friendly design. But it’s starting to look a bit stale.

The MacBook Air M2, by contrast, is an elegant example of modern design. It also lasts incredibly long on a charge and offers the best keyboard and touchpad among 13-inch laptops. It wins this comparison handily.