Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 review

960 grams, top-band office, and a hard performance floor

The ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 (2023) at $886 continues the line's physics experiment: 0.96kg — 40 percent under the class median — around a Core i5-1340P. The successor refines the office experience and leaves the fundamental trade exactly where the Gen 2 left it.

Where it holds up

Portability at 91.7 is top-band and mobility at 84 top-quartile; office at 88.21 reaches top-band, the strongest office reading of any sub-kilogram machine in this batch. The weight figure is the product, and three years on it sits within 30 grams of the lightest machine in this batch. For a documents-and-calls traveler, the essentials are all present and pleasantly finished.

Where it falls short

Overall performance at 28.41 is the flagged weakness — 31.5 percent below the class median, low band — and the company it keeps is familiar: gaming at 23, 3D modeling at 27, engineering CAD at 30, value at 19.3. No game or software flags survived matching. At $886 the value index is the sharpest critique: the money buys grams removed, not capability added.

Price and depreciation

No launch anchor is recorded; the class-derived rate computes to 10.62 percent per year — moderate. The structural note: premium ultralights depreciate around their niche, and a 19.3 value index says this one's premium has not fully burned off yet.

Alternatives to consider

The Gen 2 predecessor (listing 1901) at $780 is 10 grams heavier with a weaker office score and the same trade shape for $106 less. The ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 4 (listing 1910) at the same $886 offers a 1.2kg frame with a 34.41 performance index — marginal, but in the right direction. The decisive alternative is the ThinkPad T14s Gen 2 AMD (listing 1919) at $686: 57.76 performance, no low band, for $200 less — carried in a heavier frame.

Bottom line

Fairly priced for the class. The lightest ThinkPad of this batch at 0.96kg with a top-band office score — against performance at 28.41, low-band creative axes and value at 19.3. The Nano remains what it always was: a brilliant answer to a question about weight, and only that question.