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by pwpw 1289 days ago
I vastly prefer my Thinkpad X1 Nano to my work MacBook Pro. I pair it with a desktop, so keep that in mind…

The nano is very, very lightweight, which makes it an amazing portable device for packing up and carrying around. The display is matte, which reduces glare when working outside. The keyboard feels significantly better to type on. This is the biggest pro for me. The camera has a privacy shutter, which gives me a greater peace of mind. And of course, it works well with Fedora Linux. I also optioned mine to have a 5G modem, which is convenient, although I rarely use it due to costly data plans. I have only managed to get the modem to work on the Windows side, but I’m optimistic it will have better Linux support one day.

The MacBook Pro is an impressive piece of hardware. The M1 chip is powerful, the battery life is amazing, and the build quality is high. However, I find it to be a much better experience exclusively using it at home docked in my setup due to its weight and glossy screen. At home, I can use my own mechanical keyboard when it’s docked to get around its mediocre keyboard. At that point, I’d rather just use my desktop. But if you’re only getting one device and are fine with MacOS, it is a good option. I prefer the more flexible desktop + lightweight laptop setup personally.

A minor thing I’ll note in favor of Apple is that the MacBook Pro is capable of driving my nicer Sennheiser headphones with ease. It’s something most people wouldn’t care about, but Apple excels in the audio department and deserves praise.

1 comments

How many hours of battery you can get from the X1?
I’ve honestly never measured it, but it lasts me most of the day (e.g. ~8 hours) with the i5 chip I optioned it with last year. I wouldn’t classify battery life as a strength, but I wouldn’t classify it as a weakness either. On a normal day, I’m never worried about the battery dying. If you want more battery, the bigger sized X1 offers more than the Nano.

My normal workflow consists of Firefox playing music on YouTube, VS Code, and the terminal.