The Mac vs. Windows battle is alive and well, and the two main competitors in the ultralight division are the MacBook Air and the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1. Both offer a premium, portable, and lightweight computing experience, but which one you choose as the better of the two comes down to a few important distinctions like price, design, features, performance, and battery life. Apple’s MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 are also both configurable when it comes to aspects like RAM, storage, and more. Therefore, for the sake of fairness and simplicity in the comparison, we have extracted the prices, design and performance measurements of the most affordable model in each range – the base 13-inch MacBook Air and the Intel ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition. In terms of price, you might be surprised to learn that the MacBook is actually significantly cheaper of the two upcoming ones. at a starting price of $1,299, compared to $2,249 for the ThinkPad.
For the Lenovo’s higher price, however, you get double the RAM, the choice of a higher refresh rate OLED display, slightly longer battery life (if you choose the stock display), and a slightly lighter build with the ThinkPad Carbon X1’s magnesium construction and carbon fiber cover. On the other hand, the base MacBook Air offers exceptional performance, twice the storage, more colors, and is almost $1,000 cheaper. This is exceptional value for money and the best overall choice. However, that doesn’t mean the ThinkPad X1 Carbon isn’t a great choice for some buyers, as we’ll explain.
The MacBook Air and ThinkPad X1 Carbon have similar designs but different features
Both laptops comfortably fall into the ultralight laptop category, with the 13-inch MacBook Air measuring 0.44 inches (1.13 cm) thick and weighing just 2.7 pounds (1.23 kg). Likewise, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition measures 0.65 inches (1.64 cm) thick and is actually lighter than the MacBook Air at just around 2.2 pounds. The ThinkPad comes in just one color – black – while the MacBook Air comes in four: Sky Blue, Starlight, Silver and Midnight.
The 13-inch MacBook Air features a 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display with 500 nits brightness, and the ThinkPad offers a 1920 x 1200 WUXGA IPS touchscreen by default, also with 500 nits brightness. Both displays achieve a refresh rate of 60Hz. It’s important to note, however, that you can replace the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s base display with an impressive 2.8K OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate at no extra cost if you prefer. This is a huge improvement in visual fidelity, but it will come at the cost of much higher battery usage.
There’s no clear winner over Apple’s Liquid Retina display; the ThinkPad has a slight advantage in size and resolution, but the MacBook doesn’t have to worry about OLED, and its Liquid Retina display (using mini-LED technology) offers superior brightness (which is ideal for working outdoors). However, the ThinkPad wins hands down when it comes to ports; the Air only has a MagSafe charging port, two USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the ThinkPad has three USB-C ports, a USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Performance and battery comparison
When it comes to performance, the most affordable MacBook Air comes with the powerful M5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Meanwhile, the base ThinkPad Carbon However, you can further upgrade the CPU, RAM, and storage for an additional fee. Both will comfortably cover almost any creative or productivity task you throw at them.
Using Tom’s Hardware’s 3DMark Steel Nomad graphics performance benchmarks, the 13-inch MacBook Air (M5, 2026) scored 1,005, compared to the ThinkPad’s 596, meaning the MacBook Air performed 41% better. This is despite the ThinkPad tested having an upgraded Ultra 7 355 processor. It’s a similar story with Geekbench 6, where the MacBook scored 17,926, more than 6,000 points better than the Lenovo. Also pay attention to the storage size on the ThinkPad; 256 GB is a bit small considering the size of modern applications, and a significant portion will be consumed by Windows.
As for battery life, the ThinkPad Carbon The ThinkPad supports fast charging with a 65W charger or better, and the MacBook is capable of fast charging at up to 70W via the MagSafe charging port. Ultimately, the 13-inch MacBook Air is the best value-for-money ultralight laptop. But if you want Windows and a greater degree of customization and remote security thanks to vPro processors, the ThinkPad is the way to go.
