MacBook Air M3 vs ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12
Side by side comparison of two of the best laptops on the market. Same category, different priorities.
MacBook Air M3
The best everyday laptop you can buy, especially if you're coming from an M1 or older Mac.
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12
The business laptop that's also the best keyboard on any laptop.
How do the MacBook Air M3 and ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 compare, spec for spec?
| Spec | Apple MacBook Air M3 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,099 | $1,799 |
| Rating | 4.8 (8,921) | 4.6 (2,200) |
| CPU | Apple M3, 8-core CPU | Intel Core Ultra 7 |
| RAM | 8GB unified memory (base); upgradeable to 16GB or 24GB | 16 to 64GB |
| Storage | 256GB SSD (base); upgradeable to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB | 512GB to 2TB |
| Display | 13.6-inch Liquid Retina, 2560 x 1664, 500 nits | 14" IPS or OLED |
| Weight | 2.7 pounds | 2.48 lbs |
| Battery life | Up to 15 hours 13 minutes (Tom's Guide test) | About 9 hours |
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Should you buy the MacBook Air M3 or the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12?
Both are strong picks in the laptops category. Here's how to decide:
Get the MacBook Air M3 if...
This laptop is for people who want the best all-around ultraportable without spending MacBook Pro money. Students, remote workers, commuters, content creators who aren't doing heavy video work — it nails all of it. The M3 chip is a real step up from M1 in benchmarks and real-world use, and the battery life is genuinely absurd. Over 15 hours in testing puts it in a completely different league from most Windows alternatives. The design is unchanged from the M2, which is either fine or boring depending on how you look at it. Either way it's one of the best-looking and best-built laptops out there. Thin, light, solid aluminum, great keyboard, great trackpad. The display is bright, covers the full DCI-P3 color gamut and holds up outdoors. Dual external monitor support is a nice addition, though you have to close the lid to use both at once which is annoying if you want to use the built-in keyboard. Where it falls short: if you already own an M2 Air, don't bother. The performance bump isn't worth the cash. SSD speeds also lag behind similarly priced Windows machines, which matters if you move large files around often. Gaming is better than before but still a secondary use case — games built for Apple Silicon run well, everything else is a coin flip. The base 256GB storage feels tight and you'll almost certainly want to upgrade it, which adds to the cost. At $1,099 with 16GB of RAM now standard, this is genuinely excellent value for what you get. It's the sweet spot in Apple's laptop lineup — powerful enough for almost everything, light enough to forget it's in your bag and built to last for years.
Get the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 if...
Lightweight carbon fiber, MIL SPEC durability and the iconic ThinkPad keyboard.