Lenovo unveils the ThinkBook Plus, a curious professional laptop with dual screens: OLED and color e-ink

CES 2023 is an event that Lenovo usually uses for quasi-experimental purposes, revealing new product categories (some more successful than others) seeking the maximum possible impact. And if they later prosper, the market will decide. They are singular creations and sometimes even with a purpose that is difficult to understand, and something of this happens to the ThinkBook Plus, a convertible laptop with a rotating screen that combines an OLED panel with another color e-ink where the lid would normally go.

According to Lenovo, the new ThinkBook Plus Twist seeks to provide greater versatility than other laptops. On the one hand, the 13.3-inch OLED screen and “2.8K” resolution allows you to play videos with high quality, edit photos or simply work in a conventional way, while on the other, the rear e-ink color screen of 12 inches simplifies its use outdoors while increasing its autonomy. Both displays support the Lenovo digital pen.

The combination is quite strange. Although the e-ink screen allows the laptop to be used as if it were a large e-book reader, it does not seem that holding a laptop as if it were a device of this type is particularly comfortable. And although electronic ink consumes little power compared to an OLED screen, colors are very dim (something absolutely normal for this technology) and scrolling is jerky due to the refresh rate of only 12 Hz.

It is an option that at least is there. If it works or not, it will depend on the tastes and demands of each user.

For the rest, this equipment integrates 13th generation Intel Core processors, up to 16 GB of RAM, a maximum of 1 TB of storage and four USB ports.

It will go on sale in June with a price of 1,699 euros.

Lenovo Smart Paper, an electronic ink notebook for drawing and annotating

Those who are already satisfied with their notebook and don’t need a color e-ink display can also opt for the new Lenovo Smart Paper. This 10.3-inch, 1872 x 1404-pixel resolution digital notebook features a handy felt-tip stylus with 4,096 pressure levels, perfect for sketching or annotating on the device’s 50GB of storage. The panel has an anti-glare treatment and has 24 lighting levels.

The internal software incorporates 74 notepad templates, different types of writing utensils (pen, pencil, brush, etc.), calendar, calculator, and email manager. Of course, the Lenovo Smart Paper also works as if it were a traditional e-book reader (it allows access to the contents of ebooks.com through its own app, already pre-installed) and supports backup to the cloud using the main providers.

Initially, Lenovo will launch the Smart Paper towards the month of March with a price of 499 euros.