I don’t remember the last time I wrote the word “dumbfounded,” much less the last time that one of the best laptops made me feel this surprised and shocked. I’ll never forget Lenovo’s ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop or its 17.3-inch transparent screen though. Lenovo’s showing off this jaw-dropping behemoth at Mobile World Congress, but CNN Underscored got a sneak preview at a private briefing earlier this month.
Let’s get the big issue out of the way early: Lenovo is merely boasting what it can do, not what it will do. That’s what a “concept” product means, of course. That said, it’s still the most exciting thing I’ve seen in laptops in quite some time. And this Micro-LED screen is no slouch, either; a Full HD panel with up to 1,000 nits of brightness. And while picture quality didn’t look on par with an OLED laptop or the Liquid Retina XDR displays in the latest MacBook Pros, it didn’t need that to wow me.
In a moment where technology is seemingly more about closing off our views to see more screens, with goggles and glasses like the Apple Vision Pro and XReal Air 2 Pro, Lenovo’s joining the transparency team that is seeming to form around LG’s Signature OLED T TV (which the company actually expects to ship).
Thinking of major use cases for such a laptop, I basically considered any time you’re out in public and want a more complete world view. While websites with white backgrounds look more opaque than transparent, the black backgrounds of a Notepad document and animations of space and fish fit the experience much better, as I could see the plants that Lenovo had placed behind the screen. The more websites use dark modes, the better this will go too.
Admittedly, I can also imagine some will blanch at the fact that such a laptop completely removes your privacy as a user. From those shopping for loved ones in the same room to those working on important business documents, the ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop could use a nontransparent mode, just like the LG OLED T offers. That said, I’m sure teachers would love to see what their kids are working on in the classroom.
But frustratingly, even this concept-grade experience had its flaws. The biggest being that drag-and-drop selecting just did not work with the touchpad. Sure, we got it to work at one point with a stylus, but that was just not great. And that all-glass keyboard’s problems don’t just stop there. Just like every iPad I ever tried to write full sentences on, I couldn’t type quickly without making mistakes and it didn’t feel comfortable either. If Lenovo decides to ship this, there will be a learning curve for sure — and I’ll definitely pair it with an external keyboard (such as the Logitech Wave that I wrote this story on).
If you want something more traditional, but still genre-defying, check out our review of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i.
The takeaway
Still, Lenovo’s ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop is a healthy reminder that laptops still have some tricks left up their screens. I’m curious to see if Lenovo (or someone else) will actually ship something like this in the future — and how much it will cost.
