A part of me nonetheless can’t consider it, however Lenovo did the factor: it took a bonkers idea for a laptop computer with a rollable display screen and constructed the tech into one thing you possibly can truly personal and use like a standard laptop. Besides, as typical because the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 will be, it’s removed from a standard laptop. It’s a $3,300 laptop computer with a display screen that expands from 14 inches to 16.7 inches on the push of a button.
Oh, and it’s truly good. Not simply good, however very good. I nonetheless can’t consider it.
The increasing display screen is genuinely helpful, and it makes the ThinkBook by far one of many coolest and most futuristic-looking laptops I’ve ever used. However, as with most new applied sciences, being on the bleeding edge is dear. And as you would possibly anticipate for a laptop computer that bodily will get taller, there are some rising pains, too.
$3299
The Good
- One of many coolest, most original laptops round
- The tall display screen is nice for productiveness and eye-level video calls
- Punchy colours and crisp, vivid particulars from the versatile OLED
- High-tier keyboard and trackpad
- Nice efficiency and battery life
The Dangerous
- $3,300
- Heavy for its dimension
- Restricted hinge tilt and restricted ports
- Lenovo’s multitasking software program isn’t nice
- The non-touch display screen wobbles, creaks, and has seen ripples
If you first open the ThinkBook Plus, you’ll see a square-ish 14 inch OLED show with a 120Hz refresh fee and a 2000×1600 decision. However press a button, and the display screen unrolls to a taller 16.7-inches and 2000 x 2350 decision. (I affectionately name it “the tallboy.”) With the display screen prolonged, it’s like working with two stacked 12.4-inch 16:9 shows. It’s a number of the greatest single-monitor multitasking I’ve skilled. The additional vertical area is nice for going full-screen in a doc, code editor, or spreadsheet, or for split-screening apps with out slicing off the perimeters of the home windows. You may get the advantages of a vertical show wherever, not simply in a multi-monitor desk setup. And the ThinkBook itself makes an ideal vertical sidecar to an enormous monitor.
- Display screen: A
- Webcam: B
- Mic: B
- Keyboard: A
- Touchpad: A
- Port choice: D
- Audio system: C
- Variety of ugly stickers to take away: 3 (not pictured in our images)
Tallboy mode even makes video calls extra nice, because it brings the webcam a lot nearer to eye stage. Having the highest of the display screen larger has additionally helped relieve a little bit of neck ache from staring down at laptops all day. I get improved ergonomics whether or not I’m working at my desk, a desk, or in goblin mode on my flooring.
I’ve been utilizing the brand new ThinkBook Plus full-time for a couple of week, and I’ve stored it in 16.7-inch mode virtually the whole time, as a result of that’s the entire level of this factor. I by no means get sick of taking a look at this big OLED with its punchy colours and robust distinction. It’s plastic as a substitute of glass for the sake of flexibility, and it lacks contact assist (although that additionally means much less likelihood of scratching its softer floor with a fingernail or unintentionally knocking it over with a faucet). However I don’t thoughts any of that, as a result of having a lot display screen actual property in a laptop computer this compact and moveable was unreal up till now.
The tallest boy is greatest boy.
As with a foldable telephone, you possibly can see some creases and ripples within the display screen’s decrease third — the half that rolls up — particularly at indirect angles. If I look intently whereas engaged on a bright-white doc, I can generally make out a faint shadowy strip, however I hardly ever see it, even when gazing that spot. The motorized display screen takes about eight seconds to increase or retract, and it’s no louder than the followers on a mean gaming laptop computer. Individuals proper close to you in a quiet area will hear it, however even ambient feels like a TV within the background simply masks the motor.
Lenovo needed to go to some lengths to accommodate this display screen whereas protecting the ThinkBook feeling and looking like a normal-ish laptop computer. Its chassis is aluminum as a substitute of the carbon fiber, magnesium, and plastic discovered within the ThinkPad X1 Carbon — considered one of Lenovo’s go-to fashions of productiveness / enterprise laptops. That makes the ThinkBook fairly heavy for its dimension: at 3.72 kilos, it’s an entire pound and a half heavier than the X1 Carbon and a pound heavier than a 13-inch MacBook Air. The additional weight is probably going essential to preserve the laptop computer from falling over backward when the display screen is prolonged. The hinge can be very stiff. It takes two palms to pry open the laptop computer from its closed place, and the hinge doesn’t tilt again almost so far as different laptops to forestall toppling. The restricted vary of movement is much less of an enormous deal in tall mode, however extra noticeable in 14-inch mode. Nevertheless, I often put it in 14-inch mode solely when it’s time to shut it up and transfer it round, so it hasn’t bothered me a lot but.
14-inch mode is a bit squat, nevertheless it’s tremendous in the event you want it.
That’s way back to the hinge goes. A minimum of it’s greater than workable in 16.7-inch mode.
Shut it in tall mode or tilt the hinge an excessive amount of whereas the display screen is rolling, and also you’ll get yelled at by a buzzing alarm.
Regardless of the laptop computer’s common sturdiness, the display screen itself generally is a little wobbly, with audible creaks and slight knocking sounds while you’re adjusting it. The lid consists of an interior body and outer body; the outer body strikes alongside a observe on the perimeters of the interior body to develop the lid’s footprint and roll the display screen upward. The irksome sounds come from the place the 2 lid frames meet within the center.
As a result of a part of the display screen is garaged below the keyboard deck, there’s no area subsequent to the keyboard for the audio system, so as a substitute they’re on the entrance of the chassis, angled down. They’re mediocre for a $3,300 laptop computer, and the sound is commonly obscured by your wrists.
The opposite audible quirk is the ThinkBook’s “you’re doing it mistaken” alarm: For those who begin closing the lid with the display screen prolonged, otherwise you transfer the display screen whereas it’s rolling, the laptop computer emits a high-pitched tone. It’s probably the most 90s-motherboard-ass factor I’ve heard in a very long time, however I discover its needling sound oddly charming.
It’s not an impressed identify, however total a modern design.
The aspect energy button has a fingerprint sensor, although with face unlock assist I barely touched it.
On the high of the lid is a webcam kill change for added privateness.
The front-facing downward firing audio system are fairly mehh.
The remainder of the laptop computer is strong, as you’d hope for a $3,300 machine. It has a haptic trackpad (hallelujah). Regardless of being barely small, it beats the heck out of all of the Lenovo mechanical trackpads I’ve tried, rivaling Apple’s in precision and really feel. It’s an ideal counterpart to the keyboard, which is superb as common for Lenovo, with an ideal tactile really feel and good key journey. The built-in mic sounds good, and that high-climbing webcam renders a reasonably sharp picture. It handles combined or tough lighting properly, whereas capturing you at a extra pleasing angle. (Look, it’s okay to not need your webcam to intensify double chins or give folks a view up your nostrils.) It’s a disgrace it solely has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, however larger port crimes have been dedicated elsewhere, and a minimum of there’s a headphone jack.
1/6The up-and-down arrow button triggers the motor to increase or contract the show. The important thing to its proper is a shortcut to Lenovo’s Workspace app.
Lenovo ships the ThinkBook Plus with its personal Workspace app to assist with multitasking on the oddly proportioned show. It provides fast entry to pinnable widgets, apps, and even enabling a digital show for a picture-in-picture expertise — in the event you’re so inclined . You possibly can select to have Workspace auto-launch while you develop the display screen, and there’s even a devoted key for it. However I discovered it extra troublesome than useful, and I encountered bugs when utilizing Workspace with a number of digital desktops, starting from glitching my wallpaper to stopping me from four-finger swiping between desktops. As a substitute, I’ve simply been utilizing Home windows 11’s native window administration, and I’ve been pleasantly stunned by how properly it really works on this shapeshifting display screen. I encountered a one-off bug the place the taskbar randomly disappeared, nevertheless it was solved by a full restart.
1/8Lenovo’s ThinkBook Workspace app means that you can pin home windows and apps to the display screen’s lower-third. However I don’t love the way it wastes some valuable area with its further title bar.
Efficiency-wise, the Intel Core Extremely 7 258V within the ThinkBook traces up with different laptops we’ve examined with the identical chip. It’s quick for on a regular basis duties and productiveness apps, and it’s about as energy environment friendly as different fashions with a lot smaller, non-OLED screens. I might simply final 9 hours or longer on a cost with the default sleep / energy settings, getting me by a full day of labor in combined utilization (Google Docs, Slack, Sign chat, a lot of Chrome tabs, and even a 30-minute video name and equally lengthy audio name). And that complete time I hardly ever heard its fan spin up or felt it warmth up. On one other day, I stretched it to almost eight full hours with the display screen stored on almost the entire time in tall mode.
System
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 / Intel Core Extremely 7 258V 8C / 32GB / 1TB
Acer Swift 14 AI / Intel Core Extremely 7 258V 8C / 32GB / 1TB
Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 13.8-inch / Snapdragon X Plus 10C / 16GB / 512GB
MacBook Air 13-inch M4 / 10C / 10C / 16GB / 512GB
MacBook Professional 16-inch M4 Professional / 14C / 20C / 48GB / 2TB
Geekbench 6 CPU Single27152609244637753976Geekbench 6 CPU Multi1097110690131901489922615Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL)2982828984Not tested3070170018Cinebench 2024 Single119118108171179Cinebench 2024 Multi5175968087361744
Enjoyable truth: draining the battery to under 5 p.c prompts a countdown timer for the display screen to robotically roll down and keep down till it turns off otherwise you plug in. So that you shouldn’t get caught with the display screen prolonged and no option to pack it up. Not unhealthy, Lenovo. Not unhealthy.
$3,300 can get you a variety of different glorious laptops (three nice $1,000 laptops, even), however none of them have this extending show. It’s considered one of only some methods to get extra display screen in a conventionally sized laptop computer. You may get a dual-screen laptop computer just like the Yoga Guide 9i or Asus Zenbook Duo, or a folding-screen laptop computer just like the ThinkPad X1 Fold , or go for some sort of moveable monitor. However as a lot as I dig these, a dual-screen or folding-screen setup is so cumbersome by comparability. You’re not simply strolling right into a espresso store and hitting a button to get extra display screen, you’re establishing camp along with your Franken-multi-monitor-laptop and its peripherals.
The ThinkBook Plus has appeared fairly sturdy in my time with it. I even had it rattling round in a backpack on a 500-mile street journey, and it was tremendous. Lenovo claims the display screen is rated for 30,000 hinge openings / closings and 20,000 rolls up and down, however you simply don’t have these considerations with common laptops. As a lot as I really like utilizing this rollable laptop computer, I’ll all the time be just a little cautious about longevity and what a display screen restore might value if the worst ever occurs (Lenovo didn’t reply my questions on restore prices by the point of publication).
It’s a largely unassuming laptop computer when it’s closed up. Now think about if all laptops someday might pull these sorts of shapeshifting methods?
The ThinkBook Plus rollable is a genuinely cool concept, and an ideal laptop computer. I hope the show tech continues to evolve and we see extra wild concepts like this change into a actuality. Or, if Lenovo delivers on its different latest idea laptop computer concept, the ThinkBook Flip, possibly we are able to get the same tall-monitor expertise with out the added heft and price of motors.
This could possibly be the beginning of a rolling-screen revolution. Or it might simply be a distinct segment product for deep-pocketed people who need to really feel like they’re dwelling sooner or later. Sadly, considered one of these realities is more likely for now, till the tech will get low-cost sufficient to trickle all the way down to mainstream laptops. However rattling am I joyful this factor is out in the actual world, even when recognizing one at a random cafe will really feel like a unicorn sighting. Lenovo is without doubt one of the solely laptop computer producers that turns its bizarre ideas into precise merchandise, and I hope it retains pushing — getting cheaper, quirkier, or ideally each.
2025 Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 (as reviewed)
Show: 14-inch (2000 x 1600, 5:4 side ratio) to 16.7-inch (2000 x 2350, 8:9 side ratio) 120Hz versatile OLED (no contact assist)
CPU: Intel Core Extremely 7 258V
Storage: 1TB M.2 2242 SSD
Webcam: 5-megapixel mounted focus, with privateness shutter
Biometrics: IR digicam for Home windows Good day face unlock, fingerprint reader in energy button
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 40Gbps with DisplayPort 2.1 and PD 3.1, 3.5mm combo audio jack
Dimensions: 11.95 x 9.08 x 0.78 inches
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