Lenovo recently released a new dual-screen laptop called the ThinkBook Plus that has a secondary E Ink screen built into the top of the lid.
The main display is a 13.3-inch 300 nit IPS screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080, and the E Ink screen is a 10.8-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution screen with touch support.
Aside from the E Ink display on the lid, the ThinkBook Plus is a typical mid-level laptop that runs Windows 10 Pro.
There are two variations of the ThinkBook Plus available from Lenovo’s website. One has a 10th gen Intel i5 processor (i5-10210U) with 8GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. The upgraded model has an i7 processor (i7-10510U) with 16GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD.
Neither are cheap. The retail price of the i5 model is $1299 and the i7 model sells for $1529.
According to a review at ZDNet, there’s not much you can do with the E Ink screen aside from writing notes, which can be synced with OneNote (that’s a plus), and using the built-in Reader app that supports PDF, EPUB, MOBI and TXT formats. You can use an included stylus to write on PDFs.
Unfortunately it does not work with the Kindle app, as shown in videos from CES earlier this year, or any other reading apps outside of the default one.
Apparently the E Ink screen also can be used to show your Outlook Email and Calendar as well as the weather and date, and you can set custom wallpapers, but that’s about it. Like most hybrid devices that feature a secondary E Ink screen, there are a lot of limitations, but having an E Ink screen built into the top of a laptop is still pretty cool.
So, I would buy this if I could pick my own work computer. My Thinkpad (supplied by the job) has the same but older processor and RAM specs. The screen size doesn’t really matter since I have it connected to two external monitors whenever doing dev work. The reason I’d choose this though, is that I always take my Nova Pro to meetings to take notes which means I have to carry two devices around whenever I have to go into the office. I commute on a motorcycle so whatever I’m taking into work is on my back for an hour a day.
I am probably the rare use case this actually works for, but the extent of my selecting my business machine was choosing the 17″ or 15″ Thinkpad workbook. I chose the 15″. Maybe when we do upgrades I can convince the buyer, I work with him directly.
This looks promising but designers of these devices need to unleash their imagination. It would be very interesting to see laptop like this with swivel display. However, hardware itself is not sufficient. Even more important is software. Note taking, PDF scribbling and annotation, decent document processor… Usage of eink screen must be (I do not have better word) natural and integral part of user experience.
I wish that Steve Jobs did use Kindle. I am sure that he (or they – Apple) would provide full experience.
How freaking hard is it to just mount it as a monitor and let people use their normal software stacks to develop for it. We need some general purpose eink devices not more walled gardens. DOA