Key Features
Introduction
Lenovo launched a whole innkeeper of young tech atCES 2024 , but nothing caught my eye quite as much as the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid .
On the open , this looks like any other ThinBook laptop computer . Squared off on the edges , silver in colour and fairly nondescript in its design . It even looks fairly average when opened .
The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid aim interesting when you pull the CRT screen off and it becomes two distinct product : a Windows microcomputer and a very disjoined Android pad that can be used severally .
There are some spectacular similarities to Microsoft’sill - fatedSurface Book , though not relying on Windows for the pill software package could serve Lenovo ’s selection digest out .
I spend a couple of hours try out the alone machine at Lenovo ’s CES demo room and here are my initial thoughts .
Price and Availability
Lenovo has said that the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 will be available in September 2024 , with pricing availablecloser to that release day of the month .
Design
The star of the show here is the detachable screen that turns this from a fair standard Lenovo ThinkBook laptop to an Android pad . There ’s no button you press to come away , you just sort of pull the screen from its clamp and it comes aside from the base of operations . The first few times I essay nothing hap , but once you find oneself the correct angle and pull it does amount off quite easily .
To dock the screen again just weight-lift it back in and it reattaches , automatically swap back to Windows mode . It ’s a seamless process and I was impressed at just how quick everything was .
Now , there have been some sacrifices made to fit this unparalleled design . As the show packs in all the lozenge ingredient , including a Qualcomm flake and battery , the free weight distribution is very unlike to a traditional laptop computer . Instead of having all the weight centred around the keyboard , here it ’s more unfold out . You ca n’t launch the screen well without holding the keyboard down , for case , and it does feel a little mad – very much in the same fashion the Surface Book did .
The showing is a 14 - inch OLED which is a respectable size for a laptop but large for a tablet . When detached , I did find the tablet cumbersome to use due to the size , but the benefit come when you want to watch a TV .
I can envisage this would be great on a planer when using the stand . It ’s a sharp panel too , at 2.8 K , and the OLED panel has mountain of oomph in its colours and it was n’t too pondering – even in a very brilliantly light demo room . As it ’s a lozenge , the display is touch - enable and there ’s a bundled stylus in the corner .
The giving giveaway that this is n’t a regular laptop is the camera placement on the lid . This looks very out of plaza for a laptop and I am not necessarily indisputable a 14 - in tablet require a big tv camera regalia on the back . Not all tab need cameras , and this feel like the perfect machine where a very salutary selfie camera would have sufficed .
Elsewhere , the keyword was gracious to type on and the large trackpad was antiphonal .
Specs and Performance
Due to the way the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid has been designed , there ’s a lot to discuss when it come to specs . Both the computer and the tablet have separate chips , separate memory , separate computer storage and separate assault and battery . The display control board is the only thing they both share .
For the tablet , there ’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 running the show , with 12 GB RAM , 256 GB of storage and a 38Whr battery . That ’s a fairly decent pick of specs for anAndroid tabletand during my short time with it felt politic and flying .
The Windows one-half runs on anIntel Core Ultra 7processor , 32 GB RAM , 1 TB of SSD and a 75Whr bombardment . Because all the computer components are housed in the keyboard , you could use it independently of the screen by plugging it into an external proctor . This would then give you both a tablet and a Windows microcomputer that can be used at the same sentence . That seems like a niche use case , but I am sure it will appeal to someone .
One of the biggest questions I had before my hands - on demo was about the package . With the Surface Book , you could pop the pad of paper screen off and still have access to all the same files and apps . That ’s not the case here as the two parts are very separate . Lenovo reps did state me there was a booklet file could be placed in that would then be synchronize with both parts of the gadget , but if you have a video playing in laptop modality you could n’t keep it play and pour down the screen off . you may flip-flop between Windows and Android with the screen attached , just not the other way around .
I think this could make this a puzzling gimmick to expend , unless you have the Windows part reserved for work and the tablet for entertainment , It does n’t seem like they are built to be used together .
Early Verdict
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid makes a good first impression and there has been a lot of thought put into the blueprint . The tablet share pops off well , the display is great and both parts of powerful . Yet , unless you desire to save space in a travelling bag I ca n’t see why you would n’t just buy a laptop computer and freestanding lozenge and have a better overall experience .
Lenovo is missing a trick by not make the two parts act closer together and allowing you to easily move things between the two operating systems . At least it solves the problem of hybrid 2 - in-1 machines having to employ Microsoft ’s poor Windows tablet offering .
Full Specs
