Lenovo introduced the ThinkBook Plus Twist convertible laptop, which is equipped with two large displays at once – OLED and E Ink

For those for whom the power consumption of a laptop is critical, Lenovo has offered a rather unusual ThinkBook Plus twist transformer, which allows you to alternately use different displays – either OLED or an E-Ink screen with electronic ink. The latter has a relatively low refresh rate, but consumes extremely little power.

Image source: Lenovo

The company introduced the ThinkBook Plus Twist laptop model at CES 2023, which is taking place in Las Vegas these days. The Transformer is a dual screen variant on a special hinge that allows you to use either one display or the other.

The 13.3-inch OLED touch version has a brightness of 400 cd/m2², 2.8K resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. It displays 100% of the DCI-P3 color space. A twist of the front panel – and the owner can use the 12-inch E Ink color touch display with a refresh rate of 12 Hz – this will not be enough for watching videos or playing games, but for reading it doesn’t matter, and it’s enough for printing.

Such displays are used in e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and consume extremely little power, which significantly increases the operating time of devices compared to options with displays based on other technologies. However, they usually do not display very many colors and the refresh rate is also low. That doesn’t matter with the new Lenovo. If you need to use the laptop in “normal” mode, just rotate the display and use the OLED.

Image source: Lenovo

However, don’t expect the model to work like electronic readers for months without recharging. The system runs on a 13th generation Intel Core processor with Windows, has up to 16 GB of RAM and PCIe Gen 4 storage up to 1 TB, so it consumes much more than the reading chip. However, Lenovo claims that the 56Wh battery alone will provide up to 21 consecutive hours of battery life with the E Ink display, although it doesn’t specify what content was used for testing during that period.

For some reason, the model only has two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. In addition, it is not clear why, in accordance with modern trends, the laptop was not made with a refresh rate of the OLED display of at least 120 Hz. But the novelty supports the use of the pen.

This isn’t the first Lenovo laptop to use this type of pivoting hinge, and it’s not the first to get an optional E Ink display, but it’s probably the only Lenovo laptop with this comfortable design. The laptop starts at $1,649 and is expected to begin shipping in June 2023.