The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3: A Funky and Unconventional Laptop at CES 2022

I'm not going to lie, I love funky laptops that are just a little bit different. And for CES 2022 so far, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is scratching that itch for me. Even though we usually think of Lenovo as a pretty button-down company, they make ThinkPads, which are very plain business laptops, and Yoga laptops that fold, but we still see them as very traditional in their own way. Their gaming laptops also have a certain understated gray design to them. However, they also do a lot of fun and funky stuff.

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is the funky and weird laptop from this year's CES. It follows on the feet of previous ThinkBook systems that have tried to play around with the concept of secondary screens on laptops. This concept comes out of the woodwork every couple of years, and people try it out, but never quite catch on again until then we don't see it for a while. I have high hopes for this one because it combines a bunch of really interesting things that previous ThinkBook systems with secondary screens had.

Previous ThinkBook systems with secondary screens actually had eInk displays on the back of the screen. I think this is super interesting, and I love eInk. However, maybe it's not the most practical thing in the world. Other people have taken color screens and made them secondary screens inside laptops, often replacing the touchpad with that. This results in a touchpad that's also an LCD touchscreen, which isn't super practical either.

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 has a 17-inch display and then it has a separate 8-inch color LCD touchscreen built into the bottom half of the laptop. However, it also has a regular touchpad on top of that, so you're not losing out on having just that traditional touchpad experience. The regular screen is actually a 21:10 aspect ratio screen, which is something that's pretty rare. I always like to see this when it happens because it means the laptop has super wide real estate if you want to look at things side by side on the screen.

The second display, which is built into the bottom half of the laptop, is almost like they took a 7-inch tablet and just dropped it right in there. This secondary display can be used for all sorts of things, such as using it as a launcher and putting some shortcuts to your most frequently used programs on it. You can also use it as a notepad where you have little notes and can just have them on that screen rather than on your big screen. Some people might want to use it for media controls and lighting controls if they send those commands to that particular screen.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm not going to lie I love funky laptops that are just a little bit different and for CES 2022 so far the Lenovo thinkbook plus Gen 3 is scratching that itch for me so even though we usually think of Lenovo as a pretty button- down company they make think pads you know very plain business laptops they make yoga which fold but you know we still very traditional in their own way even their gaming laptops uh have a certain understated gray design to them uh they also do a lot of fun funky stuff the thinkbook plus Gen 3 is the funky weird laptop from this year's CES it follows on the feet of previous thinkbook systems which have tried to play around with the concept of secondary screens on laptops which is something that every couple of years comes out of the woodwork and people try it out never quite Cates on uh then we don't see it for a while this one I've got high hopes for because it combines a bunch of really interesting things uh previous think books with secondary screens actually had e in displays on the on the back of the screen uh which I think is super interesting I love eink but maybe it's not the most practical thing in the world other people have taken color screens and made them secondary screens inside a laptop often replace the touch pad with that so you have a touchpad that's also a color you know L CD touchscreen and that's not super practical either so here in this new thinkbook plus you've got a 17-in display and then you've got a separate 8 in color LCD touchcreen built into the bottom half of the laptop but then you've also got a regular touchpad on top of that so you're not losing out on having just that traditional touchpad experience now the regular screen it's not just you know your standard laptop screen it's actually a 21 by10 aspect ratio screen which is something that's pretty rare but I always like it when I see it that means it's super super wide screen uh some gaming monitors are set up like this and I think it's a really interesting way to just get maximum real estate if you're going to look at things side by side on the screen and then of course you've got this second display right over here next to the keyboard and it's almost like they took like an 8 in you know little tablet and just dropped it right in there now what can you do with the secondary display you know a lot of it is going to depend on how different software applications support it but in general uh you can use it as a launcher and put some you know shortcuts to your most frequently used programs on it you can use it as like a notepad uh where you have little notes and you can just have them on that screen rather than on your on your big screen uh you can use it for uh media controls and lighting controls and things like that if you send those commands to that particular screen or you can use it as like a big number pad you know if you need an actual you know number pad but you don't have that on your laptop you know you can use it as that also Lenovo says you can also use it to mirror some stuff on your smartphone I'm assuming that's especially if you have a Motorola Android phone because Lenovo makes those also uh you can waterfall content off let's say your your fullscreen document onto this as a secondary space to hold extra text that doesn't fit on your main screen or you can use it as a waycom almost style tab it with a stylist to do some editing on your photos or some artwork I haven't seen that in person yet uh but that sounds very interesting to me now on the big screen the resolution is 3072 by 1440 on that little 8 in LCD the resolution is 800 by 1280 so is this the most practical laptop you've ever seen well no but it's interesting to see people try new ideas and of anybody throwing stuff at laptops to see what's going to stick I trust Lenovo at least to you know make sure the ergonomics of it work because they're experts in you know keyboard layout and everything like that and of course I like the idea of having a color touch screen in here that does not interfere with the regular touchpad and isn't like in a weird spot like on the back of the lid where you're not really going to see it all that often Lenovo says this new thinkbook plus gen 3 will be available in May of 2022 for what I think is a fairly reasonable 13.99 considering there's so much interesting unusual stuff going on in thereI'm not going to lie I love funky laptops that are just a little bit different and for CES 2022 so far the Lenovo thinkbook plus Gen 3 is scratching that itch for me so even though we usually think of Lenovo as a pretty button- down company they make think pads you know very plain business laptops they make yoga which fold but you know we still very traditional in their own way even their gaming laptops uh have a certain understated gray design to them uh they also do a lot of fun funky stuff the thinkbook plus Gen 3 is the funky weird laptop from this year's CES it follows on the feet of previous thinkbook systems which have tried to play around with the concept of secondary screens on laptops which is something that every couple of years comes out of the woodwork and people try it out never quite Cates on uh then we don't see it for a while this one I've got high hopes for because it combines a bunch of really interesting things uh previous think books with secondary screens actually had e in displays on the on the back of the screen uh which I think is super interesting I love eink but maybe it's not the most practical thing in the world other people have taken color screens and made them secondary screens inside a laptop often replace the touch pad with that so you have a touchpad that's also a color you know L CD touchscreen and that's not super practical either so here in this new thinkbook plus you've got a 17-in display and then you've got a separate 8 in color LCD touchcreen built into the bottom half of the laptop but then you've also got a regular touchpad on top of that so you're not losing out on having just that traditional touchpad experience now the regular screen it's not just you know your standard laptop screen it's actually a 21 by10 aspect ratio screen which is something that's pretty rare but I always like it when I see it that means it's super super wide screen uh some gaming monitors are set up like this and I think it's a really interesting way to just get maximum real estate if you're going to look at things side by side on the screen and then of course you've got this second display right over here next to the keyboard and it's almost like they took like an 8 in you know little tablet and just dropped it right in there now what can you do with the secondary display you know a lot of it is going to depend on how different software applications support it but in general uh you can use it as a launcher and put some you know shortcuts to your most frequently used programs on it you can use it as like a notepad uh where you have little notes and you can just have them on that screen rather than on your on your big screen uh you can use it for uh media controls and lighting controls and things like that if you send those commands to that particular screen or you can use it as like a big number pad you know if you need an actual you know number pad but you don't have that on your laptop you know you can use it as that also Lenovo says you can also use it to mirror some stuff on your smartphone I'm assuming that's especially if you have a Motorola Android phone because Lenovo makes those also uh you can waterfall content off let's say your your fullscreen document onto this as a secondary space to hold extra text that doesn't fit on your main screen or you can use it as a waycom almost style tab it with a stylist to do some editing on your photos or some artwork I haven't seen that in person yet uh but that sounds very interesting to me now on the big screen the resolution is 3072 by 1440 on that little 8 in LCD the resolution is 800 by 1280 so is this the most practical laptop you've ever seen well no but it's interesting to see people try new ideas and of anybody throwing stuff at laptops to see what's going to stick I trust Lenovo at least to you know make sure the ergonomics of it work because they're experts in you know keyboard layout and everything like that and of course I like the idea of having a color touch screen in here that does not interfere with the regular touchpad and isn't like in a weird spot like on the back of the lid where you're not really going to see it all that often Lenovo says this new thinkbook plus gen 3 will be available in May of 2022 for what I think is a fairly reasonable 13.99 considering there's so much interesting unusual stuff going on in there\n"