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This assessment first appeared in situation 352 of PC Pro.
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 4 is essentially the most uncommon laptop I’ve ever reviewed. Not solely does it have a shade E Ink show on its lid, however it additionally contains a hinge that permits you to swivel the display 180°. Observe that isn’t 360°, which is a disgrace – I stored attempting to twist it within the incorrect course.
So, let’s deal with the plain query: why? Based on Lenovo, it provides 4 modes: laptop computer, tablet, e-paper and typewriting. It additionally ships with a stylus – though sadly there’s nowhere for it to be stowed – so you’ll be able to write, annotate and draw on it. I discover the Apple Pencil extra gratifying to write down with because of its better heft and girth, and whereas Lenovo’s stylus is exact it’s nonetheless no match for an actual pen and paper.
The colour E Ink show is supposed to make studying books and taking notes really feel just like performing the identical acts on actual paper. It will possibly present something the OLED panel can, so that you aren’t decreased to viewing content material made particularly for e-readers. Whereas a novel characteristic, I wouldn’t advocate it because of the E Ink panel’s low 12Hz refresh charge. Scrolling internet pages or paperwork is uneven, and a ghosting impact (when traces of a earlier picture stay on display) provides to the annoyance.
Colours on the E Ink panel additionally look washed out at finest, hitting 0.4% (that’s not a typo!) of the DCI-P3 shade gamut. Nonetheless, it’s higher to have some shade than none in any respect.
If all you’re doing is studying or utilizing it as a typewriter, then the E Ink show nonetheless has its benefits. For a begin, it’s simpler on the eyes, however it additionally cuts down on distractions. Change on the Lenovo Reader mode and you may devour ebooks, whereas you should utilize Lenovo Pocket book to scribble notes. If the efficiency is just too sluggish, you can too use Reader and Pocket book with the OLED show.
This 13.3in touchscreen panel is as vibrant as you’d anticipate, masking 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut with a mean Delta E of 0.21. It’s vibrant, too, hitting 360cd/m2 in our SDR assessments and 480cd/m2 with HDR content material.
You possibly can fortunately watch movies on the ThinkBook Plus with out headphones, because of clear audio and loads of quantity with out distortion. Music lovers gained’t recognize the shortage of bass on provide, nevertheless.
Taking into account that Lenovo is pitching the ThinkBook Plus as a typewriter, it’s a disgrace that it isn’t a part of the ThinkPad vary with its deep key journey. Nonetheless, I discovered the keys snappy and responsive, and regardless that it is a compact laptop computer it by no means felt cramped when typing (and I’ve large arms). The trackpad’s small footprint proved more difficult, not at all times registering my gestures.
Whereas I say compact, I don’t say gentle. At 1.4kg, that is considerably heavier than the streamlined 13in laptops we see elsewhere, with many now ducking underneath 1kg. What’s extra, they’ll provide much better battery life than the Plus, which gave up after 6hrs 50mins of our web-surfing rundown take a look at. That’s poor.
Lastly we come to hurry, which is consistent with expectations for a laptop computer with a Core i7-1355U. It’s extraordinarily quick for day-to-day operations, however those that use heavyweight apps or need to play AAA video games ought to look elsewhere. Just one configuration is on sale, with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which additionally restricts utilization, however not as a lot as the truth that Lenovo UK hasn’t introduced a launch date or value but.
So, must you rush over to the US and spend $3,039 on this machine? For the overwhelming majority of individuals, the reply to that could be a easy no. That’s a disgrace, as I actually wished to like the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 4. In any case, it’s not on daily basis you come throughout a 2-in-1 with a built-in shade E Ink show and twistable hinge. As foldable telephones have proven, having a tool that serves a number of capabilities is advantageous. However whereas the concept behind this ThinkBook Plus sounds nice on paper, it doesn’t dwell as much as the promise — particularly for a tool at this value.