Lenovo announces ultra-wide laptop with extra screen

While most laptops still use the 16:9 aspect ratio, we’ve seen a lot of companies use higher aspect ratios more and more over the last couple of years. Lenovo, while also experimenting with similar 16:10 laptop screens in other upcoming machines, is taking a broader approach. An ultra-wide display laptop was announced this week at CES. Yes, and it has a second screen next to the keyboard.

Lenovo says the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is the first machine to feature a 17.3-inch 21:10 screen. We’ve seen ultra-wide laptops before, but laptops with a screen wider than 16:9 are incredibly rare today.

Toshiba tried to bring this to life in 2012. The 21:9 aspect ratio Toshiba U845W laptop promised an excellent movie viewing experience (at least movies with the same aspect ratio) and multitasking. More recently, Acer’s 2017 Predator 21 X used a 21:9 aspect ratio and a unique curve to claim the highest level of game immersion (again, with supported titles).

The ultra-wide screen of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is a pretty powerful IPS. It has a resolution of 3072 x 1440, a fast 120Hz refresh rate, up to 400 nits of brightness, and a high 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut.

Lenovo is targeting version 3 of its ThinkBook Plus for SMBs and related tasks. While taller screens are great for reading long documents and spreadsheets, a wider screen gives you room to fit more windows side by side. And Lenovo noted that Windows 11 makes this generally easier than before.

Thanks to the ultra-wide screen, the overall result is an ultra-wide car (16.14 inches long). This allowed Lenovo to place an extra screen on the deck of the laptop for even more multitasking.

The 8-inch touchscreen is similar to Asus’ ScreenPad technology, which turns the touchpad on some of its laptops into a touchscreen. Lenovo has singled out a mix of uses for its 800 x 1280 LCD display, from calculator, notepad and calendar to live stream display like a stock tracker. The small screen can display a gallery of thumbnails while you work in PhotoShop, or you can write on it with a stylus stored in the garage at the back of the deck.

A very long document can start on the main display of the future clamshell and flow to the secondary one. You can also use the 8-inch screen to store frequently used app launchers. Additionally, Lenovo has pointed to the screen as a way to mirror your smartphone. Again, this is aimed at small and medium businesses that have a lot on their hands.

In terms of specs, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 features a 12th Gen Intel Core I-series processor, 32GB of dual-channel LPDDR5 RAM, and 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. Lenovo gave it two USB-C ports, including one Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and an audio jack.

Lenovo said that when it launches in May, this dual-screen PC will be priced at $1,399.

Listing image from Lenovo