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amazon LENOVO THINKBOOK PLUS reviews
An interesting laptop concept from Lenovo, when equipped with a large E-Ink secondary screen to increase multitasking, ThinkBook Plus is expected to open a new direction in the context of the laptop market gradually becoming saturated and boring.
It can be said that Lenovo is a brand that has “experienced” in integrating E-Ink screens – the type of screens we still see on e-readers like Amazon Kindle Fire – onto their laptops, bringing Dual screen solutions at a cheaper cost. More battery saving than devices using IPS or OLED secondary screens.
However, the first generation Yoga Book and, more recently, the Yoga Book C930 used an E-Ink screen to replace the keyboard and trackpad, making the input and overall experience different from the rest. Introduced by Lenovo at CES 2020, ThinkBook Plus – the main character of this article – promises to continue to bring new experiences when the E-Ink screen is put on the top cover while still having a keyboard and trackpad like a regular laptop.
With an E-Ink screen almost unique on the market, is Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus enough to convince users?
The typical design of the ThinkBook series is “encrusted” by the E-Ink. screen
ThinkBook Plus is like a “twin brother” with the ThinkBook 13s Gen 1 that BiaReview once evaluated when opening the top cover. From color to style and design, the most noticeable difference between the two models is the placement of the fingerprint sensor when the ThinkBook Plus integrates it into the power key and places it on the right edge.
The overall design language of the ThinkBook series is generally quite modern and minimalist, and the ThinkBook Plus is no exception. The absence of the typical red TrackPoint of the ThinkPad series, combined with dark gray tones, makes ThinkBook Plus almost no distracting features, helping you focus on work. The bright silver chrome border surrounding the trackpad and the top cover is a rare “highlight” feature on the ThinkBook Plus.
However, everything changes when we look at the “exterior” of the laptop, where the “located” of the E-Ink secondary screen. This screen has a size of 10.8 inches, similar to the size of a tablet. But before diving deeper into the experience of this monitor, it’s also important to remember that Lenovo puts it in a position that’s used to protect laptops – from external shocks when carried in a backpack to more unpredictable things. Lenovo does include a cloth bag inside the laptop box, but we still have to be especially careful when using the ThinkBook Plus.
With a weight of 1.4 kg and a thickness of 17.4 mm, the ThinkBook Plus is not the leading thin and light laptop on the market, but it also does not cause too much difficulty in holding. The top lid of the ThinkBook Plus needs room for not one but two screens, and in fact, the thickness of the top cover also allows the user to “put the pen” on the side with a touchpad magnetic magnet. This way is better than attaching the pen to the sides of the laptop base when the pen can block the way of the connection port.
The stylus with the ThinkBook Plus is the Precision Pen, which also has a gray tone, a bit longer than a regular ballpoint pen, with a market price of about $60. The pen has 4096 pressure sensitivity levels and a battery life of up to 400 days, as announced by Lenovo. The bottom of the pen has a button so you can set up quick actions or shortcuts through the Windows Pen or Pen App.
The hinge on the ThinkBook Plus, similar to other ThinkBook products, allows the screen to be tilted 180 degrees to the body and is made of zinc alloy coated with Indium and Stannum for increased corrosion resistance, making the machine resistant to corrosion. 25,000 open/close cycles under test conditions.
The number of connections on ThinkBook Plus is enough for the working needs of an office or business people, including two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C and a mixed 3.5mm jack, and a Full range of current super-speed connections such as Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
The bottom of the machine is a strip of heat dissipation holes, with dual Harman Kardon speakers on either side. ThinkBook Plus’ speakers have a large volume, no bass – a common weakness of laptop speakers – but the mid-range is quite clear. Listening to music on Youtube or meeting via Zoom is not a bad experience on ThinkBook Plus, as long as you are not too fastidious.
Exciting two-screen experience
The main screen of the ThinkBook Plus has parameters including a size of 13.3 inches, an IPS panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels that does not support touch, providing a pretty good viewing experience. However, the screen border is still thick – adding a touching sacrifice to have an E-Ink secondary monitor. The maximum brightness of ThinkBook Plus, according to Lenovo announced is 300 nits. At the same time, the color coverage reaches 92% sRGB, so the machine can meet the needs of office use, watching movies, entertainment, and basic photo editing.
The secondary screen of the ThinkBook Plus has a resolution of 1080p due to E-Ink technology; of course, it can only display black and white, but it supports touch with both the Precision Pen and the finger. Gorilla Glass NBT protects the display part, but if you’ve ever broken a smartphone, you know that tempered glass can be fragile at times.
With the characteristics of E-Ink technology, operation delay is inevitable when all pixels are refreshed only when needed. To make it easier to imagine, it’s like writing a pencil on a piece of paper, and half a second later, a new stroke appears. In return, the power consumption of the E-Ink screen is very small, almost zero, and can even always display like the Always-on screen on a smartphone. Users can change the image displayed in the standby state to their liking or display all photos as a slideshow.
With this E-Ink secondary screen, users can quickly write notes, draw sketches or read stories and documents because there is almost no light emitted, so eye fatigue is limited. Performance and response speed, while not fast, still provide an enjoyable experience without being as expensive as Asus’ dual-screen laptops.
Keyboard for good typing experience, with LED
The keyboard and typing experience are kept almost the same by Lenovo throughout the ThinkBook versions, which is understandable when they are already quite optimized. The keys have good bounce, moderate key travel, large size keycap, neat font, with monochrome LED for use at night.
The machine’s trackpad is large, feels good, fast, and smooth, thanks to Microsoft Precision support.
Security, Software, and Warranty
Unfortunately, the ThinkBook Plus is not equipped with a ThinkShutter slider that covers the webcam when not in use, in the context of personal privacy is still a hot topic. However, the device still has other security features such as the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) authentication standard, dTPM 2.0 security chip that encrypts and saves user information on a separate chip instead of a cloud system or software. Lenovo Vantage provides a hardware analysis toolkit for early failure detection, personalized hardware setup, and automatic installation of important updates. These are the necessary plus points to help increase the persuasion for business users when choosing to buy a machine.
Check information through Lenovo Vantage software, the ThinkBook Plus model that BiaReview experiences have a 1-year warranty, Lenovo Premier Support service package. According to their needs, users can buy an additional warranty period to ensure the machine is always optimal for their jobs.
where can you get a LENOVO THINKBOOK PLUS online
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 20TG004SUS 13.3″ Notebook – 1920 x 1080 – Core i7 i7-10510U – 16 GB RAM – 512 GB SSD – Iron Gray – Windows 10 Pro 64-bit – Intel UHD Graphics – in-Plane Switching (IPS) Tech: Buy it now
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus IML Dual Screens 13.3″ Touch 16GB 512GB, Iron Gray (Renewed): Buy it now
Flexible performance according to usage needs
The detailed configuration of the ThinkBook Plus model that BiaReview experienced is equipped with an Intel Core i5-10210U Comet Lake chip, 8GB of single-channel DDR4 RAM, and 256GB SSD. The most advanced option that Lenovo offers for ThinkBook Plus includes Core i7-10510U chip, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD.
The i5 chip, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD is enough power to meet the needs of common office tasks such as surfing the web, Office, watching movies. Playing light online games with graphics settings is lowered because the machine does not have a discrete GPU but uses the integrated UHD Graphics 620 chip. RAM and SSD are not soldered to the board, so users can upgrade if needed.
In addition, Lenovo’s Intelligent Cooling feature, when enabled, helps the chip run at a lower clock speed to reduce heat and noise. Accordingly, the machine’s temperature always seems to be controlled; it only fluctuates 65-70 degrees Celsius for both CPU and GPU when playing games. Turn off this smart cooling feature and leave the device in full-speed mode. Users will immediately have the machine operating with the highest performance for the most important tasks that need to be performed response and processing times.
In terms of storage, the ThinkBook Plus is equipped with a 256GB PCIe Samsung PM981a SSD. Measured quickly with the Crystal Disk Mark tool, this SSD achieved sequential read / write speeds of 3346 MB / s and 2346 MB / s, respectively. The process of starting Windows or applications is very quick. High-capacity data retrieval, video editing also benefit.
Average battery life, 65W fast charging
ThinkBook Plus is equipped with a 45 Whr battery, a fairly common capacity on the market today. According to Lenovo, ThinkBook Plus gives up to 10 hours of use, but of course, it depends on what you use the machine to do. In actual use, the writer can use it for about 7 hours with basic needs including Office and web surfing, 70% brightness. In general, if you know how to save, ThinkBook Plus can last a working day.
The device comes with a 65W charger and supports RapidCharge fast charging with this feature enabled in the Lenovo Vantage software to reach maximum capacity. Fully charging the battery takes about 1 hour 30 minutes.
Summary
“E-Ink or not E-Ink” will be the biggest question if you are interested in a laptop like the ThinkBook Plus. If you need to write notes, read e-books or have a hobby of sketching, the ThinkBook Plus is the only possible choice on the market at the moment, with a versatile E-Ink secondary display with a low level of power price that is not too expensive. ThinkBook Plus also has a minimalist, modern design and a good typing experience.