Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Twist Gen 4 convertible review: E-Ink and OLED hybrid

[Redaktion]

What if you could have both a convertible laptop and an eReader all in one? The ThinkBook Plus Twist is a dream come true for bookworms as long as you can accept some caveats.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkBook-Plus-Twist-Gen-4-convertible-review-E-Ink-and-OLED-hybrid.745202.0.html

[Faris Hanafiah]

Normally, I won't care about having 16:9 screen on a laptop. But being a convertible, I don't mind having a 3:2 screen. 3:2 screen might be cramped compared to 16:9 in Landscape mode, but its shorter height in Portrait mode makes a lot of sense for one-handed reading.

[Jonathan Smith]

It's a shame that the reviewer did not include a comparison with the Thinkbook Plus Gen 2.  This is a direct successor of the Gen 2, which also had a 13.3" colour screen and a 12" e-Ink screen, similar battery size, and the same ports.

Key differences include:
- the obvious change in processor
- different approach for switch screens: twist rather than flip
- OLED instead of IPS screen
- colour e-Ink rather than B&W.  It would have good for the reviewer to include the technology used - e.g. is it kalaido 3 ?
- heavier

[Big Bubba]

Wish it was a Thinkpad instead of a Thinkbook. Would be nice to have more ports too. Definitely interesting to see the twist make a comeback, but I struggle to see the use case for this device?

I can't see someone seriously using this as a daily driver given the competition. Feels too gimmicky and more something you buy to play around with or show off hoping for a "wow" factor over the dual screens, but that's just my opinion.

[trivik12]

I would love to own this product but its too expensive. 2800 with 1335u. Hopefully we get this option in future. Would love to have eink screen to read.

[Swizzy]

This is an overpriced toy

[Logoffon]

Any word on other main display configurations for this laptop? OLED and needlessly high resolution are considered a hard pass for me.

[MJ]

There could have been more evaluation on how the e-ink display performs for office productivity work. Many of us have difficulty with regular LCD, and need to use e-ink for all computer tasks.

Personally I have Onyx 12" tablet + Thinkpad X1. The thinkpad can drive the onyx as a second screen, but it does not work that well (underl Linux anyway). What works for me is to use the Onyx and open applications remotely from the PC with X-forwarding.

[Jaceck]

Bechmarks are one thing but there are no words to describe how low quality is software and drivers, together with lenovos technical support.
Driver problems makes e-ink screen (being the biggest benefit of this device) totally useless, screen rotation changes each time you lock it for a second while reading and then there's no other way than start turning everything off to get to the top menu, rotate it again, which with each longer reading gets terribly annoying.
Lenovo support advices using programs which move your mouse to prevent the screen going to sleep...
The battery joke is a total joke, I know lenovo advertises this to work up to 21hrs on Eink. Based on my experience, with the lowest screen brightness, reading mode on, battery saver turned on, wifi and bluetooth off, this device drains the whole battery in 6 hrs.
Shipping a device in such a state is a shame on Lenovo.