Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus is a laptop that can double up as a Kindle

nanoguy

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In brief: In between all the daring form factors presented at CES by laptop manufacturers, there's the much more down-to-earth Lenovo ThinkBook Plus, a laptop that can double as a Kindle for a relatively palatable $1,199 price tag.

Lenovo unveiled several new laptops at CES with updated internals and new form factors, such as the ThinkPad X1 Fold, a 13-inch laptop with a foldable OLED screen and a hefty price tag.

Among the newly revealed devices is the ThinkBook Plus, another compact, 13-inch laptop that can pretty much double as a Kindle -- even though you won't be able to hold it comfortably with one hand -- thanks to the addition of a 10.8-inch E Ink display on the outside of the laptop lid.

Lenovo seems to think that many people who are constantly bombarded with notifications on their smartphones and smartwatches would be much less distracted by them if they show up on a monochrome display that closely resembles paper and doesn't flash its pixels into your eyes.

For some people that's a dumb idea, but since the E-Ink screen has an integrated digitizer, you can also jot down notes and sketch with the Lenovo Precision Pen that will be included with every ThinkBook Plus purchase.

And if you're worried about privacy, the 10.8 inch display will turn off when you open the lid to work on the main display, which is a standard 1080p, matte IPS panel that Lenovo uses in a lot of its laptops.

The internals include up to a 10th generation Intel Core i7 ULV processor paired with up to 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of PCIe SSD storage. There's no option for dedicated graphics, and the only USB-C port doesn't support connecting an eGPU. Still, you do get two USB-A ports and an HDMI port as well as Bluetooth 5 support for your connectivity needs.

Lenovo's new ThinkBook Plus will start shipping in March, and will start at $1,199.

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