Lenovo Prototypes the Future: ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop
Shown off this week at the Mobile World Congress tech trade show in Spain, I got a chance to go hands-in with this system in a recent demo session with Lenovo. At the heart of this fascinating prototype device is a 17.3-inch micro-LED transparent display. Instead of an opaque screen that creates a barrier between you and your surroundings, this system has a borderless, transparent upper half that can display icons, windows, videos, and other content in a very visible way, while any blank areas of the screen remain transparent.
It reminded me of the transparent micro-LED prototype display Samsung demoed at CES 2024. Both of these experimental screens offered excellent brightness -- up to 1,000 nits for the Lenovo laptop -- which is why the content remains visible under even strong lighting conditions. Lenovo says future iterations could even include adjustable transparency (perhaps through a polarized filter), so you could turn the opacity up or down as needed.
I especially liked the idea of sitting in a conference room, but still being able to see the other people in the room through the transparent screen. The augmented reality applications for a system like this are also very interesting -- for example, being able to take an object sitting on the table beyond the laptop and incorporate it into your projects.
In addition to the see-through display, the prototype I saw also had a virtual keyboard, which could either be used for touch typing, or hidden in favor of turning the bottom half of the laptop into a stylus-powered drawing tablet (like other dual-screen laptops including the Asus Duo or Lenovo X1 Fold).
Like almost all prototypes and concept pieces, this isn't a specific system that's going to be on sale anytime soon, if ever. Instead, pieces like that are important for demoing new technologies and working out how interesting tech can be built into real-world products somewhere down the line. That said, if there ever is a true transparent screen laptop, I'll be the first in line to try it out.
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Micro Center Editor-in-Chief Dan Ackerman is a veteran tech reporter and has served as Editor-in-Chief of Gizmodo and Editorial Director at CNET. He's been testing and reviewing laptops and other consumer tech for almost 20 years and is the author of The Tetris Effect, a Cold War history of the world's most influential video game. Contact Dan at dackerman@microcenter.com.
