We have seen laptops with dual and even bendable displays. But fully functioning transparent screens? No, not so much! At the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC 2024) in Barcelona, Spain, Lenovo showcased a concept laptop with a large 17-inch transparent display, utilising a transparent microLED panel.
Here are my early impressions of this Lenovo laptop with a large transparent screen.
Design
While my interaction with the laptop, which Lenovo calls the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop, was limited, there are several noticeable aspects.
For instance, this concept laptop looks heavy. You may not be able to figure that out by looking at the borderless, see-through screen, but the deck is bulky. An estimate would be around 3-4 kg, which is not at all portable by today’s standards.
Additionally, there’s no physical keyboard. A simple gesture activates the keyboard on the wide canvas. You have the option to customise both the colours and functions of the keys. Moreover, you can draw directly on the deck, and input lag is minimal. The feedback of the non-physical keys is okay, if not the best.
There’s also a tiny camera on the back of the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop. Lenovo claims that the camera can unlock AI features without providing substantial details. I anticipate the camera may facilitate object recognition potentially in both 2D and 3D formats. The transparent display could also assist designers (such as architects and 3D artists) in refining products behind the laptop and in front of the camera. Additionally, stylus support on the screen and keyboard deck adds versatility to the device.
Display
As mentioned, the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop features a 17-inch (17.3-inch) transparent microLED display. Why micro-LED? That’s because the technology offers “optimisation of image quality, durability and adjustable transmittance to provide more privacy or more transparency to interact with real-world objects.”
The resolution is said to be HD (720p) for now, but that can improve with the future generations. The display offers up to 1,000 nits brightness, which again is decent if we look at the standards. In my very limited time with the device, the visibility of the text and other content wasn’t an issue in a controlled environment at the MWC 2024 booth.
Now, the early impression of the display is nothing short of amazing. The screen looks straight out of a sci-fi movie or Tony Stark’s office. For our demo, Lenovo showcased applications such as Paint, Word, and even YouTube. There could be a limitation with the number of colours (HD resolution).
What amazed me was that the ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop’s display did not show any signs of flickering, which has been a problem with transparent displays of the past. The applications, although limited, ran without stutters and lags. And visibility was on point despite its being projected on a see-through glass.
Yes, it also means people in the background can see what you’re doing, but there could be neat solutions to mitigate this in future.
Overview
The Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display laptop is a concept, which means the commercial unit may take years to come out. It also means that the final product can be totally different from what we see now. It implies the laptop can be thinner, and the display might offer better resolution.
The useability, at least at this point, may look limited, I don’t see why people won’t like transparent displays. After all, we all low-key enjoy those cool transparent screens in movies, like Avengers or Minority Report. How far are we from getting an actual unit with a transparent display? Only time will tell!
