Lenovo has always been one of the few companies who aren’t shy with trying out and showing off new ideas, be it a foldable laptop or a laptop with a secondary e-ink display. At this year’s MWC though, the Chinese giant has perhaps their most futuristic prototype yet: a laptop with a transparent display that looks straight out of sci-fi.
Transparent displays have been a thing for the best part of a decade now, but this is perhaps the first time it’s been combined with a computer and turned into a laptop. Creatively called the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop Concept, this is a 17.3-inch Micro-LED transparent display with up to 55% transparency, but able to go nearly completely opaque once you display a full white image onto it thanks to a peak brightness of 1,000nits.
The top half is 4mm in thickness, though the actual display panel itself is a mere 0.5mm. This concept device also uses AI-generated content to explore new ways of working together, allowing users to overlay digital information over real, physical objects.
The transparent display features only a 720p resolution, but that’s actually quite impressive considering a transparent OLED panel would’ve limited it to lower resolutions instead. According to Lenovo, by going with Micro-LED you’ll find plenty of new advantages when it comes to transparent displays as not only is it brighter, but you’ll find a higher colour saturation too compared to other transparent display technologies. It also has higher potential in terms of image quality, durability and adjustable transmittance down the line, allowing you to find a better balance for when you want to interact with the real world or when you want to be a bit more private.
If the sci-fi-ness of it all isn’t getting to you yet, there’s also a flat transparent keyboard for the laptop to keep with the theme here. The actual keyboard you see is merely a projection, which can be turned off to allow you to use the bottom half as a drawing tablet of sorts when paired with a stylus. That being said, there’s a reason many people love the feel and tactility of mechanical keyboards, which is why using a flat, touch keyboard might not be a great idea if you don’t want to also use the bottom half for other reasons. According to our co-founder Amin who got to check it out himself, the touch keyboard is hard to use and requires strong finger force to actually get the keys ‘pressed’.
Unfortunately for those of you wanting one of these for yourself, at the moment Lenovo says that the ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop Concept will remain just that—a concept. There aren’t any plans on when it’ll hit the market or if it will at all, but do add however that they think it has showcased a futuristic perspective on what an AI PC can do by blending digital and physical environments. Amin though is of the opinion that while it’s a cool concept, he doesn’t see any real practical applications of a transparent laptop—yet.
