Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review 2024: excellent design

When you first lay eyes on the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3, you might think it’s a joke. Because it has the first 17.3-inch ultra-wide display ever seen on a laptop, you can easily multitask between multiple programmes at once. But the main attraction is an additional, 8-inch colour screen adjacent to the keyboard that can perform a wide variety of functions.

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is, without question, the most forward-thinking notebook at CES 2022. What can you do with this new laptop’s second screen, which is significantly more useful than the additional E-Ink display on the ThinkBook Plus Gen 2? The ThnkBook Plus Gen 3, which I was able to get my hands on in advance and is set to be released in May for $1,399, has the potential to revolutionise the way multitaskers work.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 specifications

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Design

The 8-inch touch screen is the ThinkBook Plus’s main selling point, serving as a second screen, a numeric keypad, and a note-taking tablet with the included stylus. In a moment, we’ll get into specifics. A broad laptop chassis is necessary if a sizable secondary screen is to be installed alongside the keyboard (0.71 by 16.2 by 9.1 inches).

Lenovo’s primary touch screen has an unusual 21:10 aspect ratio, with a resolution of 3,072 by 1,440 pixels, to make up for the horizontal stretch. When closed, the Gen 3’s widescreen design makes it look more like a traditional rectangle than a traditional laptop, such as the Dell XPS 17. It weighs 4.4 pounds, which isn’t too heavy compared to comparable 17-inch laptops (0.77 by 14.7 by 9.8 inches). You can buy this laptop from its official website.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard has ample space between keys, standard-sized keycaps, light, responsive switches, and a slightly sloppy bottoming action. While not as nice as the ones on my Dell XPS and HP Spectre PCs, it is still a fine Windows keyboard. The touchpad is roomy and easy to use, albeit the button clicks are a little harsh.

The overall layout is odd, yet it serves its purpose. Users will most likely have trouble with the lack of horizontal space, which is great on a standard PC but won’t do in a cramped environment like an aeroplane. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is a great multitasking laptop, thanks to its wide display that allows two or three relevant windows to be stacked side by side.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Display

The biggest problem users will have is finding enough horizontal space, which is fine on a typical desktop but won’t work on an aeroplane or in any other small space. But the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is great for multitasking because its screen is wide enough to fit two or three useful windows side by side.

All the things that make working on a widescreen monitor so nice apply here. The thing that stands out, though, is the right-hand fifth of the palm rest that is taken up by a second 8-inch IPS screen. Unlike the main screen, it can be touched, and a small active pen can be docked and charged in a slot behind the chassis. The screen can be used in different ways. The simplest is as a second “external” monitor where apps can be dragged to make multitasking even better.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Graphics

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 can only use the Iris Xe graphics that are built in by Intel. This is fine for getting things done, but the GPU doesn’t do well in Pugetbench, so it’s not the best choice for making things. That’s too bad, because Lenovo used 45-watt Intel 12th-gen CPUs that would have worked well with even an entry-level GPU like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. The HP Envy 16 is a cheaper laptop with an RTX 3060 GPU. This makes it much faster in games and other applications that use GPUs a lot.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Performance

Before running any of the benchmarks below, we set our unit to Extreme Performance mode in Lenovo Vantage and Performance mode in Windows. Owners should learn how to use the Vantage software that came with the laptop, as it is where updates, performance, and other functions are manage.

Some of the things the software can do are shown in the screenshots below. The CPU is 20 to 25 percent slower than the average Core i7-12700H in our database. The difference in performance is big enough that even “slower” laptops like the Honor MagicBook 15 can match or beat our Lenovo.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Battery Life and Heat

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is a high-quality laptop that works very well, has a battery that lasts a long time, and has a beautiful screen. It’s also beautiful, and its thin bezels make it perfect for people who want something that looks more like a MacBook than a regular laptop.

The best thing about this laptop is the second screen. This opens up some interesting ways to use more than one window. It responds to touch and can be used as a trackpad or a second screen to show off photos or scroll through social media feeds while working on something else.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Price

Lenovo has a lot of new laptops that are worth keeping an eye on at CES 2022. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is the one that stands out the most, but there are a lot more. The always-popular ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which used to be our pick for the best business laptop, has been updated with OLED displays and the latest 12th Gen Intel processors.

Meanwhile, the new Lenovo Yoga 9i convertible has a new look with curved edges like a smartphone that make it easy to use as a tablet. The new X1 Carbon models come out in March and start at $1,639. The Yoga 9i comes out later this year and starts at $1,399.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: Final Words

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 has a great chassis design and a dual-display setup. This is its main strength and the main reason why people want to buy one. Looking at Google Search data, it’s clear that people aren’t even comparing it to other 15.6″ laptops because there’s nothing else like it.

The question is whether it’s fast enough for your job and whether the comfort is worth it. We hope we’ve told you enough about performance, and most productivity users should be happy with the level of performance.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review: the good and the bad

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