Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 in the test: luxury thanks to more screen space

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 in the test: luxury thanks to more screen space

The third generation of the ThinkBook Plus is growing in width while remaining beautifully slim. The only question is which target group the laptop is aimed at.

Why do you need a second screen in a laptop? Certainly not for gaming, because the ThinkBook Plus has insufficient graphic horsepower for that. To work? Rather, it just depends on what you want to do with this thin all-rounder.

There is by no means a lack of pure computing power, because the up to 4.7 GHz fast Intel Core i7 12700H CPU, which was installed in our test sample, has more than enough of that. 32 gigabytes of soldered LPDDR5 RAM and a one terabyte NVMe hard drive are always sufficient for unhindered work.

Rather, the decisive factor is the form factor. Since the third generation of the ThinkBook Plus no longer follows the standard 17-inch format of its predecessor, but has grown noticeably in width, there are various advantages and disadvantages.

 

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 3

Thanks to its good workmanship, the bright, wide screen and the practical second screen next to the keyboard, the new Lenovo Thinkbook Plus Gen 3 is an excellent all-round workhorse. However, the built-in GPU thwarts ambitious projects. As long as you don't have any heavy rendering processes on the plan or don't want to play games, there's nothing wrong with purchasing this all-rounder from Lenovo.

Pros: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3

1.     practical additional screen
2.     good working speed
3.     high quality
4.     rich sound

Cons: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3

1.     moderate battery life
2.     more graphics power would not have hurt
3.     audible under load

Ultra wide and high quality

When you take the Thinkbook Plus Gen 3 out of the box for the first time, you'll be amazed. With its dimensions of 42 x 22 x 1.7 cm and a weight of 2 kg, it looks pleasantly slim at first glance, but it is also massively wide. Concerns that it won't fit in a typical laptop bag prove to be unfounded.

When it is opened, the device reveals all the advantages of its design in one fell swoop: a 17.3-inch touchscreen in 21:10 format sits enthroned above a left-aligned keyboard with pleasantly large keys and a right-aligned 8-inch IPS touchscreen in portrait orientation.

A scrutinizing look shows that all components are aesthetically and haptically tidy and show high manufacturing quality. Thin but stable hinges, little plastic, but lots of cool aluminum. Just looking at this laptop when it's turned off is a feast for the eyes.

An impression that is by no means invalidated after switching on via the power button equipped with a fingerprint sensor. You shouldn't normally expect too much of the sound quality from such slim laptops, but the sound is richer and more powerful than you think, which becomes clear from the first Windows jingles.

Lenovo's offspring scores even more clearly when it comes to the screen. 3072 x 1440 pixels flash at 120Hz to fill the ultrawide panel, which is completely anti-glare, with rich colors. The screen supports around 400 nits maximum brightness with 95 percent of the P3 color space at a contrast of 1000:1, so that graphics artists do not have to fear any losses.

The verdict on the additional screen, which works with 800 x 1280 pixels, is not quite as good. In its 2:3 format, it only offers a refresh rate of 60 Hz, is visibly paler and a little more prone to reflections. But why do you need it anyway?

 

A small all-rounder on the side

Well, unless you're left-handed by nature, the second screen is good for pretty much anything productive. It works just as well as a tool store in Photoshop as it does as a secondary window in Blender. With the help of small touch symbols at the bottom edge, he displays a number field or keeps handwritten notes in a virtual writing pad.

If you don't want to scribble these with your bare finger, you can use the stylus, which is stored in a slot on the back of the device and can also be used on the main screen. Small aids such as zooming in with finger gestures or the option of copying the content of the second screen to another window on the main screen transform the supposed gimmick into a flexible tool.

The only thing that bothered us a little in test mode was the less intuitive handling when switching back some screen functions, because sometimes the small screen refuses to display its touch buttons.

As a bonus function for owners of selected Motorola smartphones, the additional screen allows screen mirroring or the use of the cell phone camera as a webcam. The "Ready For" app is required for this.

Pairing is child's play thanks to scanning a QR code, so that all usage options, including data transfer, were available within seconds in our test with a Motorola Edge 30 Pro. Unfortunately, since this function is reserved for smartphones from all other brands, it cannot be considered a real advantage of the laptop.

It's a pity, although that in no way reduces the basic benefit of the second screen. The more you get used to it, the less you want to do without it, although the main screen with its ultrawide format offers more than enough workspace.

This factor alone pays off for the particularly wide format of this laptop, because this is the only way that the second screen, touchpad and keyboard can fit next to each other without sacrificing size and feel. Typing is as comfortable as any other large laptop. Nevertheless, the width also has a few disadvantages.