ThinkBook Plus G3 - This is BIG
Updated: Nov 8
The ThinkBook Plus G3. A very different laptop generating some very interesting ideas.
A week or so ago @Lenovo were kind enough to loan me this expansive laptop to road test it and test it I did.
There is no mistake this is a substantial laptop.
https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/ThinkBook/ThinkBook_Plus_G3_IAP
17.3" 3k Main screen + 8" HD Secondary screen (both pen input capable – Pen included)
Dimensions (WxDxH): 410.9 x 230.2 x 17.95 mm (16.18 x 9.06 x 0.71 inches)
Weight: 2Kg (4.41 lbs).
Yes this is a laptop is not one you are going to forget you are carrying, but it brings with it a lot of power and potential. The physical size of the laptop means it can be crammed with high specifications and is certainly no slouch in anything I loaded against it.
12th Gen Intel Core™ i7-12700H
32GB LPDDR5-4800
1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
My fairly high power demands on a laptop are not through vast video editing or graphical projects, but are high through put multitasking multiple applications, workspaces and data sources and remote control tools and at no point did the ThinkBook Plus leave me waiting in anyway.
All the above is more or less conventional feedback on a laptop. The ThinkBook Plus is NOT conventional. Almost like someone from Lenovo is watching my work flow this is almost exactly my works setup of laptop and tablet condensed into one device.
I work a laptop and a tablet for note taking on a daily basis and the 8” screen on the ThinkBook is perfectly placed for how I use my current tablet. I scrawl and scribble notes into OneNote as memory joggers and part of my thought process on all day long.
The ThinkBook actually takes up less physical desk space than the tablet and laptop I commonly use. The 8" screen is positioned in a natural place for me to grab my pen and start to write, the screen is responsive and I had no issues with palm rejection or pen input. the keyboard may seem small to many but I'm commonly on the keyboard of a 13" laptop and this feels exactly that dimension.
I don’t think I’m unique in having adapted this method of working but its not common place yet. The setup of this second screen isn’t limited to note taking. Its in effect a dynamic “Number Pad” area. You can indeed turn it into a number pad, or a note / doodle pad, but just as easily a magnifying tool to work on portions of another project or load a number of applications into that space. I could foresee someone putting their softphone on that screen or even being a side window for Whatsapp or Teams chats. That little screen is incredibly flexible and offers a great deal of flexibility. As I type this I realise the feature I didn’t check and I can’t think why I didn’t was to enable Phone Link and use apps from an Android smartphone on the small screen. Its perfectly positioned and proportioned for the use.
Its not a machine for someone in the average work horse position but it is absolutely a productivity and work device, I would have to say it is ideal for someone who is likely in an overseeing or management position that has need for lots of screen space to manage information from multiple sources or team members that could be in multiple applications.
This is a great device for someone who collates notes from media they are consuming or content creating with lists to work from or needs to examine subsets of things closely.
Did I find any negatives with the ThinkBook? Not really. It’s a big machine there is no mistaking that. I tend to travel lighter but that said I constantly leave one machine on my desk that moves infrequently Needs to be portable but not very often. Its power consumption is high coming with a 100w power supply and consequently its battery life is not as long a period as I’m familiar with. But again its long enough for the periods I would run it on battery.
Would I do anything differently? One minor thing for me, I tend to use a number of ASCII / Unicode codes and it would feel natural to be able to use ALT + the number pad on the small screen to input them but that didn't seem to work. Showing the device to a friend they asked a question that sparked some interesting ideas. Is the 8" screen a removable tablet. If you are listening Lenovo ThinkBook Plus with a removable 8" tablet with pen in put... something to think about.
My good friend Arthur Walker as been testing out the same machine within his workflow which is much more fabulous and creative than my own. His feedback can be found here: https://publish.obsidian.md/arthurhwalker/Tech+Reviews/2023+Lenovo+ThinkBook+Plus+Gen+3