Lenovo’s new color e-ink laptop might be worth buying

There have been a few attempts to combine a conventional laptop form factor with easy-on-the-eyes (literally!) e-ink technology more commonly seen in Kindles and other e-readers. But Lenovo may have finally cracked it with its latest attempt, the ThinkBook Plus Twist. That mouthful of a name hides a design that combines old and new elements for something that’s striking…and perhaps even practical.

The Twist uses a 2-in-1 form factor with a screen that rotates on a central 180-degree hinge, a design that’s fallen out of favor since Lenovo’s own Yoga designs became dominant. But spinning around the screen lets the user choose between the primary display—a 13.3-inch, 2.8K OLED touch panel that’s no slouch on its own—and the 12-inch e-ink panel on the rear. Not only is this front-lit display far less taxing to view, it’s in full color, still something of a novelty for e-ink panels of any size.

Lenovo

Lenovo is quick to point out the advantages of using the e-ink panel: longer stretches of working with less eye strain, and allegedly, a considerable power savings on the laptop’s battery. Thanks to the rotating hinge, either the main OLED or the e-ink panel can be used in conventional laptop mode or in reverse, for easy access via the included stylus. (Which, yes, allows for drawing and taking notes on the e-ink side, too.)

More traditional charms of the ThinkBook Twist include 13th-gen Intel processors, maximum 16GB DDR5 memory, 1TB of 4th-gen SSD storage, and Wi-Fi 6E. We’ve yet to get our hands on the design, so it remains to be seen how practical a color e-ink display is for full work or browsing. We’ll have to wait until June to find out, when the ThinkBook Twist will launch for $1,649.