There is simply no shortage of laptops that also work as tablets. Microsoft Surface Pro started this trend and very successfully so. Even though the device sold in large numbers and was a bit hit, the dual form factor however was not really found useful by many. Most people either used it as tablet or laptop but rarely both.
ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid takes a different approach by combining Android and Windows into one hardware, offering users the flexibility to seamlessly switch between the two operating systems. This new trend aims to provide a more integrated and efficient experience for users.
In this laptop the screen is actually is an Android tablet which when attached to rest of the body acts like a display for the windows laptop. Remove it, and it becomes your ordinary Android tablet.
This laptop costs $2000 but it basically gives you one laptop and one tablet for that price which some might argue is still prohibitively expensive.
This laptop has a 13.3-inch OLED display that can be detached from the keyboard, allowing you to use it as a tablet. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 processor and has up to 16GB of RAM. The Android tablet portion of the device runs Android 12L, which is a version of Android that is optimized for larger screens. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5i starts at $2,099.
Interplay between Android and Windows 11
While Lenovo makes impressive hardware, software has never been their strong suite. Which means even though you now have two devices running two operating systems, the interplay between them is not as good as one would expect. Can you really access the windows filesystem from the Android tablet ? No.
What about office documents ? Can you really share them across both operating systems ? Yes but via some sort of internet sync mechanism.
This remains one of the major weakness of this device.
Who is this laptop aimed at ?
It is not clear who is the target for this device other than people who have $2000 to spend. Generally most users either want Windows or Android, not both. When presented with both they might only be confused. Perhaps this device can act as replacement for travelers who like to carry one tablet and one laptop ? May be yes. But $2000 is a pretty steep price.
I think this laptop is an experiment. Tech enthusiasts might buy it first and if they like it Lenovo might think about cheaper alternatives. Indeed if it is successful we might see Microsoft making attempts to make Windows play well with Android. If that happens this might be a new ecosystem where Android apps might also consider the use case where their app needs to play well with Windows.
Where to buy ?
You can buy this device from the Lenovo's website. However, we expect the prices to come down during special sale events.
Conclusion
We strongly recommend to wait and watch how this device is actually received by early adopters. Without any doubts it will have many issues that need to be resolved being one of the first pioneers in this space. Once we understand how well it works we can consider its next iterations to be more mature products.
Having said that, if you have $2000 to spare, then do become an early adopter and let us know.
