With a buzz and a whirl, my laptop begins to unfurl. In less than six seconds after the press of a button, my petit 14-inch ThinkBook stands erect over my desk with a taller 16.7-inch display. There is literally nothing else like Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, and that’s partially why it costs a whopping $3,300. And you know what? There are few things cooler in laptop world than watching your screen expand from its original size. When you’re dropping a hefty chunk of change on a laptop of this size, its benefits need to outweigh any tradeoffs. As cool the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is, when you actually use it, you’ll find the joy of having a towering screen is actually one of its more annoying flaws.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable It's an enormously expensive laptop with a limited gimmick. But, hey, it's the most-usable way to bring a larger screen on the go. Pros Rolling screen is so freaking cool
Rolling screen is so freaking cool Solid performance
Solid performance Strong audio
Strong audio Excellent feel Cons So damn expensive
So damn expensive Limited screen orientation
Limited screen orientation Weak battery life
Weak battery life Unclear rolling screen durability
Normally, these kinds of “concept” devices never leave the lab. When they do, companies bring them out for journalists and influencers to fool around with before being whisked off to gadget Elysium. Lenovo deserves credit for being ballsy enough to bring the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable to market. After all, how will we know if something may become a game changer unless we regular folk have a chance to play with it in our plebeian hands?
I’d love to encourage innovation, but a rollable device that costs more than two laptops combined needs to meet or beat what’s expected from both a 14- or a 16-inch laptop, no matter which way up the screen is facing. At nearly three times the cost of other lightweight laptops, the Rollable ends up feeling weirder and occasionally more limited than a traditional device despite its neat party trick.
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