I tried Lenovo’s $3,000 rollable ThinkBook and I can’t go back to a regular-sized laptop

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Lenovo unveiled its “rollable” laptop at CES two years ago as a wild proof of concept that stunned people, but left consumers in doubt. Well, the company has since proved its point: ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable It’s now available to consumers for a staggering $3,300, but it’s packed with premium design elements, solid hardware, and a 120Hz OLED display that expands to nearly 17 inches at the press of a button.

(Editor’s note: At the time of publishing, it appears that the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is no longer in stock on Lenovo’s website, although this may change over time.)

Also: Best Lenovo Laptops of 2025: Expert Tests and Reviews

I’ve been using the ThinkBook Plus as my main laptop for several weeks, and I have to admit that I’m charmed by the expandable screen, especially as a productivity machine for work.

But as the first of its kind, it is far from perfection. There are a certain number of trade-offs due to the laptop’s form factor, and the skyrocketing price calls for a critical look at every element of its design. That being said, this is ultimately a well-engineered laptop. let’s take a closer look.

Like all ThinkBooks, the laptop exudes a business aesthetic, featuring a metallic, two-tone design. It’s not my favorite aesthetic, but it’s certainly durable and resists fingerprints better than all the matte black designs.

At first glance, the laptop looks like any other. The first thing that stands out are the thick bezels framing the display, but as your gaze moves downwards, you notice something strange: there’s no bottom bezel – the screen simply continues below the keyboard.

Also: How to buy a laptop for school, work, or gaming (and our top picks for each)

The rest of the rollable screen is parked below, waiting to be opened. At the press of a button, the standard-sized display moves up, increasing the screen size to 16.7 inches.

The result is a large, portrait-style display that far exceeds any other standard laptop screen size on the market. The bright, OLED screen produces a great picture, with no flicker or blurring around the edges, though there is some visible creasing that looks similar to what you’d see on foldable phone displays.

This is especially true if you rotate a glossy display to reflect light. It’s a little more visible than I expected and certainly worth noting (given the price), but ultimately, it doesn’t really outweigh the benefits of the larger screen.

For example, when your attention is focused on what you are really doing, you stop noticing contractions. It’s one of those things that’s an essential part of its mechanics — it took years for foldable phones to minimize creasing on their displays — and while it doesn’t exactly scream “premium,” it doesn’t cancel out the benefits the screen provides.

Also: I tried Lenovo’s infamous ‘rollable’ laptop at CES – it’s more practical than I thought

So what are the said benefits? First, the extra room provides a breath of fresh air. I have to admit that it allows a huge workspace, which provides a very good user experience. Personally, I like to run one large, full-screen desktop, but you can also have two windows, one on top of the other, for two 16:9 desktops.

To maximize real estate, I set the scale in Windows to 125%, bringing the UI down to a more manageable size resulting in a crisp and efficient interface. However, if you want a larger UI, it still feels roomier than a regular laptop display.

If you’re a programmer, you’ll appreciate the expanded portrait orientation, but anyone who works with documents will love seeing a third more content on the screen at a glance.

As an editor, it vastly improves working in Google Docs and my browser-based CMS, both of which benefit from greater visibility without having to pore over a UI reduced to the atomic level.

Even basic web browsing has improved, with more pages visible on the screen at once, and more content visible with less scrolling. In that sense, the display mirrors the mobile layout, which is ultimately more scrollable.

The screen can be rotated upward by pressing the corresponding key or by making a hand gesture in front of the webcam. When it’s expanding, the screen defaults to playing an animation (individuals are selectable in the settings) with some thematic music, then reloads your desktop when it reaches the desired size. The music can be a little loud in a quiet office, so fortunately, all of these features can be turned off.

When fully expanded, the bottom third of the screen is occupied by the Lenovo widget panel, which shows reminders, your task list, and a calendar at a glance. You can pin it to keep it running permanently or hide it behind your other apps.

There’s really a lot of content here, including short videos that show how to use the gesture controls to move the display up and down and some tips on how to organize the screen more effectively.

Also: The Lenovo ThinkPad streak is over: This model I tested bucks a decade-long trend (for the better)

Apart from the display, the rest of the main components of the laptop are quite good. The keyboard is a bit shallow, but the keys feel great with a satisfying click that’s crisp and responsive.

I was also thrilled to see that the haptic trackpad is equally well engineered, with an even click wherever you press the pad and a sensitive input for swipe gestures. However, one thing to note is that in cold temperatures, you may have some trouble with the pads recognizing your fingers, especially if they are cold.

Also note that the laptop’s form factor limits its I/O access, with just two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack. All three ports are located on the left side of the device, which may be problematic for some users, but this is an expected change for the features.

Overall, the main physical build of the laptop feels premium (if a little thick), and even without the rollable display, this would be a solid office laptop. The fingerprint reader on the power key, along with support for Wi-Fi 7 seals the deal as a modern business device.

Under the hood, an Intel Core Ultra 7 “Lunar Lake” processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage make up a standard hardware loadout that’s on par with any number of mid-to-high-end business laptops. The large display is powered by an integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU with 16GB of internal memory, which supplies more than enough power for daily use.

If you want to game on this laptop, it can handle some mainstream titles, but it’s not exactly built to run top-tier gaming content. In “normal” laptop mode, you have the standard fare for a 2000 x 1600 resolution, 14-inch display. But if your game supports 2000 x 2350 resolution, you can play with the screen fully extended, which certainly sounds like a unique experience, but because of all the screen space, it’s not exactly optimized for high-APM gaming.

If you’re playing an older game that doesn’t support that resolution, the game will simply fall back to the traditional resolution, resulting in empty space at the bottom of the window and negating the whole point of the extended display. The bottom line here is this: Gaming may be a bonus for this laptop, but not for it.

Also: Finally, a Windows laptop that I wouldn’t mind keeping my MacBook Pro for

In terms of battery life, the display does cut into the longevity of the 66Whr battery as expected, although not as much as you might expect. During normal use, you can get an entire work day with the screen extended, but this is turning it off. If you add videoconferencing and more demanding workloads, you won’t be able to get through the day without a power top-up.

That being said, the Lunar Lake chip allows for reduced battery drain when not in use, and it charges fast: about 80% in an hour. In our video playback testing, we got a little over 11 hours at half brightness in balanced mode over Wi-Fi.

So let’s address the elephant in the room: price. Lenovo is well aware that this laptop is not for everyone. In fact, this is probably the most unique product I’ve reviewed all year. Instead, it’s more about proving a point.

Also: I’ve tested dozens of ThinkPads: Here’s the Lenovo model I keep coming back to

Lenovo aims to demonstrate a reputation for innovation, but more importantly, it wants to prove that it can deliver these products to market. The device reflects that mission, earning it an important place in Lenovo’s portfolio, even if it isn’t a top seller of the year.

This is also the first iteration of this rollable concept, and as such, the physical design isn’t as polished as you’ll find in Lenovo’s other high-end laptops, like the ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition or the X1 Carbon. These laptops come from a product line backed by decades of design and engineering, with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 leaving room for improvement in subsequent model versions.

ZDNET’s shopping advice

thinkbook plus gen 6 Even considering its trade-offs, it’s an impressive product. The display has visible creases and thick bezels, but when it’s fully extended, you forget about them. The battery isn’t the best, but far from the worst. It’s not a great gaming rig, but then again that’s not why you buy a ThinkBook.

It’s distinctive, and it’s expensive, but it does what it’s supposed to: deliver a great user experience in the office, with a huge, flexible display that looks great, pairs well with a premium haptic touchpad, and has just the right amount of power under the hood.

Also: I switched to a Dell 14 Premium for two weeks, and it made my XPS laptop look worse

At $3,200, this isn’t a mainstream laptop, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re completely sold on extendable displays and are willing to commit to the form factor in the long term.

The reality is that you can get almost anything for less: a macbook pro m4 With 24GB RAM, or brand new dell 14 premium With the same processor and upgraded Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU for $1,000 less. But if you love big screens, I can say it’s a game-changer in productivity in the office.