CES 2024: Lenovo’s Android-Windows Frankentablet Is the Wackiest Gadget at the Show
We’ve seen laptops with touchscreens and tablets with keyboards, but we haven’t seen anything like Lenovo’s new Frankentablet. That’s the best word I can think of to describe one of the strangest gadgets of CES 2024. The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is a Windows 11 laptop… until you detach its display, at which point it transforms into an Android tablet. These are two fully functional devices for the price of one, each with its own OS. It is priced at $1,999 and is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2024.
This may be the perfect solution for finding work-life balance: keep all your work on your Windows laptop, and when you don’t have time, you can detach the tablet and take it home with you to play games. watch a movie or watch a movie. or scroll through videos with dogs on Insta.
The Gen 5 is truly two independent devices, making it a nightmare to keep track of the specs. There are two processors, two sets of RAM, two storage sizes, and even two device names for this… thing. And yes, you can connect a keyboard dock to an external display to run Windows 11 and use the tablet on its own. Lenovo calls the Windows device a “hybrid station” in its spec sheet, and it seems surprisingly powerful: Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD storage, Intel Arc GPU, two USB-C ports, Wi-Fi 6E and a fingerprint scanner.
The Android tablet is dubbed “Hybrid Tab” and is powered by a 14-inch Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, dual rear cameras and a front camera. The tablet runs Android 13 and weighs 785g (1.73lb). The combined device weighs 3.87 pounds (1.75 kg), which is heavier compared to many modern laptops.
Why is this necessary? I can not tell. All I can say is that I can’t wait to get my hands on this thing and see if it really works as smoothly as advertised and if it qualifies as a practical hybrid device for everyday use.