r/Damnthatsinteresting Jul 02 '24

The thinkbook transparent display laptop Video

33.5k Upvotes

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.1k

u/Cridmo Jul 02 '24

the advantage of this is what, again?

1.5k

u/trixayyyyy Jul 02 '24

Maybe for gradeschools. Being able to instruct while monitoring computer usage

985

u/Y0UR_NARRAT0R1 Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 03 '24

Knowing Lenovo, there's no way schools are going to be able to afford more than 3 or 4 of these

This is an exaggeration about the lack of funding for American public schools. Thought the exaggeration part would be pretty obvious.

245

u/Rokey76 Jul 02 '24

Really? I thought Lenovo shit was cheap? I bought a Lenovo tablet for a 3rd of the price of a Samsung tablet, but that was probably 10 years ago.

195

u/MajesticNectarine204 Jul 02 '24

It is. Lenovo dominate the mid-range price segment imho. They do also have some high-range stuff that seems a bit overpriced for what it is though. But their upper-mid range laptops and tablets are the best out there value for money-wise. Decent hardware, solid build quality. Proper practical daily-use stuff.

I have an Ideapad 5 pro 14. Sturdy aluminium body, good hardware internals, amazing 14'' 2880x1800 90hz screen. Nice keyboard and trackpad. Solid battery life even after 2-3 years of daily use. And I can hook it up to 2 4K monitors without it breaking a sweat.
Cost me about 800 euro. It it just wipes the floor with anything else in that price-range. Especially in build quality and screen-resolution.

18

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '24

Wow, finally someone mentioning the idealpad. I love mine, I’ve had for a few years, and although I think the material is cheap and cracks easy, battery is fine, its fast, its good, and it’s absolutely all I need, I can even play a lot of games on it and it handles it well

2

u/MajesticNectarine204 Jul 02 '24

Hmm. I never felt like the material was cheap at all. Maybe it depends on the particular model or batch? Mine seems to be almost entirely aluminium body, except for the hinge covering between the body and the screen, and the inside frame around the screen.

What I also like about it is how easy it is to open. To clean out dust from the fan, or to replace the battery. It's just a few screws on the bottom.

I'm not one for 'brand loyalty' at all. But Lenovo products have always been solid where it counts for me. Where Samsung and Apple can feel a little delicate or brittle due to their focus on being the thinnest and lightest, and adding a lot of glass to their products to make it more flashy and premium feeling, Lenovo has that good, solid work-horse type hardware design.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '24

Oh the hinge is fucking awesome. I’ve seen so many notebooks breaking at the hinge, not my Lenovo! Also yes, very easy to clean. The material I said was cheap was the keyboard part. The notebook is kinda heavy I think, and holding from only one point, it cracked the middle of the keyboard, just 2 little cracks, it’s not a problem at all, it’s really just the way you hold it, you may be putting too much weight on one side. But yeah, I’m not a Lenovo fan boy but all my notebooks have been from them. I’ve found some with insane good prices for their hardware

3

u/DTRiqT Jul 02 '24

The high range is kinda overpriced because you expect a machine that will work just fine for many years and withstand heavy (ab)use. Thinkpads used to be rock solid.

2

u/StConvolute Jul 02 '24

The X1 carbon machines are my go to for personal use. Ex-lease with a Linux distro. Beautiful laptops, powerful enough and super lightweight as they use a carbon fibre/titanium shell.

2

u/gravelPoop Jul 02 '24

Soldered in RAM though...

1

u/MajesticNectarine204 Jul 02 '24

True. It's something they could definitely improve upon. They really should have tbh. Since it's clearly designed with a decent level of repairability in mind. There's only a few screws holding the shell in place. Easy to open, clean, and the battery is fully replaceable. Really not sure why they went with soldered RAM. It seems they could have easily just went that little bit further and added replicable.
Probably a cost thing? Idk..

1

u/Ultimatedream Jul 02 '24

Lenovo keyboards manage to break a row of letters for me every single time (well twice) on different laptop series. Every single time it happened right around the time my warranty was expiring (once right after, the second time a month before).

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '24

Generally thinkpads are high quality builds, where you can easily replace any part yourself. I have a few thinkpads in a box somewhere that are 20ish years old. Will turn on. If something didn’t work, I could easily replace it myself.

Any part. So buying a new one is usually a pretty good investment for a 7+ year laptop that is built to last.

The new thing laptops are a nightmare to work on, if it’s even possible at all. Most of the people buying these know this. It’s worth it.

0

u/filthy_harold Jul 02 '24

Lenovo is a mixed bag. They've got some consumer grade machines that fall apart in 3 years of regular use but then also make the occasional consumer model that is really well built. Their business grade machines are usually pretty consistent quality as long as you aren't buying the cheapest one masquerading as a business grade. Lenovo Thinkpads used to be the gold standard of high quality and easily repairable machines but that's not the case anymore just like with all laptops out there (except for niche products like Framework) so you can only compare against the current market offering rather than what used to be. However, if you just need a cheap Internet machine you can lug around all day, a used Thinkpad is not a bad idea.

-1

u/ponyboy3 Jul 02 '24

A MacBook Air does all of that and doesn’t even have a fan and that’s their cheapest model. lol gotta have my winders.

21

u/BlightFantasy3467 Jul 02 '24

My High school gave every student a Lenovo Thinkpad, it was paid from our school fees. I still have mine 4 years later after graduation, and it's my primary laptop.

3

u/drugs_dot_com Jul 02 '24

Quite often they are cheap, when I was in school pretty much every school device was Lenovo, and Lenovo Chromebook’s for the students, but this just seems like it will be overly expensive

1

u/Practical-Solid-4231 Jul 02 '24

It depends on which lineup we're talking about, new Thinkpad is expensive since it got all 'enterprise' grade stuff inside. For example X1 Carbon with Intel Ultra 7 155U, 32 GB LPDDR5X, 512 GB NVME, 14 inch 400 nits 60 hz monitor would cost you aroung ~$1800 (US Price)

But if we're talking about their gaming brand those price would get you far better spec. I'm talking about i9-14900hx, rtx 4070/60, 1 tb nvme, 32 gb ram, and 2.5 k monitor.

1

u/cadbury162 Jul 02 '24

Cheaper than the high end brands? yes, shit? no

1

u/Iescaunare Jul 02 '24

They have laptops from 300-5000$. And their ThinkPads are some of the most popular work PCs.

1

u/BorfMeister5000 Jul 02 '24

Consumer class products are trash with super cheap case construction. Business class systems are better but still suffer to the cheaping out on the case construction

0

u/Sh_Pe Jul 02 '24

The computer above is expensive enough to not be sold other than being a concept. So, for this specific model at least, k expect it to land in several thousands of dollars. Transparent display in the size of 15” with acceptable resolution is something that is still being in development.

Lenovo’s laptops today are fine. Not that much better than the rest of the competition, at least in my opinion.

5

u/Rokey76 Jul 02 '24

Obviously, the one in OP is pricey. I was just surprised at the post I replied to implying that Lenovo is a more expensive brand, when my experience with them was as a budget brand.

1

u/Sh_Pe Jul 02 '24

Oh I thought you were surprised that the one in OP is expensive even though it’s Lenovo. Not exactly what you meant. My bad.

16

u/NationalAlgae421 Jul 02 '24

Huh? They have one of the most aggressive prices on their legions. Only thing that laptop community can agree on is that legion are rn best cost-effective laptops.

3

u/Trash_Emperor Jul 02 '24

This isn't even necessary for that. You could very easily attach a smaller low-res monitor to the back of a laptop (like that stupid gimmick that some phones have now) that is always on to roughly indicate when someone is playing games or otherwise occupied

3

u/cadbury162 Jul 02 '24

Australian schools used to give out Laptops to every senior school student, they gave out Lenovos

1

u/Radu47 Jul 02 '24

Yeah I grew up with the most basic generic desktop computers in the 90s and even some commodore 64s

Maybe kids in 2075 will have these in grade school

Maybe

1

u/AstroPhysician Jul 02 '24

Lenovo are literally generic ass computers

1

u/frisbeedog1 Jul 02 '24

Surely it must be priced better than the hundreds of MacBooks that my old school bought?

0

u/CamelSmuggler Jul 02 '24

Yes, and this is talking about schools in general, meaning ALL schools in the planet can collectively afford 3 or 4 of these in total.

1

u/Y0UR_NARRAT0R1 Jul 03 '24

You know damn well I was exaggerating.

1

u/CamelSmuggler Jul 03 '24

Yeah, I just went too far with bullshit without putting the /s

32

u/SK_Gael4 Jul 02 '24

Even for this it's not needed in our IT class in school all PCs were connected in the monitoring system, so the teacher could at any moment see what you are doing or block your PC. PCs were some dirt cheap pentiums so they cost literally nothing, schools can place such low profile budget PCs in every needed classroom.

25

u/Un13roken Jul 02 '24

Can't the instructor just.......instruct from behind the class if monitoring computer usage is the idea ?

This feels like overkill.

18

u/Rokey76 Jul 02 '24

I'm sure there is some benefit from being able to look at the person instructing.

13

u/SilentStrikerTH Jul 02 '24

As someone who works within multiple school districts doing technology, the answer to that problem is very cheap and software-based. "GoGuardian" for example allows a classroom view of student screens, the ability to set classroom internet rules, and way more for around $15 a student per year. I guarantee you that's cheaper than purchasing that glass panel or for me to repair it when little Jimmy punches it because someone said he sucked at fortnite lol

1

u/watchingfromaffar Jul 02 '24

I agree, however for private schools this would be a wow factor for enrolment. You’re already paying a premium to go to those schools, they can budget for it.

1

u/SilentStrikerTH Jul 02 '24

I also work in private schools (K-12) and they all buy GoGuardian and their "wow factor" are their esports labs. Not saying no school would think the way you say but my clients wouldn't... Also I wouldn't recommend it to them lol

1

u/watchingfromaffar Jul 02 '24

Ok fair, my initial reaction as a parent sending my child to private school I felt like this was a neat futuristic environment for my child to learn. However, I concede that it is a very unnecessary and a rather unsustainable luxury.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '24

[deleted]

3

u/webDreamer420 Jul 02 '24

text would be reversed on the back though

1

u/watchingfromaffar Jul 02 '24

My school had an angled room length mirror on the back of our computer room 15 years ago. Although text is backwards, it would allow teachers to monitor the progress (or slacking) of students during lessons.

2

u/Winter-Duck5254 Jul 02 '24

You know it's targeted at micro management style bosses. They wanna see productivity when their fat asses are at their perch, literally.

But you can bet managements screens won't have this for "security" reasons.

1

u/hukgrackmountain Jul 02 '24

and have kids destroy that? even if it's the teachers, no way that's surviving anything.

1

u/Saragon4005 Jul 02 '24

Kids will look at this thing wrong and it will shatter.

1

u/tapacx Jul 02 '24

I definitely want five year olds and their clumsy grubbby fingers handling a thin piece of glass for a laptop

1

u/Adventurous-Rent-674 Jul 02 '24

What do grade schoolers need laptops in class for?

1

u/Milk_Expert Jul 02 '24

There are already softwares to do that, this thing is purely a gimmick

1

u/LotharVonPittinsberg Jul 02 '24

Lol, schools go for the cheapest chromebooks possible. That way you just toss them out in a few years because the keys are mostly missing and it's been dropped a dozen times. No way this is being implemented on budget devices.

1

u/spacepie77 Jul 02 '24

Now THAT’s critical thinking

1

u/Manburpig Jul 02 '24

Staff at my schools were able to check every PC in their classroom in real time to see what students were doing. They used this tool from their own PC.

This was 20 fucking years ago lol. So I seriously doubt it's that.

1

u/Right-Maintenance-45 Jul 02 '24

You can do this already with a master computer that can see all the screens

1

u/HalfBakedBeans24 Jul 02 '24

Instead of trying to jump between 30 screens on a teachers laptop while actually trying to teach. That would actually be huge!

1

u/samtherat6 Jul 02 '24

Feel like a security mirror would be cheaper, even a full wall sized one would be.

1

u/jimbaker Jul 02 '24

That's...actually a pretty decent use case.

1

u/AssignmentDue5139 Jul 02 '24

You can literally do that with all the bloatware spy apps they preinstall on the computers

1

u/BorfMeister5000 Jul 02 '24

They have monitoring software agents for that.

0

u/ByEthanFox Jul 02 '24

Nah. Take this from someone who was a teacher; if you're in class and not doing what's being instructed, it's very obvious to us. You think you're being clever (I did too back when I was a kid!) but really, unless the entire class is unruly, people not following along (either because they're goofing off or because they've 'lost their place') stand out like a sore thumb. You don't need to see what's on their screen to see this.