【The Playbirds】

Lenovo has been on The Playbirdsa roll. The Beijing-based tech company consistently debuts some of the most exciting and innovative laptops at CES every year, from the 2020 ThinkBook Plus with an "E Ink" display on its lid to 2023's dual-screened Yoga Book 9i and twistable ThinkBook Plus. Last year, it brought us a ThinkBook with snap-on attachments.

At the 2025 tech trade show, Lenovo aims to continue its hot streak with the formal launch of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, an all-new business laptop that's billed as "the world's first rollable display AI PC." It was introduced two years ago as a concept, and it's finally hitting the market within the next few months.

Mashable checked out the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 in a hands-on demo Tuesday, and unfortunately I'm going to be that person: Its OLED display doesn’t actually roll up like a scroll or a burrito, as its name implies. But setting aside that nitpick, it's a neat, well-made new option for creatives and multitasking professionals with padded pockets.

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Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

First off: Why this? A Lenovo rep told us that the company is interested in exploring different ways to use OLED displays, which are thin and flexible. ("It's kind of like a sticker," they said.) You might recall 2020's ThinkPad X1 Fold with a bendable OLED display.

A mechanism within the hinge of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 slides a hidden extension of its display out from inside the base, where it's sandwiched between its keyboard and motherboard. The display coasts out along tracks on either side of the screen, which translate to some chunky bezels. A sing-songy chime plays as the display grows — maybe to muffle the noise of that mechanism, which sounds like a quiet pencil sharpener when it's working. The fully expanded display offers almost 50 percent more screen real estate than before, or enough room for two or three stacked windows.

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Users can unleash and retract the display by pressing a dedicated key, or by holding their palm up near the top of the screen, like they're swearing on a bible. After the webcam takes a moment to register the hand's presence, a subsequent upwards or downwards gesture will cause the display to get bigger or smaller. (I preferred the button-pressing method in our testing — it's faster and less finicky.) The mechanism will stop the display-sliding process if the laptop's screen is too far forward.

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Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

When fully extended, the display is super rigid, not at all top-heavy, and impressively free of any noticeable creases. The lid side of the display section that's sheathed has a ridged texture.

Lenovo made a couple changes to the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 in taking it from prototype to mass production. Its screen is tad bigger than the first iteration's, for one thing: It's now 14 inches at rest and 16.7 inches in full, up from 12.7 inches and 15.3 inches, respectively. A Lenovo rep told us the new larger size is more ideal for productivity and watching vertical videos.

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

The position of the display in the market-ready ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 has also been optimized for stability, Lenovo said — they didn't want it to crack or bubble easily — and the mechanisms that slide it out are more structurally sound. It's supposedly better at staying cool, too, and its finalized chassis should prevent any liquids from reaching the housed display in case anything gets spilled on its keyboard.

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Looking beyond its party trick, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is a pretty standard next-gen Copilot+ PC spec-wise. It can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage, and it's got Intel Arc graphics. It webcam has a resolution of 5MP, and there's a privacy shutter on the top edge of its lid. Its keyboard is clicky and satisfying to use. It's 0.78 inches thick and weighs 3.73 pounds. It comes in Luna Grey. It hasn't been rated for battery life yet.

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Is it worth it for that expanding display alone? (Let's stop calling it rollable.) Maybe if you don't want to carry around a separate monitor — and you're not a fan of existing dual-display form factors.

The price of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 will probably be the biggest determining factor for most people: It will start at $3,499 when it hits the market sometime in Q1 2025.

Mashable is on the ground live at CES 2025! We’re covering all the wildest and most important developments this week, so please keep checking back inwith us. Want to submit a product you represent for our teams’ consideration as we identify the Best of CES? Here’s more info on how to do it.

Topics CES Lenovo