Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid: A Revolutionary 2-in-1 Device

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Hybrid review: part Windows, part Android

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid MSRP $3,815.00 Score Details "The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid gives the best of Windows and Android, but the execution is sloppy." Pros Very good Windows laptop Competitive Android tablet Excellent OLED display Solid performance in Windows and Android Good keyboard Useful hybrid utilities Cons Expensive Connection mechanism is too finicky Hybrid firmware needs updating Lenovo's ThinkBook lineup is not just aimed at small businesses. It's where Lenovo experiments with different form factors like dual displays. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 4, for example, incorporates an e-ink display on the swivel lid that adds a new dimension to the convertible 2-in-1 form factor. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid takes things a step further, adding a detachable Android tablet to the traditional Windows clamshell laptop. Contents Specs and configurationsDesign: Windows laptopDesign: Android tabletWindows/Android hybridKeyboard and touchpadConnectivity and webcamPerformanceBattery lifeDisplay and audioA nice idea with a one significant flawShow 5 more items I was excited to review this one, because I've often wondered how a tablet might integrate into a laptop -- something that many Apple fans would love to see in an iPad/MacBook mash-up. And Lenovo largely succeeds, with a very nice Windows laptop and a competitive Android tablet. But there's a couple of significant flaws that holds the machine back and leave me waiting for the second generation before I can fully recommend it as one of the best laptops to buy. Specs and configurations Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid Windows station Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid Android tablet Dimensions 12.34 inches x 9.23 inches x 0.37 inches 12.34 inches x 8.72 inches x 0.26 inches Weight 1.73 pounds 2.14 pounds Processor Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Graphics Intel Arc Qualcomm Adreno RAM 32GB 12GB Display N/A 14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1620) OLED Storage 1TB SSD 256GB UFS Touch N/A Yes Ports 2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 1 x Smart connector 1 x 3.5mm audio jack 1 x USB-C 1 x Smart Connector Wireless Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 Webcam N/A Front: 1080p with infrared camera Rear: 13MP Operating system Windows 11 Pro Android 13 Battery 75 watt-hour 38.7 watt-hour Price $3,815 There's one configuration of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid, and it's not cheap. In fact, it's quite expensive at $3,518, but you're paying for two separate machines. The Windows laptop portion includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chipset, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED display. Then, the Android tablet portion has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of UFS storage. Of course, it's built around the excellent OLED display, which is basically "shared" with the Windows laptop. That's a lot of money, but consider. Many similar premium Windows laptops cost between $1,500 and $2,000, and a reasonably high-end Android tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is around $1,200. The iPad Pro 13 is more expensive than that. You're therefore paying a premium of a few hundred dollars to have two machines integrated into one package. As we'll see, it's an unusual approach, but it has its charms. Design: Windows laptop First, let's evaluate the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid ("ThinkBook" from here on out) as a Windows laptop. And in that respect, it's a pretty decent effort. To begin with, it's well-built, with a caveat or two. It's incredibly solid in its chassis, keyboard deck, and the display that does double-duty as an Android tablet. It's as good as any premium laptop we've reviewed, including the excellent Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 9, Dell's XPS 14, and the Apple MacBook Pro M3. These are all examples of great design and manufacturing. My caveats are regarding the hinge and the mechanism for attaching and detaching the tablet. When I first received the laptop and started using it, I was convinced that the hinge only allowed limited motion and, worse, wouldn't close all the way to make for a standard clamshell laptop. But that was only because the hinge was very tight when I took it out of the box, and I didn't want to force anything. When I looked at the reviewer's guide, it was obvious that it was supposed to close. Once I (carefully) closed it a few times, the hinge loosened up. It remained too tight to open the lid with one hand even after repeated use, but that was nothing unusual. The other issue is that the mechanism for attaching and detaching is a bit tricky. Taking it off isn't a problem, but putting it back on is harder than it should be. Perhaps most disappointing is that the system struggled at times to start up. It seemed to get confused as to whether it should be running Windows or Android when the tablet portion was attached. It seems more intuitive that it should automatically switch from Android to Windows mode, and maybe it's supposed to. But I often had to hit the power button and tap a couple of keys to get it to wake up in Windows, or to wake up at all. Otherwise, it felt like a nice Windows laptop. It's thin enough at 0.63 inches combined (roughly) to be competitive with laptops like the Yoga 9i Gen 9 and MacBook Pro M3. It's quite heavy at a total of 3.87 pounds, but it does have the guts of two devices including two sets of batteries. And aesthetically, it's a modern-looking machine with clean lines and small top and side bezels. The bottom chin is quite large, but that's to be expected given the overall design. Design: Android tablet As an Android tablet, the ThinkBook is an interesting product. I don't review Android devices, but I use an iPad Pro 13, so I'm generally familiar with large-screen devices running mobile operating systems. As a non-reviewer, I'll say that the Lenovo ZUI 15 skin running on Android 13 is very fluid and feels eerily similar to iPadOS. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the Android software functionality because I just haven't used enough modern Android tablets to do the topic much justice. But outside of the usual Android phone apps that didn't translate well to the tablet format, I like using it as an alternative to my iPad Pro. In terms of the hardware, there's little to complain about. As mentioned above, the build quality is excellent. The tablet portion is thin at 0.26 inches and reasonably light at 2.14 pounds. That's almost as thin as the iPad Pro 13's 0.20 inches, but the Apple tablet is a lot lighter at just 1.28 pounds. Some of the extra weight, I'm sure, is required by the complex hinge and connection mechanism. Lenovo includes an interesting accessory in the form of a very robust easel that's great for propping the tablet up on a desk. It's not really a portable solution, though, so a case with an integrated kickstand would be more useful for a lot of people. I don't know if Lenovo will ever release such an accessory, and the product isn't likely to be popular enough to attract a lot of third-party options. And, of course, the centerpiece is the 14.0-inch 2.8K OLED display. I'll dig into the objective measurements below, but it's a bright, colorful display with OLED's usual inky blacks. The tablet's a little large for using the included active pen for writing and drawing, at least without resting it on a table. But it's awesome for watching high dynamic range (HDR) content, although the iPad Pro 13's tandem OLED display does get a lot brighter. The bottom line is that if you want both a very good Windows tablet and a very good Android tablet -- although not necessarily the best of breed in either category -- then the ThinkBook is well worth considering as a single purchase. Windows/Android hybrid In addition, Lenovo includes several utilities on both the Windows and Android sides that support the ThinkBook's dual-device nature. They're a nice value-add that enhances the benefit of having both platforms in a single machine. In Android, the integration is limited to a Hybrid Folder utility that allows you to access a shared space for passing files between the two systems. It requires a simple pairing process. In Windows, there's also the same Hybrid Folder utility that allows you to access the shared space. But\ there's also a more useful Hybrid Stream utility that opens Android in a window, giving you the ability to use both environments at once. Furthermore, the Device Companion Mode lets you use the tablet as an external device for note-taking and drawing, as well as a second display. That's a lot like Apple's Continuity feature with the iPad Pro and a MacBook. Again, all of this might be of most interest to a specific niche of users, but if that's you, then you'll like it. Keyboard and touchpad The ThinkBook has Lenovo's standard keyboard with its large, sculpted keycaps and plenty of key spacing. The switches provided a light, snappy experience during my testing, and I was up and running quickly enough. It's as good as most laptops keyboards I've reviewed, with perhaps only Apple's Magic Keyboard being better. And when used in Android, it's the best keyboard I've used for Google's mobile operating system. The touchpad is reasonably large, although there's room on the palm rest for a larger version. It's mechanical, where I much prefer haptic touchpads especially at these prices, and its bottom clicks were a bit loud. It's not my favorite. The display is touch- and pen-enabled, and it works well. As I mentioned above, the 14-inch tablet is a little large for writing and drawing while holding it in one hand, so most people will likely lay it on a surface. Connectivity and webcam One limitation as a Windows laptops is the relative dearth of connectivity. There are just two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 on the laptop portion and one USB-C 3.1 port. Other than a 3.5mm audio jack and the Smart Connector for the tablet, that's all you get. Many 14-inch laptops have a selection of legacy ports. Wireless connectivity is fine, with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 provided by a ratio in the tablet portion. There are two webcams, a 1080p version on front with an infrared camera that supports facial recognition in both Windows and Android, as well as a 13MP rear camera. Performance The Wind0ws laptop is powered by a 28-watt Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, a 16-core, 22 thread chipset that's now a generation behind. It was a very popular chipset that powered some very fast laptops, and it's still in use as Intel's latest Lunar Lake chipsets start rolling out. Its primary competition comes from Qualcomm's Snapdragon X and AMD's Ryzen AI 300, both of which have been released in the last several months. According to our benchmarks, the ThinkBook is a reasonably quick Windows laptop for demanding productivity users. Its Intel Arc graphics limit its usefulness for gaming and creative apps, but in terms of CPU performance, it's a fast machine. But when compared with AMD's and Qualcomm's latest chipsets in similar laptops, you aren't giving up much performance. The bigger question will be on-device AI performance, which will suffer from the Core Ultra 7 155H's slower Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Cinebench 2024 (single/multi) Geekbench 6 (single/multi) 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid (Core Ultra 7 155H / Intel Arc) 101 / 685 2335 / 13,167 6,748 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (Core Ultra 7 155U / Intel Graphics) 97 / 517 2,103 / 8,558 3,659 HP Spectre x360 14 (Core Ultra 7 155H / Intel Arc) 99 / 556 2,176 / 11,980 N/A Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 (AMD Ryzen 8840HS / Radeon Graphics) 98 / 674 2,336 / 11,074 5,048 Asus ProArt PX13 (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 / RTX 4050) 116 / 974 2,690 / 14,423 15,298 HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X1E-78-100 / Adreno) 101 / 749 2,377 / 13,490 6,165 Apple MacBook Air 13 (M3) 141 / 601 3,102 / 12,078 8,098 We don't have the same set of benchmarks for Android tablets, so I'm a bit limited in evaluating the tablet's performance. The tablet portion is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is a generation behind the chipset in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. The laptop didn't do all that well in the Geekbench 6 benchmark, at 1,850 single-core and 4,740 multi-core. But, throughout my testing, I found its performance to be buttery smooth and without lags. Games ran well, too. I'm sure that the 12GB of dedicated RAM helps keep things running well. Overall, I was pleased with the ThinkBook's performance as a tablet and couldn't notice much difference from the iPad Pro 13 that I use with Apple's latest M4 chipset -- even though that tablet performed much faster in Geekbench 6 at 3,705 single-core and 14,221 multi-core. Battery life The Windows laptop portion has 75 watt-hours of battery capacity and the Android tablet portion has 38.7 watt-hours. Both promise solid battery life in each environment, although the 14-inch 2.8K OLED display is a bit power-hungry. In our Windows web-browsing test, the Windows laptop lasted for 9.75 hours, and it managed just 8.5 hours in our video-looping test. Usually, those results are reversed, and neither keeps up with the latest Qualcomm Windows on Arm laptops that last for more than a full day. Again, we don't have objective battery life tests for Android, but from my testing, it's safe to assume around 10 hours or so of battery life. That's competitive with other tablets like the iPad Pro 13. When you're connected to the keyboard base, you can tap into the much larger battery and can expect multiday battery life as a rsult. Display and audio The hybrid solution is built around a 14.0-inch 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display running at 60Hz. That's more than sharp enough for the screen size and, subjectively, the display is bright and colorful with OLED's usual inky blacks. It's awesome for both Windows laptop and Android tablet use. The only complaint is the 60Hz refresh rate, as many premium displays are running at 120Hz. That includes the Surface Pro 11 and iPad Pro 13 panels. According to my colorimeter, this is a quality display. It's bright at 411 nits, which isn't the brightest around (the Surface Pro 11's comes in at 532 nits, and while we can't test the iPad Pro 13's tandem OLED display, that one likely comes in at over 1,000 nits with standard dynamic range content), but it's still more than bright enough for most environments. Its colors are very wide, at 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, compared to the Surface Pro 11 at 100%, 85%, and 100%, respectively. And, those colors are incredibly accurate at a DeltaE of 0.68 (less than 1.0 is considered excellent). Finally, the contrast ratio was a spectacular 28,760:1, with perfect blacks. For productivity users and creators, this is a great display. And media creators will love it as well, although the iPad Pro 13's display will have the highest brightness in high dynamic range (HDR) video with upwards of 1,600 nits. Audio is provided by four side-firing speakers, similar to the iPad Pro 13's setup. I found the sound to be a little lacking by comparison, without the deeper bass of Apple's tablet. A nice idea with a one significant flaw When I signed up to review the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid, I was looking forward to seeing how well a hybrid device could meet two very different needs. Let's face it -- what you want in a laptop isn't exactly what you want in a tablet. And I can comfortably say that the two modes work well enough, separately and together, that you're not compromising the experience to gain the integration. But outside of some challenges that are likely software-related, namely getting the machine to start up when switching modes, there's one primary flaw that software can't address. Namely, it's how the tablet connects to the laptop base. It's too finicky, and I often felt like I was forcing something that might break. Given that the tablet serves as the top portion of a clamshell laptop, the more robust mechanism makes sense. But for this to feel like one fluid system, it needs to be more seamless. There is inevitably a target market for this unique device. Someone who likes to play mobile games on their tablet while on the go, for example, or likes the idea of being able to travel with just one device. I'd love to see a second generation with improved software and hardware, but for now, this isn't quite up to snuff.

I Tried Lenovo's Hybrid Windows and Android Laptop, but I Don't Get It

Key Takeaways Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is the only two-in-one Windows and Android tablet available today. The hardware, specs, and display are all flagship-level, though the port selection leaves a lot to be desired. At $3,518, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is plainly overpriced. A Windows laptop that doubles as an Android tablet. That's the idea behind Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid, an odd machine that's left me mystified. It's a unique piece of engineering, a questionable concept, and a massive investment all wrapped up in a 14-inch machine. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid 6/ 10 Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid offers a combined Windows and Android experience, flagship power, and a gorgeous screen. It may be worth buying if you can look past the price tag and find a good use for the Windows-Android hybrid technology. ProsThe first and only Windows-Android 2-in-1 laptopGorgeous 14-inch 2.8K OLED displayFlagship specsStylus, tablet stand, and 100-watt charger are included ConsCrazy expensiveIt's hard to detach the screen from the keyboardNo headphone jack in tablet modeFeels like a solution in search of a problem $3518 at Lenovo Pricing and Availability You can order the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid today at the Lenovo web store. However, the hybrid laptop is only available in a $3,518 configuration. Specifications Operating System Windows 11, Android 13 CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 GPU Integrated Intel Arc Graphics RAM 32GB LPDDR5X (Windows), 12GB LPDDR5X (Android) Storage 1TB PCIe Gen 4 (Windows), 256GB UFX 3.1 (Android) Battery 75Whr (Windows), 38.7Whr (Android) Display (Size, Resolution) 14" 60Hz 2880x1800 (3:2) Camera 1080p Windows Hello (Front), 13MP Main & 5MP Wide (Rear) Ports 2x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4), 1x USB-C (3.1), 1x 3.5mm combo jack Weight 3.87 lbs (Total), 1.73 lbs (Tablet only) Display type OLED Connectivity Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 Size 12.3" (W), 9.2" (D), 0.63" (H) Expand Snapdragon up Top, Intel Down Below It's hard to explain the concept behind Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid laptop. This machine is truly the first of its kind, and as a result, it goes against a lot of the conventions established by Microsoft's Surface tablets, Yoga laptops, and other Windows two-in-ones. You might say, "well, duh, it can run Android," but it's a bit more complicated than that. Let's start with the basics. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is literally two separate machines. The display contains all the inner workings of a high-end Android tablet, including a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, while the keyboard is a fully baked "Copilot+ PC" with a 15th-gen Intel Core Ultra CPU. You can switch between the Windows and Android operating systems at any time by pressing a button in the laptop's function row. However, this dual-OS system only works when the laptop is in laptop mode. When detached, the display can only load Android, and the keyboard (which you may plug into an external monitor) is stuck with Windows. There are some benefits to this symbiotic system. While the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is a bit heavier than I'd like (about four pounds in its standard configuration if we ignore the hefty 100-watt power brick), it takes up slightly less space than the typical laptop and tablet. You could take this device to work, plug the keyboard into your monitor, set the screen-turned-Android-tablet to your side, and enjoy a dual-device experience that's streamlined by specialized file-syncing software. (A folding tablet stand is included with the laptop for this specific use case.) The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid may also be good for travel, as it's one of the few 14-inch Android tablets that can actually be considered "space-saving." And because there are two batteries in this device -- one for the Android stuff and another for Windows -- you may be compelled to use Android when in laptop mode. I frequently jumped into Android when procrastinating at work, as doing so noticeably improved my battery life in Windows. Of course, these challenges could be overcome without a hybrid device. You could just buy a laptop and a tablet, or a laptop and an external monitor, or a laptop and a USB power bank. The sales pitch, when you really get down to it, is that the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is a Windows laptop with a screen that doubles as an Android tablet. And that's about it. Uh, How the Heck Do You Use This Thing? Like any $3,518 laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid feels fancy, sturdy, bright, and beautiful. It's a neat machine with minimal plastic and maximum metal -- a great example of great build quality. And, because this is a high-end Lenovo product, the keyboard and trackpad are totally up to snuff. Still, the hybrid laptop's defining feature -- a detachable screen that turns into an Android tablet -- is a bit of a puzzle. It took me a while to figure out how to attach the screen to the laptop. If you don't put it on just right, the screen sits slightly akimbo and won't close all the way. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid's screen can only be attached or detached at a 90-degree angle. That's what the instructions say. And, yes, the instructions are correct. It's just a weirdly precise, somewhat ungraceful process that still makes me feel awkward after three weeks of testing. Removing the laptop's screen is a particularly brutal challenge -- there's no button or latch; you just tug at the screen while holding the keyboard in place with your non-dominant hand. I inevitably press a few buttons on the keyboard or touchscreen every time I try to go into tablet mode, and when the screen finally pops out of place, I feel like a kid who's just done something wrong. I hate to start a review with a complaint. But the whole idea behind the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is that it is both a Windows laptop and an Android tablet, a literal two-in-one. Professionals like me can bring this machine to work, plug the bottom half into a computer monitor, set the display on a stand, and enjoy a PC-plus-tablet experience with seamless file sharing and such. The process of detaching the laptop's display should be far more graceful and satisfying, as it's a core part of using this laptop. To Lenovo's credit, the mechanism that holds this laptop's screen in place is very rigid. The screen doesn't bob or bounce around when you're in laptop mode. In fact, it stays in place better than most laptop touchscreens, which is not what I expected. Don't Overlook the Software Microsoft-made tools like Phone Link have morphed Windows into a decent companion for Android. That said, Microsoft's Windows-to-Android software is primarily intended for smartphones, not tablets, and the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is an odd breed with a unique set of needs. So, Lenovo designed a Windows-to-Android stack that provides a more seamless experience than the standard Phone Link system. If you open up File Explorer, you'll find that the Android OS' filesystem can be accessed from Windows. There's also a shared "Hybrid Folder" that both devices can dip into at any time, and photos taken on the Android tablet can be automatically synced to the Windows gallery. Close There's even a Hybrid Stream tool that brings the Android operating system onto the Windows desktop. Hybrid Stream is great for watching TikTok while in laptop mode, although it doesn't support wireless streaming, which seems like a missed opportunity. These unique software solutions are tucked within the HybridCenter app. They're also presented to you through a series of popups after you set up the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid. And, importantly, Lenovo's software doesn't impede on normal Phone Link functionality, so you can still connect your smartphone to the laptop. However, I'm concerned about long-term software support. There's a lot of specialized software on here that may need to be adapted for future Windows and Android updates. Sales figures often dictate the level of software support that a product may receive, and I don't see this thing flying off of store shelves, so the future of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is a mystery. A Beautiful Screen and a Decent Stylus There's nothing better than a big, beautiful screen. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid boasts a 14-inch, 2.8K resolution OLED panel -- touchscreen, of course -- with a 60Hz refresh rate and an anti-reflection coating. It's a pleasure to use something that looks this nice, although the 14-inch size is a bit cumbersome when in tablet mode. Some people may be disappointed to see a 60Hz refresh rate in such an expensive machine, but this is a business laptop, so 60Hz is fine by me. My only complaint about the display is its default color profile. While I'm sure that some customers will enjoy the vivid colors that you get out of the box, I prefer more accurate, less exaggerated colors. Adjusting the colors in Android took all but a few seconds (I changed the display profile from "Vivid" to "Standard"), but I couldn't bring myself to deal with the Intel Graphics Command Center in Windows. Lenovo also includes a Tab Pen Plus stylus with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid. While it's far from the "best" stylus in Lenovo's portfolio (we're talking about a company that sells 25 different styluses) the Tab Pen Plus is a nice piece of kit. It offers 4,096 levels of pressure detection, tilt detection, palm rejection, and Bluetooth fast pairing. I rarely used the stylus to write notes, but I regularly reached for it when adjusting window sizes, as it provided a sense of accuracy that I can never seem to get from Windows trackpads. Other reviewers say that the Tab Pen Plus cannot magnetically attach to the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid. I'm not sure what they're talking about, as there are several magnetic attachment points on this device -- two on either side of the trackpad, one at the base of the screen, another at the rear of the laptop chassis, and two on the backside of the tablet. However, wireless charging is not supported, so you need to plug a USB-C port into the stylus every now and then. Flagship Performance for a Business Laptop As I've mentioned throughout this review, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is a high-end Windows laptop and a high-end Android tablet. The spec sheet is a total whos-who of hardware, with fancy components in both the detachable display and keyboard base station. The Windows side of things is powered by a 15th Gen Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of LPDDRX5 RAM, and 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. So, it's a "Copilot+ AI PC," and Windows 11 performance is quite good. I didn't experience any hiccups or slowdowns during my three weeks with the machine, although the lack of a dedicated GPU proved to be a limiting factor when gaming. Integrated Intel Arc graphics are surprisingly good -- I pushed Fortnite pretty hard before hitting a bottleneck -- but this is a business machine at its core. It also puts out a lot of heat, and its fans get pretty noisy, but uncomfortable thermals are part and parcel for a slim laptop with a desktop-class Intel CPU. Android functionality is delivered by a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFX 3.1 storage. Any Android tablet with these specs is a winner, at least in terms of raw horsepower. The flagship Snapdragon chipset is overkill for those who just want to stream video or take notes, but it's a good option for Android gaming and it ensures a long lifespan for the tablet. On the subject of future-proofing, this device ships with Android 13 and can update to Android 14. It's effectively one year behind the current Android version. This isn't unusual for Android tablets, but it's something that I hate to see in a product with flagship specs. A Disappointing Port Selection Business laptops tend to have a lot of ports. Unfortunately, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is barren. You get two Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports (40Gbps) and a headphone jack in the laptop body, plus a single USB-C 3.0 port in the tablet -- this extra USB port is only available in tablet mode, as it's inaccessible when the screen is attached to the laptop body. I really would've appreciated an HDMI jack, a USB-A port, and an SD card slot. But the thing that really disappoints me is the absence of a headphone jack on the tablet. This is something that impedes my ability to have a seamless Windows-to-Android experience -- I can use my wired headphones in laptop mode, but I need to grab a USB-C dongle (or wireless earbuds) if I want to switch over to tablet mode. Thankfully, Lenovo didn't skimp on wireless connectivity. Both the laptop and tablet portions of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid support Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. Though I'd like to reiterate that the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is two devices in one. A Bluetooth connection made with Windows 11 won't carry over to Android, and so on. Even if your earbuds or headphones support multipoint pairing, you'll probably be frustrated by this particular quirk. Should You Buy the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid? I've spent three weeks with the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid. Still, I can't figure out who this machine is meant for. There are certainly some benefits to Lenovo's hybrid Windows-Android design, but at the end of the day, I'd rather have a normal laptop and tablet. Or, at the very least, a Windows two-in-one that's always in Windows mode. Pricing is also a problem. When we first encountered the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid at CES 2024, Lenovo said that it would start at $2,000. Now, at launch, it costs $3,518. It's worth more than the equipment that I use to make my livelihood as a professional writer. It's worth more than my American-made guitars and boutique amplifiers. Hell, it exceeds the Blue Book value of my car! Spending $3,518 on what is essentially an engineering magic trick, especially one without an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, is something that I really struggle to understand. For comparison's sake, an ASUS ROG Zephyrus laptop with a 16-inch 240Hz display, 15th Gen Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, and RTX 4080 GPU carries an MSRP of $2,699. I could spring for a top-of-the-line ASUS gaming laptop and buy a high-end Android tablet (or iPad, preferably) for less than the price of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid that I'm reviewing today. I'm sure that there are people who will buy and love the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid. It's a good machine with a neat gimmick. Unfortunately, I'm not sold on the concept, I can't endorse the price, and I'm worried about long-term software support. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid 6/ 10 Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid offers a combined Windows and Android experience, flagship power, and a gorgeous screen. It may be worth buying if you can look past the price tag and find a good use for the Windows-Android hybrid technology. $3518 at Lenovo