I tried Lenovo's ThinkBook with modular displays at MWC – and it worked like magic

Over the last year, Lenovo has shown off some wild proof-of-concept laptops designed to turn heads. From the “rollable” laptop that was all the rage at CES 2025 to the Aura Edition that you can smack with your phone to share files, Lenovo is making a point by bringing its wild ideas to fruition and positioning itself as a serious innovator in the market. 

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Today at Mobile World Congress, Lenovo made it clear the ideas keep on coming when it announced some fascinating laptop concepts, including a solar-powered device, a convertible laptop with a rollable display, and one of its most ambitious ideas yet — a portable dual-display accessory that turns your laptop into a triple-screen setup. 

The new dual-display accessory uses Lenovo’s Magic Bay system that already exists across multiple ThinkBook models to add not one, but two additional 13.3-inch screens — one on either side of the main display. I went hands-on with it ahead of MWC on the ThinkBook 16p Gen 6, and although I was skeptical at first, I have to admit I’m impressed with the vision here.   

If you’re not familiar with Magic Bay, it’s essentially a pogo pin port on the top of the device that allows users to swap in different peripherals. The most obvious is a webcam, but Lenovo offers other accessories like a light and an LTE port. 

The Magic Bay Dual Display snaps into the Magic Bay port and expands the laptop’s display across three screens, transforming the device into an impressive visual workstation. The triple display creates an immersive visual setup that content creators will certainly love, but is practical enough to juice up anyone’s workstation. 

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The displays are big enough to be relevant. At 13.3 inches, they offer sufficient breathing room to replace an external monitor entirely and are equal in brightness to the main display at 500 nits. To stay supported, a kickstand in the back folds down to support the extra weight.

The extra screens fold up into what is essentially a portable monitor, and although they don’t feel particularly flimsy or fragile, the entire mechanism does take some getting used to. There are a bunch of flaps and foldable components that all need to be arranged just right, and it does take a couple of tries to bundle it up successfully. 

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The cool thing about the Magic Bay is that it’s one port that can fit the entire range of accessories. So if the dual screens are overkill for you, there’s another option: a single 8-inch mini display that Lenovo says is designed to be a “dedicated AI dashboard.” 

The little mini screen attaches the same way as the others but is slightly more vertical, bringing a tablet-shaped appearance. Lenovo says it’s supposed to provide quick access to productivity tools, messaging apps, and AI-generated insights. Used for work, this device would perform nicely as a dedicated communication window for Slack or Microsoft Teams.

The biggest concern I had for this is obvious: the power consumption. One display is already a battery hog, but two additional ones are going to absolutely chew through the battery on this device, regardless of whatever power-saving setting you have or how bright the screens are. 

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This leads me to consider this device as more of an anchored workstation with reliable access to power, as you won’t be moving the laptop while the displays are attached, anyway. The other concern is all the space these screens take up on both the desk and in your bag in transit. I’d be hard-pressed to find a coffee shop in Brooklyn with enough room for this setup. 

We’re still a ways out from this being available, as Lenovo hasn’t dropped prices or expected availability yet, but it’s safe to assume that it won’t be cheap. Once the device is made available, we’ll have a chance to fully test the laptop and go hands-on, so stay tuned.