It's not often you come across a camera that looks like it came straight from a movie set. But Lenovo's Project Crystal, said to be the world's first laptop with a transparent microLED display, is an example of science fiction come to life.
There are currently no plans to turn Project Crystal into a retail product. Instead, Lenovo's latest concept was commissioned by its ThinkPad division to explore the potential of transparent microLED panels and AI integration. The most obvious use case would be sharing information somewhere, like a doctor's office or hotel office. Instead of having to flip a screen, you can simply flip the display through software, allowing anyone on the other side to see it while still getting a detailed explanation.
Combined with the built-in camera on the back of the system, Lenovo says there could be possible AR applications. An example would be using the camera to identify an object, similar to Google Lens. And with its transparent display, it should be possible to take this idea further by overlaying a diagram or schematic on the object for tasks such as troubleshooting or repair.
But the best thing about Project Crystal is that Lenovo took the trouble to make it happen. Currently, even standard microLED displays are extremely expensive, with these panels typically reserved for cutting-edge gadgets like Samsung's. The wall Or Apple Vision Pro. And the transparent versions were only considered as concepts as on the A Samsung transparent microLED TV presented a few months ago at CES 2024.
In person, the transparency effect is mind-boggling. When closed or when its screen is off, the Project Crystal's screen almost looks like a regular piece of glass with a slight brownish tint. But at any moment everything lights up like a battleship. Rated brightness goes up to 1,000 nits, with Lenovo claiming peaks can reach 3,000 nits, which would make it brighter than the new Galaxy S24 family. And although it's made up of multiple layers, the panel is extremely thin, helping to blur the line between the digital and analog worlds. Lenovo says it's also considering adding some sort of contrast layer, so it can transform into a traditional opaque display at the touch of a button. However, for a relatively large 16-inch screen, its resolution is not very high, so if you look closely you can see individual pixels.
Another design quirk is that instead of a traditional keyboard, the Project Crystal features one of Lenovo's touchscreen replacements, similar to those on older keyboards. Yoga books. Unfortunately, it still suffers from the same problems. The most obvious example is that your hands drift when you type because there is no tactile feedback, leading to decreased accuracy. Lenovo says AI might be able to solve this problem in the future by learning a person's typing habits and then using that information to account for your hands moving away from the home row . But for now, it's still a problem.
The rest of the laptop is also a work in progress. I only saw two ports on the entire system, which would be a major misstep for a laptop this size. Project Crystal is also based on a latest-generation processor, while other components like its hinge were so weak that its screen threatened to collapse every time it tilted below 90 degrees. And for some reason, the laptop seemed to build up a static charge, as it sometimes shocked people who touched its screen.
The Crystal Project is a solution in search of a problem. A problem that exists in niche situations and perhaps deserves to be addressed more seriously in the future. But more importantly, it challenges us to think about what's possible with emerging display technology and how it might fit into a laptop of the future.
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