Never have enough screens on your desktop? Fine. But how about on your laptop?
At MWC 2025, Lenovo is unveiling three ambitious, intriguing proof-of-concept accessories for its ThinkBook 16p power-user laptop—and, whoa, are they bangers for multitaskers. The 16p itself is already an absolute powerhouse of a workstation laptop—the latest announced model will feature Intel’s latest-gen “Arrow Lake HX” processors, Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, and, in an unusual twist, a separate, dedicated NPU chip for AI workloads—but these new concepts take laptop form factors and functions in funky new directions.
All three are made possible by Magic Bay, an established connector on the lid of this ThinkBook laptop that accepts snap-on accessories. This is not our first dance with Magic Bay accessories. Lenovo showed off a bunch of credible and incredible ones at CES 2024, among them a high-resolution camera, a snap-on SSD, and—yes, really—an aromatherapy module. These three new ones all center around one concept, though: adding more, or enhancing, laptop displays.
Magic Bay: A Source for Snap-On Specialties
If you’ve not seen it before, Magic Bay is a proprietary connector built into the top of certain Lenovo ThinkBook models’ lids. The connection works with a limited subset of accessories. Magic Bay add-ons interface with the connector’s pogo pins, and in the case of two of the accessories here, they mount via hooks and magnets for stability.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
One of them turns the ThinkBook into something of a sci-fi workstation built for an over-caffeinated, multi-monitor-obsessed productivity fiend; another scales that idea down to a single additional “side monitor.” The third concept will enable glasses-free 3D content viewing via the main screen.
We got a look at all three in a demo session in New York City before MWC. Whether these concepts ever make it to market, or in what form—or if Lenovo is just flexing its R&D muscles—remains to be seen. But for now, let’s take a look at what’s on the menu.
Lenovo’s 8-Inch Display Concept: Just a Little More Screen, Please
For those who like having a secondary screen alongside their laptop—whether that’s a tablet or a USB-C portable monitor—but don’t want to lug one around, the ThinkBook’s 8-Inch Display Concept aims to add a compact, dedicated dashboard to the ThinkBook 16p. This proof-of-concept is a two-piece apparatus with an 8-inch screen (1,200-by-1,920-pixel resolution) and a mounting plate.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
To use it, you unfold the screen from the plate, then extend it outward a bit via the sliding bridge connector between the two. The plate part then snaps onto the back of the ThinkBook and its Magic Bay connector using magnets and hooks.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Once in place, the display powers on and functions as a vertical-orientation auxiliary screen, parked to the right of the main screen like a loyal sidekick. You can use it to mirror or extend your desktop, like any secondary monitor.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The idea is that the secondary screen can act as a dedicated space for chat apps, stock tickers, system monitoring tools, commentary streams, or whatever digital notifications you like to glance at but don’t necessarily want hogging up your main workspace. It’s a simple concept, but for multitaskers who don’t want to constantly Alt-Tab through open windows to keep up with notifications, it could have a lot of appeal.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
We’re fans, but we want to see how you’ll tote this accessory around. The folded-up plate and panel are something of an awkward L-shape in that state, so this item would definitely need a padded or hard case for transport to keep from getting damaged.
Lenovo’s Dual Display Concept: Three Screens Are Better Than One
So, does the 8-Inch Display seem cool enough, but it’s just too “appetizer-size” for you? Hang in there.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Lenovo is also showing off its Dual Display Concept for the Magic Bay ThinkBook, which effectively turns the ThinkBook 16p into a full-blown three-screen workstation. This accessory is essentially a much bigger brother of the 8-Inch Display Concept. It features two 13.3-inch, 2.8K-resolution, 120Hz displays that extend outward from a central mounting panel…
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The gadget has the two screens extending like wings off the center piece, which hosts the Magic Bay pogo connector. To use it, you unfold the two screens, extend the screens outward on sliding bridge connectors, and attach it in the same way as the 8-Inch Display. (The Dual Display Concept has the same combination of magnets, hooks, and pogo pins.) It springs into place like a futuristic workstation Transformer.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Admittedly, attaching this big, gawky creation with its wingspan extended was a bit awkward until I got the hang of it. (You have to be sure to extend the two panels far enough to clear the lid.) And it was tricky not smearing the monitor panels with fingerprints with all the handling and manipulation. Still, it creates a panoramic workspace without the hassle of cable-tethered external monitors, and it folds up nicely when not being used.
Like with the 8-Inch Concept, via hinges you can adjust the panel angle relative to your main laptop screen. However, you can extend them only so far, and you have to be careful not to close the laptop lid too far with the panels angled inward, leading to a collision with the keyboard deck. A foldout leg on the back of the center panel lets you add some stability to the laptop lid, which can get a bit top-heavy with a pair of attached big screens.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The appeal here is obvious: Serious multitaskers, video editors, and data analysts who live and die by multiple screens could finally have a solution that’s as portable as it is expansive. No more relying on a single USB-powered external monitor with a clunky stand—this add-on turns the ThinkBook 16p into an honest-to-goodness command center.
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(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Lenovo’s 2D/3D Display: Glasses-Free 3D on a Laptop, on Demand
The third concept is a bit less utilitarian—it’s more like a dive headfirst into the future of displays. The 2D/3D Concept Display promises something we’ve seen attempted before but not yet perfected: glasses-free 3D on a laptop screen.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
This concept comprises three parts working in sync. The Magic Bay accessory involved here is a snap-on 3D camera that tracks the user’s position. It works along with a specialized display that uses what Lenovo calls “directional backlighting” to achieve a stereoscopic 3D effect without glasses. Compatible software, the third element, makes sense of it all.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Unlike some past attempts at glasses-free 3D, which often resulted in blurry or nausea-inducing visuals, Lenovo claims that its directional backlighting approach improves clarity and reduces predictable eye strain. We were pretty impressed with our short demo of the concept, though you definitely had to be seated quite precisely in a central sweet spot in front of the screen for the effect to work; otherwise, it was all double-vision blurriness. It doesn’t work for more than one viewer at a time; offside 3D viewing isn’t an option.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The demo we saw in New York was of a hyperkinetic Asian music video that, curiously, featured both gyrating dancing girls and lots of fireballs and projectiles flying toward the viewer’s face, in classic exploitative cheesy 3D-movie style. But the real target audience here is CAD designers, 3D modelers, and architects who want to view their work in 3D on the fly without donning VR goggles.
Whether the world is truly ready for glasses-free 3D laptops remains to be seen; but, so it seems, Lenovo could be ready for it very soon now.
Will These Magic Bay Concepts See the Light of Day?
If you’ve followed our coverage of Lenovo over the years at trade shows and the like, you’ll know this isn’t the first time the company has shown off daring Magic Bay accessory concepts—many of which have never made it beyond the show floor. While these three are undeniably cool (and we’d argue, in the cases of the screen attachments, legitimately useful), whether you’ll actually be able to buy any of them, in any form, is unclear.
The most likely scenario is that elements of these designs trickle down into final products, perhaps in more refined or simplified forms. The 8-inch Display Concept could evolve into a trimmer, more transportable design; the Dual Display Concept might end up as a high-end add-on for content creators. Or they might just disappear into the ether, only to be resurrected in a wildly different form years down the line. Still, all three prove that modular laptop designs have plenty of room to grow, in an era where the trend seems to be toward components soldered down and locked in place.
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About John Burek
Executive Editor and PC Labs Director
