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Clearly, the Future? A

Look at Lenovo's Wild
Transparent Concept
Laptop, 'Project Crystal'
See-through laptop displays, paired with AI and
augmented reality: Is this the future of work? We
went hands-on with Lenovo's mind-boggling
prototype laptop ahead of MWC 2024.

by Matthew Buzzi
Feb 26, 2024

(unknown)

New ThinkPads are always worth checking out,

but it's, ahem, clear what Lenovo's most exciting
announcement is at Mobile World Congress. It's
hard to ignore, even if you can see right through
it: The company is showing off an experimental
transparent-screen concept laptop, a ThinkBook
the company is dubbing "Project Crystal."

We were able to spend some time up close and

personal with Project Crystal at a private meeting
before its unveiling, and it made quite an
impression. You can watch our hands-on session
and feature rundown in the video above.

Before you get too carried away and scroll down

for a release date or a price, stop here. As it
stands, Lenovo currently has no plans to bring
Project Crystal to market as a real product. This
is 100% a proof-of-concept device, promising
only that this technology is possible; maybe it
appears in a different product down the line. For
a closer look, and some ideas for what you’d use a
see-through screen to do, check out the video
above and details below.

Lenovo's All-Glass Translucent

Display

So, about that screen. The display—an array of

micro LEDs sandwiched between clear glass—is
the obvious draw here, though it’s not the only
interesting or unusual part of the design. This
screen measures 17.3 inches diagonally, and it is
completely borderless, with glass on three sides
connecting to the bottom hinge. Micro LEDs
present high brightness as an advantage; this
panel can push up to 1,000 nits, which is also
crucial to displaying visibly on clear glass.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Your first inclination (and mine) may be to

wonder why you’d want a glass display, and what
benefits it brings. (In normal desktop operation,
your text and icons will read backward from the
reverse side, of course.) Lenovo ran us through
some demos of potential use cases, giving a
glimpse of future workflows. We’ll go through
those below, but putting them aside for a
moment, experiencing and using the screen is
what struck me first.

In short, it’s extremely cool to see in person, one

of those stand-out prototype moments you enjoy
before thinking too much about the practicality of
it all. Despite the default transparency, it is easy to
see images, text, and icons displayed on the
screen; our photographs here aren't nearly as
clear as it was in person, because the effect is
simply difficult to capture on camera.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Desktop icons seemingly float in the air—mostly

crisp, with only a slight fuzz around the edges—
but remain perfectly usable. Video content is
somewhat less viewable in transparent mode—
all of the quickly varying colors and motion don't
stand out quite as well on a transparent
background, but you can still see what you're
watching easily enough.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The micro LEDs are, crucially, capable of making

portions of the display virtually opaque, too. If you
pull up, say, a side window or panel, it can display
it as entirely white rather than see-through by
activating all of those LEDs, showing up white as
on a normal screen. In this way, part of the
screen can remain transparent, while the other
displays an opaque white or colored background.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Since the screen is transparent, the background

—be it a wall or window—behind the display does
make a difference to your viewing experience,
though maybe not as big a one as you’d think. A
dark background helps some lighter images and
text show up more clearly, and putting it against a
window or other light source can diminish the
effect. Still, the screen remained largely legible in
all of these scenarios. A 17-inch laptop with a
glass screen isn’t the most portable device, but
being able to move it when needed is vital to
making use of the display.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The screen isn’t the only core feature

transformed by Lenovo: The keyboard and
touchpad are one entirely flat touch-enabled
surface, a bit like on last year's Yoga Book 9i.
You'll find no physical keys, but rather, where
you’d normally find the keyboard deck and
touchpad, you'll notice one smooth surface, with
LED keys you can turn on and off. Keeping the
keyboard and touchpad sections active allows
you to use them in those ways—typing on a touch
surface is about as effective as you’d expect,
compared with a real keyboard—or you can turn
them off to enable one giant drawing surface.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The supersize tablet surface could be used with a

pen in conjunction with the display to draw, edit,
or create content when you don’t need a
keyboard. With the keyboard completely flat, the
glass display can fold into place fully flush against
the laptop chassis for added protection. You’d
certainly want a laptop like this in a well-padded,
protected bag for travel, though, since the back of
the glass screen is still exposed when lying flat.
You'll also find a rear-facing camera, which
seems like a minor note, but is important to the
concept behind the laptop—more on that in a
moment.

Designing for the Future: AR,

AI, and More Use Cases

Beyond looking cool, transparency opens the

door to use cases other laptops aren’t capable of.
These mostly revolve around augmented reality
(AR), which, it should be said, does not apply to
plenty of everyday users. Some of the suggested
scenarios, like the main demo we were shown,
combine the transparent display with generative
AI. I understand if this lacks appeal for normal PC
use and sounds more niche; this is likely another
reason why this isn’t a real product ready for the
market at this time, with AR and AI still in the
early stages.

Regardless, Lenovo demoed a few AR scenarios,

and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them
implemented in the real world. The main demo
used the clear panel, rear-facing camera, and AI
in conjunction. This was somewhat of a pre-
baked demonstration, with specific software less
important than the idea.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

To start, Lenovo opened up an application with an

interface that had a menu on one side—imagine
your Adobe software of choice—and a clear
“window” to see behind the laptop screen on the
other portion. Then, a small potted flower was
placed behind the laptop, in view of the rear
camera and in the crosshairs of the clear
“window” portion on the screen. The camera and
software detected the object; the AI noted it was
a flower; and then AI “generated” a small bird to
fly in over the flower. AI also composed a chunk
of text describing the type of flower, as it detected
it. (Again, this was a pre-baked demo.) Different
objects could be used to generate different
images and, in theory, the software and camera
in conjunction would always try to create relevant
content for the subject.

I can easily see extending this idea to educational

purposes, and with different objects and
software, entertainment, or creative uses. It
would require well-tuned AI to recognize and
generate content, but the PC market is
determined to move that way, especially following
the launch of Intel's Core Ultra “Meteor Lake”
processors and their onboard AI-processing
NPUs, as well as Windows’ Copilot AI assistant.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Lenovo’s other suggested scenarios used the

same core idea, with AR and the camera at the
center. Think of an interior-decorating or design
studio that could point the laptop into a space and
overlay virtual furniture, decor, or remodeling. If
you bring AI into the equation, it could even
process and suggest colors as well as specific
items.

Another theoretical use case was for checking in

to a hotel, where the desk attendant and camera
could see a guest approach the desk, have the AI
recognize them by face, and pull up the check-in
information. Of course, that comes with some
chilling Bourne Identity-style implications as far
as facial recognition, but I don’t think it will
surprise anyone if and when similar technology is
rolled out.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Some of these are concepts possible with AR

headsets now, but AR support on Windows (not
to mention, the general adoption of headsets) has
not taken off; Project Crystal would require just
the device without any wearables, and it lets you
see and work on one device with its own
processing power.

For now, this laptop and these ideas will remain

theoretical, at least in this form. Similar
implementations may be in development
elsewhere, which may drive Lenovo to revisit this
device or find a way to perfect and scale the
concept of a transparent laptop display. Until
then, Lenovo seems happy to let us dream.

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About Matthew Buzzi

I’m one of the consumer PC experts at

PCMag, with a particular love for PC

gaming. I've played games on my computer for

as long as I can remember, which eventually (as

it does for many) led me to building and

upgrading my own desktop. Through my years

here, I've tested and reviewed many, many

dozens of laptops and desktops, and I am always

happy to recommend a PC for your needs and

budget.

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