MWC 2024 is in full swing, showcasing the world’s most technologically advanced gadgets, including smartphones, tablets, and smart glasses.
But what about laptops? Don’t worry. We spotted a slew of spectacular notebooks, 2-in-1s, and other clamshells at Barcelona’s biggest annual tech show.
Lenovo’s Transparent Display Laptop: Yes, I could actually ‘see through’ it
4 best laptops of MWC 2024
4. LG Gram Pro 2-in-1
LG unleashed a gaggle of new laptops as MWC 2024 kicked off, including the record-breaking LG Gram Pro 2-in-1. Say hello to the lightest 16-inch convertible laptop on the planet, which set a new Guinness World Record.
Credit: LG
It weighs just 3.08 pounds. Considering that this is a 16-inch laptop, its featherweight properties are impressive. For reference, The HP Spectre x360 I recently reviewed is a 14-inch laptop, but it’s heavier at 3.2 pounds.
Taking a quick look at specs, the LG Gram Pro 2-in-1 comes with 32GB of RAM, up to 2TB of SSD storage, up to a 2,800 x 1800-pixel resolution OLED display, up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU, and Intel Arc graphics.
Credit: LG
What’s more impressive is the price. It has a starting price of just $1,399 via LG’s official website, which is on the affordable side as far as 16-inch laptops are concerned. (It’s currently available for pre-order).
3. Honor MagicBook Pro 16
We dig the white color.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Disregard the name that makes it sound like a MacBook Pro; it doesn’t really look like one. Honor’s 16-inch laptop we saw in Barcelona is white all around (that’s the version we saw in Barcelona), but it also comes in purple.
Honor isn’t best known for laptops, but the MagicBook Pro 16 looks well put together, with a 16-inch, 144Hz, LCD IPS display and very little in way of bezels. Plus, it features a full-sized keyboard with a full set of numerical keys and a large touchpad.
It’s powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip and Nvidia’s RTX 4060 GPU. It’s also packed with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
Connectivity-wise, it’s got two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Sadly, there’s no memory card slot here. (It also looks like this laptop will only be available for some parts of the EU.)
2. Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop
That flower is really there, behind the laptop.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
It’s not strictly a laptop that you can buy right now, and even if you could, you probably wouldn’t want to work on it every day. But it’s still a laptop, and it was just too much fun not to be included in this list.
What surprised me the most about Lenovo’s transparent laptop concept was that it was not just a dummy unit playing some video to show off the semi-transparent display. No, the device I’ve seen was a fully functional Windows laptop, with all the apps working pretty much as you’d expect. I’ve spent some 30 minutes with the device, and I watched a video, drew in Paint, browsed the web, and even changed some of the laptop’s settings.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable
Of course, the transparent display is what makes this one different. And yes, it was cool to see objects right behind the display. Also, it was the first laptop I’ve ever seen to have literally no solid bezels. (It has a bit of a transparent bezel, but it looks exactly the same as the rest of the display, so it’s almost invisible.)
The device does need a lot of fine-tuning before it can be sold to customers. For example, firing up something with a white background, like a browser window, made that portion of the display too bright. But as a concept, it was an interesting proposition of what the future may bring.
1. Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra
As someone who’s been in the laptop industry for years now, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is often named as pundits’ favorite laptop. It has industry-leading performance, a slick and sleek design, a solid chassis, and a stunning AMOLED display.
The new Galaxy Book 4 series, including an 360 model and an Ultra variant.
Credit: Samsung
Now, the beloved laptop has a successor. Meet the new Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra.
This bad boy comes with a 16-inch, 3K touchscreen AMOLED display, up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It ain’t cheap. It has a starting price of $2,399, but if it’s anything like its predecessor, the new-generation Galaxy Book 4 Ultra should be fire.
Testing at Barcelona, the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra was zippy with breakneck-fast performance. We weren’t allowed to take photos because the model in the briefing is a pre-production unit, but trust me when I say that the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra is the best laptop of MWC 2024.
You can snag it now via Samsung’s official website.
