Jumping the CES 2023 gun, the company dropped a slew of new announcements to bring all of their work and play-centric systems in line with the newest components and innovations. While screens may be a small part of it to many, I think these two are particularly impressive.
ProArt in its sights
Lenovo’s launching new mini-LED displays: the catchily-named P27pz-30 and P32pz-30. The first number is indicative of the screen size (27 and 32 inches respectively). Each of these comes with all the big numbers you love to see: 4K resolution, 1,152 individual dimming zones for a reduced halo effect, HDR-1000 with a peak brightness of 1200 nits, flicker-free technology, and support for both DCI-P3 and Adobe sRGB color standard. Alongside this, you’re getting all the productivity-centric ports you’d expect from a Lenovo panel. It all starts with a USB 4 docking that works with any USB-C or Thunderbolt-compatible laptop, smartphone or tablet (delivering up to 140W of power to said devices), alongside three USB Type-C, four Type-A, Ethernet, DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1 ports. Topping it all off is a $1,599 price tag for the 32-inch model, which while steep for any kind of monitor, is actually a surprisingly good price for a mini-LED monitor of this spec and capability. Compared to what Lenovo is clearly targeting in the creative pro category, which is the Asus ProArt Mini LED options, the 27-inch PA27UCX-K is $2,000. You can get more screen real estate and save yourself 400 bucks, and that’s without even mentioning that Lenovo is yet to announce the price of the 27-inch (which I’m hoping for around the $1,300 mark). Creative pros could get a lot of mileage out of it, and it shows the price of this tech is tumbling. Keen to get one? It’s going to be a bit of a wait, as the P32pz-30 and P23pz-30 are set to launch in August 2023.
What else has been announced?
However, Lenovo didn’t just stop at Mini LED monitors. It’s CES season after all, and companies do have a tendency to reveal a whole lot of tech — each with less memorable names after the next! First, to paraphrase Sid from Toy Story, the big ones. The ThinkVision P32p-30 provides a 4K resolution for top fidelity on its 31.5-inch screen with plenty of connectivity options to boot, including an RJ45 port for increased security and two Thunderbolt 4 ports for easy connectivity. You can pick one up starting April 2023 at an expected price of $999. Following suit, the ultrawide P49-w30 is two QHD monitors patched together for an all-encompassing 49-inch panoramic display — set to launch in June for $1,699. Plus, since it’s a ThinkVision display, you’ve got that productivity edge with just a ton of ports: two Thunderbolt 4 ports with 100W power deliver, front-facing USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C with 15W charging capability, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, RJ45, DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1. Thanks to eKVM and True Split features, you can toggle between two PC sources on the fly and treat this one long display as two screens. While Lenovo sees the work credentials of this, I see the potential to hook up my PS5 and play on one side with work on the other (don’t tell my boss). Finally, there’s the hybrid work-focused ThinkVision VoIP monitors. The T27hv-30 packs a 27-inch QHD resolution with 75Hz refresh rate while the T24mv-30 and T24v-30 each sport 24-inch 1080p panels. All of which have Eyesafe 2.0-certified low blue light technology. The big convenience point here is the focus on making the video meeting experience as smooth as possible, which starts with a 5MP camera (packed with IR for Windows Hello, alongside a separate RGB lens and privacy shutter), continues with dual microphones, environmental noise cancellation, and two integrated 5W speakers round out the specs. This is all fair and good, but it’s the small, nifty additions that will get people talking. Features like the dedicated Microsoft Teams button on the monitor itself, and a smart traffic light system, which shows a red light to show other colleagues you’re in a meeting, provides standing reminders and alerts you when you’re sitting too close to the monitor. The T27hv-30, T24mv-30, and T24v-30 will be available starting May 2023. Prices are expected to start from $519, $399 and $259 respectively.
Outlook
While I wouldn’t want to make any assumptions before going hands on with any of these monitors, I’ve got a good feeling about the P27pz-30 and P32pz-30 Mini LED monitors. Sure, you can get monitors of this class for cheaper, but they normally lack the user-friendly features seen here, such as the many ports and KVM support of these Lenovo panels. So, to get all of this at a price like this is a mighty tempting purchase.
