Lenovos Mini LED Monitors Can Charge Some Of The Thirstiest Laptops With 140W USBC PD

They come in 27-inch and 31.5-inch versions.

Lenovo has introduced two 4K monitors that use Mini LED technology, and they look very attractive to those who want a good monitor but won't be playing heavy games. The 27-inch ThinkVision P27pz-30 and 31.5-inch P32pz-30 have 1,152 darkness zones, multiple ports, and even the unprecedented ability to deliver 140W of power to a laptop, despite the high prices of very small LED displays. Both are expected to cost less than $2,000 when they arrive in August 2023.

You can connect the monitors using a single USB-C cable, which Lenovo's press release says can handle "40 Gbps data and video transfer." That's enough for a 4K monitor running at 60Hz, and in fact Lenovo says you can even connect the two together. This is pretty standard for a Thunderbolt/USB 4 display, but it gets even more interesting when paired with monitors with the unusual ability to deliver up to 140W of power to a laptop. In theory, this means you can connect a single USB-C cable and get multiple monitors, an extended USB hub, and enough power for all but the most power-hungry laptops.

It's not the 240W USB device that can do it now, but it's still pretty impressive

In theory, the reason is that there really aren't many laptops on the market today that can even take that much power via USB. Apple's high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro has a 140W power adapter, but you won't get much with MagSafe; you are limited to 100W with a standard USB cable. 100 watts)

Unfortunately , Apple's MagSafe cable doesn't transfer any data, so you'll have to choose between 1) a single USB-C cable with 100W of power, video and data, or 2) plug the MagSafe cable into a display or wall. just 140W of power, plus an HDMI or DisplayPort cable to transfer the video to the monitor.

But if the laptop makes better use of USB Power Delivery 3.1 (which already allows up to 240W), the ThinkVisions will be better prepared than most. I couldn't find any other monitors that would provide 140W from their USB-C ports. The Apple Studio display has a maximum power of 96W, while the HP Z40c has a maximum power of 100W. My Google-Fu could still fail, but when I looked for another monitor with the same specs, it didn't. Only the dedicated USB 3.1 power pages showed the charger.

Even if USB-C isn't for you, or your laptop doesn't need a lot of power, Lenovo promises an impressive port design. In addition to the USB 4 port, the monitors also have two HDMI 2.1 ports (though the flavor is unclear, and Lenovo doesn't mention things like variable refresh rate or automatic low-latency mode), and two DisplayPort 1.4 connectors (one for input, one for output (unclear), daisy-chaining or mirroring), four 10Gbps USB-A ports, gigabit Ethernet, a USB-C port for upstream, and another USB-C port that can charge like a smartphone at up to 15W with capacity. and of course a 3.5mm jack for headphones or speakers.

In addition to all the connection options and the possibility of KVM, if you want to use two computers with one monitor, these monitors also look quite complete. The stand has tilt, swivel, swivel and height adjustments (and can be used vertically if you flip it that way) and looks pretty bright; Lenovo's specs say you can typically expect around 600 nits, but monitors can max out at 1200 nits. nits. The company also promises that there will be pretty good color reproduction, covering 99% of the Adobe RGB color space. The 27-inch model will also cover 99% of the DCI-P3 area, while the 31.5-inch model will be limited to 98%.

Finally, there is the price. Fortunately, Lenovo is following the trend of significantly reducing the prices of mini LED displays; An earlier 27-inch monitor using this technology was priced at $2,399.00, which is similar to the suggested retail price of other displays using Asus and Samsung technology. Meanwhile, the ThinkVision P32pz-30 will retail for $1,599, and while Lenovo's current press release says pricing for the 27-inch model is "coming soon," an earlier version shows $1,699 (about $1,800), reports Ars.Technica . As is often the case, it seems you'll have to pay more if you want 4K resolution in a more compact form factor.

Are there better deals on screen space? Granted, for my money I'd probably go with the $1,099 Alienware QD-OLED, though the lack of USB-C charging and connectivity, the player's aesthetics and feature set would probably put most companies off, despite being (in some respects) a technological superlative. watch At $700, the Cooler Master is also incredibly cheap for a small LED display, but it has the same problem of not being suitable for a desktop. On paper, though, it looks like Lenovo has built some really great displays here, even if you ignore the impressive charging specs. Let's hope they actually get the job done, or something better will be announced months before ThinkVisions actually launches.