If you keep up with CES every year, you probably already know that Lenovo wins the show each time. The coolest products to check out in Las Vegas always come from Lenovo because it's the only company that's taking actual risks. Every other product is just a new version of something you've seen before or following some industry trend, but Lenovo legitimately makes things no one else is making, and it's always fun to see.

For CES 2024, it's no different. Lenovo brought the heat, and while there were some cool products at the show from other companies, it's clear who the winner is yet again. Between the coolest Windows and Android laptop yet and an ultra-customizable laptop concept, here's everything that made Lenovo the company to keep your eye on this year.

The crazy cool ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid

Two separate devices in one body

This entire article could be about the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid because it's just that cool, and it should win the show regardless. But Editor-in-Chief Rich Woods already wrote that piece, so I'll try to keep things brief. The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is the latest in Lenovo's experimental ThinkBook lineup, and it's kind of incredible. It's a Windows and Android 2-in-1 laptop, but it's also not just one device. It's an Android tablet that attaches to a Windows computer. Remove the screen, and you have an Android tablet and a Windows PC that can connect to an external display, so you can use them independently at the same time.

These are high-end devices, too. The tablet is packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 with 12GB of RAM, while the PC has an Intel Core Ultra 7 and up to 32GB of RAM, so you're getting a great experience on both halves of this product.

And, of course, when the two devices are connected, you have a great laptop. It has a beautiful 14-inch OLED display, and you can swap between the Windows and Android experience at the push of a button. Because they're two devices, you don't have to reboot. Switching from one experience to the other takes a couple of seconds, and the built-in mouse and keyboard work with both operating systems.

There's even an option to open a window that streams the Android experience inside Windows, so you can use both at the same time. It's all really cool, and to top it all off, it's not super expensive. You're getting two fairly high-end devices for $2,000 in total.

Extreme personalization with the ThinkBook 13 Gen 4 SPE concept

E Ink Prism makes your laptop look like anything you want

The next cool thing on Lenovo's docket was the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 SPE. This is just a concept, but I think it's striking. The company has used E Ink displays in the past as a way to expand the traditional laptop screen with an included e-reader, but it was mostly about personalization and no practical use. With the ThinkBook 13X Gen 4, you get an E Ink Prism display on the back of the lid, and you can customize what's displayed on it to make your laptop look however you want. Lenovo has a few examples set up with animations that look fairly smooth.

It's kind of a shame that it's not a real product, though I suspect not many people wouldn't pay extra for it. Still, the idea of having a customizable laptop is unheard of, and the concept looks great. I only wish I could have set any background image I wanted to show up on the E Ink panel.

Even beyond this concept model, though, the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 is pretty cool since it's one of the few laptops with a 3:2 aspect ratio display. It also comes in a limited edition colorway made of "stainless magnesium," a corrosion-resistant metal that doesn't need to be painted, like most magnesium laptops. It looks great, too.

The Magic Bay accessories

Magnetic accessories for all kinds of things

Another cool thing about the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4, the ThinkBook 16p Gen 4, and other devices is that they support Lenovo's Magic Bay accessories using POGO pins on the back of the lid. These magnetically attached accessories include a high-quality 4K webcam with built-in speakers. What's pretty cool about this is that the speakers are not replacements for your existing ones, but rather, they work together with them to provide a better audio experience.

But what makes the Magic Bay concept even cooler are the prototypes Lenovo showed off at CES 2024. There were some pretty simple ones, like an SSD that you can attach to the pins, a fan, a ring light, and even a 10-inch screen. That last one had potential, but since it's a prototype, it didn't work all that well because it was too heavy for the laptop. Another concept accessory — a smiley face above the display — didn't do anything practically useful. However, that kind of silliness makes it easier to have fun when you're at a show like this.

The smaller stuff

A beautiful gaming laptop and the return of the Yoga Book 9i

Beyond the crazier concepts, Lenovo still had some other cool things at the show that had my attention. One was the Lenovo Legion 7i, one of the company's thinner and lighter gaming laptops. It's a white laptop, so it already stood out. They look great and there aren't enough of them, but what was really cool about it is that at certain angles, the edges looked silver. It feels like a hallucination because when you look at it normally, the entire laptop is white. But at certain angles, the edges have that different color that's pretty hard to capture.

Another noteworthy announcement is that the Yoga Book 9i is being refreshed for another year. What makes that cool is that the Yoga Book 9i isn't just a one-off because that's what tends to happen with many of these more experimental devices Lenovo makes. Since it was the only dual-screen laptop on the market, I figured it would disappear in 2024, but it's still here and super cool. Sadly, I didn't get to see that one in person, but it looks just like last year's version, and that's good enough for me.

But Lenovo only needed one product to win CES

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid, of course

All of these make Lenovo the most exciting company to check out at CES 2024, but honestly, only one of these would have been enough. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is such a crazy, over-the-top idea that it cleans house all by itself, and it would be all Lenovo needed to be the top dog at the show. But these other cool concepts and products made it all the easier to pick a winner this year.

I'm not surprised, though, because Lenovo always wins CES. Every company is always chasing trends and safe options, which results in the same form factors, same features, and even some colors over and over again. It would be easy for Lenovo to fall into that same routine, but the company consistently surprises us with cool devices at CES that most likely aren't selling a lot. But it's just cool to see and nice to talk about products just because they're fun. I'm already looking forward to what Lenovo has in store for next year.