Adding a second screen to a laptop has always been a bit of a hassle. You either carry around a bulky external monitor, deal with flimsy clip-on extenders, or settle for split-screen multitasking. But at Mobile World Congress 2025, Lenovo is showing off a clever alternative with its ThinkBook Magic Bay Display concept, a modular, attachable 8-inch secondary screen that snaps onto the back of a ThinkBook laptop – no cables or mounting brackets required.
I had the chance to go hands-on with the Magic Bay Display at a press preview (watch my YouTube video), and it’s an impressively seamless experience. The 8-inch, 1920 x 1200 resolution display attaches via Lenovo’s Magic Bay pogo pin connector to act as a dedicated workspace for Slack, email, video streaming, or reference materials. And at just 0.7 lbs (0.3 kg), it adds barely any weight to your laptop setup.
But the real showstopper for me was the triple-screen version, officially called the Magic Bay Dual Display Concept. This expands the setup with two 13.5-inch, 2880 x 1920 resolution displays, creating a true multi-monitor workstation in a highly portable form factor. Each display has a 3:2 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, and 1500:1 contrast ratio, making it ideal for stock traders, programmers, video editors, and multitaskers who need extra screen real estate but don’t want to be tied to a desk. The entire setup weighs just 2.62 lbs (1.2 kg).
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From my short time with the Magic Bay Display, the execution seems solid. The displays snap into place effortlessly, and Lenovo has built in automatic brightness adjustment, so the extra screens match your main display without manual tweaking. The design also eliminates one of the biggest frustrations of portable monitors – dealing with extra cables and power adapters. Instead, everything is powered via Lenovo’s proprietary pogo pin connector, drawing just 5V/3A for efficient power consumption.
Of course, this is still a concept, meaning there’s no guarantee Lenovo will actually bring it to market. But Lenovo has been experimenting with modular laptop accessories for a while, and the Magic Bay ecosystem suggests the company is serious about making laptops more flexible and expandable.
If Lenovo follows through, the Magic Bay Display could be one of the best multi-screen solutions yet – clean, compact, and easy to use. We’ll have to wait and see if it gets a real product launch after MWC 2025, but I, for one, hope it does.
[Image credit: Techlicious]
