Lenovo CES 2019: Ultra wide displays

At CES 2019 Lenovo announced two very exciting new displays: the ThinkVision P44w and the Legion Y44w ultra wide displays.

Wide screens

Both of these displays are ultra wide. They are the same size as two 24″ displays side by side (two 16:10 screens). But in the case of the P44w/Y44w there would be no bezel in between these two screens. It is one seamless gigantic screen.

I am very keen to try out a screen like this. Currently I use two screens (both at home and at the office) and they way I use them is that I have one designated as a primary screen – this is in front of me – and the other has supplemental information. The second screen is on the side.

With a wide screen like this, I could put the main content right in the center, and have my supplemental information show up in both sides (instead of one side). This is not possible with two displays, because the bezels would be in the middle.

(and no, I will not get three screens because of this 🙂 )

Technical specs

The panel inside these displays is mostly the same, so the technical characteristics are on par with each other. It should not matter which one you choose, you get an absolutely fantastic display.

Both of them support several inputs, which they can then show either side by side or in a picture-in-a-picture mode. So you can hook up two different computers to this display and use them at the same time.

The panels

Both of these displays have the same panel inside them. The panels are 43.4″ in size, and should equal 2x 24″ displays. The resolution is 3840 x 1200 (or two times 1920×1200) and support DisplayHDR 400. Brightness is at 450 nits and refresh rate is 144Hz. All in all, great displays.

Ports

The displays have several ports on the back:

• 2x HDMI 2.0
• 2x DisplayPort 1.4
• 4x USB 3.0

There is also a neat little slide-out port base at the bottom, which has:

• 3.5mm audio out
• 2x USB Type C

The Legion Y44w

The Legion Y44w is aimed at primarily at gamers, with features like 144Hz refresh rate, 4ms response time and FreeSync support. The curved panel is great for immersing yourself in any game environment.

 

The ThinkVision P44w

Where the P44w is different is that it:

• Comes with display management software – the Legion Y44w only supports OSD settings
• It is color calibrated at the factory
• Has more warranty (3 years).

While the Legion Y44w comes with a speaker, you need to buy that separately with the ThinkVision P44w.

The display management software allows the user to define areas of the screen that behave like “mini screens”, so when you maximize something (go full screen) it will actually just occupy part of the entire screen. I am hoping this management software will work as advertised, because I see it a very important part in working with a display like this.

 

And you can also seemingly stack the P44w on top of itself, to create a double ultra wide screen workspace:

Availability

Both displays will be available in April 2019.

The Legion Y44w will have a retail price of 1199$ and the ThinkVision P44w will go for 1299$.

Conclusions

These are looking to be really great displays, both for gamers and professionals. I have been using two displays for some time now, but I am eager to test drive one of these and see how it fits in my workflow.