IBM and Lenovo ThinkPads used to be one of the most modular laptop lines on the market. Back in the day, there used to be the UltraBay system, where users could hot-swap the optical drive for a second battery or second storage drive.

Of course, the days of optical drives in laptops are long over, and the same is true for the UltraBay. Since then, the concept of modules is not something Lenovo has really pursued with ThinkPads, save for the experiment with the original ThinkPad X1 Tablet.

Instead, Lenovo has tried something new with their ThinkPad-adjacent ThinkBook line of laptops – the Magic Bay. Magic Bay is a line of accessories that get attached to the webcam bump, with the Lenovo ThinkBook 16p (available on Amazon) one of the main products that supports these accessories. These accessories include a huge webcam and a light, both for video calls, as well as a 4G modem and lately a second screen. This year, Lenovo also opened up the Magic Bay ecosystem to third party manufacturers.

It seems that this was a sign of more things to come, as Lenovo seemingly finally expands Magic Bay to the legendary ThinkPad series. Over at the iF Design Award website, a new Lenovo ThinkPad model popped up that has not even been announced yet: The Lenovo ThinkPad X14 Gen 1. This laptop seems to be a close relative to the smaller ThinkPad X13 and the ThinkPad T14s, but even more mobile than the T14s. And, significantly, it has the port for the Magic Bay accessories on the lid.

It is not clear when the Lenovo ThinkPad X14 Gen 1 will come to the market, but based on information online, this machine will feature Intel’s Panther Lake CPUs. In terms of the design, it is very close to the X13, but it features the bigger keyboard of the ThinkPad T series.

Which Magic Bay accessories do you think Lenovo should make? Let us know in the comments!

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Benjamin Herzig – Managing Editor – 1449 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016

I was an ardent reader of Notebookcheck’s laptop reviews even back in school. After writing reviews as a hobby, I then joined Notebookcheck in 2016 and have worked on device reviews and news articles ever since then. My personal interest lies more with laptops than smartphones, with business laptops being the most interesting category for me. Technology should make our lives and work easier and good laptops are an essential tool for that to happen. This is why laptop reviews are not just my work but are also my passion.