Lenovo unveils ‘world’s first’ foldable laptop, which it doesn’t want you calling a tablet

Lenovo this week debuted a new foldable laptop concept, designed for “highly mobile, tech-savvy professionals”.

The device will join the Chinese company’s ThinkPad X1 family, and will sport a foldable 2K OLED display from LG Display. But that’s about all the specs you’re going to get.

The company’s extremely mum on internals and externals, and it’s understandable. While Samsung and Huawei are using mobile hardware in their foldable phones, this particular device is claimed to offer users “laptop productivity” and therefore, we imagine, laptop levels of processing power.

‘This is not a phone, tablet, or familiar hybrid; this is a full-fledged laptop with a foldable screen’

It comes without a physical keyboard in the trailer, but the company does suggest it features a mechanical keyboard. Presumably this will be an add-on accessory. In many ways, that simply makes it a large Windows 10 tablet but the company’s against you calling it that.

“This is not a phone, tablet, or familiar hybrid; this is a full-fledged laptop with a foldable screen,” it notes in an official release.

Still, Lenovo’s punting the concept’s use cases, calling it an ereader, a commuter’s streaming dream, or docked device for a multi-monitor setup.

Based on official renders, the laptop will have a front-facing camera mounted on the top-right side bezel, and won’t be as thin as the company’s ThinkPad Carbon range. We imagine that solving the hinge issues that Samsung in particular has struggled with will be key for larger foldables, as well as somehow fitting a heatsink and fan into the device to cool the more powerful internals needed to push Windows.

Still, Lenovo has until 2020 to get its designs in order. And you can watch the trailer below for a glimpse into the future.

Feature image: Lenovo