Lenovo Senior Vice President Christian Teismann on Tuesday revealed a concept design of its next-generation bendable or foldable ThinkPad laptop with a flexible screen at company’s Tech World Transform event in New York City. A new concept for a personalised laptop that will be flexible, bendable and foldable. At the event, the Chinese electronics firm showed off an image of a foldable laptop, which the company has also shared on its official Twitter account, describing “A foldable PC? Maybe someday. Just a concept for now.”
A foldable PC? Maybe someday. Just a concept for now. #LenovoTransform pic.twitter.com/UIq1qpaSwj
— Lenovo (@lenovo) June 20, 2017
The next-generation foldable laptop concept features a traditional keyboard in the bottom area and Lenovo’s iconic signature red TrackPoint joystick for scrolling and other actions. There are left and right mouse buttons and a flattened mouse wheel located at the bottom portion of the laptop. The concept foldable laptop has a large screen which covers the entire upper portion and stretches towards the keyboard. There are no hinge and actual ports for Ethernet, USB devices, HDMI output.
The main thing is that the laptop doesn’t feature a trackpad, so how do we communicate with the machine? According to Lenovo, the bendable laptop will be based on the concept of “always connected, always on,” where the user can communicate with the laptop through multiple input methods. Basically, the ultramodern laptop will be engineered with artificial intelligence (AI) to serve you as a digital assistant. All primary input functions (that are usually performed by a mouse) will be controlled by the voice commands. There’s also a stylus that is designed to like a pencil, which will allow users to write and draw on the laptop’s display. Lenovo did not reveal more details about the exotic concept device, only stating that it would become fruitful by using “advanced materials” with “new screen technologies”. Sadly, the concept graphic shown at the event is just a rendering and doesn’t even exist as a working prototype.
This isn’t the first time Lenovo has experimented with flexible technology. Last year at the same event, Lenovo showed off a bendable smartphone concept that bends around the wrist like a bracelet. The Chinese company also showcased a tablet that folds in two to look just like a book. On the other hand, South Korean tech giant Samsung is also reportedly developing a flexible phone, dubbed as the Galaxy X, which might be revealed in upcoming years.
