Article Hands-On With Lenovo's First Foldable-Screen Laptop

[AndrewFreedman]

Lenovo revealed a PC with a folding screen as part of its ThinkPad X1 line that will release in 2020, run Windows and use Intel technology.

Hands-On With Lenovo's First Foldable-Screen Laptop : Read more

 

[JQB45]

I believe Intel on this one. We are closer to two years away when MicroLED comes out, OLED just isn't well suited to any PC form factor. Still I think I personally would stick with an X1 Carbon ultrabook for reliability or one of the nicer Yoga 2-n-1's if I needed a "flexible" machine. The technology right now is only suitable for prototypes and I don't think the technology will be ready by 02-2020 and when it is ready count on prices that make it unrealistic and suspect reliability.

 

[vaughn2k]

Anything that is affected with bending stress, will surely fail for a short time.
I remember the clamshell, and even the sliding phone has the same flexible problem, that hasn't been solved for decades.
Until this will be solved, I will stick to how screen are designed.

 

[Xajel]

Bending stress is the main issue here, specially for laptops which is supposed to last for years -compared to smartphones-, thought laptops will not be opened-closed as much as smartphones. But the main selling feature for me at least is the ability to flatten the laptop to have a larger screen when needed (with awkward aspect ratio, unless they went for 3:2 for single which means 4:3 for open).

 

[Giroro]

This isn't a laptop, though, it's a tablet.

There are a few reasons that people generally don't use a tablet as their primary business computer, but that's usually less about portability and more about how anybody who wants to type on a screen is already doing that on their phone.

Maybe there's potential if Lenovo put it in a prettier clamshell and targeted this at artists (and provided some solution for the lack of keyboard shortcuts?), but for serious business people .... I'm not seeing it.

 

[cryoburner]

This isn't a laptop, though, it's a tablet.

Exactly. It's a Windows tablet, but a tablet nonetheless. Sure, you have the option of using it propped up with an external keyboard, but the same applies to other tablets as well. When in a folded format, that 13.3" 4:3 screen gets halved to effectively become a pair of 9.6" 2:3 screens, making it more like a massively overpriced netbook than a laptop. With an 8 inch wide (20 cm) touchscreen keyboard, I cant imagine the typing experience will be particularly good either.

Maybe there's potential if Lenovo put it in a prettier clamshell and targeted this at artists (and provided some solution for the lack of keyboard shortcuts?), but for serious business people .... I'm not seeing it.

I also question whether it would even be good for artists. Unless the seam where the screen is folded manages to lie perfectly flat with no flex, it will probably not be all that suitable as a graphics tablet. From what I saw with the previews of that Samsung foldable phone, that didn't appear to be the case with that device, as there was a visible dip where the screen would bend. And while OLED might be nice for color accuracy, it's also prone to burn-in, so things like toolbars will likely leave "shadows" of themselves on the screen over time. Artists would probably be better off with a more traditional Windows tablet or 2-in-1 with pen support.

 

[jsmithepa]

Yawn... wake me up when they make a star wars holographic display.

 

[cryoburner]

Yawn... wake me up when they make a star wars holographic display.

I seem to recall star wars holographic displays as being rather grainy, blurry, and monochrome. >_>

 

[littleleo]

Maybe because I'm not in to notebooks or I'm just to dumb to get it, but I fail to see the need for a laptop with a screen that bends. Like a watch with a built in Phone (most people today don't know who Dick Track was). Or Ray Tracing on a VGA cards (Since it really only works on the 2080 Ti).