Lenovo is making a ThinkPad with a folding screen

Samsung and Huawei may be at the forefront of folding screen technology, but Lenovo will join them soon. Instead of a new smartphone, Lenovo brings the folding screen to a new laptop.

At its Accelerate Conference in Florida, Lenovo showed what will be the world’s first folding screen laptop. It does not have a name yet, but Lenovo says it belongs to the ThinkPad X1 line and is meant to be a replacement for conventional laptops.

Early prototype

As it is only a prototype and still in the early stages of development, the company did not share many specifications yet, but this is what we could see.

The notebook has a 13.3-inch OLED screen that folds on itself. Like the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the hinge allows you to lean robustly to a variety of viewing angles and close magnetically, leaving a very small space between them. Once it’s closed, the sleek design of the leather back on the outside makes it feel like a laptop instead of a laptop.

Other specifications

There is an on-screen keyboard, as well as a compact Bluetooth keyboard that comes with the laptop. Lenovo even plans to add a pencil. However, it is not as smooth as Samsung’s S pen (for the prototype), but hopefully you will see improvements before the final release.

Regarding connectivity, there are USB ports type C and A. You could use the Type C port for the load, but we do not know for sure. The company also says that they are aiming for a full-day battery, which is good to hear, but knowing the battery life of the laptop, it might well be worth around 8-10 hours.

Release date

Lenovo says they have been working on the device for three years and do not plan to launch it until 2020, probably to avoid a destination like the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Until then, there is plenty of time for competitors to catch up and, hopefully, we will see this innovation with more brands in the future.