Form-factor innovation has been a staple of the ThinkPad line of computers, first with IBM and today under Lenovo. Today, it unveiled another first is on the horizon.
At the 2019 Accelerate conference, Lenovo unveiled a preview and demo of the world’s first foldable PC. Made for highly mobile, tech-savvy professionals who demand the best tools, the new foldable PC joins the premium ThinkPad X1 family, promising that the unprecedented portability will in no way compromise productivity and reliability. This is not a phone, tablet, or familiar hybrid; Lenovo claims this to be a full-fledged laptop with a foldable screen.
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As greater demand for for larger screens on the go that don’t impede travel and portability, Lenovo is looking to answer the challenge directly. According to Lenovo, remote work increased 140 percent from 2008 to 2016, with more and more employees taking time-sensitive, media-intensive projects with them everywhere. Never mind that In the past, a 13.3-inch screen on a laptop demanded that the device stay at that same size footprint —not so with this single OLED 2K display made in collaboration with LG DisplayÆ that can fold in half and reduce its width by 50 percent. IntelÆ-powered with WindowsÆ, the foldable ThinkPad can transition with users from day to night:
- Wake up, fold it into a book, and start the day scanning your social media feeds in bed.†
- Walk to your kitchen, unfold it, and stand it up for hands-free viewing of your top news sites.†
- Hit your commute on the bus or train and morph it into a clamshell to catch up on emails.
- Get into the office, dock it into your multi-monitor setup and get to work.
- Go into meetings, take notes with its pen, and write on a full screen tablet.
- After lunch, set up the stand and use its mechanical keyboard to type out a few work emails.
- Come home at night, open it up and stream your favorite shows.
- Relax in bed, fold it in half and enjoy your latest read before going to sleep.
No official price or launch date was announced. Executive sources at Lenovo told us it won’t be ready for release in 2019, but should ship the first units to customers sometime in 2020. Pricing will be a the premium level, inline with other innovative products in the X1 family.
