Lenovo has different funky research it’s announcing astatine Mobile World Congress: the ThinkBook “codename Flip” AI PC Concept. It’s a productivity / business laptop pinch a elastic display, allowing it to beryllium utilized arsenic a accepted 13.1-inch clamshell, a folded-up 12.9-inch tablet, aliases a laptop pinch an extra-tall 18.1-inch vertical screen.
The ThinkBook Flip uses the aforesaid nonstop OLED sheet arsenic the $3,500 ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 that’s expected to get sometime successful June — only here, it’s group up to fold down the main information of the surface alternatively of widen retired from underneath it. That intends location are nary motors, which could bring costs down, and nary of the show is near sitting unused wrong the chassis — hence the Flip’s 0.4 inches of other surface existent property complete the Gen 6.
When folded back, the Flip tin beryllium utilized for illustration a normal 13-inch clamshell laptop, albeit pinch astir half its surface facing backward. You tin usage that rear-facing information to reflector aliases widen your show and coming to personification other without the request for an outer show aliases projector, aliases conscionable time off it blank. But the existent prima of the show is erstwhile you flip the surface up to get each 18.1 inches / 2000 x 2664 solution of glorious OLED for yourself. In summation to being capable to position agelong documents and websites, it puts the webcam and apical information of the surface astatine a pleasing and neck-relieving oculus level.
Outside of its screen, the Flip’s different unsocial characteristic is its Smart ForcePad trackpad. It offers 3 color-coded layers of LED-illuminated touch shortcuts and media controls you tin telephone up wrong the pad itself. They tin toggle shape the trackpad into a number pad, connection shortcuts to functions for illustration the Snipping Tool aliases a shut up fastener for your mic, aliases service arsenic an app launcher. Samuel Shang, main interrogator of Lenovo Research, told maine the company’s dream setup would beryllium to switch the touchpad pinch a smartphone display, but that would beryllium excessively costly. The basal illuminated icons offered a adjacent compromise.
While the Flip is still successful the conception phase, Lenovo does person immoderate estimated specs for what would spell inside, which seems for illustration a promising motion this laptop will really travel to market. It’ll usage an Intel Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, PCIe SSD storage, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and characteristic a fingerprint reader.
The ThinkBook Flip I sewage to spot successful a little demo up of MWC was an early prototype that still felt vulnerable and a small unsmooth astir the edges. It was acold from the ready-to-ship rollable ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 I saw astatine CES, which I didn’t person to dainty truthful delicately. But my workfellow Allison Johnson saw different prototype of the Flip successful Barcelona astatine MWC that already looked a small further on and little janky.
There’s ever a chance that this conception ne'er goes beyond the prototype phase, but since it’s borrowing components from the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, the likelihood whitethorn beryllium successful its favor. The Flip whitethorn make consciousness arsenic an alternate offering if its deficiency of motors intends it tin beryllium offered astatine a little value than its rollable cousin. I cognize I personally ever want to spot much funky laptops, and it’d beryllium cool to get aggregate flavors of these gangly boys.
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