While we’re still waiting for the commercial release of foldable phones, Lenovo’s gone and unveiled a folding laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Family. Yeah, we also thought a foldable from the company would obviously fall under its Yoga division, but branding it a ThinkPad suggests this is a no-compromise laptop intended for heavy lifting, not just headline-grabbing contortions.
The company showed off the device at its Accelerate event, and says its “not a phone, tablet, or familiar hybrid”, but rather a “full-fledged laptop with a foldable screen”.
Details are pretty light, but we know the ThinkPad X1 Family includes an OLED 2K display “made in collaboration with LG” and is powered by an Intel processor. Like the Yoga range, Lenovo is quick to talk up the various orientations the folding laptop allows, including using it like a book, standing it up for hands-free viewing, folding it to resemble a traditional laptop and using an on-screen keyboard on the bottom half for laptop-like productivity on the go, scribbling on it tablet-style with a stylus, or popping it on a stand and using it with peripherals like mechanical keyboards.
Given the device being shown off is a prototype, we might well see some changes to the port arrangement (we’ve only managed to spot a USB-C port on one edge for now), bezel dimensions and camera placement before the ThinkPad X1 Family actually makes it to market… especially as Lenovo says it’ll only start shipping in 2020.
While we wait for Lenovo’s first foldable to arrive we should at least see the delayed Galaxy Fold from Samsung go on sale, with the Huawei Mate X expected to arrive hot on its heels. The future, it seems, isn’t just female folks, it’s foldable too.
