Lenovo’s Prototype Laptop Has a Growing Screen That Doubles in Height

To kick off its Tech World 2022 occasion immediately, Lenovo shared a video teasing a few prototype units that leverage an OLED display screen’s potential to roll up like a bit of paper, together with an intriguing laptop computer that may rework to supply twice as a lot display screen actual property on demand.

At one time, laptops have been much less highly effective and fewer succesful than desktop computer systems, and as such, they have been actually solely used for touring or working in distant locations with no everlasting desk. Today, until you’re a gamer or engaged on advanced 3D animations, a laptop computer will greater than suffice as your fundamental PC, assuming you’re connecting it to a bigger exterior show. Unless you’re me. It’s been about 20 years since I switched to a laptop computer full-time, and to this present day I nonetheless refuse to attach it to a bigger display screen. I earn a living from home, I wish to endlessly transfer from room to room after I’m writing, and the few instances I’ve tried working with my laptop computer linked to a different display screen, I struggled to adapt my workflow to the ever-changing display screen area at my disposal each time I left my workplace. So I simply stopped.

That’s to not say I’m in opposition to utilizing a bigger display screen, I simply wish to have that choice wherever I’ll roam, and this Lenovo prototype seems to ship precisely that. Lenovo is not any stranger to dabbling with folding OLED display screen know-how, its ThinkPad X1 Fold was an revolutionary pill/laptop computer hybrid with a display screen that would fold in half and a floating wi-fi keyboard.

It was a intelligent rethinking of what a laptop computer could possibly be however principally justified its folding display screen as a approach to shrink the system’s footprint when not in use. This new prototype, by comparability, is a greater use of OLEDs, I feel. It appears to be like and capabilities similar to a normal laptop computer with a everlasting tactile keyboard on the underside and a display screen that opens, however as a substitute of folding in half, the show employs a sliding mechanism that extends its top because the unseen portion of the OLED slowly unfurls from the underside. The dimension of the display screen appears to be like to double in dimension within the temporary video demonstration, offering extra room to work, with out growing the general dimension of the laptop computer itself.

There are some apparent considerations with the prototype. The laptop computer undoubtedly weighs fairly a bit greater than most with the added sliding mechanism, and with the display screen absolutely prolonged it appears to be like very top-heavy and able to fall again with no pair of arms on the keyboard always to regular it. Some have additionally identified {that a} display screen that extends horizontally with a facet ratio wider than 16:9 would probably be much more helpful and higher balanced.

Unfortunately, there’s no phrase from Lenovo as as to whether or not this prototype will ever transfer previous the idea stage, however as we’re nonetheless type of experimenting with the distinctive advantages of OLED screens, this concept appears to be nearer to hitting the nail on the top than most.