Pass the … folding laptop

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold is a laptop with a folding and flexible display.

Lenovo ThinPad X1 Fold

Devices with foldable screens are the flavour of the month. Huawei, Samsung and Royole already have phones that fold out into tablets. This week Motorola showcased its new Razr smartphone, which is a flip phone with a folding screen. Samsung has a foldable phone in the wings.

Manufacture isn’t easy. Special plastics are used instead of glass for screens and the materials inside the display have to be conductive, transparent and flexible. Resulting devices are expensive.

Now we’re starting to see folding and flexible displays on laptops, with Lenovo being the first with the ThinkPad X1 Fold. The traditional laptop screen and keyboard area are now one big screen. Flatten it out and you have a tablet with a 13.3-inch OLED display.

Lenovo ThinPad X1 Fold laptop

In laptop mode, Lenovo suggests you connect a separate keyboard and mouse for word processing and other productivity applications. In theory you should be able to type on the display as we do with tablet computers, but you’ll type faster with an attached conventional keyboard.

That lets you use both halves of the screen for displaying apps and data, either in one big screen or in two separate halves.

Lenovo offers the example of taking a video call in the top half of the screen while reviewing and editing a document in the bottom half.

Lenovo ThinPad X1 Fold laptop

The company plans to sell a ThinkPad X1 Fold Stand to support the device as a single large screen in portrait and tablet mode.

Being able to fold a laptop screen is amazing tech. Lenovo says it trialled six hinge designs and more than 20 product variations during development.

But will you be better off with the ThinkPad X1 Fold than with a regular laptop?

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold will run Windows 10 and Lenovo confirms it will come to Australia, but timing is unknown. Local pricing also is unknown, but we know the US recommended price is $US2499 ($3690).

computer for pass the pass the