Of all of the laptops that debut throughout the CES trade show each January, Lenovo’s are typically essentially the most fascinating.
For years now, the corporate has indulged in public experimentation, launching laptops with foldable shows, twin screens, and secondary e-ink surfaces. This time round, Lenovo introduced out the business’s first laptop computer with a rollable show, which expands from a normal-looking 14 inches to an extra-tall 16.7 inches with the push of a button.
Numerous corporations convey wild ideas to CES, however Lenovo truly ships them, even when it is aware of they gained’t be business hits. (The rollable laptop computer, known as the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, will arrive in June for $3,500.) What does the world’s largest PC vendor have to realize by placing ultraexpensive, experimental merchandise in the marketplace? I requested the president of Lenovo’s Clever Units Group to search out out.
Studying expertise
Even when Lenovo is aware of its weirder laptop computer concepts gained’t be prompt hits, Rossi says they assist the corporate develop mental property that it may use sooner or later, even in numerous contexts.
For example, he factors to Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold laptop computer and its foldable Motorola Razr cellphone, which each arrived in 2020. Rossi says Lenovo’s work on laptop computer’s hinge design helped inform future Razr fashions, which turned simpler to fabricate at a scale. Lenovo has now shipped a million Razr telephones, and Rossi says it’s now the preferred clamshell-style foldable cellphone within the U.S. (presumably beating Samsung’s Z Flip line).
“Among the studying from the laptop computer is right here,” Rossi says, gesturing to his Razr. “Among the studying from right here is within the laptop computer.”
Lenovo launched a second-generation X1 Fold in 2022, responding to suggestions that customers needed a bigger display screen and extra highly effective processor. At CES, Lenovo additionally introduced a brand new model of its Yoga Book 9i, which has two separate screens as a substitute one large foldable show however borrows most of the identical ideas. The corporate continues to be evaluating when to launch a 3rd foldable mannequin.
“If we notice that we’re failing, and this route is just not promising . . . we’ll redirect the funds to one thing else. However that’s innovation,” he says.
Large trade-offs
Within the meantime, Lenovo’s taking a detour into rollable screens with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. Whereas Lenovo’s foldable laptops contort into varied positions with assist from a removable kickstand and wi-fi keyboard, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 works extra like an everyday laptop computer—albeit with a display screen that stretches out to approximate a pair of vertically stacked screens.
“Two years in the past we introduced a proof-of-concept to MWC, and no person believed we may manufacture it. Now it’s right here on the market,” Rossi says.
Like lots of different Lenovo experiments, this one will include some main compromises past simply the $3,500 price ticket. At 3.73 kilos and 0.78 inches thick, it’s significantly bulkier than a typical laptop computer, and Lenovo’s window administration software program appeared a bit crude in my temporary hands-on expertise. Early consumers will even have to fret concerning the sturdiness of a first-of-its type show expertise.
Maybe for these causes, Rossi isn’t certain whether or not ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 will likely be profitable, however he believes rollables have a path to recognition. Once I ask why Lenovo doesn’t simply experiment behind closed doorways—like Apple famously does—he says the corporate sees worth in bringing these sorts of early variations to market.
“When you’re holding it within the lab, you don’t check the true market response,” he says.