Lenovo’s rollable screen laptop may have been spotted – and I’m not sure if it’s a great idea or a disaster waiting to happen
- We’ve gotten a glimpse of possible photos of Lenovo’s new rollable laptop
- The alleged ThinkBook Plus will be shown at CES 2025
- The notebook resembles a previous concept seen at MWC 2023
Lenovo apparently has a laptop in the pipeline for CES 2025, with the unique twist being that the device has a screen that unrolls itself to create a much larger portrait display.
This innovation from Lenovo was prototyped by the company last year and now appears to have come to fruition (add in a good dose of skepticism as Lenovo has yet to say any official word on the matter).
Familiar tasty Evan Blas shared photos of the laptop on
Lenovo is said to be looking to show off the ThinkBook at CES 2025, and it appears it will be similar to an earlier prototype demonstrated at MWC 2023. The edge reports (watch the video below).
Essentially, you press a button on the side of the laptop chassis and the screen rolls up, out of the base, onto a sort of sliding rail mechanism (and back down again when you’re done using the enlarged screen).
It’s just rolling (but I like it – or do I?)
If this laptop is real, it’s fair game for Lenovo, as it’s the first laptop vendor to innovate by producing a real laptop that will hit shelves (presumably in 2025) with a rollable screen. Assuming these photos are legit, of course, although Blass is one of the more reliable rumor peddlers.
The rollable screen isn’t a new concept and we’ve seen a few prototype devices along these lines. Plus, Samsung’s first rollable phone is expected to debut next year, so 2025 could be the year when rollable phones really start, er, rolling out.
The idea of this possible rollable ThinkBook Plus is that you can use the laptop normally, but if you need more screen real estate, you can get it. That extra tall screen could be very useful if you want to view long documents or treat it as two screens on top of each other, with one app above the other.
For example, you can write a piece in a document in the bottom half of the screen and look at a web page explaining something relevant to the topic you’re writing about in a browser at the top. Or play a game in a window (Windows 11 can do that just fine, without lag) while simultaneously watching a walkthrough on YouTube. It’ll also be great for RPGs (by which I mean ‘roll-playing’ games – sorry).
The potential catch for me is that the operation of such a rollable screen adds a lot of potential pitfalls to the mix. Normally a laptop has a screen with a hinge and that’s that. There is clearly a much more complex arrangement of moving parts here, and therefore more can go wrong (probably a lot more).
The other concern is the wear and tear on the screen itself as it is constantly being unrolled and then re-rolled over and over again. These physical design aspects and potential weaknesses that lead to a higher chance of something going wrong concern me, especially in the first generation of a piece of hardware.
But we wouldn’t get anywhere without innovation, so I should probably keep my mouth shut and keep my doubts to a minimum. Perhaps a strong warranty from Lenovo can also allay some fears. I’m certainly intrigued by the possibility of this device and hope to see it fully demonstrated at CES soon, and then perhaps compete for a spot in our best laptops (or even best business laptops) roundup later next year.