Foldable PCs are coming – Bangers from Lenovo, Dell and Intel
Microsoft announced the Surface Neo and accompanying Windows 10X last year . The Neo is a dual screen device, Windows 10X is the operating system being developed for such devices. Microsoft said at the introduction of the Neo that other manufacturers would follow and at CES we see a number of concrete examples of this.
Dell shows concepts of which it is not yet clear whether they will actually come onto the market. Intel shows a prototype that is intended to inspire manufacturers. Lenovo has actually announced a product: the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which should hit the market in the middle of this year for $2,500. Lenovo has several copies at CES and we were able to try them out in practice.
The X1 Fold has a 13.3″ OLED screen with a 4:3 ratio and a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels. Due to the 4:3 ratio, the screen has more surface area than the usual 16:9 laptop screens with the same screen diagonal. it is an OLED panel of about 27x20cm. Lenovo provides the back of the X1 Fold with a cover made of leather. Part of it can be folded out as a kickstand, so that you can place the device in front of you to go to the unfolded Lenovo will also sell a metal stand on which you can place the device, which functions as a kind of monitor base.
When folded, the X1 Fold is about the size of a book. It weighs about one kilogram. When you fold the Fold, a small gap remains visible. Lenovo supplies a small Bluetooth keyboard that fits exactly in between and remains attached with magnets. The keyboard on the Lenovo stand was still a mock-up of which we could not press the keys, so we cannot say much about the typing comfort. The keyboard also gets a small touchpad and according to Lenovo that is a precision touchpad. A Wacom stylus is also included with the foldable X1.
Our first impression of the construction and the folding mechanism is quite positive. Lenovo has been working on this device for four years. The version that we were able to try feels solid and looks neatly finished. The hinge also feels sturdy. It has a lot of resistance, so you can put the screen in any position you want. When you unfold it completely, there is no clear fold visible and the screen also feels smooth in the middle.
Hinge
Lenovo does not show any technical details of the hinge construction, but emphasizes that it has been thought about for a long time. We’ve worked with Intel to make sure everything goes right with the electronics in the bending, and LG Display is the supplier of the screen. According to the manufacturer, six different hinge designs have been made and a total of twenty variants.
In the end, a coupling hinge with different couplings was chosen. There are carbon fiber plates on the back of the screen that are supposed to strengthen the construction. According to Lenovo, the hinge has been extensively tested and the laptop is “as solid as other ThinkPad laptops.” We were able to bend the specimens at the fair without any problems, without the manufacturer looking at us and without visible damage. That may sound obvious, but it is often different with prototypes of foldable devices at trade shows.
Software
The X1 Fold now runs Windows 10 Pro. You can place windows next to each other, but without a keyboard and mouse, that’s quite a fiddle on the touchscreen. Lenovo did create its own software called Mode Switcher to switch between different ways to use the foldable screen. We have not yet been able to try this extensively, but the first impression is that this is not really convenient and fast.
So we have to wait for an operating system that ‘understands’ these types of foldable devices. That should come in the form of Windows 10X. However, Lenovo will release the X1 Fold in six months and the Windows version will probably not be finished by then. The device will therefore be released with Windows 10 Pro and only later will there be a Windows 10X version. It is not yet clear whether it is also possible to switch from Windows 10 Pro to 10X. The choice to release a foldable PC without optimized software makes it clear that Lenovo wants to be the first.
Hardware
Lenovo doesn’t reveal much about the hardware in the X1 Fold. However, the manufacturer says that it contains Intel Hybrid Technology and that seems to refer to Intel’s Lakefield processor. Last year, Intel announced the development of that chip. It is a 7W processor consisting of four economical Atom cores combined with a powerful Sunny Cove core. The copy at CES has an Intel CPU that is not recognized and runs at 1.38 GHz. It also has 8GB of ram. These do not have to be the final specifications, by the way.
Tom’s Hardware published an extensive analysis of the X1 Fold this week . Lenovo took the device apart and showed the inside to the website. Although Lenovo itself does not say that it contains a Lakefield chip, it is apparent from the structure of the components. For example, there is no separate memory to be seen, which is stacked on top of the SOC at Lakefield. Earlier it was announced that Microsoft’s Surface Neo runs on Lakefield. That Intel chip therefore seems to be intended for such foldable devices.
Dell Concept Ori and Concept Duet
Dell also has a foldable PC at its CES stand, also with a 13″ OLED screen. As the name implies, this is an early prototype and Dell has not yet announced any plans to release the product. don’t fold the device yourself, the concept was closely monitored by an employee on the stand.The product is clearly in a less advanced stage of development than the Lenovo variant.The edges are also a lot thicker.
Dell also shows the Concept Duet, a device with two 13.4″ screens. This product looks more advanced, but whether Dell will release the Duet in this form is also not yet clear. The device is comparable to Microsoft’s Surface Neo, but with larger screens. Dell also shows a corresponding keyboard, which can be placed in different positions of the screen. Dell’s concepts should also run Windows 10X, perhaps the manufacturer will wait until that version is available before making concrete product announcements to come.
Intel Horseshoe Bend
Intel is also showing a foldable PC at CES, although it will never be released. The CPU maker often shows concept designs and does so to inspire other manufacturers. Intel is also investigating what is possible with its own chips with such devices. Intel has brought Horseshoe Bend this year, a foldable device with a 17-inch screen that contains a Tiger Lake CPU. This is a future laptop processor that will be made at 10nm. It is the successor to the current Ice Lake processors.
Like the foldable PCs from Dell and Lenovo, Intel’s concept has an OLED screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio. With a diagonal of 17″, that is a lot bigger. When unfolded, the screen has a surface of 35x26cm. Intel did not want to tell us who supplies the screen and we were also not allowed to fold the prototype ourselves. An employee did fold the screen in a few positions , but didn’t want to close the device either.
The size of Intel’s prototype does appeal to the imagination. When folded, this would result in a relatively compact device, about the size of a 12.5″ laptop. When unfolded, you really have a large screen in front of you, of a size that you normally do not find in a laptop. easy to take the screen with you The smaller variants from Lenovo and Dell follow the same principle, but with their smaller sizes that effect is less convincing.
After our first experiences with foldable PCs, the question remains how useful this is. A possible answer to that will only come when there is software that can make good use of it. So we have to wait for the arrival of Windows 10X, which should appear sometime at the end of this year, together with the corresponding hardware. According to Microsoft, Asus and HP are also coming with foldable PCs. Those manufacturers have not yet shown this at CES, but that may change later this year.