LENOVO

The future of displays will not be foldable, but retractable

The future of displays may not be foldable, but retractable. At least that's what engineers at Lenovo think, or at Motorola, which fits Lenovo. The prototypes of both devices are the most refined we've seen for rolling handheld devices so far.

At the recent MWC 2023 in Barcelona, many technological innovations were on display, and Lenovo took care of one of the most futuristic ones. The presentation itself was impressive. Just imagine: you go to the Lenovo booth, everywhere there are tables with “ordinary” Thinkpads and Thinkbooks. They are all as similar as eggs to eggs. Boredom. But with one of the Thinkbooks, the screen suddenly starts to grow. Wow! Regardless of whether the novelty is practical or not, or whether or not it is for sale, this is somehow how I envision progressive developments in the field of electronics.

When inserted, the notebook's display has a diagonal of 12.7″, a resolution of 2024 x 1604 pixels and an aspect ratio of 4:3. By pressing the side button, the mechanism is activated, which “pulls” the rest of the display from under the keyboard in about 10 seconds. This will increase the resolution to 2024 x 2368 pixels, the aspect ratio will change to 8:9. That corresponds to roughly two wide-angle monitors stacked on top of each other with an almost square, 15.3” screen. The useful life of the screen is about 20-30 thousand extensions / insertions, that is, an order of magnitude less than that of folding OLED screens of mobile phones, which must withstand up to hundreds of thousands of bends. It doesn't have to be a particularly serious flaw though, you don't open the screen on such a laptop nearly as often as you do with foldable mobile phones.

Lenovo representatives did not share technical specifications other than those listed with journalists. Many editors weren't even allowed to touch the prototypes. We don't know anything about the chipset used, the total weight or the durability of the built-in battery. Apparently, these parameters will still change, however, durability, weight and, above all, price will be decisive data for potential customers if the machine ends up being offered for sale.

The whole concept is reminiscent of LG OLEDR, the first – and so far only – roll-up TV, presented at CES 2018. If we leave aside the significance of such a design, the reason why it has not become a mass product is definitely the price. 100 thousand dollars is not little. And if we do get a rollable laptop from Lenovo, it certainly won't be cheap, given the way that manufacturer tends to price its specials. In any case, it's good that Lenovo managed to hide the entire scroll mechanism in the thin body of the laptop under the keyboard.

We may think a lot about Motorola's concept of a roll-up screen cell phone, but the truth is that these devices are a welcome addition to the boring mobile world where all those touch paddles look the same and differ only in small things and technical parameters. . This Motorola is internally called the Rizr and thus refers to the iconic Motorola Razr model line.

When inserted, the Rizr has a 5″ screen with a 15:9 aspect ratio, when extended it increases to 6.5″ with a 22:9 aspect ratio. When rolled up, part of the display does not go inside the device, as in the case of a Lenovo notebook, as it will serve as a secondary display on the back of the cell phone. This smaller screen is suitable, for example, for taking selfies with the rear camera; Lenovo mentioned an app that displays funny animations to make your kids laugh while taking pictures. Good, but finding some really practical use for the secondary display can be quite a challenge in the age of OLED Always On displays. Therefore, from the point of view of practicality, the possibility of regulating the degree of extension of the display is interesting, adequate to adapt the proportion to the displayed content (ideal for videos without black bars and frames). The phone can also hide the front selfie camera and headphone jack, which are located under the screen.

We remind you that the concept of rolling displays is not new, prototypes of these devices have already been presented by several manufacturers. Samsung, for example, was presenting its own concept

Galaxy Z roll already in 2020 and in cooperation with Intel in 2022 they demonstrated i rollable OLED display, which can be increased from 13″ to 17″. IN Oppo X 2021 the screen slides to the side again. However, unlike the Lenovo/Motorola news, none of these looked nearly ready for mass production. And even though few people are likely to buy these specials as a result, they are vital to the dreary world of our portable electronic assistants.

Reporting: Jindřich Pirner