Lenovo brings tall, wide and downright cute concept laptops to MWC

You can always rely on Lenovo to bring the weird concepts to trade shows like MWC and the brand certainly didn’t let us down this year. Nothing quite reaches the weird heights of last year’s transparent laptop concept, but we still have two interesting new designs to discuss.

Both of the laptop designs on display this year seem to address the problem of needing multiple displays – and both took drastically different approaches to the issue.

First up is the ThinkBook “codename Flip” AI PC concept, which opens out from a relatively compact 13in laptop into a super-tall 18.1in display. Who needs multiple displays when your main screen is twice the height of other laptops?

There are five use modes in total, including the more traditional “clamshell” mode for regular laptop tasks and the fully extended vertical mode for reviewing documents. The flexible OLED panel opens outwards, too, which means that, even when the laptop is fully closed, you’ve got a perfectly usable tablet on the outer edge. 

I liked that tall boy well enough, but the other concept laptop captured my attention more, and not just because it reminded me of a tamagotchi. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 6 on display was designed with modularity in mind, building on the brand’s Magic Bay system – pogo pins on the rear that allow you to attach different components, like a webcam. 

The lineup of potential modules has expanded here, with the tamagotchi vibes coming from “codename Tiko”. This is a little display that sits in the webcam position and shows an AI-powered animated face that responds to certain gestures – including allowing you to perform shortcuts like muting and unmuting with a hand signal – dances along with your music and even blurs your display when it detects someone approaching behind you. 

If little AI buddies aren’t your cup of tea, there are also two additional screen modules that seamlessly expand your display space. The 2nd Display concept adds a small 8in module to the side of your screen, ideal for sifting through news feeds or keeping an eye on your Slack messages.

If you really want to expand, however, you’ll want to plug in the Dual Display concept. This is essentially display wings for your laptop, adding a full 13.3in display to either side, quickly turning your laptop into a versatile, multi-display command centre. Of all the modules, this is the one that I can see being the most useful, giving users a quick and convenient way to switch from multi-screen setups to single screens and back again.

It’s rare for anything to come from these concept designs, so don’t expect to see taller or wider laptops in public anytime soon. They do, however, indicate where the priorities of brands currently lie and I find the modular road that Lenovo is travelling down to be particularly interesting. It may not be in this exact form but I wouldn’t be surprised to see more modular designs popping up in the future.