Foldable displays and smartphones are typically associated with manufacturing giants like Samsung and LG. Add another player to that list: Lenovo. The company just demoed a prototype foldable tablet and phone at its Tech World convention in San Francisco.
YouTuber Meghan McCarthy demoed the prototypes, and by no means are these the final products — there aren’t even names for these devices yet. However, the prototypes look intriguing.
The first prototype is a narrow-looking phone that McCarthy slapped and wrapped around her wrist — as she says, it was an easy place to keep her phone when she’s wearing a dress without pockets.
The next prototype was a small tablet that McCarthy folded like a book, to obtain a smaller form-factor. It’s unclear if these demo devices are actual products we’ll see any time soon, but Lenovo did tease that a product was coming this fall, which “brings a vision of the most flexible user interfaces that naturally connect people and devices.”
It’s going to be a whole new species of devices that feature “keyboards that don’t necessarily act like traditional keyboards.” It’s very vague, but Lenovo says they’ll give us a sneak peak, so we’ll have to wait and see what they show off at Tech World.
Foldable displays are likely to be the next big thing, and the race has long since begun. Samsung demoed the technology as early as CES 2013, and the Korean company is expected to launch its first foldable device in 2017. It’s unexpected to see Lenovo joining the space, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens with foldable devices in the coming year.
