I openly admit that I probably lack the vision others have about these devices with flexible screens, so I find this type of display functionality useless and prone to failure. I'm not the target audience, I guess.
I cannot possibly imagine what I'd do with a "rollable" laptop, but I do see one tiny benefit to foldable phones; reduced pocket consumption. Having a smaller device or a device that gets smaller is just two different ways to solve my main beef with modern phablets.
Personally, I wish someone would just make a clamshell smart phone where I open it up to a single screen on one half and a physical keyboard on another, but that's a different discussion.
That all said, I'm curious to hear from the people who want this device. What's drawing you to it? What problem does this type of display on a laptop solve for you? What are your concerns about its robustness or longevity, if any?
Gave it a simulation-run and I think I really like this layout!
Working I usually prefer to have 2 normal + laptop screen when docked instead of a single extra-wide ones some at the office use when docking their laptops.
Part of it is that much software today is designed for 16:9 or 16:10 layouts and work less well in 4:3 squared form fashions (why splitting an external wide-screen is often less optimal than 2 "normal" 16:9 externals).
Now, for on the road use I've bought an external 16:9 screen but sitting next to the laptop the head-turn to the left/right is a tad too large to be fully comfortable (When docked I sit a tad further away so the 2+1 screens give a smaller angle).
Finally, coming back to this one, if as the article mentions you get 2x 16:9 layouts stacked on top of each other it'll be pretty neat for coding/debugging/testing. Top part for browser or other target environment and lower part for debugger/code editor without needing to lug anything apart from my computer with a reasonable head-turning.
Just physically tried the layout when writing this with my external USB-screen and it's probably as comfortable as goes without external keyboard+external screens, probably even an improvement over just regular laptop screen since you can look more straight ahead on the top part than with a normal laptop on a table!
Did not know about this, thanks for pointing it out. It is not precisely what I had in mind, but appealing none the less.
The phone I had in mind is akin to Motorola's RAZR Ultra. As opposed to opening like a book the way Samsung's latest does, unfolding the "top" half provides a smaller-than-average smartphone screen, leaving room for a Blackberry-style keyboard below.
I'm in that niche market where I do not need a large screen on my phone since I am mostly reading text as opposed to watching media. It's not likely I'll ever get precisely what I want due to practicality of both manufacturing and what the general market demands are. I've come to terms with it, but if someone ever drops such a device, I will get in line for it.
I thought foldable phones were dumb until I saw a bunch of phones and tablets in person at a Huawei shop. They are super-neat actually and I now see how they make sense.
The rollable laptop seems to be something in the same vein? It is much smaller than a laptop with that screen size.
I wish the phone guys would stop folding and start rolling. Id buy a pixel9xl with a cigar round bit on one side (ideally left side for me) to rolls out tp a tablet sized screen when i choose.
My desk setup has a single 27-inch monitor with my work laptop on a stand next to it [1]. That's really all the desk space I can allocate to screens.
I don't want a laptop larger than about 13.5" because it wouldn't fit nicely in my backpack anymore. So, the only way for me to add screen real estate is to expand vertically.
That said, the bendy screen tech is far away from having a place in my life. I value durability very highly in my technology.
I mean, I wouldn't buy this one, but I see the use case. A lot of reading (code, webpages) is done vertically, it's helpful to have more vertical real estate in a typical form factor.
I'm not sure about robustness, would have to wait and see tests.
Some of the benefits the author lists make a lot of sense. The elevated sightline helps with posture, and improves the webcam angle. I use my laptop as a secondary display when working from home, and the idea of getting more real estate from the same 14-inch footprint is appealing.
I think it's telling that they aren't rolling this out in a ThinkPad-branded device. The bendy screen tech isn't really there yet. The screen surface is still wiggly, and reliability still isn't what it should be.
> The elevated sightline helps with posture, and improves the webcam angle.
Exactly. I've been doing this with a tablet on a stand for a few years..there's a whole subreddit on having ergonomic travel computers: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/
The screenshots on the Lenovo site all show the single 16.7" screen being used as two screens, one above the other.
If you're not going to use it as a single screen, it's not that much better than carrying around a USB-C portable monitor, unless you switch locations several times each day.
I wish they would go all-in. Imagine a laptop/tablet/phone that rolls all the way into a cylinder, like a scroll. Sure, it would be fragile during use, but it would be much stronger while stowed, and you might even be able to avoid the crease problem.
I am happy to see a laptop with a portrait orientation, though. The only thing landscape is good for is watching video. Everything else is better in portrait.
I think if they iron out the kinks that could easily be the direction they take it. Something more limited and controlled to start might be a smart "first step".
I wonder how Linux deals with this? Is extending the screen a display resize? Or a cropped area extension? Or a different display? Even more questions about using it as two monitors...
Up to the hardware how it presents this to the driver, up to the driver to expose it to the userspace, up to X11 or the Wayland compositor to figure it out.
Dynamically resizable displays have been a thing for like 2 decades - check out any GUI VM with guest extensions.
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I cannot possibly imagine what I'd do with a "rollable" laptop, but I do see one tiny benefit to foldable phones; reduced pocket consumption. Having a smaller device or a device that gets smaller is just two different ways to solve my main beef with modern phablets.
Personally, I wish someone would just make a clamshell smart phone where I open it up to a single screen on one half and a physical keyboard on another, but that's a different discussion.
That all said, I'm curious to hear from the people who want this device. What's drawing you to it? What problem does this type of display on a laptop solve for you? What are your concerns about its robustness or longevity, if any?
Working I usually prefer to have 2 normal + laptop screen when docked instead of a single extra-wide ones some at the office use when docking their laptops.
Part of it is that much software today is designed for 16:9 or 16:10 layouts and work less well in 4:3 squared form fashions (why splitting an external wide-screen is often less optimal than 2 "normal" 16:9 externals).
Now, for on the road use I've bought an external 16:9 screen but sitting next to the laptop the head-turn to the left/right is a tad too large to be fully comfortable (When docked I sit a tad further away so the 2+1 screens give a smaller angle).
Finally, coming back to this one, if as the article mentions you get 2x 16:9 layouts stacked on top of each other it'll be pretty neat for coding/debugging/testing. Top part for browser or other target environment and lower part for debugger/code editor without needing to lug anything apart from my computer with a reasonable head-turning.
Just physically tried the layout when writing this with my external USB-screen and it's probably as comfortable as goes without external keyboard+external screens, probably even an improvement over just regular laptop screen since you can look more straight ahead on the top part than with a normal laptop on a table!
https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/cosmo-communicator
- https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator
It's really too bad that they can't do software, because the hardware is amazing
The phone I had in mind is akin to Motorola's RAZR Ultra. As opposed to opening like a book the way Samsung's latest does, unfolding the "top" half provides a smaller-than-average smartphone screen, leaving room for a Blackberry-style keyboard below.
I'm in that niche market where I do not need a large screen on my phone since I am mostly reading text as opposed to watching media. It's not likely I'll ever get precisely what I want due to practicality of both manufacturing and what the general market demands are. I've come to terms with it, but if someone ever drops such a device, I will get in line for it.
The rollable laptop seems to be something in the same vein? It is much smaller than a laptop with that screen size.
I don't want a laptop larger than about 13.5" because it wouldn't fit nicely in my backpack anymore. So, the only way for me to add screen real estate is to expand vertically.
That said, the bendy screen tech is far away from having a place in my life. I value durability very highly in my technology.
[1]: these pictures should help you visualize it: https://postimg.cc/gallery/6pz9Gz1
I'm not sure about robustness, would have to wait and see tests.
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I think it's telling that they aren't rolling this out in a ThinkPad-branded device. The bendy screen tech isn't really there yet. The screen surface is still wiggly, and reliability still isn't what it should be.
Exactly. I've been doing this with a tablet on a stand for a few years..there's a whole subreddit on having ergonomic travel computers: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/
... anything for installs, I guess.-
If you're not going to use it as a single screen, it's not that much better than carrying around a USB-C portable monitor, unless you switch locations several times each day.
I am happy to see a laptop with a portrait orientation, though. The only thing landscape is good for is watching video. Everything else is better in portrait.
Dynamically resizable displays have been a thing for like 2 decades - check out any GUI VM with guest extensions.
https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/lenovos-tran...
it would have been _amazing_ for usage as a manual/teaching aid in a shop setting.