Lenovo’s foldable ThinkPad will be out before the Surface Neo
It looks like the latest addition to the ThinkPad X1 line will be a foldable PC, and it’ll come out before the Surface Neo.
No name is confirmed yet, but the PC is expected next summer following a short preview at the Canalys Channels Forum in Barcelona.
Milanke Muecke, Director of Global Commercial Comms and Brand at Lenovo, said: “I have it right here and you can have it in your purse… It looks like a leather bound notebook that you can carry with you all day long, but it is a full performance PC that fits in the palm of your hand.” (Via The Register)
She pulled the small, 13″ OLED screen device out of a small bag on stage, in a slightly laboured attempt to demonstrate its portability and convenience.
Gianfranco Lanci, Lenovo’s Chief Operating Officer said: “It will start shipping probably Q2 next year… [the] hardware is ready but we need to still fix certain things from a software point of view and that doesn’t depend 100 per cent on us.”
This would see Lenovo beat the upcoming Microsoft Surface Neo to market, with the Surface planned for ‘Holiday 2020’.
A few other brands are attempting to feel their way into foldable tech at the moment too. Samsung are among the forerunners. According to ETNews, the next-gen Galaxy Fold will have a screen made from Ultra Thin Glass (UTG), which less than 100 micrometers thick, to replace the plastic screen found on the original. It comes with a hefty price-tag though, starting at $1980 in the US.
Huawei is also joining the foldables rush. Its traversing a different route with its folding phone, the Huawei Mate X. It has two screens that face outwards at all times: a 6.6-inch, 2480 x 1148 front display and a 6.38-inch, 2480 x 892 display around the back. Together, they form an 8-inch, 2480 x 2200 tablet display.
If you thought the Galaxy Fold was expensive, brace yourself. The 8GB RAM/512GB Mate X costs even more, at €2299.
The trend then, is that foldable tech can’t be done cheaply, yet. So expect the new foldable ThinkPad to cost quite a lot at launch.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
