Lenovo is at it once again, with a new device concept that¡¯s guaranteed to wow you.
At the third annual Lenovo Tech World event, the company dazzled attendees with what they¡¯re calling the Lenovo Folio; basically, a tablet that folds in half to become a phone.
The tablet has a 7.8-inch 1920x1440 display, and packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 running Android 7.0 Nougat. What¡¯s so great about that you ask? Nothing, if you¡¯re only looking at the specs. The real bit of excitement here is because of what the device promises.
Essentially, the device has a bendable display. No, it doesn¡¯t just flex a few degrees, it actually folds in half until the two ends of the rear panel touch. When folded, the device is a 5.5-inch phone that you can slip into your pocket. When this happens, the device¡¯s software kicks in, turning the tablet¡¯s main camera into the smartphone¡¯s rear camera, re-orienting the display to smartphone size, and even turning the now folded side into an edge display.
Of course, to do this the Chinese manufacturer couldn¡¯t use glass for the display, making it seem a little cheap by comparison. But that¡¯s fine, because this is a working prototype. You¡¯re not going to see it on shelves anytime soon, but it certainly is an exciting promise for the future, when we¡¯re sure to see more refined version of this device everyday.
And Lenovo isn¡¯t alone in this either; both Samsung and Oppo have also been working on this concept for years now. In fact, Samsung¡¯s Edge series is an offshoot of research into foldable displays. Their rumoured foldable tablet, codenamed ¡®Galaxy X¡¯, was reported to release commercially at the end of this year, but production issues have supposedly delayed that until 2019.