- If you know me, you know Mr. Mobile
likes his tech a little unusual,
and one thing I love about Lenovo,
it's never been afraid to get a little weird.
From CES 2020 in Las Vegas, a dual-screen laptop
you can write on and a notebook with a screen
that you can fold in half.
(upbeat music)
The folding screen notebook might be familiar to you
if you watched my hands-on with the prototype back in May.
The difference now, it's got a name, it's got a price,
and not only did Lenovo let me film it from all angles
this time, it even busted one open
so we could see the guts.
Before we get to that, I want to hit the other laptop
across the room, the one that's actually brand new at CES.
This is the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus, and at first glance,
it's exactly the kind of conventional laptop
that I usually skip.
To see what's interesting about it, you have to close it.
Yep, that's e-ink, a little under 11-inches worth.
There's a Wacom digitizer so you can use a stylus with it,
though there's no silo for the stylus.
So you've got to be okay with sticking it
to the side with magnets.
If you've got nothing to sketch,
you can use the little mode selector down here
to take in a book on the Kindle app or display a PDF,
and then there's this minimal desktop kind of thing
which displays a wallpaper of your choice
and can also pop up your agenda for the day
to give you a little glanceable utility.
Finally, there's an Alexa button
so you don't need to open the laptop to use it.
I think I like this thing mostly for its potential.
I mean, after decades of laptops
with dumb functionless covers, it's refreshing
to see someone think outside the box,
or you know think differently on the outside of the box.
Oh God.
But I'm not sure any of the demo use cases really nail it.
I mean, Kindle is a no brainer with an e-ink screen,
but no one wants to use an e-book this big and heavy.
What'll make or break it for me
is how many notifications I can get on the outside display
and from which apps they're supported.
We'll see about that when I get around to the full review,
and if you already know you want one,
this is expected in March for a buck shy of 1,200 bucks.
(upbeat music)
The highlight of the day will cost you more than twice that
when it goes on sale in mid 2020,
but given its potential to redefine the way laptops work,
I think that's fair.
The ThinkPad X1 Fold does just what it says on the box.
It folds, but unlike Samsung's Galaxy Fold
which comes with enough warnings to make you worry about
ever touching its main display, to hear Lenovo tell it,
the ThinkPad X1 Fold is built to take some abuse.
Just like how the Motorola engineers were quietly confident
about the Razor's durability at that launch event,
the Lenovo folks encouraged us to mash our thumbs
on the OLED screen's protective layer here.
They were also happy to bust open the casing for us
to showcase that carbon fiber that reinforces the display
when it's deployed,
and they gave us a close look at the hinge mechanism too,
which takes a surprising amount of force to even adjust.
That's because the X1 Fold is designed to let you use it
not just as a tablet or as a laptop,
but as any variation that makes sense in between.
Now, if you're thinking that means
half the screen equals keyboard
and typing on a touchscreen isn't always fun,
well, I agree, but Lenovo's way ahead of us.
There's a Bluetooth keyboard that slaps onto here
with magnets, complete with trackpad.
I showed you this back in the spring,
but I wasn't allowed to show you
that the machine folds completely around it
while it's in there.
That means you don't need to carry it separately.
Oh, and while it's in there, it recharges wirelessly.
In the same vein, the stand here
that lets you use the X1 in tablet mode,
it'll cost something like 30 bucks,
but you don't need that either.
The leather wrap around contains its own kickstand,
and it's also got a loop for the pen.
The power for all this comes from a Lakefield processor
which is Intel's answer to those Qualcomm
always-connected PCs I've been talking about for a while.
So in theory, this should pack
some pretty excellent battery life.
But I'm less worried about that
than I am about the software.
It's so early that the build of Windows 10 Pro
running on this thing is still, you know, quite buggy,
and I wonder how it's gonna deal
with this crazy new form factor even after release.
Lenovo had to build in a mode switcher to get Windows
to tell the difference between open, closed,
and in between, and while, again, it's early software,
I'm just less confident in Windows 10 as it exists today
elegantly being able to manage those transitions.
When Windows 10X launches with its revised UI,
this thing seems like a perfect fit
right down to the X in the brand name,
but how well today's Windows handles this
bleeding-edge hardware, well, that'll take
a full review to figure out.
Be sure you're subscribed to the channel
so you don't miss that review
when it hopefully goes live this summer,
and stay tuned to the Mr. Mobile on Instagram
so you can see all the little bits and pieces of tech
from CES 2020 that don't make it to YouTube.
Until next time, from Las Vegas, thanks for watching,
and stay mobile, my friends.