Lenovo brought a number of new laptops and tablets to MWC, and we got a chance to go hands-on with the Legion Tab gaming tablet and the factory-oriented ThinkTab X11. But the company also introduced a number of cool concept devices – here’s a closer look at what the future might hold.
Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept
There is a renaissance of portable gaming devices, although portability varies greatly. What if foldable screens were the answer? That’s exactly the question the Lenovo Legion Go Fold concept tries to answer.
Lenovo Legion Go 2 came last year. It was a beautiful AMD Ryzen Z2/Z2 Extreme tablet with an 8.8″ OLED display. The Go Fold is another x86 device, though this time powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor. But we’re not here to debate Intel vs AMD.
Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept
As the name suggests, this device can fold in half – when closed it shows a 7.7″ display and when unfolded can expand to an 11.6″ display. The aspect ratio isn’t line up, but it’s more screen real estate than the Go 2.
You can play games in any configuration on the device – if you’re in a tight seat on an airplane, you can just stick a gaming controller in it and play that way. If you have more space, you can unfold the device and enjoy the larger display.
You can also turn it into a laptop of sorts with an optional keyboard – some games work better with a hardware keyboard. You might want to add a mouse to it as playing with the touchpad is the hardest part. Either way, it’s a versatile tool.
Lenovo Legion Go Fold concept and alternative keyboard
Let’s go back to the folding action – the interesting thing about the Legion Go Fold concept is that it folds when the display is out. This eliminates the need for cover displays like book-style foldables. On the downside, we’re not sure whether currently available foldable screen technology can survive even in a backpack or pocket. And yes, the Go Fold is pocketable if you have pockets big enough.
Lenovo mentioned that a split-screen mode is available – you can play on one half and watch a video on the other. “Dual screening” is a very common way of playing these days. The company hasn’t mentioned it, but the way it turns out, we’d love to see a “tent mode” — you and a friend can sit across a table so each can see half of the screen. Let’s bring back local multiplayer!
Lenovo Legion Go Fold concept and its detachable controller
We also want to talk about the detachable gaming controller. These can be attached to the Go Fold itself or turned into a kind of wireless gaming controller. This was the case with the Go 2 controllers as well. However, Lenovo did something interesting here – it replaced the small touchpad on the right controller with a smartwatch-like display.
This mini display can still be used as a touchpad, but it’s also configurable – you can turn it into a hotkey or set it to display key performance metrics or other settings.
gaming controller
The Lenovo Legion Go Fold concept has no price tag and no launch date. This exact hardware will likely never be commercially available, but we think the idea of a folding gaming tablet holds a lot of promise – especially with a rich ecosystem of accessories like Lenovo has demonstrated here.
Lenovo Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept
Although not quite foldable, the Lenovo Yoga Book Pro 3D concept is pretty close and is probably more likely to hit store shelves than the Legion Go Fold concept.
In essence, this is a dual-screen laptop similar to the Yoga Book 9i, for example. There’s a second screen where the keyboard usually goes. And yes, they are two separate screens instead of one big folding screen.
Lenovo Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept
The name already gave it away, but yes – the top panel is a glasses-free 3D screen. Specifically, a PureSight Pro Tandem OLED screen. The lower screen has a touch panel – a built-in kickstand helps hold it at a comfortable angle.
Lenovo believes it will appeal to creators (whether professionals or advanced hobbyists) who design and work in 3D. Lenovo, citing market analysis, predicts that demand for glasses-free displays will triple by 2032.
Lenovo has developed its own AI-based software that can upconvert 2D imagery. The company says AI will help you go from a concept to editable 3D assets faster. The built-in 50MP camera on the top half detects gestures, so you can zoom, rotate, and otherwise interact with 3D objects without touching the laptop.
Lenovo Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept
The Lenovo Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept is powered by an Intel Core Ultra processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 GPU. It supports up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of storage (M.2 2242 PCIe Gen 5). The whole thing – including the 92.5Wh battery – is 18.9mm thick and weighs 2.28kg.
The laptop has abundant connectivity options: two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A 10Gbps ports, an HDMI port, a headphone/microphone combo jack, and an SD card reader (UHS-II). The HDMI port also supports the new FRL transmission mode, which enables higher resolutions and refresh rates.
Like the Legion Go Fold concept, we don’t expect to see the Yoga Book Pro 3D concept on sale anytime soon. And we’re not sure how much we believe that prediction about glasses-free displays, anyway – the 3D craze died down a decade ago.
But a sub-2cm dual-screen laptop with a big battery, powerful silicon and tons of ports? Looks like we’d be interested in that.