At its Tech World 2022 event earlier this week, Lenovo demonstrated a Motorola handset prototype that grows to 6.5 inches at the push of a button and a laptop concept with a display that expands upward to give users more screen space when needed.
Both concepts have been revealed in a video demo hosted by Lenovo’s Executive VP and President of the company’s Intelligent Devices Group, Luca Rossi, who first introduced a working smartphone proof of concept developed by Motorola’s internal innovation group, 312 Labs.
In its default state, the wraparound OLED display measures just 4 diagonal inches, which allows for a very pocket-friendly handset form factor that’s claimed to be “smaller than most other premium devices on the market.”
At the push of a button the display extends upward to 6.5 diagonal inches, with content onscreen dynamically expanding as the phone stretches out.
The larger display area should be good for watching movies or gaming on the go, with users able to compact the phone down again for an easier carry at the end of an expanded viewing session. Motorola also mentions a peek state in its accompanying blurb, which presumably offers some kind of at-a-glance functionality, but no further details are given.
It’s a similar story for the rollable laptop concept, which also appears to be at the working proof-of-concept stage of development. The portable PC hosts what we’d estimate to be an 11-inch display, but a motorized mechanism to the rear slowly unrolls the screen and extends it upward to create a supertall viewing area at a similar aspect to LG’s Dual Up monitor. As with the smartphone prototype, onscreen content also adjusts to the fill out the enlarged display area.
Lenovo hasn’t indicated whether either of these concepts will result in rollable Motos or expanding ThinkPads, but the company isn’t alone in testing such waters so we may yet see actual product.
Lenovo rolls out smartphone and laptop concepts with expanding displays [New Atlas]