Lenovo's vision of the future of laptops is exciting - but it's got a big problem

 

I love Lenovo. To be clear, I love Lenovo an applicable amount- just as important as I love Asus, Acer, and utmost other laptop manufacturers. Now that I’ve headed off any allegations of journalistic bias, let me tell you what I don’t love the sheer variety of laptop designs on the Lenovo stand at MWC 2023 in Barcelona.

 

Now, I’m not then to censure the value of the straightforward business laptops Lenovo has on show. The conventional ThinkPad and IdeaPad models look great, but they’re not the center of attention here; in fact, I m not indeed sure if Lenovo knows what the center of attention on their stage should be.

 

One employee said the most important thing Lenovo had to show off was really the revolutionary new ‘ rollable ’ laptop display conception. Another said her particular favorite was the completely redesigned dual-screen Yoga Book 9i. I kept circling around and asking. A third said that it just had to be Lenovo’s new Smart Paper, which blurs the lines between tablets and e-readers. The fourth and final Lenovo staffer I spoke to said that the company’s ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2, which I tested at IFA 2022 in Berlin last time, was the most instigative product there.

 

Innovation in Every Direction

Lenovo formerly makes some of the stylish laptops on request, and I was impeccably happy to see the manufacturer lifting the lid on a bevy of important new ThinkPads at MWC. The Lenovo stage has maybe a stylish variety of cutting-edge laptops at the event- and that makes it hard for me to choose which products earn my attention first.

 

Consumers will have the same issue. There’s a huge amount of use-case overlaps going on then; why would I buy the ThinkPad X1 Fold, when the hinged dual displays of the new Yoga Book 9i can do virtually everything it can minus the anxiety of bending a screen in half? Why would I need a laptop display that can unspool to get bigger when I could just, you know, buy a bigger laptop?

There’s a ton of invention going on then, which I’m really torn about. The tech giant in me says WOW, LOOK AT ALL THIS KICK-ASS STUFF, and I've to take a moment’s breath to insure it doesn’t drown out the quieter, more cerebral journalist voice in the reverse of my head saying okay, but who’s going to buy it?

I spend a lot of time allowing about the requirements and wants of consumers. Judging by the vast success of Apple’s MacBook Air, what people actually want right now are compact, important, featherlight devices with good battery life, hence the demand for a stylish Ultrabook’s. These have always been the tenets of what makes a good laptop, and that’s not going to change anytime soon- a lot of these stinky, esoteric designs fly in the face of those core ideals.

 

Variety isn’t the Spice of Life

Eventually, the invention in the tech assiduity is a good thing- and I’m veritably conscious that being resistant to the invention is generally a surefire way to end up with an egg on one’s face. There were naysayers when smartphones first arrived, and tablets, and virtually everything else.

 

But I’ve also learned to traipse precisely. I pre-ordered ( a dirty word these days, I know) a 3G- enabled PS Vita back when it was first revealed, allowing that an LTE handheld console with a nifty rear touchpad would be a revolution for the gaming space. I stand by that purchase and got numerous happy hours of use out of my Vita, but let’s be honest it didn’t light the world on fire, and arguably sounded the death knell for Sony’s formerly-successful handheld gaming products. Innovation is great, but not every innovative idea shines out.

 

That leads me to guess at which of Lenovo’s rearmost ideas will prove profitable, and which will be consigned to the tech graveyard. I’m still not induced that foldable laptop screens are as instigative as Lenovo wants them to be ( nor Asus, with its rival Zenbook 17 Fold OLED)- especially not when further sensible and durable alternatives live. Lenovo also has a veritably heavy focus on AR technology at MWC, which I feel is still years down from getting indeed even remotely widespread.