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I went hands-on with Lenovo’s latest rollable laptop – is it finally practical?
Unveiled at IFA, the 17-inch rollable horizontal display hits a middle ground that is more usable than its predecessors.
Lenovo has unveiled a host of wild proof-of-concept laptops over the past few years, including several iterations with rollable displays. I tested its vertical rollable last year and found it very usable, but also a niche, expensive device that ultimately felt like a novelty.
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The company followed that model with the Legion Pro Rollable at CES, with an extendable horizontal display extending out to 21 inches. Targeting gamers who spend extra cash on hardware, this device made a little more sense (especially since all that screen real estate felt justified), but still, a 21-inch display is a bit excessive, even if it’s sweet to game on.
Cue this year’s iteration: a combination of the two laptops I just mentioned, but scaled down to a more practical size. Dubbed “Project Swan” by Lenovo, the latest rollable ThinkPad is a regular 14-inch notebook, with a horizontal display that extends out to 17 inches across — a “Goldilocks” size that is big enough to feel impactful, but not so big as to draw attention from the entire coffee shop (although you’d still probably get a few stares).
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The display features a 16:9 aspect ratio that expands and retracts with a button press on the keyboard (no gimmicky gesture mechanism here). While it’s changing size, the display swaps to an animation, then reloads the new resolution once it’s done.
The display’s design features two side flaps that extend on the outer edges and roll back behind the display when retracted, the same concept used in Lenovo’s other rollables. This approach creates a distinct “crease” on the screen when fully extended, but like foldable phones, becomes less noticeable over time.
When fully extended, there’s more than enough space for two side-by-side windows, mimicking an external monitor with the total real estate. The display protrudes just a few inches on either side of the laptop’s body, making it look almost natural at first glance, creating a much more subtle appearance than the head-turning vertical display.
Of all the rollable laptops I’ve tested over the past few years, this one feels the most practical. Sure, it’s a niche device, but the mechanics are a little more marketable, with a subtler design and sleeker overall build when folded up. Plus, as much as I liked the vertical extendable, the horizontal seems to make more sense.