Lenovo's latest flexible laptop can flip open to reveal a huge 18-inch screen
At MWC 2025, Lenovo leaned into conceptual laptops, and this ThinkBook might be my favorite
💻 Lenovo has unveiled a new concept laptop, the ThinkBook Flip AI PC
📏 It has an 18-inch outward-facing screen that can be folded down
🤖 This laptop is packed with high-end specs and, of course, AI
📅 No price or release date as this is a concept – for now
➡️ Check out all of our MWC 2025 coverage from Barcelona
Lenovo is always good for a crazy PC concept, and its latest is not to be missed. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company revealed a new ThinkBook that looks everything but ordinary; its 13-inch screen can grow to 18.1 inches by flipping upwards. It’s about as crazy as Lenovo’s transparent laptop concept from MWC 2024, and it’s a lot cooler visually than Lenovo’s solar-powered concept laptop it debuted this year.
Lenovo ThinkBook Flip AI PC hands-on
The laptop looks pretty normal if you’re just looking at the keyboard or the bottom of the machine. But one glance at the lid on this thing and you’ll notice it’s pretty weird: there’s a display out there, which can be used like a tablet if you want.
Open the laptop and you’ll be greeted by the lower half of that same display, measuring 13 inches and giving you a traditional laptop experience. But what if you need more screen real estate? Grab the top edge of the flexible OLED panel and bend it upwards - the display will flip up and reveal a huge 18.1-inch canvas you can use for whatever you need.
I got to try out the laptop at MWC ahead of its announcement, and it’s quite something. The display was gorgeous and looked very bright and colorful, and it felt pretty strange bending it so much. It seemed to work well, though; Windows could adapt to it quickly and the screen didn’t have a noticeable crease or crinkle in the top layer. From a hardware perspective, it was really impressive.
You can use the flexible screen in clamshell mode, tablet mode, tent mode (for seeing the same content on both sides), and read mode (fully expanded). I tested them all in my hands-on, and it felt a lot more versatile than any 2-in-1 laptop I’ve used in the past.
The laptop itself was pretty slim and relatively light, although the display didn’t help with balance. It’s a tall display on a normal-sized laptop base, so you can imagine accidental tip-overs are to be expected. It happened a couple of times in my demo, but again, it’s a concept – what do you expect?
Oh, and the trackpad illuminates. Touch a button and it lights up to reveal a touch-sensitive keypad. Why do you need this? I have no idea, but it looks sweet.
The ThinkBook Flip AI PC concept reminds me a lot of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable which debuted at CES in January. With the touch of a button, its 14-inch screen could grow to 16.7 inches by physically rolling out of the base of the laptop. However, while watching the screen expand is cool, being able to unfold a 13-inch screen to an 18.1-inch one is a lot more convenient. You don’t need to worry about as many moving parts or waiting for it to finish, and for what it’s worth, this laptop idea felt slightly more durable. They’re both still concepts, of course, but I feel like the foldable screen makes more sense for consumers than a rollable one.
Lenovo noted some of the specs in this machine, like the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM, Thunderbolt 4, and PCIe storage, all of which would translate to a pretty powerful laptop. There’s also AI to back up the “AI” in the laptop’s name, but a lot of it isn’t user-facing; some of it's used to optimize performance, while other bits are for security and IT management.
The ThinkBook Flip AI PC concept isn’t coming to market any time soon, but it’s always interesting to see what Lenovo has been cooking up in its labs. This is an idea that could make sense for customers who want more screen on demand and don’t feel like carrying around a second screen. I’ll be curious to see where this design goes in the future.
Max Buondonno is Editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.
