Lenovo Unveils Groundbreaking Rollable Laptop Screen at CES 2025!

At CES 2025, Lenovo has finally fulfilled the expectation of rollable displays with a new laptop that can enlarge its screen at the touch of a button.

Rollable displays have been a fascinating sight at CES since their debut by Royale in 2019, yet up until now there has been little in terms of actual market products.

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable AI PC transitions from a beautiful 14-inch OLED screen into a larger 16.7-inch display when you press a key on the keyboard that elevates the screen’s height. The display rolls out from beneath the keyboard, with a loud motor taking a brief moment to transform the device into a laptop with a notably tall display. Additionally, you can use a hand gesture in front of the webcam to prompt the screen, as depicted in the video below.

The vertical nature of the expanded display is ideal for working on documents or coding. Windows 11 swiftly adapts to the new screen resolution as soon as the button is pressed to reveal the additional display area, and Lenovo also supplies dedicated software that lets you utilize the lower portion of the display as a virtual secondary screen, effectively allowing Windows to perceive the extended screen as two distinct displays.

During my brief interactions with the device at CES in Las Vegas, the fully extended display certainly gives the laptop an unusual appearance, making it seem top-heavy. Nonetheless, my concerns that the extended display would make the laptop unstable and prone to tipping turned out to be unfounded after a short hands-on experience, as the device remained steady when used on a tabletop, even with my vigorous typing.

The absence of touchscreen capability alleviates concerns about the laptop toppling over backward. A Lenovo representative mentioned that the company intends to offer a touchscreen variant of the rollable display in the future, though adding a touchscreen layer to the rollable screen poses significant difficulties.

Nevertheless, this distinctive display feature comes at a significant price. It is expected to start at $3,499 when it launches in the first quarter.

Lenovo Slim 9i

The rollable laptop wasn’t the only new model introduced by Lenovo at its CES presentation, as the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i also focuses heavily on the display.

According to Lenovo, the Slim 9i is the first 14-inch laptop to showcase a 98% screen-to-body ratio, which means there are virtually no bezels encircling the display.

The laptop even lacks a dedicated housing for its webcam, opting instead to incorporate smartphone-like technology to embed the 32-megapixel webcam beneath the display.

When the webcam is not in use, it remains inconspicuous, allowing the entire display to be utilized for whatever is on the screen. Only when you activate the webcam, for instance, by initiating a Zoom call, does a small black dot emerge at the top of the screen where the camera is located.

In a poorly lit meeting room at CES, it was challenging to draw definitive conclusions about the webcam’s quality. The image appeared slightly blurry, but I will wait for a review unit to arrive before reaching a final verdict.

There is undoubtedly nothing flawed about the display itself, featuring a 14-inch 4K OLED that boasts a peak brightness of 750 nits and covers 100% of the sRGB/P3/Adobe color spaces. It looked breathtaking, with the high brightness effectively concealing any fingerprints that might mar the touchscreen.

This ultra-slim laptop is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, providing up to 32GB of RAM and offering up to 1TB of SSD storage. Wi-Fi 7 is included, although available ports are predictably limited: only two Thunderbolt 4 ports are present, one of which is required for connecting the charging cable.

However, you should not need to charge it frequently during work hours. A Lenovo representative indicated that the laptop should provide over 10 hours of battery life from its 75Wh cell.

Starting price is $1,849, with availability expected in February.

End of the TrackPoint?

In another development, a new Lenovo laptop may signal the potential decline of one of the company’s signature features: the trackpoint.

The trackpoint – the small red rubber pointing device positioned in the center of the keyboard – has been a distinguishing feature of ThinkPad laptops since the brand was owned by IBM. However, the ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition will be the first ThinkPad to exclude the trackpoint.

A Lenovo spokesperson informed me that the laptop is being targeted towards a younger generation of laptop buyers who are more accustomed to touchpads and touchscreens and do not appreciate the benefits of the trackpoint. The spokesperson emphasized that the trackpoint will remain in the rest of the ThinkPad series, but it appears increasingly likely that the time of this specific pointing device may be numbered.