Lenovo’s 2-in-1 Twistable Laptop Is the Best Kind of Concept Laptop

You can usually count on Lenovo to release a wacky concept or two at a trade show, but I think the Auto Twist AI PC Proof of Concept that was shown at IFA has a better chance of going mainstream than most of the previous attention-grabbing gadgets. I didn’t know I needed a hybrid laptop with a fully automatic hinge that you could open and close with voice prompts, but Lenovo’s spectacular demonstration has already convinced me.

It’s essentially a ThinkBook 2-in-1 with a mechanical hinge that can rotate nearly a full 360 degrees. The Auto Twist isn’t any thicker than a regular hybrid laptop, but it can adjust itself to any angle — hands-free. Just say one of the trigger phrases, like “close laptop,” “tablet mode,” or “open lid.”

Not only is this brilliant for accessibility, but Lenovo has built in AI to track your movements, so you can always keep your screen in sight. This will come in handy if you’re presenting in front of an audience and like to wander around the stage. It also supposedly reduces strain by adapting to your posture. Step away and it automatically closes the lid and locks your Windows desktop, so you don’t have to worry about scumbags accessing your documents while you spend a dime.

Camera mode lets you take panoramic photos with a single press of a button, using the webcam built into the front bezel of the screen. Naturally, my first thought was to create a Spider-Man homage pointing to the Spider-Man meme by quickly moving from one side of the room to the other.

In the ten or so minutes I spent brainstorming the concept, I already came up with a few interesting ideas—one-button time-lapse videos would be a real boon for creators, and your laptop could become a sentinel bot that monitors your workspace when you’re not around.

The camera doesn’t move particularly quickly, and there was a slight amount of wobble as it tilted and panned around the room, but subject tracking was excellent and the (apparently still early) software stitched together panoramic shots fairly quickly.

The company isn’t talking about the internal hardware yet, as a CPU candidate wouldn’t be locked down until the machine is ready for full production, but with new Intel Core Ultra chips, AMD Ryzen AI chips, and Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon all vying for your attention, it’s possible that any of the three could find a home in a machine like this.

Aside from that hinge, it’s a fairly conventional laptop; compared to February’s Project Crystal, which felt like a technology without any particular purpose, I could see this one on store shelves fairly quickly.

All he needs is a Robot Wars-style self-repair mechanism, and there’s no stopping him.