In the early days of IBM computing there was the IBM PC and how much IBM would have liked for their PC Jr (Junior) to be a big hit. IBM eventually gave up the personal computing business and sold that off to Chinese technology company Lenovo. Two things that remind me that IBM used to be quite the innovator. The first is their brilliant mechanical Model M keyboard and the second is their red nipple erm Trackpoint nub on the line of Thinkpad notebooks.
Jump to 2020 and my first media event even before the start of Covid-19. Lenovo introduces a long list of new hardware. The range of products covers personal home computing all the way to Enterprise users. I won't go into detail the likes of their high end workstations using AMD's Ryzen Threadripper cpus, Virtual Reality headset or Lenovo Smart Display. Instead, I'll zoom right in to the product that will be on the watchlist of gearheads, early adopters and nerds like myself.
Fold? What's new all notebooks already fold and some can even perform yoga and fold like the "downward facing dog". The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i and 9i are pretty good yoga practitioners but the X1 Fold is like the master. It does not just fold with a hinged keyboard and screen. The entire screen folds at the hinge. You have seen and read about the folding screens on mobile phone devices. Well, now the ThinkPad X1 Fold is a first in the personal computing category.
I am not sure whether I should be excited or sad because as the first you know it will always reach the market and consumer at a high price and that will only attract the early adopters or the affluent that like to show off. Is the Consumer ready? Is it too soon? I have been in this situation before when I worked for a software company, Delrina in Toronto, Canada. I worked on a software product called, Echo Lake. It was really ahead of it's time partly because the advent of digital cameras for recording still and video content had not yet proliferated.
So, in a way is the X1 Fold ready for prime time with Consumers? Doesn't the Consumer already get by with tablets or transformable notebooks? Maybe users who are accustom to carrying and using a diary, Filofax, or use their mobile phones as an electronic organiser would field the benefits. Perhaps the X1 Fold needs to find a niche space with an Application in a specific industry. I was thinking maybe the medical field where tablets have become the staple in hospitals, at least here in Singapore.
Anyway, there's lots to think about and hopefully I get to hands-on with the ThinkPad X1 Fold to feel it and use it as a daily device to better understand and see if it fits my usage.
There's still time to think more about it as it is currently on pre-order at Lenovo's flagship store in Funan with prices starting at SGD 3,759.00 (~ USD 2,088.00). Check out the pictures in the gallery.
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