CES 2020: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold launches as world's first foldable PC, price starts at $2,499

It has been well over half a year since Lenovo first showcased its foldable PC. At CES 2020, the ThinkPad X1 Fold has made the shift from a working prototype to a commercially-viable product. The world’s first tablet PC with a foldable screen has a price tag and is ready to launch.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is essentially a 13.3-inch OLED panel with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a 2048 x 1536 resolution. LG Display has provided the screen for Lenovo’s folding tablet PC. The PC maker is confident about the device’s durability, claiming the panel was a result of a four-year plus collaboration with LG. The screen folds horizontally with a discernible crease down the middle.

The Fold bends inwards with both halves of the display lying nearly flat upon each other, leaving a small gap between leaving room for a keyboard. The “Bluetooth Mini Fold keyboard” offers physical buttons to type on rather than typing on the screen, allowing you to turn this foldable tablet into a laptop.

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is wrapped in a leather cover and weighs less than 2.2 pounds. Additionally, there are two USB-C ports on either side of the machine as well as support for Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ax and optional LTE/5G.

Lenovo’s folding ThinkPad is equipped with an Intel Core processor with Intel Hybrid technology and integrated Intel Gen11 Graphics. It is equipped with 8GB DDR4 RAM and up to a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. The Fold also packs a 50Wh battery, which Lenovo claim can deliver up to 11 hours of use. You also get a 5-megapixel infrared IR camera.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold will run on Windows 10 Pro, rather than Windows 10X, which is the new Windows operating system Microsoft is developing for foldable PCs. Rather than utilise Windows 10X, Lenovo has developed customised software, Lenovo Mode Switcher to allow ThinkPad X1 Fold users to seamlessly transition between different usage modes.

A version of Lenovo’s folding PC with Windows 10X will arrive in mid-2020. The ThinkPad X1 Fold will start at $2,499 (Approx. Rs 1,79,400).