Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Review: (The World’s First Folding Screen Tablet)

The tech world has become known to the word foldable but still foldable is pretty new and is constantly evolving almost every year. Last year, in 2019 Samsung came with their best cool gadget the first-ever folding phone and that was the Samsung Galaxy Fold. It sure made waves but then it was called back because of issues with its display and its fragile folding making possible hardware’s backbone the hinge.

Although 2020 has been plagued with a pandemic, the tech world has still witnessed have some pretty great innovations and the latest Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is by no means an average folding device.

Lenovo’s Take on Foldables

Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup is known to bring world-class tech and innovation to its consumers and with its X1 series they never compromise on quality. Whether it is durability or performance you can trust that Lenovo knows what they do. With its latest ThinkPad X1 Fold, Lenovo is dipping its toes in foldable.

They are bringing innovation, class, and functionality to the masses with a huge 13.3-inch foldable screen. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is the world’s folding touchscreen PC or tablet, whatever you name it. It is a great device on paper and even its substantially big screen has a gorgeous 2k screen making looking at it a great experience.

ThinkPad X1 Fold is by no means a device that is here to just impress consumers with its beautiful folding screen. It also has some seriously great internals that does make this device powerful enough to do system intensive. But still, the folding screen is its selling point.

Display

The 13.3 inches folding screen is made possible by having two screen panels attached to a strong hinge supporting flexible OLED screen panels and this alone is a technological marvel considering folding screens are still pretty new. This 13.3-inch screen if sounds a little huge to carry around then you will find it quite assuming that this device can be easily folded in half in a small form factor.

Yes, this has a foldable screen and that too with a 2K resolution screen but what is more interesting is its support for a stylus. This OLED screen panel allows you to glide with a stylus to use this beautiful screen panel. As previously known, folding screens are pretty fragile and can break easily with the slightest tug or hard touch. For better screen durability, Lenovo with its technological innovation has made this feature also possible in its first-ever foldable device. You can buy an optional Lenovo official stylus while buying the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold.

Build-Quality

Lenovo has used premium-grade materials like glass, metals, and leather to manufacture this device giving it a premium feel. As Lenovo says, this foldable device is more like a sketchbook that you can fold and keep in your bags or purse and unfold to create your masterpieces, and we could not agree more. You will not be disappointed by the feel and grip this foldable provides with its premium build.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad’s are known for their great build quality so there are no compromises here. Lenovo has also built in a dedicated stand that helps the device stand when to screen is not folded. The 4:3 ratio provides a taller screen that might be unconventional for a laptop user.

The front side of the screen is surrounded by rubberized bezels, so this can be easily folded and covers the hinge protecting it from gathering any dust or debris that could enter it and damage its functionality. This rubberized texture might be a turn-off for some people but considering the other components and the infancy of the folding screen technology, one can only appreciate Lenovo’s efforts.

Foldable Functionality

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold being foldable can be folded at many different angles and when it is folded Lenovo’s built-in software gives you the option to split your screen into two separate tabs or to keep the single display mode enabled. This feature makes this device perfect for multi-tasking considering you can hold this device in the way of holding a book, at one side you have a zoom meeting and on the next, you are scrolling through your documents.

When the X1 Fold is folded it has a gap in it as the hinge cannot close completely because if folded completely having no gaps between the two panels the OLED screen will have a sharp crease in it and that is no look good by any means. Although there is always a soft crease in foldable devices, Lenovo has also made this crease extremely minimal with their foldable offering. It also has a power button and volume rocker button on one side of the device giving it more polished functionality.

When folded in the form factor of a laptop at 90 at a degree angle, it looks like a small laptop. In laptop mode, one screen turns into a primary display and the other turns into a virtual keyboard that you can use to type. Even though this screen has great quality and multi-touch support enabled, typing on the virtual keyboard will provide you with good typing speeds but the tactile feedback and accuracy of a physical keyboard is no match to a virtual keyboard.

To tackle this, when buying the ThinkPad X1 Fold you can buy an optional detachable keyboard. This keyboard is Bluetooth enabled so it will provide you with a good physical typing experience.

The keyboard can be used while the device is folded or even when the screen is laid flat stood up by the built-in stand. The wireless keyboard provides you with enhanced functionality. Also, it has an elastic hoop that can carry the stylus. This keyboard can also be kept in the device while folded diminishing the gap that is present in the device when it is completely folded.

Performance

Lenovo has surely cut no corners while providing us with a top-class foldable PC. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is boosted by 10th generation Intel’s i5 processor, 8 GB LPDDR4X for better and seamless performance. It comes with SSD storage options with varying sizes of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB.

With such a small form factor and strong processing hardware one might wonder that wouldn’t this device over-heat. Lenovo has packed a custom motherboard that is designed to regulate and distribute the heat evenly so the device can stray away from getting over-heated. This Thin but not so slim device also features fans to keep the system from overheating and making the device run smoothly.

Connectivity

This device comes equipped with Intel’s latest Wi-Fi 6 technology giving it the power to connect to an internet connection with huge bandwidth and then maintain a strong connection. It also comes with Bluetooth 5.1 that has already become common in the recent tech offerings.

Moreover, cellular connectivity is also available but it is optional. You can get it in options with 4G or 5G configurations giving you more control over your internet needs. This foldable also sports two fully functional USB Type-C ports making charging or transferring files a pretty smooth experience.

Final Thoughts

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold is by no means a lackluster device. It might be one of the best options to have for a portable PC available in the market. It has Intel’s strong processor, a good amount of RAM, great storage options, an excellent level of portability with the astonishing and durable build quality. But the most important thing that makes this device a true star is its foldable 2k 13.3-inch screen that is a marvel in technology made possible by Lenovo.

ThinkPads provide excellence no matter what and ThinkPad X1 Fold is a promising device to hold and use. On the software side, Microsoft did previously announce that its next Windows OS Windows 10R. From some sources, it was revealed that it will have support for foldable screens but that version was thrown into the bins and was forced to be remembered as a failed project. Alas, Windows still has to configure its software with the evolving market for foldable devices.

That is the reason why Lenovo has stuck to implementing Windows 10 Pro over its foldable device. Yes, this device runs on Windows 10 Pro which does not support functionality for foldable devices, however, Lenovo’s implementation is very promising.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold base model comes with a starting price of $2499, which is pretty steep for a portable PC. But considering foldable is a pretty new technology and can take years to master this price tag is surely for the easy spenders of you out there. Lenovo’s iteration of a foldable might not be the first in the world as there are plenty of other foldable phones available in the market and considering their high price tags the pricing model of ThinkPad X1 Fold is a no brainer.

Yes, the price is high, and such price points are not accessible by everyone in society. But if you can spend such amounts of money and savor tech as much as we do, we would recommend you getting the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold as it is the greatest First Foldable PC. One should definitely not shy away from testing history-defining tech, and such tech has and will always make an impact on the development of future technologies.

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