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Something I ’ve always admired about Lenovo is the direction the Formosan tech giant really lets its freak flagstone tent flap . In fact , visit the company ’s cubicle snuggle in the path , right smart back of Hall 3 has long been a highlighting ofMWCfor me . you could always tell where the latest bit of weirdness is locate by the gaggle of people inject smartphone video of the affair .
This twelvemonth ’s grownup scrum collector was Lenovo ’s long - bruit transparent laptop computer . It ’s real . It functions surprisingly well and — nearest anyone can say — its existence is a testament to form over subprogram . That ’s a absolutely hunky-dory thing to be when you ’re a conception machine . When it comes to in reality shipping a product , however , that ’s another conversation altogether .
I ’ll be the first to let in that it ’s difficult to photograph the thing — especially on a crowded show floor with a few dozen folks elbow their way in to trance a coup d’oeil of it it . Broadly speaking , it look like a laptop , with a limpid pane where the concealment should be . It ’s perhaps well sympathise as a kind of augmented reality gimmick , in the sense that its graphics are cover on whatever happens to be behind it .
It ’s a gang pleaser , with a futuristic strain to it that be all way of sci - fi tech figure of speech . The transparent display has become a sort of shorthand for future tech in fund art , and it ’s undeniably smashing to see the matter in legal action . It ’s not the first time we ’ve find out the technology , though until now it ’s been submit to tv set screens . The applied science makes a snatch more sense in that manikin factor , however , as it can be deployed in public places like hotel third house , or as a kind of signage .
I ’m racking my brain to amount up with a practical real - world use for such a Cartesian product that goes beyond looks . When I think about working on my laptop , more often than not , I ’m facing a wall . On function , I ’m confront a windowpane , with light streaming in . I ’m singular how the matter does in full day . A max of 1,000 is true quite bright , but it ’s hard to say how it will handle direct sunlight .
I ’m currently writing this in the MWC media lounge . It ’s not a bulwark or lineal sunlight , but the view in front of my MacBook is just some dude ’s ThinkPad . I do n’t know that transparence would add much in this example . Also , he would be able to see me through it — the tail of the gadget offers up a mirror image of the display ’s front .
The bottom of the gadget is covered in a large capacitive touch surface . This sphere serves as both a keyboard and a large stylus - compatible drawing control surface . The flat surface ca n’t compete with real , tactile keyboards , of course . Typing is n’t the cracking experience here , as tell by former dual - screen Lenovo laptops . But that ’s the trade - off for the versatility of the practical reading .
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At the moment , it seems unlikely that the conception will ever make the leap to productization . Lenovo loves attain weird technical school for uncanny technical school ’s sake , and that ’s all fine . That said , the company has also brought its share of unearthly products to market . Take the recent example of the X1 Fold . strange things have happened .
