Hands-on: Lenovo’s rollable laptop is a brilliant concept come to life

Lenovo is releasing a hefty array of devices during CES 2025, but the main attraction has to be the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. This laptop is a concept turned into a true, buyable product that’s a lot of fun to use.

Rollable screen technology isn’t — and shouldn’t be — limited to phones. The tech allows devices to take on a much bigger display in a different form factor, allowing for several states of use. In the phone space, that means slab-size phones can turn into small tablets. In Lenovo’s case, it means a large laptop can become something even bigger with the footprint of a dual monitor setup.

At CES 2025, Lenovo announced the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable laptop. At its smallest size, the screen spans 14 inches in a slightly more square form factor than a normal 16:9 laptop. With the push of a button or hand gesture, the screen rolls out from the base of the laptop, expanding that to 16.7 inches. On paper, that doesn’t sound like much at all. In practice, it adds a hefty chunk of real estate to what was a single-window sort of display.

Internally, the PC brings Intel Core Ultra CPU options with an Intel Arc graphics card. The display itself is a 120Hz OLED panel with 400 nits of brightness and a vibrantly accurate color representation. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 also brings a ton of connectivity since it’s aimed at professionals more than anything, though something like this could appeal to a lot of users in general.

On the top row of the keyboard, there sits a small button specifically for extending and retracting the screen. When it’s tapped, and Lenovo’s rollable laptop is in the right position, the screen begins changing shape, rolling out from under the keyboard. It fully extends in a matter of about 5 seconds. A small roller pin keeps the screen in place as it moves up. There’s no crease like on a foldable phone, but the display is somewhat wavy like it’s been altered. We didn’t feel like this detracted from the display itself really at all, and it’s hard to notice unless under direct light. Lenovo also noted that the laptop is rated for 30,000 cycles, which is the same rating that they set on most other device hinges.

The rest of the PC felt great to use. The keyboard was a tad shallow, but I could see myself getting used to it. The Lenovo rollable laptop isn’t heavy, either. It really just takes on the weight of an average Windows laptop. Overall, it’s a brilliant way to bring a concept to life.

Of course, that comes with a price. Since there’s likely no streamlined manufacturer of affordable rollable OLED mechanisms in this form factor, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 comes at a price of $3,499. It should be available in the first quarter of 2025.