Laptop manufacturer Compal Electronics has won an iF Design Award 2025 for a previously unseen design with an extending screen (h/t Liliputing). Unlike the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus we saw in December, and the ThinkBook Codename Flip we saw at MWC earlier in the week, the Compal Infinite Laptop's screen extends horizontally, expanding from a 14- to an 18-inch diagonal.
Purchasing a laptop involves some hard decisions and compromises. However, specs that were once set in stone post-purchase are now easier to sidestep than ever. For example, portable monitors are more common and cheaper than ever, so you can have more screen space in your laptop backpack when you need it. Similarly, if you decide on a thin and light with integrated graphics, there are lots of portable eGPU docks around in 2025.
Using the latest rollable OLED screen technology to give laptop buyers a way to summon more working screen space at their will, is even better than having to pack a second screen, though. Lenovo teased laptops with vertically extending and flipping screens for months before showing off the aforementioned ThinkBook Codename Flip. Now ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) Compal has shown there's another way to use the same technology. What do you prefer? Don't say a diagonally extending screen.
The Lenovo ThinkBook Codename Flip screen can be as compact as 12.8-inches at minimum, and up to 18.1-inches when fully unfurled. Its ThinkBook Plus could extend from a 14- to a 16.7-inch diagonal, according to our last report. The iF Design Award pages say that Compal's Infinite Laptop is 14-inches in diagonal, but it can extend to 18-inches.
Sadly, there aren't a lot of tech details shared by the award pages. In the description, it is claimed the Compal Infinite Laptop balances portability and productivity thanks to its screen expansion capabilities, which sounds fair enough, if your workflow can make good use of very wide aspect ratio screens.
Laptop lid LED alerts
We can see in Compal's images that the screen expands both left and right, keeping the machine nicely balanced when fully extended. Compal boasts that the extension mechanism is 'seamless' and ensures both screen quality and durability, which is good. Last but not least, we can see the laptop lid has two arrays of LEDs, which appear to be configurable to show custom alerts like emails arriving.
We've reported on fascinating Compal concepts emerging previously but, sadly, these things sometimes never get commercialized. This innovation seems genuinely useful, though. If it doesn't add too much weight to a laptop, it would be great if the concept technology was picked up by one of the brands that uses Compal as a manufacturer.
