After covering the latest tech for over a decade, it's hard for companies to legitimately surprise me with something, let alone with something that seems particularly useful, but Lenovo managed that feat with its Auto Twist AI PC concept.
At an event on Wednesday, just days ahead of IFA 2024, Lenovo gathered journalists in a hotel conference room in Berlin to show off updates to its ThinkPad, IdeaPad, Yoga, and ThinkBook lines. However, one mysterious covered laptop remained under wraps until the very end: Hi Twist.
Lenovo Auto Twist AI PC: The robotic laptop you didn’t know you needed
Kevin Beck, Senior Story Technologist at Lenovo, unveiled the laptop and greeted it with the phrase, "Hi Twist, open lid." The Twist obeyed with alacrity, popping open the lid to a comfortable working position. Now, while that is unexpected, I wouldn't be as interested in the Twist if that's where it ended, but it's got more to offer.
You can give the Twist verbal commands to open, close, and go into tablet mode. But a more useful trick is its ability to track you with facial recognition if you are moving around while either presenting or on a call. It works similarly to some of the best external webcams we've tested, rotating the entire screen to keep you centered in the frame at all times.
While there are software solutions for this problem, they involve sacrificing some resolution to zoom in digitally; this retains your full, clean resolution throughout.
Security conscious? The Auto Twist can also be set to automatically close its lid if you walk away from it, so no prying eyes can see what you are (or aren't) working on.
Again this is a concept, so Lenovo has only just started to tap into what is possible with the design, but multiple ideas sprung up over the course of our time working with the laptop.
There's also something about the laptop moving on its own that makes it feel a bit like your friendly robotic computer companion rather than an inert object. It harkened back to another Lenovo concept, the Magic Bay Studio that we awarded a best of CES 2024 award. The modular Magic Bay Studio attachment could be used to give a laptop a whole host of different features, but among them was a little robotic companion that snapped onto the magnetic connector on the laptop's lid. A union of Magic Bay Studio and the Twist could be a match made in heaven.
Do I expect to see motorized 2-in-1s as the next big thing in laptops for 2025? No, but it's an interesting notion with some real practical applications, and I love to see companies like Lenovo thinking outside of the laptop chassis and offering more than just the annual speeds and feeds upgrade.
Here's hoping the Twist sees the light of a day as a full release in the future.
Laptop Mag's IFA Berlin 2024 Issue celebrates one of the world's longest-running consumer tech expos, Germany's own Internationale FunkAusstellung Berlin.
Our on-the-ground team will bring you all the news emerging from the showroom floor of Messe Berlin and highlight the best in consumer tech as we announce our inaugural Laptop Laurel winners for best-in-show products.
Head over to Laptop Mag's IFA Berlin 2024 Issue for more coverage.
