Hands-on with Lenovo's rollable concept laptops at CES 2026

Lenovo gave me the chance to preview and touch various upcoming devices, including laptops with expandable screens. Here's what impressed me.

Laptops with rollable screens

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the screen expand before me. Lenovo was showing off its latest rollable concept laptops, essentially cutting-edge devices to showcase future possibilities.

And Lenovo has put together not one, but two separate designs: one with a horizontally expanding screen, and another that expands into a squarish aspect ratio.

The Legion Pro Rollable Concept is a 16-inch gaming laptop complete with Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 for e-sports. Tap the shortcut key, and it expands first into 21.5 inches, then a 24-inch monitor.

A second rollable concept laptop expands vertically, increasing screen area by around 50% for productivity. What's more, the rollable display covers part of the top panel, too, and serves as a second screen.

From what I heard, a tension-based design with built-in motors allows the display to expand and contract with minimum vibration and noise, which I found to be true.

Slimmer, lighter laptops

I also spotted two upcoming laptop models: the X1 Carbon Gen 14 and the Yoga Slim 7 (14"), both of which will feature Intel's upcoming Ultra Series 3 CPUs.

And both weigh under 1kg.

The X1 Carbon Gen 14 now features a larger trackpad and a significantly more repairable body. Crucially, it comes with a metallic body that first appeared in the X9 last year. It's much more resistant to fingerprints.

The Yoga Slim 7 (14") is a no-compromise machine complete with top-tier CPU, a beautiful matte OLED touchscreen display, and three USB-C ports.

Now, if only I can trade in the X1 Carbon Gen 13 I bought for one of the above units...

Consistent design language

Seeing the conceptual and upcoming laptops brought home the point how Lenovo is constantly making its laptops better.

A new "space frame" motherboard design now allows components to be mounted on both sides, dramatically shrinking its size. I believe it's what made the Yoga Slim 7 possible.

I noticed minor tweaks made to the X1 Carbon family across the Gen 12, Gen 13, and Gen 14 models. When I asked, the reasons for each change were clear, and served to improve the product.

Moreover, design language remains highly consistent across laptop models of the same family. In fact, someone not intimately familiar with the product would be hard pressed to tell them apart.

Do you currently own a Lenovo laptop?