Lenovo made a ThinkBook that literally stretches sideways
At CES 2026, we saw a Lenovo gaming laptop that slowly unrolled into a widescreen laptop. At IFA, we’re seeing a second: a ThinkBook prototype that Lenovo is calling “Project Swan.”
Let’s face it: Lenovo seems to have this rollable laptop concept sewn up. Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Rollable from last year was all about productivity: the $3,299 laptop included a screen which extended upwards from 14 inches to create a 16.7-inch display. Now Lenovo has gone in the opposite direction.
Since Project Swan is a prototype concept, details are somewhat scarce. The basics, however, are here: Lenovo is taking a 14-inch laptop and unrolling the display to create a 17-inch laptop instead, via a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s a simpler, more productive version of the Legion Pro Rollable that Lenovo showed off at CES 2026, which unrolled in two segments: from 16 inches to 21.5 inches, and then to 23.8 inches. The Legion’s functions were controlled by the function keys at the top of the keyboard, just like the new “Project Swan” ThinkBook.
More precisely, the ThinkBook “Project Swan” laptop unrolls from an effective 2,258×1,672 screen to 2,850×1672, which is “almost” a 4K display, according to a Lenovo representative. (It’s actually about 57 percent of the pixels you’d see on a 3840×2160 “4K” display. The Legion Pro Rollable, however, was about a “3.6K” display.)
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Personally, I liked how the ThinkBook Plus Rollable created what was essentially a pair of 4:3 displays sitting virtually on top of one another. Lenovo’s representatives had another take: the widescreen rollable isn’t top-heavy, sits more ergonomically and better reproduces a traditional form factor. Moreover, as a gaming laptop the Legion widescreen rollable was heavy, with no real portability to it.
“It’s the Legion technology with a productivity bent,” I was told.
Lenovo didn’t reveal whether Project Swan would use a traditional IPS or OLED display. The Legion Pro Rollable, however, used the latter — a good sign that the Swan will do the same.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
I still think that actually arranging windows on the vertical rollable would be more productive than the widescreen “Project Swan” prototype Lenovo showed, but Lenovo’s team made a strong case in the Project Swan’s defense. We’re going to have to see what the future holds: the price, configuration, and the ship date. All those remain unknown. The next showcase will be CES 2026, where “Project Swan” may become a shipping product.
