LAPTOP DESIGNS ARE GETTING WEIRD AGAIN, AND I'M ALL FOR IT

EXPERIMENTS, QUIRKS, AND OPTIONS-THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT MAKE LAPTOPS SO INTERESTING.

- MATTHEW S. SMITH

Remember the first laptops? They were weird. Ancient laptops were often as large as desktop computers, but they had tiny screens that could only display a few dozen characters.

Over time, progress ironed out the flaws and peculiarities of those first laptops—and the ultrabook trend of the 2010s (fave.co/4n0EV6N) pushed laptops to their natural conclusion: thin, light, and anonymous.

But in 2025, a new trend has emerged. As Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm compete to provide more options, and as experimentation becomes less risky on certain fronts, the PC laptop arena has witnessed an explosion of laptops that are unique, unusual, and (in some cases) just plain odd. And if you ask me? I'm loving it.

DUAL-SCREEN, FOLDABLE, AND ROLLABLE LAPTOPS HAVE BECOME A REALITY

Laptops have always required compromise when it comes to display size. A larger display is a better visual experience than a smaller one, but it makes the laptop less portable. This trade-off has long haunted laptops.

But not anymore.

The Asus Zenbook Duo and HP Omen X 2S, both released in 2019, were some of the first laptops to seriously hint at this possibility. They weren't the first laptops with dual displays—remember the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds, fave.co/3VQm3vm?—but they were more affordable and more practical than prior attempts. HP didn’t stick with the idea, but Asus did (fave.co/4mjaEz5).

But while Asus was an early leader in dual-screen laptops, it was Lenovo that took the idea and truly ran with it. The company has pushed laptop displays to absurd limits with numerous world-first designs, including the first laptop with a foldable OLED display (fave.co/3JNxwnE), first laptop with a rollable OLED display (fave.co/3E95sNF), and first laptop with an E-Ink display on the lid (fave.co/3kEdVyF).