While bendy smartphones were huge at last year's IV MWC, this year saw the concept enter the PC space as Lenovo and Intel, both showcased their devices. Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold is a commercial unit that's expected to go on sale later this year but Intel's device is a concept piece which they're calling "Horseshoe Bend". The prototype is quite large with a 17.3-inch screen configured in a 4:3 aspect ratio and is very much like a traditional laptop once opened up. It even has a kick- stand like the Microsoft Surface book to prop it up and prevent it from keeling over while interacting with the top side of the bend.
Intel tends to produce prototypes around its silicon products to showcase their true potential and that was the case here as the Horseshoe Bend. Intel has some software demos at their open house to showcase how the Ul can be altered to adapt to bendy touchscreen displays. Horseshoe Bend is powered by Intel's upcoming 10nm Tiger Lake processors which are slated to ship towards the latter half of this year. The supposed power savings of Tiger Lake allows devices to be built thinner and given the low TDP, the need for active cooling mechanisms is done away with. Intel did not completely close the prototype in front of journalists but they did open it up all the way to form a flat slate. Intel mentioned that they might use Windows 10X for similar form factor devices when they do start shipping partner devices such as the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold, later this yeay 2020.