These Lenovo concept laptop designs are wild

Think of your wildest ideas for a laptop and see if you can build it. I'm pretty sure that was Lenovo's approach for its concepts this year, but some of them are actually really impressive. I wouldn't be surprised if they even make it to market, with some small alterations.

That's certainly been true of previous concepts. The extending display that we saw two years ago did make it to market, though I'm not sure the transparent designs from last year went the same way.

Some of the most interesting concepts produced ahead of this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona incorporate its business focused ThinkBooks, using the Magic Bay accessory port – a magnetic attachment that sits behind the top of the screen, making it ideal for webcams and the like.

But the designs went further than these attachments with a definite focus on 3D displays, using eye tracking and unsurprisingly, AI. There was also a touch of sustainability in the mix, with a clever solar charging Lenovo Yoga laptop model.

Powered by the sun

Solar panel chargers are hardly a new idea but Lenovo's Yoga PC concept has built that charging into the back of the screen. The idea is that if you're working in bright conditions (ideally direct sunlight on the back of your laptop) you can extend your battery life. According the Lenvo, 20 minutes of direct sunlight will give you up to one hour of video playback, which seems pretty impressive. If all laptops had this built in it could definitely save you from reaching for that charger a while longer.

Three screens in one

Probably the most likely to make its way into product is the additional screen is the lenovo Magic Bay Dual Display. As the name suggests, the concept attaches to your ThinkBook using the Magic Bay port but adds not one but two screens to the mix, giving you three large screens to work from.

The screens fold out like wing mirrors but offer decent quality for web browsing or working. They also mirror any brightness adjustment from the main screen, so you have consistency across all displays. There's also a smaller single screen display, that adds a smaller virtual display to one side of your main screen, which seems ideal for a social feed or messaging app.

Flip it and reverse it

Arguably the most showy of the concepts here, the Flip concept includes a folding laptop screen that when extended provides double the height of your standard screen and therefore a vertical display. The screen folds backwards though, so you can use half the screen when the laptop is closed, like a tablet. The touchscreen version is particularly cool, as you can swipe along the fold to active the two parts of the screen.

This concept also has a haptic touch pad that displays a range of functions – much like those touchpads that sat above the F keys. There are three modes for this, including a calculator, media playback and general functions – complete with custom buttons for regularly used apps or functions.

One ring to control them all

There were multiple 3D displays on show by Lenovo, but one of them stood out thanks to the addition of a smart ring. The 3D displays all use eye-tracking cameras on the top of the display to adjust the image and make it look 3D for you. The accompanying smart ring works as a three-dimensional mouse or clicker. You can scroll by moving your finger over the ring, select by pressing against the ring and switch between 3D and 2D by snapping your fingers. Where it gets really clever is with 3D modeling, as you can rotate the 3D model just by using your hand.