Lenovo has unveiled a new laptop concept that looks genuinely impressive and useful but also has me fearing for our AI-dominant future. The Lenovo Auto Twist AI PC uses a motorized screen mount and face-tracking webcam, meaning the screen follows you as you move around in front of it.
While this sort of technology isn’t new in the world of webcams and dedicated video meeting equipment, it’s a new one as far as laptops go, and the way the screen on this Lenovo laptop twists and distorts itself to ensure you never leave its sight is all a bit I, Robot. Suffice it to say it won’t be our first choice of new feature for future best gaming laptop contenders.
All that said, the Auto Twist AI PC, which was unveiled at Lenovo’s press conference at IFA 2024, is certainly impressive. We’ve seen laptops with screens that twist and flip around a single central point before, but to manage to incorporate motors strong enough to have the screen move itself is something else. It’s not like the range of motion was limited either – the screen will fold flat and has a twist range of 270 degrees, so it can just about twist all the way around in its pursuit of your face.
We did manage to sneak just into view of the 5MP webcam without it detecting us and moving, as shown in the image below, but by and large the software was very quick to identify a new target as it strolled into view. The AI-assisted software would lock onto the most prominent face in view and not give up until you were out of range.
Although it’s just a concept for now, the Auto Twist AI PC certainly looks as though it’s nearly a complete unit that could come to market essentially as it is already. It packs in a new Intel Lunar Lake chip, with 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, while that screen is a stunning 13.3-inch OLED panel with a pin-sharp resolution of 2,880 x 1,800.
All jokes aside, we could genuinely see this being a useful option for business types that would benefit from the sort of face-tracking movement you can get with webcams, such as the OBSBOT Tiny 2, but who don’t want to carry around the extra bulk.
For more of the wild and wonderful new tech we’ve spotted at IFA, check out our IFA story hub, which includes the likes of the new Acer DualPlay laptop concept, which houses a game controller inside a removable trackpad.
