Lenovo Teases Solar-Powered and Foldable-Screen Laptops in Latest Concepts (cnbc.com) 15
Lenovo demonstrated "a laptop with a foldable screen and one that can get extra battery life from solar power," reports CNBC, emphasizing that "These laptops are just concepts, meaning they are not commercially available."
But "Lenovo, the world's biggest PC maker, has a history of showing off imaginative concepts with some becoming reality, so it's worth keeping an eye on what the Chinese technology giant is up to..." The latest concepts were unveiled at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona... When fully unfolded, the screen is an 18-inch display [on the Lenovo ThinkBook 'flip' concept]... The screen can then be folded in half horizontally to create two screens — one on the front and one on the back. The entire display can be folded down flat so the laptop turns into a tablet-like device.
Lenovo also showed off a Yoga Solar PC concept, reports Gizmodo, calling it "relatively thin and light" despite a solar panel in its lid with "a supposed 24% solar conversion rate": Lenovo claims they achieved this by maneuvering the gridlines you usually find on a solar panel behind the solar cells, offering more real estate for energy absorption... Lenovo's software showed the power accumulation at around 7 V when facing away from the sunlight and 12 V when facing toward it. It could get more when getting direct sunlight. Despite the presence of the solar panel, the laptop still weighs a little more than 2.6 pounds, which isn't out of the realm of what to expect from most modern laptops.
We should note that the panel isn't generating the required power to run the PC continuously. Lenovo claimed that 20 minutes of direct sunlight will transform into about one hour of video playback battery life. Depending on the CPU and battery, that could be 1/20 of the laptop's battery life.
CNBC had slightly different statistics for the laptop's battery life. "Lenovo said that the solar panels can absorb even ambient light in a person's surroundings to give a user an extra hour of laptop use at the end of an eight-hour work day..."
But "Lenovo, the world's biggest PC maker, has a history of showing off imaginative concepts with some becoming reality, so it's worth keeping an eye on what the Chinese technology giant is up to..." The latest concepts were unveiled at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona... When fully unfolded, the screen is an 18-inch display [on the Lenovo ThinkBook 'flip' concept]... The screen can then be folded in half horizontally to create two screens — one on the front and one on the back. The entire display can be folded down flat so the laptop turns into a tablet-like device.
Lenovo also showed off a Yoga Solar PC concept, reports Gizmodo, calling it "relatively thin and light" despite a solar panel in its lid with "a supposed 24% solar conversion rate": Lenovo claims they achieved this by maneuvering the gridlines you usually find on a solar panel behind the solar cells, offering more real estate for energy absorption... Lenovo's software showed the power accumulation at around 7 V when facing away from the sunlight and 12 V when facing toward it. It could get more when getting direct sunlight. Despite the presence of the solar panel, the laptop still weighs a little more than 2.6 pounds, which isn't out of the realm of what to expect from most modern laptops.
We should note that the panel isn't generating the required power to run the PC continuously. Lenovo claimed that 20 minutes of direct sunlight will transform into about one hour of video playback battery life. Depending on the CPU and battery, that could be 1/20 of the laptop's battery life.
CNBC had slightly different statistics for the laptop's battery life. "Lenovo said that the solar panels can absorb even ambient light in a person's surroundings to give a user an extra hour of laptop use at the end of an eight-hour work day..."
I love working outside in the bright sun (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Let's see. ~1kW/m^2 at the earth's surface. We're up to 30% efficiency in solar panels. My T495 is 13.03 x 8.94 inches, or -.075m^2.
So that's 22.5W parked in the full sun angled right at the sun. About a cell phone charger, you're not running the laptop on that. But it's 1/3 of the 60W power brick it comes with, so same order of magnitude at least. A 50 Wh battery, would charge up in a few hours of full sunlight? Ok, maybe not just a gimmick.
Re: (Score:2)
Note that angled right at the sun when the panel is on the back side of the screen would mean either the screen is at an unusable angle, or the panel is not going to get anywhere near the amount needed.
It's a gimmick, much easier to have a handheld foldable or rollable solar panel to go with your laptop, so long as the laptop is willing to accept lower USB-PD rates.
Re: (Score:2)
The scenario I thought of is Low Tech Magazine, the sustainable ideas website.
He runs a website, off-grid by mounting solar panels on his apartment window in Barcelona:
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.... [lowtechmagazine.com]
I live in an apartment building with an east facing window - I am wondering if my electricity bills would be reduced at all if I left a laptop charging on the window sill all morning. Maybe a couple of cents per day...
Re: (Score:2)
Amazing (Score:2)
Nope (Score:2)
Lenovo's software showed the power accumulation at around 7 V when facing away from the sunlight and 12 V when facing toward it.
No, that's not how anything works.
It's not a terrible idea (Score:3)
...to pair a solar panel and MPPT controller with a laptop. It could trickle charge and extend the battery a bit, which is better than nothing.
But there's not a ton of benefit of building the solar panel into the laptop itself.
1) Nobody's going to want to use the laptop in full sun
2) You could just get a laptop case that folds open with a separate solar panel on the outside of the case
3) a Z-folding solar panel stored in a laptop case with a long cable would allow you to set up the solar panel away from the laptop, so you can sit in the shade
So, I generally like the goal behind it, but just put an MPPT controller in the laptop and a plug for the panel.
Re: (Score:2)
You're way better off with the solar controller being built into the solar panel, and a USB-C connection. Since USB-PD includes power negotiation, the solar controller could choose the charge rate based on the available power. This would work with any laptop which didn't just refuse to charge when offered less power than it asked for (I have experience only with one USB-C charging laptop and have only ever hooked it up to a full power source so I do not know if this is even a thing, but given my prior exper
Bring out new Thinkpads (Score:2)
Please Lenovo, bring out some new Thinkpads, with decent keyboards, decent, hot-swapable batteries, and so on. Devices that are designed to work and be easy to repair if they stop doing that. Machines that are optimized for function, not looks.
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently, a big reason for this is the airlines. If you check your laptop (either deliberately - some people don't want to do any work on planes, or incidentally if you're forced to gate-check your baggage), you cannot have batteries in there. Unless they are built into the device.
So a laptop with a removable battery would force you to remove the battery in order to check it, a laptop or device with built in battery, well, you cannot do anything about it so it can be checked baggage
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sorry, but having a laptop on an airplane is such an exotic use-case, why bother optimizing it for that?
The only problem with this (Score:3)
The only problem with this is you have to go stand in the sunlight to charge it.
Smart! (Score:2)
This is actually great thinking. A photovoltaic panel large enough to generate the ~65 watts needed to power or charge my laptop would be large enough to also provide me shade from the sun and the ability to see the screen.
It's a win win win! Genius! It seems so obvious now.