Dell’s got a foldable device and a dual-screen laptop, too

CES 2020 has barely begun but a definite trend has emerged: large foldable devices. 

We’ve seen Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold as well as Intel’s Horseshoe Bend – both laptop/tablet hybrids with a foldable screen – and now it’s Dell’s time to shine with Concept Duet and Concept Ori. 

Concept Duet is not exactly a foldable device; it’s a dual-screen laptop in the vein of Lenovo’s old Yoga Book, with a hinge separating its 13.4-inch displays. 

Still, in practice, it’s quite similar to a foldable laptop. When in “traditional” laptop mode, you can use the lower screen for input (via an on-screen keyboard or a pen) or you can flatten it out and get the benefit of the doubled screen real estate.

I wasn’t crazy about the Yoga Book and I reckon Dell’s Concept Duet will have similar issues: a touchscreen just can’t replace a physical keyboard. And without the allure of being foldable, it’s just not as sexy as the new devices we’ve seen from Lenovo and Intel. 

But Dell’s got an actually foldable device as well. Called Concept Ori, it’s a fair bit smaller than Duet and perhaps best described as a foldable tablet. It has a 13-inch screen that folds into something more portable. It also supports a pen, and Dell sees note-taking as an important use for such a device. 

The company didn’t share exact specifications for either Duet or Ori. 

Dell says Concept Ori offers “similar experiences and benefits to dual screens, but with the added advantage of no seams” and that says quite a bit about the Concept Duet, which has no such advantage. But there’s no point into analyzing these too closely — they’re concepts, and who knows what the finalized products will look like (if Dell ever launches any).