Lenovo turns Auto Twist concept into real laptop with AI-powered tracking and motorized screen

Lenovo's Auto Twist laptop is going from concept to real product

At CES 2026, Lenovo is announcing a new ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist laptop. Once a concept, the 14-inch thin-and-light sports a motorized pivoting hinge, allowing it to twist and angle its screen toward you. It can be manually controlled, but the real trick is tracking your head and automatically adjusting to your position or posture. It can follow you around a portion of a room while giving a presentation, and you can knock on its closed lid to have it automatically open. The Auto Twist will also have an emoji-like AI companion software that reminds me of GERTY from the 2009 sci-fi movie Moon, turning to follow you and react to your actions. I saw a brief demo of it, and it seemed cute when it waved with its little hands or put on sunglasses. But it was slow to load and seemed awkward to use after the novelty wears off. The Auto Twist also supports live language translation, turning the screen back and forth to each speaker. As for the conventional laptop stuff, the Auto Twist's screen is a 2880 x 1800 / 120Hz OLED touchscreen with stylus support, it weighs 3.09 pounds / 1.4 kg, and it's packing Intel Panther Lake chips. It's set to launch in June with a starting price of $1,649. Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

CES 2026: The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist won't let you out of it sight

A couple years ago Lenovo showed off a concept laptop stand that used cameras and AI to follow you around. But now at CES 2026, the company has taken that idea and turned it into a full-fledged system that it's actually going to sell. Dubbed the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist, instead of a laptop stand, Lenovo created a standalone notebook with the same functionality, plus a little more. The impressive thing is that despite having a built-in motor that lets its display follow you around, the laptop's design doesn't look all that outlandish. And after playing around with it a bit, I discovered a handful of other tricks it can do. Instead of using your fingers to open the lid like a luddite, all you have to do is knock a couple times and then the laptop's display will pop up by itself. From there, you're greeted with a surprisingly good-looking 14-inch 2.8K OLED display and a traditional keyboard that won't upset longtime ThinkBook or ThinkPad aficionados. You also get solid specs including support for Intel's new Core Ultra Series 3 processors, up to 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage and a decently large 75Whr battery. The laptop also sports a strong selection of ports including two USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, a full-size HDMI jack and Wi-Fi 7. And all of this comes in a chassis that weighs 3.1 pounds, which is very reasonable for a 14-inch machine. As for its auto-twisting abilities, the main use case is during presentation and video calls, where the laptop can use its motor, 10-MP webcam and AI to track your face as you move around so you stay neatly in frame. Compared to the concept I saw before, the laptop pivots and rotates its display more smoothly (though it's still a bit jerky) and if you want, you can even make it dance to music. Alternatively, the laptop can analyze your posture to position its screen in the optimal position to prevent slouching or automatically transform between laptop, tablet and presentation modes. While this is a really minor inclusion, my favorite thing about the Auto Twist is that when you turn the system off, the laptop will automatically close its own lid, as if it was tucking itself into bed. The other goal of this laptop is that Lenovo is touting it as a vertical AI solution for small businesses. Naturally this means that the system supports Microsoft's Copilot+ features, though we also saw a demo of Lenovo's own AI companion. Not only can you talk to it, ask it questions or use it to translate other languages like a regular digital assistant, the company created a friendly face that reacts to your queries and comments. The one odd inclusion, which probably won't make it to retail units, was an AI feature designed to help you understand hidden meanings or subtext in other languages. However, in my experience (as seen in the video above), this turned into a weird excuse to get negged by AI or at the very least make yourself more paranoid about what your friends or coworkers are saying about you. In the end, I'm still not sure I need a laptop with a display and a camera that can follow me around during video calls. But if you have happy feet during work meetings or like to express yourself through movement, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist might be the business notebook you need. Plus, considering it features relatively novel tech, its starting price of $1,649 is surprisingly approachable. You'll just have to wait until it goes on sale sometime in June.

The new ThinkBook Plus rotates itself as you move around

Aggy is a veteran writer and editor in the technology and gaming space. Having served as a Managing Editor for high-traffic digital publications, alongside being an editor and consultant for over a dozen sites. Aggy's published work spans a wide and respected array of tech and gaming outlets, including WePC, Screen Rant, How-To Geek, Android Police, PC Invasion, and Try Hard Guides. Beyond editorial work, Aggy's direct experience in the tech sphere extends to app development. Aggy has published two games under Tales and is always eager to learn and do more. He also likes working on computers and researching in his spare time. He knows about Windows, Linux, Audio, Video, and much more. Lenovo has announced the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist, a notebook with a motorized hinge that automatically rotates the screen. It is moving from a proof-of-concept design to a real commercial product, which means it is ready for the demands of daily professional use. The core innovation here is the motorized dual-rotation hinge, but this isn't just a 2-in-1 that flips the screen over. The screen essentially follows you around, tilting and turning so you're always looking at it head-on, whether you're standing up for a presentation or slouching in a chair. You don't have to do anything; it does the work for you. Lenovo says the new electromotor design operates faster and quieter than the earlier proof-of-concept versions. That's crucial because nobody wants a loud or slow mechanism distracting them in a meeting or during a call. The company also improved the durability of the hinge, so those smooth, reliable transitions hold up over time. The company has packed it with great components and solid build quality to make sure it is also a great buy in general. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist is built around the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, and it qualifies as a Copilot+ PC. This means it is designed to handle on-device AI tools. The visual experience is incredibly fluid and sharp. You're looking at a larger 14-inch 2.8K OLED display. It supports a 120 Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. With Dolby Vision support, this screen has accurate color and sharp contrast, making it great for presentations and creative work. One really smart feature is how the audio system works with the rotating screen. The front-facing Dolby Atmos speakers rotate in sync with the display. This lets users keep consistent audio direction no matter which way the screen is facing. That's a huge win for anyone who relies on their laptop for video calls or streaming. Despite packing in that complex motorized hinge, it's relatively thin and light at just 1.4 kilograms (3.09 pounds). It also comes with a larger 75Wh battery, which keeps you away from an outlet. Lenovo is also rolling out the new SMB Vertical AI Solution, which is designed for the ThinkBook line. This is basically a suite of tools is meant to improve collaboration through features like on-device meeting transcription and multilingual captioning. The best part is that Lenovo states the processing for these features happens locally on the device. Keeping data on your hardware is good for everyone because that improves the privacy aspect. It is definitely better than shipping all your confidential meeting notes or documents up to the cloud for processing. Subscribe to our newsletter for tech hardware coverage Explore deeper takes by subscribing to our newsletter - expect focused coverage and expert analysis of laptop innovations, on-device AI, and hardware privacy trade-offs, plus broader tech insights beyond this topic. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Unfortunately, if you're excited about picking one up, you'll have to wait a while. The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist will be available starting June 2026, and it starts at $1,649. For now, keep an eye on the official website just in case the company decides to have pre-orders or just to be ready to buy it off the line. Source: Lenovo