Hands on at CES 2026: Lenovos voice-controlled twisting laptop arrives
[UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL JAN 6 AT 8PM ET/5PM PT]
Lenovo's voice-controlled twisting laptop is officially hitting the market later this year, and Mashable got to go hands-on with it at CES 2026. The PC giant still has one kink to iron out before it lands in consumers' hands this summer, but overall the device is a fun and constructive twist on the 2-in-1 form factor.
Announced Tuesday, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist is a unique hybrid business PC with a swiveling 14-inch touchscreen that rotates on a motorized hinge. The user can open, close, and reposition its lid manually or by saying "Hey Tiko" followed by a voice command. If necessary, you can switch it between clamshell and tablet modes without lifting a finger. The screen can turn 90 degrees to the right and a full 180 degrees to the left.
The Auto Twist has some other fun tricks up its sleeve. Its 10MP webcam can follow your face, and if you scoot too far to one side of the frame, the device will automatically adjust the position of its display to make sure it's always facing you. This seems perfect for presentations.
Additionally, the Auto Twist's webcam supports an AI-powered "Desk View" feature that lets it look around and analyze objects near it. A Lenovo rep had it sniff out a spec card that was sitting next to it; the device's lid swiveled around so that the camera could find and scan its contents. It also clocked the dimensions and price point of the spiral-bound notebook I was holding while standing in front of it. (Six-by-eight inches, $5 to $10, college-ruled.)
Booting up the Auto Twist's "Companion Mode" puts a pair of eyes on its screen that reminded me of a minimalist Nick Jr. "Face." When you chat with it, the screen's position moves as it "thinks" and "emotes." Necessary? No. Cute? Kinda!
I ran into one snag whenever I manually rotated the Auto Twist's screen back up from tablet mode, which would cause its picture to get stuck upside-down. A Lenovo rep was able to re-orient it in the settings menu, but I'm hoping a fix is coming pre-release.
The Auto Twist initially debuted as a prototype at the IFA trade show in September 2024. Lenovo says the market-ready version has a faster, quieter, smoother, and more durable hinge with a refined electromotor design. It also got upgraded with a nicer 2.8K OLED display.
The Auto Twist is powered by an Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor with integrated Intel Graphics, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 2TB of storage. Its OLED screen has a 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. Its Dolby Atmos speakers rotate with the screen so that they're always front-facing, ensuring clear audio quality.
The Auto Twist hasn't been rated for battery life, but Lenovo notes in a press release that its 75Wh battery "provides long-lasting productivity."
The device is equipped with a decent mix of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. It measures 0.63 to 0.94 inches thin, and it starts at 3.09 pounds. It comes in a Luna Gray finish, and it's set for release in June with a base cost of $1,649.
The Auto Twist marks Lenovo's third crack at a laptop with a twisting display after 2012's ThinkPad Twist and 2023's ThinkPad Plus Twist. The latter was quirkier in that it had an second e-ink touchscreen on the back of its lid, though neither older device supported voice commands, giving the Auto Twist an edge from an accessibility standpoint.
The Auto Twist isn't to be confused with Lenovo's ThinkBook VertiFlex Concept from IFA 2025, which had a screen that rotated from landscape to portrait mode similar to a Samsung Sero TV. Lenovo's communications manager Jeff Witt told me via email that it's still just a concept — for now. "Give us some time," he said.
Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.