Lenovo made a razor-thin fanless laptop and another one that gets wider

Published Sep 3, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT Mahnoor Faisal is a tech journalist covering AI and productivity tools with bylines at XDA, SlashGear, MakeUseOf, Laptop Mag, and Android Police. She's been writing professionally since she was sixteen, and has since penned hundreds of articles. This includes in-depth coverage of AI tools like NotebookLM to breaking news across the AI space. Her passion for technology started when she received her first iPod Touch (4th generation) on her 8th birthday, and she's been deep in the tech world ever since. Currently pursuing a degree in computer science, Mahnoor brings both a journalist's eye and a technical foundation to her coverage of how AI is reshaping the way we work and learn. Lenovo's presence at a tech tradeshow wouldn't really be complete without the company showing off at least one bizarre concept that looks like it belongs a few years in the future. These are products the company doesn't necessarily plan to sell, but instead uses to experiment with new ideas, show off what its hardware can do, and gauge how people react to them. Of course, IFA 2026 was no exception, with the tech giant showing off two new concepts at Lenovo Innovation World 2026. Project AeroBlade is a razor-thin laptop with no cooling fan It's really, really, really thin. Seriously. By now, we've all seen companies obsess over making laptops (and tech generally) thinner and lighter. The problem is, there's only so much you can shave off before something has to give. Cooling and sustained performance are typically where those compromises start to show. After all, stripping away the fans and using lower-power chips in exchange for a thinner profile has typically been the only way to get there. This is because traditional cooling systems need fans, vents, and enough internal space to move air through the chassis, all of which inevitably add bulk. Project AeroBlade is Lenovo's attempt to get around that trade-off entirely. This is a 14-inch laptop with an OLED display that measures under 10mm thick and weighs under 830g. Before I go any further, I want to emphasize just how thin and lightweight this laptop really is. The best way to describe it is razor-thin, and it feels like you're holding a display with a keyboard attached rather than a full-fledged laptop. The hinge is also surprisingly flexible, letting you push the display all the way back until the laptop sits completely flat. More importantly, flip the concept laptop over, and you'll notice absolutely no traditional cooling vents or fans. Instead, Lenovo has partnered with Frore Systems and fitted this concept laptop with four AirJet modules. During a media briefing, Lenovo explained that these modules all have tiny piezoelectric membranes vibrating at ultrasonic frequencies. Rather than relying on spinning fan blades, Lenovo says the membranes suck air in and push it through the system without the need for a traditional fan. For those interested in the more technical side, Frore explains that the vibrating membranes draw air into the module and produce high-velocity, pulsating jets that help carry heat away from the processor. This essentially means the same thing that'd happen with a traditional fan-based cooling system still happens here, just without any spinning fan blades! The above gave Lenovo the room to shrink the system board down considerably, which is a big part of how AeroBlade manages to get so thin. For context, Frore's AirJet Mini G2 measures just 2.65mm thick, which gives you an idea of how little space this kind of cooling system can take up compared to a conventional fan setup. Now, you'd typically expect a fanless laptop this thin to run at a much lower power level, but Lenovo says AeroBlade can operate at a 20W TDP. That means it can still handle more performance-intensive workloads without the fan noise you'd normally expect to hear under load. Project Swan is a 14-inch laptop that rolls out into a 17-inch one Just press a button and make your laptop wider While the first concept focuses on addressing the compromises that come with making laptops thinner, Project Swan is all about giving you more screen space without making the laptop itself harder to carry. At first glance, this is a regular 14-inch laptop with absolutely nothing to suggest otherwise. It weighs 1.6kg and measures 17.9mm thick, so it isn't even unusually bulky. However, pressing one key lets the display physically roll out sideways, transforming it from a 14-inch laptop into a much larger 17-inch 16:9 display. If this idea looks familiar, that's because Lenovo has experimented with horizontally expanding laptops before. Its Legion Pro Rollable Concept at CES 2026 used a similar idea, though that gaming-focused machine could stretch from 16 inches to 24 inches. Project Swan is focused on productivity rather than gaming and is designed to give you enough room for split-screen with two apps, reviewing documents side by side, or keeping a dashboard open alongside whatever else you're working on. As someone currently sitting in a hotel room working on a 13-inch display, halfway across the world from her desk with an ultrawide monitor, I'd seriously consider spending money on this concept if Lenovo ever brought it to market. While Lenovo launched a bunch of other devices at IFA 2026 that you'll actually be able to get your hands on, these two are unfortunately still just concepts, with no guarantee they'll ever make it to market. Nonetheless, it's still always cool to see what Lenovo has up its sleeve, and this year's concepts didn't disappoint.