Teardown: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold laptop

Foldable electronics are growing in number but remain a niche market overall.

Consumers are interested in the technology but the practicality of using foldable electronics is something that just hasn’t caught on in waves.

While foldable smartphones have been in development for quite some time, including with the recently introduced Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5G phone, foldable laptops and tablets are more rare.

However, there are some that are already on the market such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold.

TechInsights recently did a teardown of the laptop to gauge what technology is being used to power the device as well as its 5G components and touchscreen display controls.

What follows is a partial dive into that teardown conducted by TechInsights.

Summary points

• 13.32-inch AMOLED, 2049-1536 pixels
• 8 GB LPDDR4x SDRAM
• SSD
• Intel 3GHz five-core, application processor

Target market: IT, consumer

Released:November 2020

Pricing:$2,499

Availability: Worldwide

Main board

The main board of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold houses the main brains of the tablet including the Intel 3 GHz five-core applications processor with platform controller hub and multichip 8GB mobile LPDDR4x SDRAM memory from SK Hynix. Other components on the board include:

• ST Microelectronics’ 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller
• Texas Instruments 8 A synchronous step-down voltage regulators, LVCMOS clock generator and USB Type-C SBU multiplexer
• Realtek’s audio amplifier with DSP and audio CODEC
• NXP Semiconductors’ USB PD and Type-C switch
• USB signal switches from Diodes Inc.
• Serial flash memory from Winbond

5G board

The 5G board houses the main communications technology that allows the ThinkPad X1 Fold to connect to the internet via cellular. The main components on the board are: 5G NR n79 front-end module from Qualcomm; 5G envelop power tracker from Qualcomm; LB front-end module from Qualcomm; a DP4T antenna switch and RF switch from Sony; RF switches from Qorvo; and a GPS/GLNSS LNA from Infineon.

Display Board

The touchscreen display is controlled from the display board inside the ThinkPad X1 Fold. The major components of the board include:

• Semtech’s eight-line ESD protection
• Silicon Works’ display power management
• LG Display’s timing controller with memory
• TI’s programmable-delay supervisory circuit and temperature sensor
• ST Microelectronics’ serial EEPROM memory
• RichTek’s dual 800 mA step-down converter
• Winbond’s serial flash memory

Major components

• $235.10 — Display/touchscreen subsystem — LG Display (Qty: 1)
• $166.57 — 3GHz five-core application processor — Intel (Qty: 1)
• $100.78 — 5G subsystem — Foxconn (Qty: 1)
• $47.32 — SSD subsystem — SK Hynix (Qty: 1)
• $33.43 — Battery subsystem — Simpio Technology (Qty: 1)
• $31.03 — Multichip memory — 8 GB mobile LPDDR4X SDRAM — SK Hynix (Qty: 1)
• $16.21 — External enclosure (Qty: 1)
• $7.90 — Wi-Fi/BT subsystem — Intel (Qty: 1)
• $7.77 — 10-layer buildup FR4/HF — Unitech Printed Circuit Board (Qty: 1)
• $7.74 — 5 MP front camera subsystem — Chicory Electronics (Qty: 1)