A Chinese company is developing a mini PC that operates inside a foldable keyboard, making it portable enough to carry in your back pocket.
The device comes from Ling Long, which debuted the foldable keyboard PC on Chinese social media. To innovate in the mini PC space, the company packed AMD's laptop chip, the Ryzen 7 8840U, inside a collapsible keyboard.
The device was designed without sacrificing any of the PC’s capabilities. The motherboard and cooling fan are built inside one half of the product, while the 16,000 mAh battery is in the other. In the center is a hinge that allows the keyboard to fold.
(Credit: Ling Long/Bilibili)
(Credit: Ling Long/Bilibili)When folded, the keyboard is about one-fourth the size of an Apple MacBook. All the keys are normal-sized, and the keyboard features a mini touchpad near the lower-right corner.
On the downside, the product lacks a built-in display —a feature that all conventional laptops possess. But the device has a USB-A and two USB-C ports, enabling it to connect to an external monitor and any accessories. Owners can also connect the device to a monitor or tablet wirelessly. It supports Wi-Fi 6 and promises to run from 4 to 10 hours, depending on the use case.
Although no launch date was given, Ling Long plans on selling the product for 4,699 yuan ($646). In the short-term, the company is offering the foldable keyboard during a beta early access period that’ll be limited to only 200 units. The company is currently accepting orders for these test units at only 2,699 yuan for the 16GB/512GB model and 3,599 yuan for the 32GB/1TB model.