Lenovo shows off dual-display ‘Magic View’ smartwatch, ’Smart Cast’ laser projector smartphone and more

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 28 May 2015

Lenovo Logo

Lenovo showed some crazy concept devices at its Tech World in Beijing, China today. This includes a smartphone with a built-in Pico projector and a concept smartwatch with dual displays.

Lenovo Magic View

The Magic View is a concept smartwatch from the Chinese company with some interesting technology. The smartwatch features two displays: a circular primary display and a secondary display that is located between the watch face and strap. The second screen makes use of Lenovo’s “Virtual Interactive Display” technology to allow users to view images that are 20 times bigger than the screen of the watch, but users are required to hold the screen close to their eyes for this.

The Magic View packs the world’s thinnest touch panels, a custom processor and various other technologies for which Lenovo has filed 120 different patents.

Sadly, the Magic View is just a concept smartwatch, and for now, Lenovo has no plans to bring it to the market. It is likely though that the company will make use of some of its technology in its smartphones and laptops.

Lenovo Smart Cast

The Smart Cast is what happens when a major company like Lenovo decides to take clues from some of the concept videos of popular smartphones. Most concept videos show a phone that can project its keyboard on a table or a wall and that is exactly what Lenovo’s Smart Cast smartphone is capable of doing.

The concept smartphone is the first in the world to pack a laser projector along with the smallest pico projector module. The smartphone is able to track user interaction using a special software developed by Lenovo.

Like the Magic View, Lenovo’s Smart Cast is also a concept device and the company does not plan on releasing a consumer variant of the device anytime soon. However, it is very likely that we will see some of the technology used in the device trickle down to Lenovo’s other products.

Lenovo Cast

Lenovo Cast

The event was not filled with concept devices only though. Lenovo did announce Cast — a Chromecast-like device that supports Google Cast, DLNA as well as Miracast. The $49 device supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi channels, a microHDMI port and is capable of playing back up to 1080p content easily.

The device will be available worldwide from June.