Compal Infinite Laptop concept has a 14 inch display that expands sideways to 18 inches

Lenovo has taken the lead so far when it comes to laptops with expandable displays that give you more screen space when you need it. The company's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 rollable laptop is coming this summer with a 14 inch display that gives you 50% more space when it expands to become a 16.7 inch display. And the ThinkBook Flip concept doubles your screen space when you unfold a screen that hangs out behind the primary display and flip it upward.

But Taiwanese hardware designer and manufacturer Compal has developed a concept laptop that takes a different approach. Rather than giving you extra vertical screen space, the Compal Infinite Laptop has a screen that expands horizontally, turning a standard 14 inch display into an ultrawide 18 inch screen.

There aren't many details about how exactly this works. But Compal recently won an IF Design Award for the concept, and pictures on the awards page seem to suggest that the display could be a rollable screen that expands from both the left and right sides of the laptop to give you a bigger screen with a center that remains over the keyboard.

There also appear to be LED lights on the lid that could be used to display notifications, but that's not really spelled out in detail either.

Compal is an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer), which means the company doesn't typically sell products to consumers under its own name. Instead other companies contract with Compal to design and/or manufacturer hardware that's sold under different brands. So it's unclear if this design will ever see the light of day – plenty of other award-winning designs from the company have yet to become real products.

But it's an interesting concept that shows that, at least compared with Lenovo, Compal is thinking laterally… literally.

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