ThinkPad 701

Included in the Permanent Design Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The ThinkPad 701 features a retracting keyboard, allowing for the use of a standard keyboard on a more compact laptop body. From the outside, the computer looks like the classic ThinkPad, all black and angular. But when it opens the magic happens: the keyboard unfolds from beneath the screen like the wings of a butterfly. The secret relies in the keyboard being divided diagonally along the line formed by the 4, T, H and M keys. When the keyboard is lowered, a mechanism moves the right-hand section to the left, thereby allowing for the keyboard to fit into a narrower body when shut.