Here is a question worth asking before the hype takes hold: how many times has the technology industry promised us the modular device, only to quietly bury the idea a few years later? The answer, at this point, is enough times that scepticism is the rational default. And yet, walking the floor at Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona this week, two concepts managed to make that scepticism feel, at least temporarily, like the wrong instinct.
Lenovo's ThinkBook Modular AI PC Concept is the more immediately compelling of the two. Lenovo describes the device around the idea of "carry small, use big," centred on a 14-inch ultra-thin base that can support a secondary display mounted on the top cover. At first glance it reads as an unremarkable business notebook. Look closer, and the ambition becomes clear. The keyboard and touchpad are not permanently fixed to the base; they clip into place via pogo pins and magnets, and can be removed to be used wirelessly over Bluetooth. That frees up the base for the secondary 14-inch display, which connects using the same magnetic and pin interface. Swap the display for the keyboard and you get a combined 19-inch viewing area.
The specs on show at MWC include an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Both 14-inch panels are OLED displays. Travel without the second screen attached and the laptop weighs under one kilogram. The modularity extends further still: port bays on either side of the chassis accept swappable connectors, including USB-C, HDMI, and USB-A. When extra port modules are not in use, Lenovo includes a small carry case to house the spares. It is a detail that shows someone thought carefully about how this machine would actually live in a bag.
The counter-argument deserves serious consideration: every hands-on review points to real engineering compromises that have not yet been solved. Key travel on the detachable keyboard is shallower than a conventional laptop, and the keyboard slides on smooth surfaces when separated from the base. When the secondary display is positioned where the keyboard normally sits, a substantial bezel gap separates the two panels, and Lenovo has not yet solved the problem of mounting them horizontally side by side. As a concept still under development, Lenovo has not shared any timeframe for when, or indeed whether, this machine will reach consumers.
Meanwhile, across the MWC floor, Tecno was making an equally bold pitch in the smartphone category. At the core of its concept is a remarkably slim 4.9mm smartphone engineered to maintain the footprint of a regular device even when modules are attached. As reported by Engadget, the base unit carries little more than a screen, a basic camera, and four low-profile pogo-pin connectors. From there, users can build outward. Around ten modules are available, including various camera lenses, a gaming attachment, and a power bank, all held together by magnets. Battery packs of 3,000mAh can be stacked multiple times, reportedly reaching around 10,000mAh total capacity. One module even incorporates a fold-out antenna, turning the phone into a device capable of communicating without cellular service or Wi-Fi.
Data transmission between the phone and attached modules is handled automatically using a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and millimetre-wave technology, routing according to each accessory's requirements. Tecno is framing this as a platform-first initiative rather than a finished product. The company has indicated the system could eventually accommodate modules for expanded storage, dedicated AI computing tools, and lifestyle accessories, with the potential for broader compatibility outside of the primary Tecno ecosystem.
Strip away the talking points and what remains is a familiar historical pattern. Modular phones are a tricky sell, as they can often lose the efficiencies that come from unified components. Google ended its Project Ara modular concept over ten years ago, while Motorola's Moto Mods struggled to gain traction, and LG's G5 modules are largely forgotten. The fundamental question is whether either Lenovo or Tecno has genuinely solved the core problem, or whether they have simply produced more sophisticated versions of a concept the market has repeatedly rejected.
There are reasons, in fairness, to think the context has shifted. The push for longer device lifecycles, driven partly by right-to-repair sentiment and partly by sustainability concerns, creates genuine demand for hardware that can be upgraded rather than replaced wholesale. Lenovo itself frames the modular concept as a way to extend device lifecycles and adapt to changing AI-driven workflows. That is not merely marketing language; it reflects a real and growing expectation among enterprise IT buyers that hardware should last longer and be easier to service. Lenovo's mainstream ThinkPad T14 and T16 lines, also updated for MWC 2026, now earn an iFixit repairability score of 10 out of 10, showing the company is pursuing the repairability principle across its commercial range.
For Australian businesses already grappling with cost-of-technology pressures, a laptop that adapts to different use cases without requiring separate device purchases has obvious appeal, provided the engineering catches up with the ambition. The same logic applies to consumers who carry both a work machine and a personal device and would welcome consolidation. Whether the price point, when and if these products ship, justifies the trade-offs is something neither company has yet been willing to address publicly.
Reasonable people can disagree about whether MWC concepts ever translate into genuinely useful products. The show has a long tradition of spectacular hardware that never finds its way to a retail shelf. But the direction of travel here, towards devices that adapt to their owners rather than forcing owners to adapt to them, is one that the industry has a legitimate economic and environmental incentive to get right. History will judge this moment by whether these concepts remain Barcelona curiosities or become the blueprint for how we actually buy and use technology in the years ahead. The evidence is promising. The proof is still outstanding.