Chinese technology brand Lenovo has brought foldability to handheld gaming with the Legion Go Fold Concept, shown at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept is the first handheld gaming device to feature a foldable screen of the kind that has become an established offering in mobile phones.

Shown at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) as a proof of concept, the device builds on Lenovo's Legion Go series of handheld gaming PCs, adding a foldable screen that expands from 7.7 inches to 11.6 inches.

The design is aimed at gamers who want to travel

The display is POLED (polymer organic light-emitting diode), meaning there is a thin plastic substrate instead of glass giving it flexibility.

Lenovo said the Legion Go Fold Concept was aimed at gamers who don't want to sit in front of a TV or computer for hours, or for those who want to be able to travel without bringing both their laptop for work and their handheld for games.

The controllers are detachable and the display can be used with an included wireless keyboard accessory to turn it into a laptop.

With the controllers attached, the Legion Go Fold Concept offers three gaming modes: standard, vertical and horizontal.

Users fold the standard 7.7-inch screen up and out to enter the vertical mode, which is a split-screen set-up that allows one half of the display to be used for streaming, walk-throughs, a map view or other supplementary content.

They rotate the screen 90 degrees and adjust the position of the controllers to use the device in horizon full-screen mode, with the image across the entire 11.6-inch display.

The right controller is also given a creative addition in the form of a small circular screen below the main buttons that can be used as a tiny touchpad or a display for performance metrics.

This controller can also double as a vertical mouse while the Legion Go Fold Concept is being used as a laptop.

The proof of concept featured an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, 32GB RAM and a 48 watt-hour battery, although Lenovo has not signalled it will release it as a product.

Lenovo is known for bringing innovative concepts to MWC, including, this year, an "AI Workmate" that sits on a person's desk projecting images and scanning documents.

Last year, it showed a solar-powered laptop with edge-to-edge solar cells across its top.