Would you buy a Solar Laptop? Lenovo's Yoga PC concept is 'lit' at MWC 2025

The Lenovo Yoga Solar PC concept is the sun-powered laptop we've always dreamed about

The Lenovo Yoga Solar PC concept at MWC 2025 makes an ever-lasting laptop feel real (Image credit: Max Buondonno / The Shortcut)

• 💻 Lenovo showed us its solar laptop for the first time at MWC 2025

• ☀️➡️🔋 It converts sunlight into battery power at the highest industry rate

• 📈 20 minutes of direct light exposure = 1 hour of video playback

• 😎 It works in indirect sunlight, too. You won’t need to get sunburnt to charge

• 👨‍💻 It looks and feels like a normal laptop – no bulky hardware design

• 🫥 It’s just a concept, so it may not release, as much as we want it

• ➡️ Check out all of our MWC 2025 coverage from Barcelona

Lenovo has a lot of bright and shiny new tech toys at Mobile World Congress 2025 here in Barcelona, but its new laptop literally sucks in sunshine.

I got to test the Yoga Solar PC concept for a few hours and it’s an innovation that power-hungry laptop users desperately need Lenovo to make a reality. It’s the sun-powered laptop we’ve always dreamed about, designed with a solar panel on the lid that converts at today’s highest industry standard. Up to 24% of sun-ray emissions that hit this special lid turn into usable energy through tech called Back Contact Cell.

It can charge via direct and indirect sunlight (Image credit: Kevin Lee / The Shortcut)

Amazingly, just 20 minutes of direct light exposure extends the solar laptop battery life by one hour for 1080p video playback, according to Lenovo’s engineers at MWC 2025. That means your laptop could run all day at 100% battery life, from dawn to dusk. It’s designed to prioritize running on solar so it consumes free energy before tapping into the battery.

I was able to test the Yoga Solar PC indoors and outdoors – and it worked with direct and indirect sunlight. That’s the best part. You don’t need to get sunburnt to charge. If you're in a room with a window, even indirect exposure is absorbed by the solar lid. It needs as little as 0.3 watts of ambient light to get the job done.

Lenovo’s laptop looks and feels normal except it has a high-quality, lightweight solar cell on the lid (Image credit: Kevin Lee / The Shortcut)

Normal-looking laptop, extraordinary battery

What’s groundbreaking is that the Solar PC concept looks like and feels like a normal laptop. The subtle solar grid panel on the lid simply looks like a cool pattern. There’s no compromise on the weight and design – it’s 15mm thin and weighs just 1.22kg. Granted, it’s not as ridiculously thin and light as Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1 Carbon or as wild as the 18-inch Lenovo ThinkBook Flip AI PC concept, also at MWC 2025, but it’s not as thick as a gaming laptop either.

There’s even solar charging software and leaderboards to show stats (Image credit: Kevin Lee / The Shortcut)

Lenovo designed some fun software exclusively for its solar laptop concept. There’s a working energy meter that shows how much sunlight is being drawn in by the laptop. I covered that lid to see the conversion rate drop in real time. I then turned it to a sunlit window and the meter jumped back up – proof it was working.

The UI also shows how much energy you’re saving and leaderboards to show where you rank among your friends in terms of daily energy usage. These are green energy power rankings and they remind me of Apple Watch and Fitbit leaderboards. I’m all for a bit of conservation competition.

Consumers will care about this renewable energy feature more than any other from tech companies (Image credit: Kevin Lee / The Shortcut)

Conservation that consumers will love

Tech brands are bent on showing off conservation at every launch event. That often means using recycled materials and compostable packaging, then hitting us with “Heal the planet” facts and figures. But the idea behind Lenovo’s Solar Laptop PC actually changes the way all consumers approach their day. This could be the first laptop that never quits during the daytime – if it comes out.

Like last year’s best in show from our MWC 2024 awards, the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Laptop, this is just a concept. That means not only is there no price or release date for me to mention, this laptop may never actually release.

But while the idea of last year’s see-through laptop display is mighty cool, the world’s first ultraslim solar-powered feels way more practical. I’m at nearly 0% on my laptop just writing this hands-on, so I’d say that the world 100% needs the Lenovo Yoga Solar to see the light of day.

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