The Flexbook, designed by Hao-Chun Huang.

It seems Fujitsu‘s got a thing for morphing Personal computers. Way back in 2006, we saw this mysterious tri-fold concept, which was rumored to be making the rounds inside Fujitsu R&D, and now the outfit’s short-listed this déjà-vu-inducing transformer for its 2011 “Life with Future Computing Award.”

It’s also been designed to sport a number of interchangeable sleeves in a Benetton-esque array of colors and patterns. It might have seemed impractical five years ago, but with convertibles coming of age, we’d say the Flexbook isn’t really all that far out.

Flexbook, this notebook concept is very easy to use and can be folded to reach the dimensions of a wallet.

The design lets the device’s shape reflect its func­tion­al­ity: folded as a book for read­ing e-books, a tablet for brows­ing news­pa­pers or in crowded envi­ron­ments, or a lap­top when prepar­ing typed doc­u­ments.

The Flexbook, designed by Hao-Chun Huang

Flexbook comes with a touchscreen.

Which just like the whole notebook, can be folded in numerous configurations, allowing you to use the gadget as a notebook, tablet or e-book reader. The device also features a water resistant keyboard and a rubber layer, available in a lot of colors and textures.

Flexbook concept also comes with a 21:9 format display.

As the name implies, it’s basically a foldable netbook that can also be used as a tablet. The design lets the device’s shape reflect its functionality: folded as a book for reading e-books, a tablet for browsing newspapers or in crowded environments, or a laptop when preparing typed documents.

‘Flexbook’ is also easily portable, serving as its own case when folded it in half.

Featuring a flexible structure with a center joint, the laptop can be folded into a range of configurations, while a 180-degree swivel touch screen offers different configurations of viewing,  including a laptop and tablet mode. The design also calls for swappable rubber skins, which will allow for further customization, which huang envisions available for purchase online where users can select their own colours and patterned textures. The keyboard could also fold up and can be deployed whenever needed. It would convert from netbook into a as tablet and e-book reader when the keyboard is stowed.

Flexbook will be interesting to see what kinds of tablets, netbooks, and smartphones manufacturers come up with when flexible OLED screens become cheaply available. It’s safe to say that tablets, smarthphones and netbooks will probably end up being combined into one device once their displays can be folded. Enjoy! Fujitsu Design Award that was organized by Designboom.

Flexbook