Slashdot Mirror
Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook
jagger writes "Well not exactly gigantic but at 16 pounds and sporting a 17-inch screen this thing is stretching the term portable. It also features a 3EGHz Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM, a 7200rpm 160gb hard disk, DVD-burner and the kitchen sink. ZDNet has a rundown of all of this beast's features." This sounds like a joke (or a typo), but the story says otherwise.
16 pounds? Man I would much rather tote around a 6.9 pound Apple 17in Powerbook. Yeah the Acer starts around $1500, but if you configure it with WinXP, a DVD burner and wireless networking, we are pretty close in price to Apple's solution. Besides I am more than willing to spend a bit of a premium or so for something that I don't throw my back out hauling across the country on a long flight.
1) Make it weigh 16 pounds.
2) Price it at $1999.00.
Granted, I know it's supposed to be a "desktop replacement" that is sometimes portable, but I have desktops that weigh less than this and cost a third of the price!
libertarianswag.com
And it appears to be powerfull enough that even if I did play games I could bring the 'laptop' to a friends house for a gaming night and not have to worry about lugging around a desktop system.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Even business stalwarts Toshiba launched bulky widescreen notebooks into the market last year. Barely portable, these devices are designed as crosses between desktop replacements and media PCs. Sony even have a compact PC system which comes at it from the other angle.
Why is all this happening? It's because notebook prices are now at around the price which consumers are willing to pay for new computer systems. So if you walk into a shop and you can afford a notebook, it's an attractive proposition in the home. You don't need to build a huge permanent home for it, you can move it from room to room and people like the idea they can take it with them if they need to.
But really they're after compact luggable home computer systems, the real desktop replacement if you like.
The real news wont be 'is this is a joke' (which indicates to me that the poster doesn't understand the current market very well but this is Slashdot after all...) but when a vendor makes a notebook without a battery.
The day is coming.
I don't believe it's positioned as anything "special" (cue 'short school bus' comments). It would indeed be a handy desktop replacement, requiring less real estate than a desktop CPU + monitor (even an LCD, unless you mount it on the wall). I suspect it would also require less overall power, leading to lower heat output than that of a similarly configured desktop.
No, you probably wouldn't want to try to use it very long on battery power - or on your lap - but it would be nice to be able to fold up such a capable machine and transport it from point A to point B with minimal fuss. For the record, external devices often == "fuss".
Not to flame, but a product is not a dumb idea (or a "poor move") just because you personally don't want one. To each his own, right?
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Notebook/laptop is really a bit of a misnomer, this machine sits squarely in the "desktop replacement" segment of the market. HP ZD7000 is another example. If you think of this thing as a notebook, sure it sounds like a joke, but you're failing to recognize that the old laptop-desktop dichotomy isn't valid anymore. These machines are actually quite useful. Lots of people don't ever actually take their laptop on the road, but they also don't want the big footprint of a desktop. Or they're like me, a student, and so the only time they transport their laptop is in a suitcase, to and from home. They need a smidge of portability, nothing more. (Some of these machines don't even have onboard batteries.) Desktop replacements make perfect sense. They're cheaper--you don't have to pay for the space-efficiency premium of a good notebook--and you're not stuck typing on a cramped keyboard, squinting at a miniscule screen and listening to tinny music from miniscule onboard speakers.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
These are just the PC markets' answer to the iMac type customers.
It's not supposed to be portable. It's to serve the people out there who don't want to deal wire wires or don't have the space in/on their desk for a full tower etc. But they want desktop performance.
They don't need it to travel with, but being able to move it around the house might be nice. Or they move frequently and don't want to deal with taking the thing apart and putting it back together each time (My desktop sure is a bitch to move.)
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
Umm.... how about most of them? Or better yet, maybe their desktops workstations out-perform their server. There are a variety of different office environments, with varying levels of technical support.
That said, I still think this notebook would be overkill for less tech-savy environments. Note: We have a rather low-end iSeries, so I recognize my shot was rather cheap.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. -- Walt Whitman
This is a good machine! It fills the void between desktop and notebook, with a price that's affordable. The only notebook I'm aware of that's trying to fill the void with that much gusto is Dell's Inspiron XPS, which offers up to a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, as well as the stuff you get in this Acer.
Students might love this - they can have desktop performance in something they can take to lectures. slowly. in a cart. :-P
Hell, a 17" PowerBook G4 only weighs in at 6.9 lbs... it's called "poor design"
Well, obviously I disagree. :)
The primary value of the laptop is it's small form factor, low weight and unitary design that allows you to use it, well, on the top of your lap.
A 16 pound desktop replacement is never going to be used on your lap, except, perhaps, under some sort of duress. You're going to put it on a desktop to use. The ergonomics of a desktop machine are superiour to a laptop's ergonomics when used on a desktop. The unitary desktop machine died for good reason.
When I just need to stick something in my bag so I can write a paper or something, say while doing research at the library, I take my notebook, but I don't enjoy using it.
When I need the full power of a desktop in a remote location I take a lunchpail and bless it for not having the laptop form factor.
If all you want is a handle on your laptop, well, that's what the carrying bag is for.
KFG
Seems to me this would be nice at lan parties where you would have all the performance and speed and a good size monitor without having to lug your desktop system around.
The primary value of a lightweight laptop is that, yes, you can put it on your lap.
The primary value of a heavy, desktop-replacement notebook as oppossed to a lunchbox is that its a simple brick with a screen that folds up, meaning its easier to carry from place to place.
There'll allways be some strange people who prefer lunchboxes, but they are the minority and I doubt the general desktop-replacement-buying-public gives a shit.
As for my suggestion that a handle might be useful to carry 16 pounds, I agree a carrying case is better for long distances but if you are moving a relatively short distance like, say, one side of a large room to another, you aren't going to want to stuff it back in the carrying case for such a short time.
The unofficial
The only thing thats actually big about this notebook (other than the size ofcourse) is the hard-drive
Yeah, and did you notice the article says this relating to the harddrive:
Although Acer simply dipped into the desktop PC parts bin to get the two components
I certainly hope that's not true. Your typical desktop harddrive has nowhere near the shock and vibration resistance as a notebook harddrive. I think we are talking almost an order of magnitude.
It's hard to believe that they actually stuck a 3.5" HDD in there, but looking at my (relatively big, but not too crazy) notebook, I suppose it's possible. And incredibly stoopid.
If you want a 7200 RPM drive, just get the 2.5" 60GB Hitachi one. I have one of those and it works as a charm. Still the notebook drive shock and vibration though.
Spend some time looking at the benchmarks. The older GForce4 Ti4600 and Ti4800 tend to outperform the FX5200 by a huge margin. Heck, they even tend to outperform the FX5600. This isn't to say that your card it absolute shite, but you would have done better to by a higher end GF4 card, as opposed to a low end GFFX card. You'd get better performance for about the same price. Sure, you don't get the pretty DX9 features, but then you probably won't need those for a while, and by the time you do, the lackluster performance of the FX5200 will start to be a problem.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.