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Due Next Year: Dell's 19-inch Laptop

WheelRunner writes "Engadget is running a story about Dell's new 19-inch laptop. Sadly, it's too late for the only lap that could hold it, Marlon Brando's." Maybe if Apple would put a keyboard-containing lid (and a briefcase-style handle) on the 20" iMac, a market for car-battery backpacks would emerge.

8 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. Great Jokes by Rick+and+Roll · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...and well deserved by this silliness.

    I am sure that they will sell a few, however. One classmate lugs an 8lb PC laptop with 30min of battery life to class every day and plugs it into his wall outlet. He always sets his laptop on his desk, never on his lap. I'm sure he could do the same with this one.

    I guess the age of the luggables has returned...

  2. Re:Engadget misses the point by Herr_Nightingale · · Score: 3, Informative

    it's also intended for huge people: my friend is a head taller than most people, and in his hands the massive Compaq x6000 looks like a mini-subnotebook.
    It's not just for fat people.

  3. Ah yes by RealProgrammer · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... the luggable is back.

    --
    sigs, as if you care.
  4. Re:God I Really Hope by saider · · Score: 2, Informative


    The number refers to the diagonal of the screen. Most 17" notebooks have the 17" widescreen in the 1440x900 range.

    You want the 4:3 aspect ratio of a conventional ("normal") monitor.

    It just depends on the work you do. For some work (spreadsheets, video) the wider format is nioce because you can get more columns or longer timelines on the screen without having to scroll. But many programmers are going to favor the taller format because code is generally formatted vertically so the extra area to the side is unused.

    Also, long thin rectangles are generally easier to travel with compared to square-ish objects.

    --


    Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
  5. Re:The problem with miniturazation... by suitepotato · · Score: 2, Informative

    They haven't been pushed together afaik, but they all of course can be gotten seperately.

    Interactive Imaging Systems used to have two different displays. One was basically a VGA sort of output to a mini-screen you had to look inside a viewport to see and it appeared to the user like a 30" screen or so. But it was like using one of those old porno peep loop machines in the back of an arcade. They also currently have this lineup although they've pulled the vaporhardware thing before. Like with the aforementioned peep screen.

    Finger-ring trackballs are rarely seen, though TigerDirect was once carrying them and a local library issued them to their librarians' workstations. Only time I've seen them really.

    Fold up keyboards have been around a while.

    Like you, I just haven't seen anyone package everything together. Though Xybernaut still sends me amazing amounts of press releases about their products which I know of no one first hand using.

    --
    If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
  6. Re:f(x) = wit / 2 by badasscat · · Score: 5, Informative

    On a side not who the hell needs a 19" laptop. why not buy a seguay(spelling) and just pack a desktop around?

    "Laptop" is a misnomer, and technically it's not even what Dell calls these things. It's a notebook. Notebooks and laptops are not the same thing and this is a perfect illustration of the distinction.

    A laptop is a computer you put on your lap.

    A notebook is a computer with a screen that folds down over the keyboard (with a form factor like a paper notebook, hence the name).

    A laptop may or may not have a folding screen (the earliest models didn't). A notebook may or may not be "lappable" - i.e. it may or may not be small enough, cool enough or light enough to hold on your lap.

    A 19" notebook is a portable PC, but I wouldn't call it a laptop. There's nothing wrong with this category of machine, IMO - I personally keep my notebook on my coffee table 99% of the time, and only carry it with me to a place (in other words, I don't have a need to bust it out in-transit on a train or a bus, I take it out on a corresponding desk or table somewhere else).

    Laptops are perfectly fine if you want a real go-anywhere computer. But this is not a laptop, and not everybody needs that amount of portability. Some people just need a machine to act as a desktop most of the time, but that still doesn't take up a lot of space and can be moved around easily when needed.

  7. Re:The problem with miniturazation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Japanese market has a number of miniature laptop out there. The big factor is that making the kayboard smaller reduces the market for a given laptop in the US, where SUVs are big trucks are, alas, all too common.

    Check out dynamism.com for a bunch of laptops smaller than anything you'll find in the US.

  8. But to contradict you by KingFatty · · Score: 2, Informative

    When TVs were only 4:3, then the diagonal told you exactly both the height and width. All you need is the diagonal when there is a fixed aspect ratio.

    Diagonal measurement never obfuscated anything before widescreens.

    Pre-widescreen, you would get the height and width exactly for all the 4:3 TVs, using the following:

    Height = 3/5 * Diagonal
    Width = 4/5 * Diagonal

    There are similar easy equations for the widescreen TVs, you just have to know the fixed aspect ratio and the diagonal. Nothing is obfuscated if you know the diagonal and the aspect ratio.