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Blurring the Line Between Laptops and Desktops
bart_scriv writes "BusinessWeek looks at the latest offerings in ultra-portable PCs, offering up some specs and pictures. Some of the highlinghts: removeable 19-20 inch LCD dispays, dual NVIDIA cards and customizable exteriors. On the downside, some of these machines weigh almost 20 pounds and all of them sport a pretty high price tag — they probably won't be replacing desktops or laptops anytime soon."
That's not a portable! My laptop is heavy at 8lbs and it sucks to carry around with all of the gadgets and gizmos. Heck... even my SFF is lighter than 20 pounds. I love the concept but the weight has to improve big time.
Slashdot.. where people join together in deliberate ignorance.
What's "ultra-portable" about a 20" form factor and 20lbs of weight?
The worst of both worlds. Big and heavy, thus hard to move around. Performance hit and battery life woes too!
I've heard this guy has just filed a lawsuit. Apparently he holds the patent for method and aparatus for blurring the line between laptops and desktops.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
What the hell gives those things the name ultra-portable? For that matter, who would actually want any of these things? It has none of the advantages of a laptop, so basically it's a desktop that costs more than most laptops, with mid to high-range performance.
There would probably be a market for such PCs in offices, hospitals, etc etc, still for us this just means hard or impossible to customize, expand, personalize/tweak/mod. So far only Apple managed to sell such hardware to a somewhat considerable average user base, this IMHO should be a sign to care about. And there are also what you would call zealots - and if you wish, I'm also one - who'd never buy a desktop PC for home use pre-built. Of course at work we always order Dells and the like, as any other sane human would do, and this is one of the possible target market - which I was talking about in the beginning - and these places will probably drop really big money for these smaller machines.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Of course knowing that didn't stop me from cursing about how heavy my bag was while lugging it around the subway on the way to the clients!
How many people here are looking for a 15+ lb. machine to replace their desktop priced at $2000+ USD?
Okay, now how many people are looking for a sub-5 lb. machine in a laptop form factor that can run basic productivity software with excellent battery life priced at less than $800 USD?
Why are there so few options for the latter scenario? And an even better question: why are there so many options for the former scenario!?
1. Cost in the more than $2000 range, up to $5000.
2. Adopted in developing countries, where power is much more unstable or harder to get - easier to recharge this from solar cells or power that's only on a few hours a day.
3. Reminds me of the old "luggable" portables one hated having to lug around, especially give the 20 lb weights.
4. Might be good for someone off the grid, with a portable high-speed connection (satellite dish or long-range WiFi?)
5. Might also be good for someone who is retired and moves infrequently (snowbirds).
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Laptops are great, they are so handy. I am sitting on the sofa writing this, something I can't do with my tower PC. The price of laptops is reasonable these days too.
Frome TFA: 'LIMITED CAPACITY TO CUSTOMIZE'
Agreed! The one thing that makes me still want a tower PC at times is that it is much cheaper and easier to upgrade a tower PC with the latest gadgets. Try upgrading the graphics card in a laptop computer, or installing a TV card... Ugh!
I'll probably be modded down for this...
I know what "ultra" means. Do they? I believe the phrase they are looking for is Semi Portable, not Ultra Portable.
That's like saying Windows is Ultra Stable or Linux is Ultra Simple!
Tom "Ultra Brilliant" Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/
-Tom
While I own a powerbook, just about any 12-15" laptop with a decent video out, and a couple of USB ports works great both ways.
my 12" powerbook normally sites on my desk with a USB keyboard and mouse plugged and on the keyboard tray and a 19" LCD off to the side. I can use both displays at the same time(a feature found in all OS's now a days) and the hot swap mini dvi port means i can unplug the 19"lcd and plug in my 27" tv, sit back and watch a dvd. Both displays automatically switch to the settings I like for each.
Then when i do travel I just have to carry a 4.5 pound notebook, and a light case containing a couple of cords a USB travel mouse. Most of the time while traveling i don't even both with carrying a power supply because I have 4 hours of wireless web surfing, and more if i turn off the wireless card.
That's called the best of both worlds. And as I stated you can do that with XP or linux as well(not sure about hot swap monitors for either, but that's relatively minor)
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
What?! Laptops awesome performance. There are lots of gamers that use laptops and at work we use high performance laptops as our demo road show that are more powerful than our blade server clusters. What you smokin? The only performance dig we've ever measured are the hard disks. I think you are buying cheap laptops and expecting the performance of expensive workstations. Or are looking at the wrong laptops for your needs.
Slashdot.. where people join together in deliberate ignorance.
If "ultraviolet" means light that is beyond violet "ultra-portable" means beyond portable. i.e. it's too heavy to be considered portable.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Here is what I'd like to buy: a laptop, but without the keyboard, monitor, touchpad, speakers, and optical drive. Basically a little brick I could carry back and forth between work/home and drop into a docking station that's hooked up to a full-size keyboard, mouse and 21" LCD monitor. If you ditch all the human I/O devices (keyboard, touchpad, monitor, speakers) and commit to using an external optical drive, the thing shouldn't be much bigger/heavier than a portable hard drive.
Alternately, I'd be happy with a "very fast" portable hard drive that has an elegant plugin interface to a desktop box. Then I could install everything on that drive and just lug it back and forth. The issue there is that I'd need to have "very similar" hardware in the two locations.
Your basic Shuttle PC weighs about 4kg before you add the disk and CPU, takes standard PCI cards, has an optional handle for the top, and costs about $200-300 empty, maybe $700 heavily loaded, plus you'd need an LCD monitor of whatever size is convenient and a little keyboard. That'll weigh a lot less than these misnamed monster laptops, use standard parts so there's a viable upgrade path, and cost 1/4 as much.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
IMHO, a notebook sitting on my wheezing high-pitched hot air at me is annoying. I'd rather have a deskside CPU box, with a larger, quieter fan.
I wonder if there are any desktop replacement notebooks that don't have fans? (Or, if they do, have very quiet fans...)
As far as I know, all the Dell notebooks have fans. Sure, when the machine is idle, the fans don't run. But, once you start doing some amount of work, expect the "wheeeeeeeee".
seriously though, i wouldn't take my Powerbook anywhere near a 40-person raid encounter in WoW
"I've never seen a mac in use by anyone but trendy mcpopcollars and wannabe computer guys. Face facts, it doesnt run the software that I (or the majority of the world) need on a day to day basis."
.NET really serves its purpose, doesn't it?
/.tters that may be reading this - personally, I can't help but to feel like chuckling when I read about how so many people who posted to this article mention how heavy laptops used to be, are now, and apparently will be, when Apple has provided such a slim and light unit. Of course, Mac OS X won't serve everyone's particular needs, but when I think about the sheer weight and girth of these new offerings from the major widget manufacturers, and the fact that they will SOON be available, I wonder if anyone would consider installing Windows XP or Vista on a MacBook Pro...when Apple works out the kinks.
h an-Dot-NOT, just let me know if you require any more reasons as to why Mac users won't 'shut the F up'. I'm dying to tell you.
Wow. I guess this guy doesn't get out much. Apparently the world doesn't need MS Office, Final Cut Pro, iLife, Doom 3, MySQL, C++, and a multitude of other applications, programming languages, and games that are available. I guess since this guy's so smart, perhaps he can tell me how these companies somehow make a profit and pay the bills by providing software that he and the majority of the world 'don't' need on a day-to-day basis. I guess the US Army doesn't need the farm of Xserves they use to keep their Website running. I guess the sizeable percentage of music production studios and film houses - both indie and pro - don't need the plethora of software that helps give their projects life.
I guess the rest of the world relies only on SQL Server and Visual Studio on their laptops while they sip lattes at their local coffee houses. I guess all of the scientists, students, business owners, soccer moms, musicians, digital artists, magazine editors, and IT professionals (like me) don't use anything but Microsoft's wares to fulfill our every computing need. I guess we're all 'wannabe computer guys', just like the engineers at Apple, right?
Wow, what insight. I'll bet you can create an entire two-button Web form all by yourself in Visual Studio. Heck, I imagine that you can probably link controls and textboxes to records in your 20 GB database of p0rn and view them at will! Boy, ADO
Outside of the dual GPUs and incredible weight of the aforementioned 'portable' products, my 17" PowerBook has all of the features listed. Including a wide-screen. And my Apple weighs less than seven pounds, and is about an inch thick. It feels like I'm carrying a magazine. That's why we won't 'shut the F up'. Mac users pretty much have everything that they need, including database software and development tools. For the most part, they like their computers, and like using them, instead of having to just deal with them.
And about the article, for the rest of the
Hey, Mr. Me-And-The-Rest-Of-The-World-Needs-Nothing-More-T
Can't help you with the hug, though. Cheers.
(there goes my karma)
"Oh, yes, you did, Brett...yes, you did!"
Big laptops are nothing new - what's interesting is the Samsung M70 with a detachable screen. Finally!
Consider the potential options:
- LCD dies -- go buy a replacement screen instead of sending in your entire notebook for repair
- keep a backup LCD
- Laptop motherboard dies - keep the screen and buy the notebook without the LCD, saving $100's
- buy a lower resolution LCD screen and upgrade later
- Detach and use on a stand for a more ergnomic fit -- or use 2 LCD screens.
- keep two screens at home and work. travel with screen-less notebook for less weight
I don't know if/when it will happen, but I look forward to the day the notebook industry implements a standard LCD/notebook cradle or other physical interface to attach LCD screens.
Reminds me of my TRS-80 Model 4P I used to lug back and forth to work, back in the mid-80's.
;-)
Except it's probably a billion times faster, has way more colors (the Model 4P just had green), and boots slower!
No matter where you go... there you are.