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How Practical are 20-inch Laptops?
GeneralPacket writes "A 20-inch laptop might sound perfect for a game of Grand Theft Auto on the way to work, or navigating a mammoth spreadsheet. But are they really usable as laptops, or are they just luggable desktops? This week CNET attempted to work on the super-sized 20-inch Dell XPS M2010 laptop while travelling across London on the subway. The resulting video review is hilarious. This is not your typical tech video review — it's actually funny, and, refreshingly, completely advertising-free. The reviewer is in constant fear that anti-terrorism police are about to swarm him. Would you use a 20-incher?"
Would you use a 20-incher?
On behalf of my girlfriend, I have to say the answer is yes.
Not very?
"No Two-Foot Longs!"
If you could roll them up into a 300g 20"x1" rod, with "VCR" controls along the side and infrared+Bluetooth, that magic wand would inspire more respect and fear than mockery.
"Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur Clarke
--
make install -not war
Most people don't want a "laptop". Instead, they want something that they can take to Panera and do their work w/o being in the office. My wife and father both have one of these huge laptops. They are uncomfortable to carry (they use backpacks), they suck power (she gets about an hour of battery life), and they are loud.
I rely on my Sidekick for most of my work (e-mail, calendar, and notetaking) and I use a Thinkpad for anything more serious. While I am always looking for something even smaller everyone else seems to look for something larger.
MORE POWER ARRR ARR ARR.
Would you use a 20-incher?
I can't believe you ended a Slashdot post with a question like this... it's like T-ball.
What are you tying to do - flush the trolls into the open?
Sheesh,
=tkk
Bill Gates - Creationist?!?
this T-shirt and the look will be complete!
Reminds me of the old IBM 'portable' computers- perhaps less the CRT.
I have a 17 inch dell laptop, and yes I do use it on my lap, and no I am not a huge fat guy, I am however tall. It's actually very comfortable to use, more so than my wife's 14 inch dell. So yes I would use a 20 inch laptop.
I am so creative, look at my cry for attention in my sig.
Pixels to hernias.
I can't watch the video from linux...
First off, Dell markets this laptop as a portable home entertainment system. You can obviously interpret that in so many ways, but my guess is that it is intended for portability WITHIN the house. So, for example, it can be used as a perfect workstation at the home office, and then transported to the living room for media center uses.
My close friend bought one of these beasts. I was fast to check it out and I've even borrowed it for personal evaluation purposes (since I wanted one myself). All I can say is that it is an outstanding machine and works perfectly if you want to watch movies while lying in your bed. It also interacts great as a media center and it has the power to play games.
What do people do when they buy a real laptop? They are usually intending to carry it around every now and then, because they might need it at work, at home and at other places. This machine does not really serve that purpose and it's obvious.
So when this reviewer is making this amusing approach of using the laptop at buses and subways, it's fairly obvious this was only an attempt to make fun of its massive size. And there's really nothing we can blame Dell for here, anwyay. With larger screens comes lesser portability. It's fairly obvious.
Full Tilt
...are one very disturbed mind...
Now move along please, nothing to see here.
You must be kidding, there's no such thing, this really the evolution of the laptops?
What a maddening video! I tried to pause it so it could load up (like You Tube, Quicktime, and every other civilized video player) and it wouldn't. It would load up the next second of video then stop buffering. Combine that with their bandwidth problems (thanks, Slashdot) and it's almost impossible to watch the video.
Still. 20"? I though 17 was too large. That thing is huge. And yet they gave it a 9.2. IT'S A FREAKING DESKTOP. As a laptop it should get a 6. Plus, it has two drives in RAID 0. That's an INGENIOUS setup for a LAPTOP.
If they marketed this as a compact, all in one, portable desktop I could see it. But it's not a laptop unless you weight 600 pounds.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
To me they seem largely impracticle, but I can see that people are ready for a true desktop class portable to become available - some thing more than a 17" widescreen or the occasional 19". There's nothing like being able to work on a full dual or tri-head setup, close the lid on your work, head home and plug in to your extra monitors, and re-open the work in progress a few minutes later. Albeit with a 20" you can probably cancel your membership at the gym. Some thing of this size the user is not concerned with what their having to carry back and forth, they're just psyched they have a nice work portable area.
How well can they condense the guts of it? Can they stretch out the lcd all the way to tthe edge of the bezel and keep the keys tight to the edge so there's no wasted space? The world of 17" machines like the HP 9600 (total tank) requires massive power supplies to lug around, gives you limted long-term battery life and are the loudest machines I've ever heard with 3+ fans constantly whirring away trying to keep heat to a minimum.
Hmm... I have yet to watch the video, but good luck working on *any* laptop on the london underground during rush hour... ;)
Dell has obvious imac 24" envy
Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
What is up with the sound in the review? It's a ~ 4 minute video clip, yet it sounds like they've hired some behemoth sound effects team out of hollywood with a $74 M budget to do the music and sound effects?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
TFA/V is surprisingly positive. Most people don't carry their notebooks around all day like this guy did. I think we'll see other big laptops like this marketed as desktop replacements.
Its plainly obvious from Dell's website that this isn't meant to be a used as a laptop, so why review it as one? Its a portable desktop, that's all. I think a better comparison is to small-form-factor systems that people lug around to LAN parties.
but using Linux I get to the same page every time I click on view video. I tried epiphany and firefox, even tried looking at the pages source to figure out an url to load the video or use for streaming - nothing.
You couldn't even open that thing in an airplane seat. Hell, my 13.3" macbook is almost too big for comfortable economy-class use. And the attendant back, pain, oh god...
I don't know what kind of idiot would subject themselves to this. Why not just get a nice big external display like everyone else does?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I'm reminded of a cartoon in the New Yorker about "Hummer Style" in which various normal objects were supersized and underpowered so they would appeal to bonehead Americans still living in a world where size always means value. For example, a cellphone the size and weight of a concrete block with a range of 200 feet from the cell tower and a battery life of fifteen minutes. In Japan, of course, the idea is to make things smaller and charge more for them. I'd love a laptop with a 1600 X 1200 six inch screen that fit in my pocket. I wouldn't mind using reading glasses and typing on a tiny keyboard, at least until I get "to the office."
The flag just makes more sense than the constitution. - Judas Gutenberg
This guy is lucky. I used to have to travel with two Compaq "lugable" computers. Each was the size of a small suitcase, and all you got for that was a tiny b/w crt. And a good workout from carrying them ;-)
Seriously, while I thought the video was really good, and I realize it was done mostly tongue-in-cheek, I have to echo what others have said. I have a Toshiba laptop. Its used for when I want to eat lunch at Panera and still get some work done, or at the library. When I need true portability, I'll use my Palm TX (and here lately, I'm using the TX at the library too).
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
It is more of a portable PC. Would I use it? That design almost wants me to get an iMac modify it to take batteries and put a handle on it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The chick looking at it and telling the guy breathlessly that she preferred the big black laptops rather than small white ones made it for me :-)
+Pete
Score:-1, Funny
This is a pretty silly question - it would be practical for some and totally impractical for others. I lug around a 12 pound Dell 17" myself, and couldn't be happier about it. For the most part I take it to work in the morning and bring it home in the evening. It stays home on the days when I telecommute.
I think a much better question would be 'Could 20" be profitable for Dell?' It might well be - while it won't sell in the same quantities as 3 lbs 15 inchers, I'd imagine that margins on 20" would be notably higher.
"You mortals are so obtuse." -Q
I'm pretty sure that Acer shipped their Aspire 9800 before Dell did. Matter of fact, I think that Acer makes Dell's unit.
:D
I've had a chance to play with it a bit and I noticed that the Acer 9800 weighs as much as a 20" iMac!
You feel like a little kid when using it - Like you shrunk somehow.
other than the 5 doubleclick ads , the 2 cnet product search iframes , the Omniture web bug and the plethora of adverts disguised as "white papers" and numerous fluff pieces of PR dresed as "reviews"
the whole site is an advert, thats what Cnet do
Compare this machine to the 20" iMac rather than a lappie. This machine is the result of Dell buying Alienware. It's designed to be lugged to LAN parties rather than used in a typical lappie manner. I suspect it's packing a Core Duo. Someone also mentioned RAID 0...that's a very gamer kind of thing to add to a machine. If this was a Road Warrior lappie I would have instead opted for RAID 1 for data redundancy and "automatic backups." However RAID 1 slows, rather than speeds, disk access so it would be a downer for the gamer crowd.
Is it me or does this machine also seem to be built of sterner stuff than the average Dell lappie? I work at the library at my university and we have Dell lappies exclusively. They are built like plastic pieces of crap. Loose ports are epidemic. I really baby them when I move from place to place because I know that other people don't. The toughness of this machine, I suspect, is another example of Alienware's influence.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Let me shed some light on dell computers, and more specifically the xps series as a dell rep. The XPS series is not intended for those people (like the man in the video) to work on articles on a bus station, ITS A GAMING RIG. The XPS series is intended for users who are into intense gaming/graphical design/any other field that would require a strong cpu. Hence the the dual cores most come with standard. And the larger HDD's compared to the latitude and inspiron series. HENCE THE 20 INCH SCREEN. Thanks for taking yet another article out context /. This was about as silly as the one Zook put up yesterday.
Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
I have a 2 17s that I think are great: full keypad, enough real estate on the screen to have two documents open at the same time and both are readable without a telescope? What's not to love?
I don't have as many problems as some of the 17 inch naysayers seem to have... the battery life, while not as good as my thinkpad is good enough to be productive when i'm away from a power source and, sure, i use a backpack with mine but considering the size it's not like i'm lugging an anvil along. Anyone who's used laptops for more than a couple of years can scoff at the "8 pounds is heavy" excuse used by some.
Altho I will say I have yet to see a carry case of anytype for a 20. but considering that most laptop users don't really use their as a portible device this may not be an issue.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
"On behalf of my girlfriend, I have to say the answer is yes."
As her gynecologist I'd say, have mercy man! You want to have children some day?
Do they realize they're copying this video from a month ago?
-Rich
As someone who actually owns this "laptop", let me say the following:
Anyone who actually tried to use this on a plane or bus or whatever is mental. It's not designed for that. But as a highly portable full-featured desktop system it's great. Powerful, well designed, and reasonably rugged. I bought mine so that when I travel I'd have a decent computer in my hotel. And it's great for that.
Big screen laptop would enable many things:
- normal keyboard (I'd love a proper keyboard, see www.pckeyboard.com)
- 2 hard drives (for RAID-1)
- bigger battery or two
- better cooling
- more I/O ports
- more expansion slots
- maybe even include a resting/charging place for a (wireless) mouse
Weight is a minor problem, price is a bigger one.
I'm the kind of user that wants a lot of punch (not the drinkable) in the computer and selected a "laptop" on those conditions. It's not convenient to use on an aircraft or on the train, but it is very useful when it comes to software development. I see it as a portable workstation. Most laptops suffers from severe lack of performance, which makes them unsuitable for programming, but if it's only necessary to do writing and drawing in PowerPoint then the ordinary laptops are sufficient.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
This thing's close to twenty pounds. It's probably at least that when you put the battery in.
I really don't think this is going to see much use as a "laptop" computer. Then again, maybe the money you save not needing to join a health club for your workouts any more adds to the value.
I'm perfectly fine with my less-than-3lbs Thinkpad x60s which comes with a 12" display.
That's still 99.9999999999% bigger than the slashdot crowd (nobody can compete with CowboyNeal though).
How practical... [buffering]... is a [buffering]... video that [buffering]... stops every [buffering]... two seconds for [buffering]... buffering? You'd think somewhere in among all that flashy interface they'd have figured out what "bitrate" meant? Typical news.com.com.com.com.
I have a 17" Dell Inspiron and I can tell you that it's a great laptop but don't plan on being able to use it everywhere. First off, it's completely unusable in a coach seat on an airplane because it's so huge there is actually not enough space between you and the seat in front of you to open it! Also, at a battery life of about 2.5 hours it's not going to keep you up for long with no external power available. I can imagine a 20" laptop would be worse since it's going to have greater backlighting demands.
these things are always a matter of personal preference.. i like a good small laptop, with a crystal clear and legible screen no bigger than 14 or 15 inches.. but i could see how a graphic designer, video editor, or hardcore portable gamer could benefit from this size of a laptop.. i wouldn't manufacture a crap load of these, but you can't deny that some people think bigger is better.. however, i personally think Dell should concentrate on making computers that don't break before they continue producing this crap..
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
Check out the specs on this thing on Dell's website.
The dimensions are less of a concern as long as it fits in a backpack or roomy laptop case, but to even call this monster a laptop is disingenuous. It is more of a "portable" computer in the sense that it can all be transported in one piece should you ever attempt to break your back moving it.
I do all my writing on my 15" laptop. If it were any smaller, I would have trouble reading it. Jacking the font size up results in a smaller amount of the page on the screen at a time, which results in scrolling incessantly, which means I waste more time with the arrow keys and extreme right side of the trackpad.
So, there is a practical purpose for these things. Believe me, if I could work on a 13" screen, I would.
...or are they just luggable desktops?
What's wrong with a luggable desktop? While I wouldn't want to use this in a subway, plane, bus, etc, it sounds ideal to set on your hotel room desk. I love my 12" iBook, but it is not a workstation. Its screen is too small and its keyboard too cramped. Its good for use in a cramped plane seat, but sucks trying to do real work in the hotel room. But this 20" laptop sounds like it could be my home system away from home.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
The shocking thing to me isn't successfully using a laptop on the London tube, despite how crowded it typically is. No, I'm more shocked at how successful he was at traveling on the tube at all. Typical announcements in tube stations include "there is good service on the Piccadilly Line". This distinguishes it from all of the other tube lines which are, by implication, offering less than good service.
It's not highly carriable, although I'd love to see a carrying handle and display attached to the base with pylons on a 17" or 19" model, it seems to greatly enhance the portability, mitigating some of the size/weight issue. It's not the same product, precisely as a 15" laptop, much less a 13" or 11" notebook, or some of the new Origami PCs. I think you nailed it right on the head: this is a luggable desktop. You don't bring it with you because you want mobile productivity, you bring it with you because you want the biggest, most powerful machine you can get, and you just can't bring your desktop with you. It's your LAN party in a box.
When will we get lasers writing directly on our retinas so we can look at whatever screen size we want?
If it fits in a backpack that I can take on a a plane and is not crazy expensive, I'll take it...I looked at the XPS when my last laptop past it's 3 year life span. I am lucky in that my company allows me to replace my laptop every three years and my workstaion every five years....without question. I am also not a typical laptop user....I don't use them on planes, trains, buses or at my desk, but I have always had to have one. I picked a Dell M90 laptop.....up till then: I HATED LAPTOPS. They are either small and slow with pixels the size of eraser heads...or they cost an arm and a leg, and the big ones you could only get from a no name, HP or Sony...and they needed wheels on them....the XPS needed wheels. On my production workstation (two big hi-res flats, ram to burn..etc),I work in AutoDesk Inventor, AutoCAD, Altium Designer 6 (PCB design), VS2005, Code Warrior, programming software for 6 to 10 types of PLCs and the regular bloat of SDKs, et.all, that come with all this stuff. Then I end up needing to travel around the planet with all this "stuff" for commisioning Control Systems, fixing problems, re-designs of mechanical, electrical and software systems....on a moments notice. We build all kinds of crazy machines and systems....and the prototype IS the final product...so no being able to go on site with all the tools ready for anything is just not an option. Packing up a workstation for what could be a one day or one year (you don't know how bad it is gonna be till you get there) is, well just crazy talk. So I always had to make do with the best laptop I could get and suffer thru the limited vision into what ever software I needed at the time. The M90 is great...big but not a table top...and if things get real crazy I can always tag a second monitor on it. Does it replace my workstation ? No. Is it a real tool ? Yes. (I'm sure while writing this the penis posts have started...so as not to be left out...my wife thinks the 17" is good on size and when used properly is just as yummy as the 20"er).
A. how long will it take to get a linux distro running on it properly, B. a little weight for esentially a complete desk top replacement (not so bad imho)C. i really like the dual duty carry handle-monitor support, offers much in the area of adjusting the screen ( might be cool on smaller systems too (does it protect the back ports from accidental damage?) D. detachable keyboard is cool too. i guess that i am still a cyberpunk, every time i see something like a guy controlling a robot arm by thought, and roll up material that could become a monitor, i start picturing myself plugging into a Fairlight Excalibur. guess i am a nerd
Totally blank. The sound is OK though. Do I need Flash 9 to view that or what? Nah, won't bother, but thanks anyway.
Why does new laptops have those shiny plastic in front of the screens. One of the things I was happy to get rid of when I got my flatscreen, was the annoying reflections.
Is is a feature or just some way of making it cheaper?
It's wide screen, but it isn't even 1080p? Its some weird in between 720p and 1080p res of 1680x1050.
What I really want is a 10" at full 1080p.
I know this is technically possible as my Nokia 770 is 800x480 and is only 4 inches wide display.
Granted 200dpi makes for some squinting at times, but on the whole it works great especially with Opera's zoom function (which maintains font anti-aliasing). I'd love a full 1280x720 at 300dpi if they could squeeze it into the same space. I might look odd as hell, but with a bluetooth keyboard you could dangle such a contraption off the brim or a special hat for long sessions of typing instead of having to hunch over to see the small screen.
Off course the Nokia 770 doesn't have anywhere near the horse power of this rig, on the other hand I have yet to drain the battery with one day's average use (seriously). Why not concentrate on making a "Luggable" like the original Macs? A slightly downsized tower that has a handle on top and a detachable LCD on the side? Doesn't even need to be able to run off batteries -- leave that to the real laptops you take on business trips.
And where the hell are those direct to eyeball laser scanners that where suppose to change everything?
Letter To Iran
I have a 15.1" laptop now and my main complaint is it's too big. I don't take it with me much because IMHO it's too clumsy.
My next laptop will be as small and light as possible; probably a 12" screen, and I hope 4 pounds. I don't even care if it even HAS batteries; I never use a laptop anywhere that I don't have a 110v socket anyway, even in my car. For me a laptop can't be my only machine or replace a desktop anyway because I really need a ton of storage and the ability to plug in a wide range of peripherals, so the laptop might as well be as portable as possible.
It's obviously NOT the best for use on the move. I mean he shows it can be done, but it would be easier with just about anything else.
The only advantage I can see to this over, say, a small notebook and a large monitor, is the battery power. If you HAVE to have a 20 inch screen and you have to have it someplace with no power outlets, that's obviously the thing to get. Otherwise, a desktop is going to be cheaper, more upgradeable, and probably more powerful. A real notebook will be more usable on the road. This is obviously a niche machine.
"Desktop replacement" notebooks don't. They sacrifice most of the advantage of having a notebook and don't achieve half the advantages of having a desktop.
I get the point of these massive laptops - they're really just more convenient "portable computers" for people who want something that's all in one and easy to move from desk to desk.
However, what I really want (and I'm sure many would agree) is a small - 12" - 14" laptop that can drive *two* external monitors (I'd even be only marginally disappointed if it required disabling the internal screen to do so).
I'd really like a laptop to use (for work) as my only machine, but I'm way too used to having a pair of 21" LCDs to use anything smaller for real work.
I am somewhat surprised Apple hasn't brought out a machine capable of this - but then again I'd expect it to come from one of the less well known manufacturers (like Asus) first.
my 10.1 inch laptop screen is just fine. and i can open it easily on a plane.
Too bad C-Net has to copy other peoples ideas.
Near the end of the video he asks some people(only girls I noticed) what they think of the 20-inch..umm..laptop. Sample responses:
Its biiig
It's huuuuge
If I drop this, you're in trouble
I like black laptops better than [hesitates] white laptops
Even those are too big, for a laptop.
Laptops are supposed to be *portable* devices, not complete desktop replacements. If you want that, buy a docking station..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
that is one huuuuuuge notebook, no, BRIEFCASE PC... hmmm.... breifcase pc... :coins the term briefcase pc now:
can't say i'd use that on a day to day basis, but if i had one, it'd be a nice compact replacement for my giant desktop system, and it'd be great for lan parties because it's easily portable and powerful. other than that, i don't see all that much use for it as a portable briefcase pc.
~Saeris
Looking at it's keyboard in this video I'd have to say that I'm very worried about my hand hitting the touchpad by mistake and making the mouse fly everywhere.
~= scwizard =~
WTF is this subway business, the video quite clearly shows him on Londons integrated transport system, managing to hope seamlessly from tube to bus. But then if your not going any specific like say, home, I guess it works like that.
And yes, it's not a subway (pedestrian tunnel under a road) it's the tube or underground.
If you read a speed reading book, does it take you less time to read the second half?
Yes, but would you use a 20-incher with an exploding battery?
Of Code And Men
Wouldn't it actually be more convenient to carry around a Mac mini or a Shuttle box and a 20" LCD? Shuttle even makes a backback for their boxes... The batteries on this thing probably last so short you could really do without them anyway. Big is not beautiful!
The "video" is somewhat hidden. You have to click thru several pages. Also, you need to use unspecified browser mods (javascript and flash).
And it doesn't qualify as a video because there aren't any pictures. And I can't believe someone would call this audio clip funny. It is just a product description.
Yeah what the fuck is wrong with that video? (Let me count the ways...)
Seriously, I really tried to watch it. It would play for about three seconds, and then stop for "buffering." No surprise there -- I'm on a shared connection. I don't have enough bandwidth to watch something like that live.
So I thought I'd just pause it and let it load -- like any decent system ought to allow me to do -- but oh, no; it had better ideas. As soon as I put it on pause, it stopped buffering. I can tell, because the traffic through my router just abruptly stopped. When I hit play again, then it started buffering again.
How brain-dead is that? Even if I tried to play it through at its stuttering, three-seconds-per-load speed, and then rewind back to the beginning and play it again, it apparently doesn't "buffer" for very long, because it tried to reload the data.
I want to find the person who thought that encapsulating videos inside Flash objects was a good idea, and put their face in a bench vise. They could have just used a good-old streaming video object, but no. They had to do it with Flash. Well, the hell with them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
This is quite monstrous, indeed. I have trouble carrying around a 15-inch laptop during my daily commute; I'd probably not make it with this.
It also seems quite uncomfortable having to balance it upon your thighs, rather than just letting it sit. The keyboard's positing is an ergonomics nightmare, in my opinion.
I have a Dell e1705. It is a great machine, but I use it as a desktop replacement, not a laptop. It is very nice to be sitting in my living room chair with a "hospital swingarm desk" (bought at OfficeMax) using this machine. I could not do that with a 17" widescreen 1900x1200, keyboard and touchpad attached to a PC on the floor...the monitor would always try to fall off the desk. I can use this machine in a much smaller space than a normal desktop machine. But I would not try to use it on an airplane or subway (or underground if I were in Britain).
It is very nice to be able to pick the machine up, move it to the kitchen, use it there, and move it back later. I could *NEVER* do that with a desktop machine without dismantling it. For one thing, there are too many pieces to move...the e1705 only has two pieces to move, and with the battery, I can unplug the power and move it too without powering down. The best thing about it is being able to conveniently take a fully-powered machine to a friend's house (think LAN party, but I don't use it like that).
The Dell 2010 is really a "briefcase PC" (I like that term...thanks). It folds up and closes with a handle just like a briefcase. It probably couldn't be used on my swingarm desk, but it still could be used in less space than a desktop, can move all in one piece, and unplug for short periods of time, and can move to others' houses. Trying to use this on the Underground is just silly. This machine is "this generation's" luggable.
...a kevlar version, or atleast one with spikes where I can beat up people with lesser laptops?
All talk, no facts.
Yeah, not like your post, which was a fountain of knowledge.
You could at least have linked to the specs on the Dell website, which lists the the specs as:
CPU options:
* Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor
* Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
* Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
* Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7600 (2.33GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Other misc. info:
* Up to 4 GB of DDR2 dual channel2 memory
* 20.1" Widescreen WSXGA+ display
* 256MB ATI® MobilityTM RADEONTM X1800 Graphics Card for multimedia intensive applications.
* Integrated 1.3 megapixel web cam and array microphone
* 8 speakers and subwoofer
* Up to 240GB3 of storage across two hard drives
* Optional RAID 0 - 1
* 8x DVD/CD Burner (DVD+/-RW)4
Weight & Dimensions
* Width: 18.85"
* Height: 2.90"
* Depth: 15.90"
* Weight (lbs): 18.305
I/O Ports
* IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
* 4 USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
* ExpressCard Slot
* RJ45 Ethernet port
* RJ11 Modem port
* Video: Digital Video Interface (DVI)
* S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
* Component Video, S/PDIF Digital & Analog 7.1/5.1 Audio out
* 13-in-2 removable memory card reader
Would you use a 20-incher?
Oh boy, do I have some funny stories about packing a 20-incher and riding the subway...
I recently received an HP Pavillion dv9000 laptop to replace my E-machines M6805 under Best-Buy's lemon policy. When I bought the E-machines laptop, I purchased a Samsonite laptop carrier that fit the 17-in screen of the M6805. When I got the replacement, I took the laptop home to discover that the HP dv9000 was almost an inch and a half wider than the M6805. According to the spec of the dv9000 at Best Buy, the width of the laptop is 18 3/8 inches. So I decided today to go back to Best Buy to see if they had a wider laptop carrier. No go. The widest carriers that Best Buy even sold were around 16 1/2 inches wide. Even the Best Buy associate recommended going to a luggage outlet to find a compatible carrier. Talk about inpractical. :-)
Coderz 4 Life
3 Inches less practical than 17" laptops.
At least it is better than this custom Hofy's Duct Tape Mounting System. [grin] :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I would like to see all the power of an iMac stuffed into a iPod:
WiFi
Full Web Browsing Keyboard-less touch screen voice activated.
Built in iSight with iChat.
Email Scheduler, iLife programs etc.
Able to run mac software, even MS Office...
It should come with it's own base station and remote control.
The iPod-Mac would basically position itself above the video Mac and below the Mac Mini.
Oh, and 24 hours full use battery life, too!
RAID 1 will slow writes by a full 50% when mirroring across master and slave on the same IDE channel.
RAID 1 will show no read improvements at all on systems which lack optimizations to interleave reads across devices.
There are lots of other cases where real-world RAID performance won't match a naive estimation. For example, it only takes three drives to fully saturate an Ultra 320 SCSI bus these days.
I have a Dell 610 and Dell 810. The Dell 810's are nice, but they are just too wide and heavy. I simple 15 inch screen will do.
Were you privy to university studies?
Anyway, a co-worker had some manufacturer's 20 or 21 incher in his office about 6 months ago. It had at least 3 fans in it, and the display (upper half) was glass-faced. A piece of glass that big is heavy, especially in comparison to the bottom half. Opened up (using it like you would use a laptop), it was always in danger of tipping over.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
75% of the posters above this point in the threading slammed this offering pretty badly. It's NOT meant to be opened between two subway passengers. A, you should know better than having delusions of concentration on the subway, and B, if you really are that good, print yourself 50 pages of email to read on your 38 minute commute.
You successfully arrive to your conference with the client, where you two can discuss **whatever** without feeling hemmed in by a typical laptop 14-ish inch screen. You have the full keyboard, so your typing doesn't go to pieces, and at the end of the meeting, you hand off your proposal, and pack it up.
Someone thinks there's a little durability built in here for once. Yes, it's nice not to have a laptop completely disintegrate because you dropped it once.
My only concern is the price break. This is October... therefore it's $2500-ish.
presuming it doesn't Bomb and force Dell to retire it in embarassment, I'd buy it the minute it hits the $1500 range, perhaps next August.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Let's take an ordinary 15 or 17 inch laptop, find a way to pack an identically sized lcd with it securely.
Finally use a convenient connector to that second LCD (I'm not up on what would be good here... I'm looking for something that I don't have to screw in and I'm guessing it does exist. Bonus points if the same connector can provide power to the second LCD, too).
You can either take the additional LCD or not, depending on your desired setup, and whether you'll have the juice to run two LCDs. Should be cheaper than this, and more usable for most applications.
Also, lucky that this has a handle. Because you won't find a laptop bag that will take it, unless that machine gets popular or Apple bring out a 20" laptop. It does look like it would make great body armor though.
I have a Sony VAIO 17" laptop and sometimes I get envious of my girlfriends 15" Thinkpap Z60t. I realise that it does not sound like a big difference, but going to 17" seems to move past comfort limits you did not know where there. My VAIO tends to stay on desks, since putting it on top of your lap is awkward. You end up struggling between trying to type and trying to keep it from falling off your lap.
I could move back to 15" and I could also happily move to a B&W e-paper display, since I'm a UNIX guy and CLI or even B&W X is just fine with me.
But then, when will a laptop be offered with an e-paper display? Nobody wants B&W, so we'll have to wait for colour e-paper.
A 20-inch laptop might sound perfect for a game of Grand Theft Auto on the way to work
I'd hope that you'd be taking the bus or some other form of public transportation!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Why does anyome need a laptop that big. You can do the same thing on a smeller one.
I think 17" is the pratical limit for a laptop and 14" or 15" being ideal. I find even apple's 17" powerbook a little big though the big screen is good for getting work done. 20" is just too big I'd also worry about breaking that huge screen weight is not a serious issue for me but being able to use it easily is. I think this should be called a luggable vs a laptop since it doesn't fit on one's lap.
18.5 lbs and your breaking your back?!?!?!
Stop right now, turn off the computer and TV and start exercising.
I move regular computers all the time. They weigh a lot more then 18.5 lbs. Do I carry them on the train/plane no. I do carry them up and down 8 flights of stairs. A lot of these computers are Dell XPS gen 3,4,5 computers. They are 50-75lbs! I wouldn't want to carry one for a fwe miles but carring it up 8 flights of stairs is do-able. Granted I get strange looks everytime I do this. But cqarring around 18.5 lbs in a case (who carries their laptop out of it's case walking around to and from their car/train/plane?)