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How Practical are 20-inch Laptops?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the large-and-in-charge dept.

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?"

3 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Good Luck by bad_fx · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hmm... I have yet to watch the video, but good luck working on *any* laptop on the london underground during rush hour... ;)

  2. So much for the video. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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."
  3. XPS M2010 Specs by @madeus · · Score: 4, Informative

    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