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Intel Prototypes World's Thinnest Laptop
aalobode sends us to an article up at BusinessWeek about Intel's design for a new, ultra-thin laptop — almost as thin as a Razr — designed as a fashion accessory. Intel hopes to get the high end of the laptop market growing faster, and so they are particularly targeting female consumers with the new model. It's unlikely that all of the advanced features in this prototype will make it into products, and if they did the resulting laptops would command a daunting price. One feature we can hope makes the cut is built-in cellular Internet access. From the article: "The result, code-named Intel mobile Metro notebook, is less than 0.7 inches thick — about one-quarter of an inch thicker than Motorola's iconic cell phone, making it the world's thinnest notebook. And at 2.25 pounds, it's also one of the lightest small-sized portable computers. Other features include always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies."
photos of the new laptop
something with less girth than me ! I no longer feel inadequate.
WOW. Can you imagine having a laptop with 14 hours of battery life? You could pretty much work on it all day, then charge it while you're sleeping at night. Assuming, of course, that the figures aren't overinflated estimations. Still...
One thing I'm disappointed by is the lack of any sort of specs. (Or am I just blind?) What kind of processor, how much memory, how much flash disk, and what kind of graphics card this thing has are all factors that would figure into purchasing this or not. For my own needs, I think the size of the flashdisk would be the biggest factor.
I'm not so keen on the purse idea. While it might appeal to some women, I have a suspicion that it would be at risk of theft at all times. Better to use a more nondescript bag than a fancy cover with an external screen that shouts, "Steal me! I'm expensive!"
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
they'll release a new model soon that will cost $200 more just because its pink.
That is a beautiful laptop. And apart from the Macs, there aren't many beautiful laptops out there IMO. If I were Intel I would lose the screen on the outside. Though it raises the WOW factor a whole lot, it's not practical when traveling, especially if you carry the laptop around like it's a purse as shown on the first picture.
-- Cheers!
Anyone else here remember when it was social suicide to even admit you knew how to turn on a computer, let alone use one? Now they come in pink, with armstraps. Somewhere along the line I have slipped into a strange parallel universe. If anyone from my homeworld can read this, please send help.
I'll get tarted up if it means I can have one.
Intel's design for a new, ultra-thin laptop -- almost as thin as a Razr
And just like like the Razr, the keyboard is flat. And just UNlike the Razr, you'll want to type a lot on this thing, and the flat keyboard will make it a very bad experience.
I hope the other benefits of the technology (flash drive, 14 hours online battery life), carry on to "thicker" laptops.
A couple of years ago I had a Sharp Actius MM20 that was .62" thick vs. the .7" of Intel's latest. Granted there's more to Intel's prototype than small size, the 'ultra-thin'ness was the focus of this sub. And for the record, the RAZR V3 is .54" thick.
It sports a Core 2 Duo processor along with WiFi, WiMAX and Bluetooth connectivity.
Will it play World of Warcraft??
I like the idea of these... but based on how many $300+ phones I have managed to kill over the past 4 years I think these really expensive tech items are going to stay in the fashion accessory type market. Unless they can be made more durable and modular for upgrades / repairs.
'...but people familiar with the matter say a PC maker will announce plans to start manufacturing the machine later this year.'
Apple makes PCs, right?
Seriously, the day someone makes a computer about the size and weight of a real notebook will be great. Most of the computer notebooks that are in the comfortable reading range (12" screens plus) are just a little too heavy (3.5 lbs. plus). It doesn't sound like much, but when you carry it around all day, along with the rest of the crap required in modern life, it adds up.
"Other features include always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies." Hmmm, by automatically joining unsecured wireless access points, perhaps? Turn on your laptop, commit a felony! (According to some Michigan prosecuters, at least)
"Champagne-colored" or not, the use of magnesium is encouraging. The thinness is worthless if it's not sturdy enough to withstand being sat on, stepped on, jammed in a bag or purse, or even just twisted in your hands. I have never bought myself a laptop, because the real road warriors require sturdier case materials than I care to spend, but I worked with a lot of old GRiD laptops and, man, they could withstand rough handling. Not dropping -- mag will shatter -- but just about anything else users could dish out.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
With their Vaio PCG range of laptops. Beautiful hardware. With a modern harddrive and memory maxed out they still make usable and ultraportable laptops.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
to where i'd actually use a laptop.
i still hate the keyboards too much, though.
The details look suspiciously mac like, and I would much rather have a tough shell than a screen on the outside so that I can carry it without a sleeve. I'm jitter enough thanks to my Blackberry!
One day I'm hoping for that Powerbook 2400 replacement...
Does it come with lipstick?
o laptop/image/intro.jpg
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0524_metr
I'll stick with my Thinkpad X60s, thanks. Right around 8 hours of battery with the extended life battery (running Linux), a 12.1" display, about an inch thick, and just over 3 pounds.
Apple rumors are pointing to an ultra-portable Macbook with flash memory instead of a hard drive and an LED backlit display that was to have an insane profile. Looks like a peek into the next generation of hardware from not just Wintels but Macs as well from a concept standpoint.
Sexy as hell, but I'd like to see specs and of course - ultra thin screens aren't my thing in the real-world. One trip through the airport and CRACK. Anyone remember the first generation of titanium Powerbooks? Yeek!
My (black - non-pro) Macbook at least gives me some confidence that if some gorrilla at the Xray machine plops something on my bin I'll have a computer that still works when it comes though the other side.
are the affordable (not necessarily 'cheap') laptops, using LinuxBIOS to boot minimal X (in under 10 seconds) that can login over the network, using no local hard drive or flash drive (of course you can always add those), with CPU's that don't run hot enough to cook your sperm, with a battery life actually measured in days instead of pitiful hours?
Fuck Slashdot
You'll turn my ultra un-cool alienware bulimic. All this "size zero" is unrealistic and degrading to more average sized laptops.
I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
It's not a purse, it's European!
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Reminds me of when I bought my ultra slim Sony Vaio laptop, with a Pentium 300MHz processor. I thought it was pretty cool. Eventually I grew tired of waiting for it to boot up, load programs, do anything. Maybe if it comes with a tight Linux distro.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Or else what?
Yeah. I've got an otter box for my ~16in widescreen laptop. Together, they weight a frikkin' TON. But, it's waterproof, and protects the laptop when dropped. Which, sadly, happens a lot since the hooks on the shoulder strap are so shittily designed. However, I can jump up & down on the thing with my laptop running inside, and nothing gets hurt. Except me, if I land wrong. But that hasn't happened, yet.
Small end laptops and high end cellphones are starting to look an awful lot like fraternal twins nowdays.
Am I the only person with some High School chemistry knowledge that is very worried about wearing a huge chunk of magnesium with a Lithium-Ion detonator^W battery attached to it....
Well it seems they hit their mark, dead-on even. It's slim, it's hip... Hell, you even wear it at your hip when not using it -- just like the RAZR. I must admit that even I am interested in this; and I'm typically one to avoid/crack-jokes-at PC rice-rocketeering. (Your PC has a window with a blue glow? Does that add 5~10 horsepower?!)
However, this thing does not look durable in the slightest. Granted I treat my stuff with respect, but the typical American PC user gets real careless real fast. Not to mention that the cousin RAZR has enough reliability issues without being abused. Here's for hoping that this Metro PC doesn't inherit the RAZR issues -- Cheers!
Or else I'll install Windoze Vista on my boxen.
Why would you leave great features out of a high-end product? I thought the whole idea of high-end was that you got all the good stuff with it.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
[...]is less than 0.7 inches thick[...]
That's 17.78 millimeters.
And at 2.25 pounds[...]
That's 1.020 grams.
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
Oh crap, I've just bitten into my laptop!
Yum, salsa...
The summary states that it was designed as a fashion accessory. Do you know what 'fashion accessory' means? It means something a woman wears that shouts, "Steal me! I'm expensive!" Just ask my wife.
My blog
I've been noticing for a few years now that laptops are in high demand, often by people who don't seem to have a really great reason for wanting them. It seems that a lot of the demand has to do with people wanting something that looks cool and will allow them to show off in coffeeshops.
And it seems like the manufacturers realize this, and are playing to it.
The biggest problem with laptops is proprietary parts. There are many people who have broken their power supply, battery, screen, keypad etc. and desperately want a new one. But because these parts are proprietary, its often hard to find the right one. Companies should be introducing more standardization in laptop parts now.
But instead, they are probably just going to decide on ways to make them MORE fashionable. Which I am sure will run them well in the shortrun, but fashions change. What are these companies going to do in a few years when laptops are no longer quite so hot, and people are more used to them, and more critical, and ask more questions about durability?
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Making a laptop thinner is good so long as the keyboard doesn't suffer. Laptop keyboards can be flimsy enough as it is.
I think I speak for all the guys on /. when I say:
I want to go shopping for a purse!
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
Not at all... they just compared the woman to the tiny notebook computer.
And no, I've never thought of logic as being circular, more as a rectangle... er, why do you ask?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
It will go so well with my Lady Smith.
What?
The HP Sojourn (a rebadged Mistubushi Pedion) explored this corner of the design space in the very late 1990s, just about 10 years ago. I've owned a few of them. Fantastically thin at 0.72 inches (just 0.02 inches thicker than the claimed thickness of the new Intel device), with a then state-of-the-art 2 or 6 GB 9 mm disk drive and Pentium II 233 MMX processor with 64 MB of main memory. Very nice display, too. 2 PCMCIA slots, one USB 1.1 port, but no network interface. Excellent support under Linux including sleep and hibernation modes. To achieve such a slim form factor, the keyboard was chicklet-style (not unlike the HP calculators) which really didn't appeal to the power user. It was marketed to executives with the even-then astronomical pricetag of USD 6k. I bought my first one used at USD 1.5k (they were really bad at holding their value); currently you see them on eBay for under USD 200.
These are really, really thin. With full-sized keyboards and 12.1 inch displays. Slimmer than many padfolios. I never understood why that part of the design space wasn't more fully populated, as it's such an obvious (to me) win to have a really light, really thin, computer with a full-sized display and keyboard. Perhaps we're coming back to it.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
What is this? The 1980's?
There's a parellel here from the wristwatch world.
Originaly wristwatches were smallish pocket watches on straps (think "luggable". They were for women and no self respecing man would wear one. Then WWI came along and men in the trenches were ordered to wear one Suddenly it was ok for men to be seen wearing one. They were still pretty big though. As time went on the "arms race" was for smaller and thinner watches. By the time the 50's rolled around they were not much more in size than two quarters stack on each other.
This was more of a fashion statement than anything else and companies like Omega and Rolex made reasonably sized watches even while maintaining other lines that were oh so thin.
Concord took it to the limit with the "Delirium". They were very very thin. The mark IV was SO thin you couldn't actually wear it without bending it.
I worry about things being too small. I hear the same complaints about cel phones.
Need Mercedes parts ?
From TFA, "The computer also is built to enhance security, boasting a fingerprint reader and a mechanism that lets users kill a hard drive by remote control ."
This quote was under the subheading "The Wow Factor".
The sucky thing about the cell Internet access is going to be the price. You will of course have to sign up with a cell phone company for some sort of plan, and those companies regard "data" as their goose that laid the golden egg and are constantly jacking up prices. You will get charged by the megabyte or even kilobyte for downloads, and as most of us know, even visiting a site like slashdot sends down lots data in the form of html text, scripts, etc. Visit (or even accidently visit) a site that needs to send down a flash file and your wallet will really be hurting. This current model for data fees will kill you even on a phone, and at least with a phone most people don't surf the web too much or download all that much data (due mostly to the small size of the screens and small storage space). Give them a laptop with an always on connection and a web browser (which they will use to naively surf the web like normal) and they will just get destroyed.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Here's my prediction: This is the prototype for the New Macbook Pro.
Go ahead and call me crazy, but this has happened before. Remember Intel showing of their mac mini look alike... well turns out it wasn't just a look alike but we didn't know that at the time.
There is more to it than just that too:
It has an optional e-ink screen on the outside - remember all those people shouting for an apple tablet? Well know it is an option.
What about that "connection-less charging pad, allowing the batteries of phones and PDAs to be recharged just by placing them on the notebook." I do recall apple mentioning something about a new phone... and forget the PDA and think updated ipod. It would mean you could wirelessly charge the ipod and it has bluetooth (apple seems to stick by bluetooth in its computers, so why not add the capability to ipods so they can sync wirelessly too and have wireless headphones (which there have been requests for.
It has a slim profile and is obviously being marketed to the hip asian market for ultra-thin computers (a market apple wants to reclaim).
It has insane battery life, flash memory, and Wifi - all things apple said they want in their laptops.
Mark my words, it might not be the exact computer they offer but I'd put money down it is a prototype.
Get a web developer
That's becoming a common feature in laptops today. The reasoning behind it is that the thief is probably after the data more than the laptop itself. However, if the laptop is worth a mint itself, the perpetrator will simply wipe the machine and resell it.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Joey: is not a purse!! it's a "man's bag".
i have found, you can find,happiness in slavery!
Wow. An anorexic laptop. What will they come up with next?
I know, an anorexic OS! It would hate to hog memory... OK, that was pretty lame.
In Soviet Russia, laptop slims YOU!
Since this would have a keyboard you could type on with more than your thumbs, you could get rid of your old laptop, your PDA, and your Blackberry. This would be what I am looking for in a laptop; e.g. it is thin enough to fit into a briefcase yet has good battery life and storage. With this I could take notes, write, work on spreadsheets anywhere in an unobtrusive manner. This product should be re-targeted at business customers.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
Does it come in chocolate?
Which is why mobile phone companies offer unlimited access plans for phone or laptop users. The laptop plans are expensive to most, but for users with money to spare (those who might buy a fancypants laptop) they are perfectly reasonable.
Gotta wonder whether the rumored sub-micro MacBook makes it to market first, too.
-p.
It will certainly help computer repair services and shops. Watch them get a surge of pursetop repair requests every 28 days.
Looks like it might have a headphone jack too. No wonder they're comparing it to a phone instead of other laptops.
Sharp's Actius MM10 notebook (review, run Gentoo on it) is about 6 years old now, and it's just as thin as the Intel prototype. It had one of the first Transmeta chips, the Crusoe at 933Mhz. I own one, and it still gets used to this day. It runs Linux now, because only that OS supports WPA2 with its wireless chipset (Prizm2). I love this thing so much that when it's display got damaged I payed for an out-of-warranty repair.
The newer MM20 model is slightly thicker, has a built-in optical drive, and runs a Transmeta Efficeon core.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Very expensive for what you get if you're rating the computing power, but amazingly tough.
In 1998, I was in Guyana, riding in the back of a 2 1/2 ton military truck. I was (stupidly) typing with one hand and holding a sat antenna out of the back with the other, sending a message. We hit a bump, and the laptop flew out of my lap, dangled from it's serial port for a second before falling and ending up face down, open, and running, into the wet soft sand of the "road" at probably around 20 miles an hour or so. Picked it up, wiped the mud off the screen, reconnected it, sent the message, and tried to act casually unsurprised. It was still working over a year later when I left the military.
I don't know that that would be repeatable, but it sold me, on Toughbooks.
The television will not be revolutionized.
It's not that thin. There are others out there near that width.
Seems people have forgotten Sony's VAIO x505: tapered from .75in at the back to .3 at the front and weight 1.85lb. Problem was, it was only sold in Japan and in very limited numbers in the US.
Personally, I'd love a good ultralight. Give me a small machine any day - something you can flip open on the bus or train without a second thought. Rip any entertainment (so you can dump the optical drive) and run any computationally-intensive tasks on a remote desktop via ssh.
Jw
Not something you'd expect to see in a description of a computer... but then again, this isn't a typical computer (there's no hard drive).
Yeah, if it's white or black, women will need to buy two laptops, white for summer and black for fall/winter. Can't be caught using a white laptop after Labor Day, you know (US Seasons and holidays, no silly comments from the Aussies and Kiwis, OK?).
When things get under an inch, small differences make a big difference in how it feels in you hands. Compare a 1st Gen iPod vs a current one. There's a huge difference in the feel of it.