Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard are messing about with laptop forms in some rather interesting new ways. The former's ThinkPad W700ds (pictured above left) has a 17-inch display--and a 10.5-inch fold-out screen, perfect for palettes. The latter's Firefly (above right) also has a 17-inch screen, and a small 4.3-inch display buried right underneath it.
Neither of these machines are light--the ThinkPad weighs in at 11 pounds, while the Firefly tips the scales at 13 pounds. But a key difference is that the Lenovo is real (due for release this month) while the HP is just a concept.
Two screen laptops is becoming quite a common concept. Asus plans to ship new notebooks that have touch screens on both the top (where the screen normally goes) and the bottom (where the keyboard normally goes) as early as the first quarter of 2009, according to a report. It features four usage modes as listed below. This is the one I am really looking forward to.
1. Tablet mode. Snap the laptop open and flat, and the two screens work together as one giant touch screen.
2. Laptop mode. Open the virtual keyboard, which appears full-size on the bottom touch screen, and use like a regular clamshell laptop.
3. Book mode. Open an e-Book and hold it sideways like an open book. One page appears on the left screen and the next page appears on the right. Touch the corner to turn the page.
4. Two-person mode. Open it flat again like Tablet mode, but click a button to make one screen orient itself for one user and the other toward you.
1 comment:
oh? good post...but which manufacturer is coming out with the 2 screen laptop that you described?
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