Intel-backed Finnish startup has turned laptop design upside down
nordic.businessinsider.com
nordic.businessinsider.com
I have an SP4 for work, and I still don't think we're there yet. Touchscreen is clunky, and I get phantom touchpresses on it all the time. Outputting to multiple monitors is clunky, and when I have to disconnect the SP4 from its docking station, the resolution gets screwed up due to varying DPIs between the Surface screen and the output screens.
Just give me a better clamshell laptop, please. I know the artists would love a detachable tablet screen that they can draw on, but I don't need it.
I'm sure nobody is especially worried. I see a really bad windows-based ipad knockoff, and a tacky surface knockoff.
Not sure how that's worth the hyperbole there.
I own a surface. It's a terrible form factor full of attractive but poor-performing features. Someone does need to improve the laptop (it's my number 1 go-to device), but these guys aren't it.
But imagine what would've happened if Apple took that approach with the first generation iPhone. How many people would've insisted they needed physical keys, or a stylus?
The reality is, sometimes the user doesn't actually know what they need, and that's where a great product visionary can step in and do something truly innovative.
Yes the average users usually don't know what they want but enthusiasts are easier to convince and are more willing to take risks and innovate.
Enthusiasts are exactly the wrong people you want to talk to if you're looking to build a mass market consumer device. Enthusiasts want keyboards, for example (see the other reply to my original comment), whereas the mass market seems very happy without them (likely because they're far more likely to consume content than originate it in large quantities).
Now, in this case, maybe a device for enthusiasts is exactly what they're trying to build. But if that's true, I'm not sure why they care about a device that's "budget-priced".
Since BI's website is broken for me again and I just wanted to know what it was about.
A crowd sourced laptop is an interesting idea though I wonder how they balance what gets included since everyone wants different things it'll kinda average out.
At the moment I'm looking at a new developer laptop (though next year is more likely) and you can see that striation already.
I want a QHD display, 16GB RAM (or better) and an SSD, I'm not really fussed about the processor anything i5 or graphics but most machines with my requirements have a monster i7.
Companies seem to think that if you want a 4K you also want Performance. No, seriously I just want this as a glorified text editor. Give me screen resolution, and give me battery life. I'll pay more if you leave out the GPU because then it'll be lighter and draw less power.
Not to mention that a lot of people would be upset at not being able to watch Youtube fullscreen in decent resolution, for which you would need hardware decoding.
Meanwhile both the AMD and nVidia situations have improved with more robust open source drivers appearing. I don't have experience with those to know if they've surpassed the Intel drivers in general quality though.
I can't really see the point of Thunderbolt on a non-Mac device - won't that just add a substantial chunk to the required IP licensing costs?
Overall I'm curious about cost. I'd be very surprised if it was cheaper than a corresponding Surface.
If they really want to make a difference, they should open source their firmware, and use coreboot/libreboot. I've never understood what manufacturers had to gain from keeping their firmware closed source.
1. No issues with licensing for third-party components or drivers, which is most of them.
2. Reduced risk of source updates leaking news about new products and features
3. No need to spend time managing an open-source release process, ensuring that sensitive data isn't leaked outside, etc. Just the legal review for release & accepting contributions is not trivial.
4. No support requests from people who installed someone's fork with a bug in it.
5. Perceived less helpful to someone in a country with lax intellectual property enforcement making a knock-off device and undercutting you
No matter how much you like open-source, there are real costs. You can make the argument that outside contributions will balance those out but that's hard for something like this because much of the cost is up front and all of the benefits are hypothetical future contributions and in the case of firmware relatively few people have the skills or interest to contribute. I might make the argument that the fixes you'd get are probably less frequent but higher value (thinking of e.g. sysadmins fixing difficult in-the-wild bugs which aren't easy to reproduce) but that's pure speculation.
1. Possibly required by any sources written by others (e.g. chip vendors).
2. You don't see how poorly written the firmware is.
Selling commodities means low profit margins. So if Intel has high profit margins and is selling a commodity it's despite that not because of it.
But for me the interesting bit is following the whole evolution of the laptop thing.
A long time ago (March 2009) I bought something called a "Touchbook" from a company called Always Innovating. Its features were, detachable keyboard (additional battery in keyboard), ARM processor, touch screen, Ubuntu OS (later Android). Desktop "flipped" with the screen orientation. It had a lot to like about it and showed the potential, but it was clunky, had horrible battery life, and the resistive touchscreen was not reliable (think a Chumby with a 10" screen rather than something more futuristic)
Then the iPad came out and everyone assumed "tablets were the next big thing". But people still wanted to type and not give up half the screen to an on screen keyboard. I've got a couple of blue tooth keyboards (one Apple, one Logitech) that I used with the iPad (one even has an ESC key :-)) but the carry the keyboard + tablet, oh the keyboard isn't charged thing was a pain.
Microsoft did the Surface, which was soundly derided by Apple's Phil Schiller (I know it was his job to deride all iPad competitors) And then Apple when ahead and kind of bought into the theme with the iPad pro.
So what are the variables?
Keyboard detachable/fixed
* Detachable seems to be the current answer
Keyboard more than keys (battery)?
* Still mixed, Surface Book yes, iPad Pro/SP4 no.
Screen Size ?
* 13" SBook
* 12" SP4/iPad Pro
* 10" iPad Pro
Full OS / Mobile OS
* iPad iOS
* SPro Windows 10
Stylus?
* Mostly yes (iPad Pro, Surface)
* Mostly no (third party "2:1" computers)
Screen?
* HiDPI screen (pretty much all of them)
Cellular?
* Surface no
* iPad yes.
Upside - the kickstand is awesome, the microSD reader is in a good spot, the battery life is ok, the speakers are ok, the USB3 is in a good spot.
The downside. That keyboard is the worst. You are 100% right. I've typed many thousands of words on it now, and while it's comfortable, it's only good on a desk or desk-type surface. Try it on a lap, and it's basically worthless (like the kickstand).
The pen is trash. The pen stopped working, was replaced, stopped working, was replaced, stopped again (and has been clipped to my desk since). The touchscreen goes out regularly. The wifi is crappy, constantly bouncing. The bandwidth to the microSD is terrible (it's a USB device internally, and slow). The power adapter is a good idea, but I have no idea what they were thinking. If it's cable up, it heats up at the point where it bends. If it's cable-down, it bends super sharply at the desk and heats up there. The light is always white, so no charging feedback. The USB port on the power adapter can't charge anything, including a phone, while the surface is on. Otherwise it keeps dropping out and shows 'plugged in, battery' back and forth every few seconds.
So yeah - spare me another POS like this.
http://techin.oureverydaylife.com/danger-having-laptop-lap-1...
Occasional use is no problem at all but if you intend to use a laptop in your lap for extended periods make sure it has a side vent and a back exit or that it uses so little power that it does not get warm.
For a programmer I'd say the arrow keys are one of the most important parts of the keyboard.