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Comment by jph | Hacker News Reader

I just saw this in the wild, and talked with the user, who programs 3D AR/VR content.

I saw the dual screen in use with the top screen for a VR scene and the bottom screen for code. The user's interactions among the two screens and keyboard were seamless. The screen colors were vibrant and rich, even in bright light.

Based on what I saw, I would definitely try it for typical office use or even for typical website programming.

However, I saw a lot of graphics lag and chop in the VR scene rotations, and the user said the battery didn't last long enough to get through the day, so YMMV if you're considering developing 3D, AR, VR, etc.

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Laptop of these specs won't last a day in general, and they'll also be power constrained in most running profile when straight on battery (you'll be out of power in a few hours if using the full extent of the GPU)

Anyone planning to do 3D work in the wild with no power outlet should invest in a (heavy) 100W power bank. Also reliable 100+W chargers will cost an arm and a leg, same docking stations.

It's definitely still on the cutting edge and you won't be managing it like a wimpy Macbook Air.

Edit: I thought this one had a discrete GPU, but looking at the specs it's not and only needs 65W. Power consumption could be fine ?

You can buy GaN chargers of up to 180W nowadays, they weigh half as much as regular power bricks and are fairly affordable if you need them. You don't even need to cover the peak power usage and can go with a smaller charger covering regular usage and let the battery come to help when momentarily drawing more power (this is what I do with my Zephyrus G14 + 65W Voltme).

I've been looking at charger delivering 130W on a single port (100W won't unlock the full GPU) and they're not that many.

UGreen and Anker's offerings start at 70 bucks and they're not well reviewed. Docking stations start a triple that and Dell seems to be only reputable maker going these lengths.

To complicate things, many chargers will tout 140+ watts, but only split on multiple ports. Single port output will often be capped at 100W.

My understanding is that 130W is a proprietary extension of USB C, the spec only goes to 100W.

The gen3.1 PD standard goes up to 240W [0]. 140W should be available with it. Of course it also requires gen3.1 cables, so the "which cable do I have" game is still going on.

[0] https://blog.ugreen.com/power-delivery-3-1/

I have, by and large, stopped unrecommending ugreen since they stopped lying about certificates and now got real NRTL certs for most of their chargers but still how on earth do people find ugreen of all places even for technical explanation? Astounding blogspam!

https://www.usb.org/usb-charger-pd

google only gave me local links (non english blog spam) and that was the most decent among duckduckgo's results.

My search situation and skills aren't in good shape.

The spec only goes to 5A, but as of 2021 the maximum voltage has been raised from 20V to 48V to permit 240W charging. 28V charging at up to 140W is probably the most common mode above 100W; most systems shipping with a power brick beyond 140W are still using proprietary connectors.

Yup, the real page to look at is https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-home/zenbook/asus-zenbook-d... the rest is fluff

> Power Supply

> TYPE-C, 65W AC Adapter, Output: 20V DC, 3.25A, 65W

I've been using https://www.acer.com/ca-en/monitors/spatiallabs/acer-spatial... for developing OpenXR applications on a "holographic" display and existing applications like VRChat and Steam Home.

The price is too expensive, but if more people use it, maybe they'll be able to lower the prices.

Some videos from streamers partnered by Acer.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9D3BPL7POc

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acmGEovxgEw

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lwo9U9-iLc

We're V-Sekai (pronounced vee-say-kai):

https://github.com/V-Sekai/ - We're a community of open-source social VR enthusiasts.

My laptop lets me connect my $100 external portable monitor to my computer via usb-c. I can't fold it in crazy ways like this but I have an IPS panel and dual monitors and it only cost me $100. And when I don't need to have dual monitors I just put the second one in my bag, or leave it home.

Can you please share a link/name of your monitor? I'm curious

This one[1] is more expensive, but it's 4k, 17" and usb-c. I use it daily with my MBP 16" and it matches the PPI pretty well. And I recommend to pair it with this.[2]

[1]https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPKe3Go [2]https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqiWbKy

the brand is Arzopa and they make a bunch of different models, my guess is based on different panels and their prices.

> However, I saw a lot of graphics lag and chop in the VR scene rotations

Was it a review/pre-release unit? Dave2D's review 4 days ago said he wasn't allowed to benchmark it because they haven't finished optimising the drivers. I wouldn't rush to performance judgements just yet.

I would — frankly nothing exists in the Intel/Nvidia line to compete with M3 in terms of efficiency. This laptop will either not run the necessary software or run out of battery in less than two hours doing it. More than likely both simultaneously.

Efficiency != performance

Some of us care about absolute top performance, and don't care about the battery life

In that case you buy a desktop.

I have an Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, and I love it. I use it for personal work in graphics, 3D CAD, animation (Blender), and music, and for work. the dual screen (smaller touch panel below) has really changed the way I work. The battery life is a lot better than I thought given I was planning on using it plugged in all the time. I have had this in Saudi with me for 8 months in the last 2 years, heat and all, and all over, for office work, field work, airports, etc. and not a glitch yet. Dedicated graphics card, 32mb of memory, and a great keyboard (I usually use a Kinesis Advantage 2) for a notebook (reminiscent of my Lenovo T430u keyboard from 2012). It took a while to get used to the touchpad to the right, but it works. I find myself trying to do the opposite when I switch notebooks now - touching the right side of center touchpads and vice versa. I am looking for the best MR headset to come out that I can work with some sort of chorded keyboard or other less bulky input device and still see my surroundings without going blind.

I hope there will be a similar dual screen system that comes with leading edge graphics/matrix hardware (such as for LLMs in addition to 3d) and runs Linux.

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