Dual-screen laptops make more sense with this spiral notebook-like hinge

I just recently bought a dual-screened laptop with 10.95 inch screens: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007494713654.html

I bought it mainly out of curiosity (and I needed a newer laptop) and am now having fun trying to configure Linux on it. Got Ubuntu running well on it, but KDE doesn't seem to have any touchscreen calibration tools, so for the moment, I'm ignoring them and just using a trackball instead.

It came with Windows 11 on it, but I half expected it to have some custom software to use one screen as a touch keyboard, but it was just the standard Microsoft software. I considered dual booting it, but there's really only one or two things that I ever use Windows for (e.g. CheckPoint firewall configuration).

Edit: Forgot to mention that there's an issue with the Bluetooth keyboards if you want to use full Luks encryption with Linux - you really need a USB keyboard (I've also set a power on password which also requires a USB keyboard).

From my limited tinkering with the touchscreens, they both present as ID_MODEL_ID=abcd and ID_VENDOR_ID=1234.

"But if you know AceMagic, it's probably because of their Mini PCs—or because of the malware that was discovered inside of some of its Mini PCs (AceMagic has responded to this)."

Oh good grief. This is exactly the type of thing that fuels my desire to never buy any of these unknown brands. Confirmation bias or whatever you want to call it, but all of these fly by night brands you find online like Amazon just have my spidey senses tingling every time I see them. Especially with their suspiciously low prices, I'm always wondering how they'll have me paying for it in the long run.

Neat form factor, but no stylus support when you fold it down with a screen out? Students would love that. I'm pretty dubious of the longevity of such a complex looking mechanical hinge though.

Here's the official page: https://acemagic.com/products/acemagic-360-horizontal-dual-s.... Video demos some neat screen-mirroring to both sides when folded all the way back, so two people can talk face to face but both see what's on the screen.

I've been rocking an Asus zenbook duo(first gen from like 2020) for a few years now. Well... Since 2020. It has to be said, in the case of the zenbook, there's a lot of compromise in terms of user experience. The small screen is useful on the go but I do use a desktop computer 95% of the time. I'm ignoring the fact that the linux drivers are a bit of a pain in the ass. The bigger problem is the fact that although you gain some additional screen area, the keyboard is a bit awkward but nowhere nearly as awkward as the trackpad. It is practically unusable so you need to carry around a mouse with you.

Setting those things aside, I have mixed feelings about adding more hinges to laptops. In my experience the hinges have always been the Achilles' heel of laptops. Also any additional screen adds up a fair bit of weight which seems trivial until you end up stranded on an airport for 20 hours and have to figure out how to take a nap on the bench while your stuff is secure(looking at my dumb younger self who decided to buy a 17 inch Sony laptop at the end of my first year in university). And the extra screen means your battery life will suffer. I mean yeah, I have 4 monitors on my workstation and when it comes to work, they actually make sense: one for a terminal and logging, one for actual code, one for documentation and one to manage chats and music. But when it comes to laptops... I'm not so sure anymore.

I would rather have one 4:3 display than two 16:9 displays awkwardly stacked.

Regarding 'spiral note-book-like hinge', I'm surprised they didn't mention the "watchband hinge" which older lenovo Yoga models had from 2012-2018.

Personally, I havent understood this design and think it may be better to reuse an old tablet if one really needs a second screen.

I'm still waiting for somebody to make a version of Razer's Project Valerie.

https://www.razer.com/concepts/project-valerie

That seems unusable on a plane? Yea, you can use it in tablet mode but you can't work unless you extend the monitor out of your seat area right?

It "makes more sense" to use a tablet as a second display when you need it. You just have to set up a headless display and use moonlight/sunshine. But then again, I couldn't tell you how to set up a headless display in Windows, in X11 it's 3 commands to set up and 2 to toggle on/off.

This seems to be designed for left-handed people. To use this like a desktop you need enough space on the left of the laptop for the second screen and enough on the right for your mouse. Something like this with the second screen on the right would provide more utility in cramped spaces (for the majority).

Feels like if you want (need?) dual screens you've transcended the laptop and would be better served with a docking/desktop setup. I struggle to think of situations where I need the extra real estate (and have the space & power) that's not one of 2 fixed locations.

with folding screens now possible, my fantasy device is a transformers-ish laptop that has a large height, where the laptop screen and keyboard folds into thirds so it's closer to a cube/rectangular prism than a flat square plate.

I've also seen external (touch) monitors that come attached with a hinge to fit on normal laptop for similar effect. It seems very attractive but so far been a bit sceptic about the real-life experience to try one out.

This would be really nice if you put them both in portrait orientation. The only time I want landscape is when I am watching video content, and I don't need a keyboard for that.

These Asian companies get too cocky with screens that flip bend extend and twist.

Laptops are pretty set in stone. Call me a fanboy but if Apple or Dell didn’t try it 20 years ago, it probably wasnt a good idea.

I’d rather broaden my choices to all the single screen laptops and just get one of those portable monitors.

Looks like impossible to use it with just the one screen, as you are then looking at the back of the display. Don't think this is gonna be a great success. The other 'folding'/double display laptops seem to have a more practical layout.

It's clever, but the ergonomics seem bad. Laptop screens are already vertically too low, requiring you to awkwardly tilt your head down. With this, you have to also turn your head pretty far to the side. Hello neck pain.

Not really my cup of tea, would prefer the GPD Duo when it launches. https://gpd.hk/gpdduotechspecs That's a proper workstation, only thing I don't know is if the sdcard slot is fully recessed.

Nice to have the second screen as an input monitor as well.