How Practical are 20-inch Laptops?

GeneralPacket writes "A 20-inch laptop might sound perfect for a game of Grand Theft Auto on the way to work, or navigating a mammoth spreadsheet. But are they really usable as laptops, or are they just luggable desktops? This week CNET attempted to work on the super-sized 20-inch Dell XPS M2010 laptop while travelling across London on the subway. The resulting video review is hilarious. This is not your typical tech video review — it's actually funny, and, refreshingly, completely advertising-free. The reviewer is in constant fear that anti-terrorism police are about to swarm him. Would you use a 20-incher?"

Obligatory Penis Comment

[by Anonymous Coward]

Would you use a 20-incher?

On behalf of my girlfriend, I have to say the answer is yes.

Re:Obligatory Penis Comment

[toupsie (88295)]

Is that how goatse got that way?

Re:You, sir....

[ettlz (639203)]

No, no, no! Not diameter! ...

Re:Obligatory Penis Comment

[pyrrhonist (701154)]

Would you use a 20-incher?
On behalf of my girlfriend, I have to say the answer is yes.

This brings a whole new meaning to, "hung like a baby".

6 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long!

Re:Obligatory Penis Comment

[d474 (695126)]

I liked the part where the blond girl says to the black reporter:

"I like black laptops."

We got the double entendre, honey. Cute.

Re:Obligatory Penis Comment

[kypper (446750)]

Bah, it's just a stereotype that all black laptops have 20 inchers....

Re:Obligatory Penis Comment

[Hawthorne01 (575586)]

"He will have an enormous schwanzstucker!"
"That goes without saying."
"Voof."
"He's going to be very popular."

Obligatory Penis Comment Complementary

[Poltras (680608)]

Yes, but would you use a 20-incher with an exploding battery?

They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[garcia (6573)]

Most people don't want a "laptop". Instead, they want something that they can take to Panera and do their work w/o being in the office. My wife and father both have one of these huge laptops. They are uncomfortable to carry (they use backpacks), they suck power (she gets about an hour of battery life), and they are loud.

I rely on my Sidekick for most of my work (e-mail, calendar, and notetaking) and I use a Thinkpad for anything more serious. While I am always looking for something even smaller everyone else seems to look for something larger.

MORE POWER ARRR ARR ARR.

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[Zadaz (950521)]

I'm with you on this. I haven't been able to make the jump to a smart phone I have to synch too much too often for what I do, but I do cary my laptop everywhere. It's around 2 1/2 pounds, light enough I don't notice it. I get about 6 hours of battery life out of it (more if I dim the screen) and when I'm in my office/home I dock it with a 23" display and a real keyboard.

Makes me a little sad to see people breaking their backs with these huge things, getting into fights over outlets in cafes...

No marketer would ever call my laptop a desktop replacement, but I've been doing active development on it (or one of similar size and specs) for the last several years, and have no complaints. (I don't go to lan parties, and I have a separate machine for gaming, but that's me.)

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[metamatic (202216)]

While I am always looking for something even smaller everyone else seems to look for something larger.

Yeah, drives me crazy. Apple don't even have a small laptop offering; their smallest is 13".

What I really want is something like a VAIO UX, only with an operating system.

Lots of manufacturers don't even bother to release their small laptops in the USA, because everyone here wants honkin' huge SUV laptops.

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[dhaines (323241)]

It's a tradeoff, some people's work is much easier with a lot of screen space. Others are more concerned with weight, keyboard feel, etc. So you might say: it's not how big it is, it's how you use it.

Just a few weeks back I was shopping for new laptops for my girlfriend and myself (yes really). We never encountered anything larger than 17 inches, but found even that size to be painfully large. We settled on matching (of course) 15.4-inchers, which are "just right."

Funny coincidence though -- like the woman interviewed in the video, my girlfriend prefers black laptops.

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[SeaFox (739806)]

Most people don't want a "laptop". Instead, they want something that they can take to Panera and do their work w/o being in the office.

Did anyone else read that as "something that they can take to Pantera and do their work..."? I was wondering who does work during a rock concert.

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[usrusr (654450)]

rock musicians?

Leading question...

[HiredMan (5546)]

Would you use a 20-incher?

I can't believe you ended a Slashdot post with a question like this... it's like T-ball.

What are you tying to do - flush the trolls into the open?

Sheesh,

=tkk

Now he just needs...

[AsmCoder8088 (745645)]

this T-shirt [terrortshirt.com] and the look will be complete!

Re:

[WilliamSChips (793741)]

I thought British policemen didn't have guns.

Old IBM portables anyone?

[Loconut1389 (455297)]

Reminds me of the old IBM 'portable' computers- perhaps less the CRT.

Out of personal experience

[eebra82 (907996)]

First off, Dell markets this laptop as a portable home entertainment system. You can obviously interpret that in so many ways, but my guess is that it is intended for portability WITHIN the house. So, for example, it can be used as a perfect workstation at the home office, and then transported to the living room for media center uses.

My close friend bought one of these beasts. I was fast to check it out and I've even borrowed it for personal evaluation purposes (since I wanted one myself). All I can say is that it is an outstanding machine and works perfectly if you want to watch movies while lying in your bed. It also interacts great as a media center and it has the power to play games.

What do people do when they buy a real laptop? They are usually intending to carry it around every now and then, because they might need it at work, at home and at other places. This machine does not really serve that purpose and it's obvious.

So when this reviewer is making this amusing approach of using the laptop at buses and subways, it's fairly obvious this was only an attempt to make fun of its massive size. And there's really nothing we can blame Dell for here, anwyay. With larger screens comes lesser portability. It's fairly obvious.

Re:Out of personal experience

[garcia (6573)]

All I can say is that it is an outstanding machine and works perfectly if you want to watch movies while lying in your bed.

So is my TV/DVD combo and they weigh about the same! :)

Re:Out of personal experience

[kallisti777 (46059)]

Full disclosure: I am a Dell salesman.

An architectural design firm in my area has a couple of these. If you look at the "power under the hood", you'll see why they chose them as portable workstations. For the CAD and graphics work they do, this model was a perfect fit, and I've never heard a complaint about it being too heavy to move from the office desk to the conference room table and back.

Now carrying this thing on a tube train during a morning commute? What are you, daft? I whine about having to carry my 5 pound Latitude and an overnight bag. My thanks to eebra82 for being able to tell the differences between apples and oranges.

Ahhhh!

[MBCook (132727)]

So what did we (*buffering*) think of the (*buffering*) Dell (*buffering*)....

What a maddening video! I tried to pause it so it could load up (like You Tube, Quicktime, and every other civilized video player) and it wouldn't. It would load up the next second of video then stop buffering. Combine that with their bandwidth problems (thanks, Slashdot) and it's almost impossible to watch the video.

Still. 20"? I though 17 was too large. That thing is huge. And yet they gave it a 9.2. IT'S A FREAKING DESKTOP. As a laptop it should get a 6. Plus, it has two drives in RAID 0. That's an INGENIOUS setup for a LAPTOP.

If they marketed this as a compact, all in one, portable desktop I could see it. But it's not a laptop unless you weight 600 pounds.

Re:Ahhhh!

[corngrower (738661)]

But it's not a laptop unless you weight 600 pounds.

So what you're saying is that most americans should find this acceptable?

So much for the video.

[Kadin2048 (468275)]

Yeah what the fuck is wrong with that video? (Let me count the ways...)

Seriously, I really tried to watch it. It would play for about three seconds, and then stop for "buffering." No surprise there -- I'm on a shared connection. I don't have enough bandwidth to watch something like that live.

So I thought I'd just pause it and let it load -- like any decent system ought to allow me to do -- but oh, no; it had better ideas. As soon as I put it on pause, it stopped buffering. I can tell, because the traffic through my router just abruptly stopped. When I hit play again, then it started buffering again.

How brain-dead is that? Even if I tried to play it through at its stuttering, three-seconds-per-load speed, and then rewind back to the beginning and play it again, it apparently doesn't "buffer" for very long, because it tried to reload the data.

I want to find the person who thought that encapsulating videos inside Flash objects was a good idea, and put their face in a bench vise. They could have just used a good-old streaming video object, but no. They had to do it with Flash. Well, the hell with them.

Re:So much for the video.

[Kris_J (10111)]

Yup. Com

pletely unw

atchable. Can so

meone please post i

t to YouTube?

cargo in tow

[Neuropol (665537)]

To me they seem largely impracticle, but I can see that people are ready for a true desktop class portable to become available - some thing more than a 17" widescreen or the occasional 19". There's nothing like being able to work on a full dual or tri-head setup, close the lid on your work, head home and plug in to your extra monitors, and re-open the work in progress a few minutes later. Albeit with a 20" you can probably cancel your membership at the gym. Some thing of this size the user is not concerned with what their having to carry back and forth, they're just psyched they have a nice work portable area.

How well can they condense the guts of it? Can they stretch out the lcd all the way to tthe edge of the bezel and keep the keys tight to the edge so there's no wasted space? The world of 17" machines like the HP 9600 (total tank) requires massive power supplies to lug around, gives you limted long-term battery life and are the loudest machines I've ever heard with 3+ fans constantly whirring away trying to keep heat to a minimum.

Good Luck

[bad_fx (493443)]

Hmm... I have yet to watch the video, but good luck working on *any* laptop on the london underground during rush hour... ;)

Envy

[Kildjean (871084)]

Dell has obvious imac 24" envy

Ugh

[be-fan (61476)]

You couldn't even open that thing in an airplane seat. Hell, my 13.3" macbook is almost too big for comfortable economy-class use. And the attendant back, pain, oh god...

I don't know what kind of idiot would subject themselves to this. Why not just get a nice big external display like everyone else does?

Re:

[Dorceon (928997)]

You couldn't even open that thing in an airplane seat.

Can you even fit it in a legal carryon?

Re:Ugh

[Brandybuck (704397)]

Why not just get a nice big external display like everyone else does?

Because you still have the problem of opening that big external display in the economy-class airplane seat. :-)

the SUV of laptops

[victorvodka (597971)]

I'm reminded of a cartoon in the New Yorker about "Hummer Style" in which various normal objects were supersized and underpowered so they would appeal to bonehead Americans still living in a world where size always means value. For example, a cellphone the size and weight of a concrete block with a range of 200 feet from the cell tower and a battery life of fifteen minutes. In Japan, of course, the idea is to make things smaller and charge more for them. I'd love a laptop with a 1600 X 1200 six inch screen that fit in my pocket. I wouldn't mind using reading glasses and typing on a tiny keyboard, at least until I get "to the office."

Re:the SUV of laptops

[sokoban (142301)]

True, that kind of torque is nothing to sneeze at, but the last Hummer I drove topped out at around 80 MPH, and even that was a terrifying experience. Hummers are decent tow vehicles if you don't mind something that large, but for any sort of long hauling there are cheaper and better solutions.

The fact that anyone would want one of these things as a daily driver is a total joke. They handle, accelerate, brake, and guzzle diesel like no other civiian vehicle.

That said, the H2 is an even bigger joke since it sacrifices the ground clearance, reliability, sheer power, and ruggedness of the Hummer, but doesn't make for a better ride at all.

Ah, memories, of the good old days

[davmoo (63521)]

This guy is lucky. I used to have to travel with two Compaq "lugable" computers. Each was the size of a small suitcase, and all you got for that was a tiny b/w crt. And a good workout from carrying them ;-)

Seriously, while I thought the video was really good, and I realize it was done mostly tongue-in-cheek, I have to echo what others have said. I have a Toshiba laptop. Its used for when I want to eat lunch at Panera and still get some work done, or at the library. When I need true portability, I'll use my Palm TX (and here lately, I'm using the TX at the library too).

Hrmmm

[sheriff_p (138609)]

The chick looking at it and telling the guy breathlessly that she preferred the big black laptops rather than small white ones made it for me :-)

+Pete

Practcal for some

[slobber (685169)]

This is a pretty silly question - it would be practical for some and totally impractical for others. I lug around a 12 pound Dell 17" myself, and couldn't be happier about it. For the most part I take it to work in the morning and bring it home in the evening. It stays home on the days when I telecommute.

I think a much better question would be 'Could 20" be profitable for Dell?' It might well be - while it won't sell in the same quantities as 3 lbs 15 inchers, I'd imagine that margins on 20" would be notably higher.

First 20" Laptop?

[joetheappleguy (865543)]

I'm pretty sure that Acer shipped their Aspire 9800 before Dell did. Matter of fact, I think that Acer makes Dell's unit.

I've had a chance to play with it a bit and I noticed that the Acer 9800 weighs as much as a 20" iMac!

You feel like a little kid when using it - Like you shrunk somehow. :D

Actually it seems fairly luggable.

[MsGeek (162936)]

Compare this machine to the 20" iMac rather than a lappie. This machine is the result of Dell buying Alienware. It's designed to be lugged to LAN parties rather than used in a typical lappie manner. I suspect it's packing a Core Duo. Someone also mentioned RAID 0...that's a very gamer kind of thing to add to a machine. If this was a Road Warrior lappie I would have instead opted for RAID 1 for data redundancy and "automatic backups." However RAID 1 slows, rather than speeds, disk access so it would be a downer for the gamer crowd.

Is it me or does this machine also seem to be built of sterner stuff than the average Dell lappie? I work at the library at my university and we have Dell lappies exclusively. They are built like plastic pieces of crap. Loose ports are epidemic. I really baby them when I move from place to place because I know that other people don't. The toughness of this machine, I suspect, is another example of Alienware's influence.

Re:Actually it seems fairly luggable.

[modemboy (233342)]

SO wrong on so many levels. Raid 1 does speed disc access: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/si ngleLevel1-c.html [pcguide.com]
Slows write a little, speeds up reads.

This machine was out 2 months before Dell bought Alienware, I believe acer makes them.

Also it depends on what you consider your average dell lappie. The Inspirons are complete plastic crap you are correct, the XPS and Latitude line are quite nice, you get what you pay for...

XPS M2010 Specs

[@madeus (24818)]

All talk, no facts.

Yeah, not like your post, which was a fountain of knowledge.

You could at least have linked to the specs on the Dell website [dell.com], which lists the the specs as:

CPU options:

        * Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor
        * Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
        * Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
        * Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7600 (2.33GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)

Other misc. info:

        * Up to 4 GB of DDR2 dual channel2 memory
        * 20.1" Widescreen WSXGA+ display
        * 256MB ATI® MobilityTM RADEONTM X1800 Graphics Card for multimedia intensive applications.
        * Integrated 1.3 megapixel web cam and array microphone
        * 8 speakers and subwoofer
        * Up to 240GB3 of storage across two hard drives
        * Optional RAID 0 - 1
        * 8x DVD/CD Burner (DVD+/-RW)4

Weight & Dimensions

        * Width: 18.85"
        * Height: 2.90"
        * Depth: 15.90"
        * Weight (lbs): 18.305

I/O Ports

        * IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
        * 4 USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
        * ExpressCard Slot
        * RJ45 Ethernet port
        * RJ11 Modem port
        * Video: Digital Video Interface (DVI)
        * S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
        * Component Video, S/PDIF Digital & Analog 7.1/5.1 Audio out
        * 13-in-2 removable memory card reader

Don't copy that floppy!

[Rich Klein (699591)]

Do they realize they're copying this video from a month ago [engadget.com]?

I'd love one

[CaptnMArk (9003)]

Big screen laptop would enable many things:

- normal keyboard (I'd love a proper keyboard, see www.pckeyboard.com)
- 2 hard drives (for RAID-1)
- bigger battery or two
- better cooling
- more I/O ports
- more expansion slots
- maybe even include a resting/charging place for a (wireless) mouse

Weight is a minor problem, price is a bigger one.

It weighs 18 1/2 pounds!

[BeeBeard (999187)]

Check out the specs on this thing on Dell's website. [dell.com]

The dimensions are less of a concern as long as it fits in a backpack or roomy laptop case, but to even call this monster a laptop is disingenuous. It is more of a "portable" computer in the sense that it can all be transported in one piece should you ever attempt to break your back moving it.

Vision issues

[kin_korn_karn (466864)]

I do all my writing on my 15" laptop. If it were any smaller, I would have trouble reading it. Jacking the font size up results in a smaller amount of the page on the screen at a time, which results in scrolling incessantly, which means I waste more time with the arrow keys and extreme right side of the trackpad.

So, there is a practical purpose for these things. Believe me, if I could work on a 13" screen, I would.

What I really want...

[drsmithy (35869)]

I get the point of these massive laptops - they're really just more convenient "portable computers" for people who want something that's all in one and easy to move from desk to desk.

However, what I really want (and I'm sure many would agree) is a small - 12" - 14" laptop that can drive *two* external monitors (I'd even be only marginally disappointed if it required disabling the internal screen to do so).

I'd really like a laptop to use (for work) as my only machine, but I'm way too used to having a pair of 21" LCDs to use anything smaller for real work.

I am somewhat surprised Apple hasn't brought out a machine capable of this - but then again I'd expect it to come from one of the less well known manufacturers (like Asus) first.

This is a desktop replacement!

[AWhistler (597388)]

I have a Dell e1705. It is a great machine, but I use it as a desktop replacement, not a laptop. It is very nice to be sitting in my living room chair with a "hospital swingarm desk" (bought at OfficeMax) using this machine. I could not do that with a 17" widescreen 1900x1200, keyboard and touchpad attached to a PC on the floor...the monitor would always try to fall off the desk. I can use this machine in a much smaller space than a normal desktop machine. But I would not try to use it on an airplane or subway (or underground if I were in Britain).

It is very nice to be able to pick the machine up, move it to the kitchen, use it there, and move it back later. I could *NEVER* do that with a desktop machine without dismantling it. For one thing, there are too many pieces to move...the e1705 only has two pieces to move, and with the battery, I can unplug the power and move it too without powering down. The best thing about it is being able to conveniently take a fully-powered machine to a friend's house (think LAN party, but I don't use it like that).

The Dell 2010 is really a "briefcase PC" (I like that term...thanks). It folds up and closes with a handle just like a briefcase. It probably couldn't be used on my swingarm desk, but it still could be used in less space than a desktop, can move all in one piece, and unplug for short periods of time, and can move to others' houses. Trying to use this on the Underground is just silly. This machine is "this generation's" luggable.

Re:Not much bigger than a 17 inch

[eebra82 (907996)]

If you're comparing the difference in size between 14" to 17" and 17" to 20", think again. Although the increment is the same, it's still a lot bigger.

Re:Not much bigger than a 17 inch

[HappySqurriel (1010623)]

I have a 17 inch dell laptop, and yes I do use it on my lap, and no I am not a huge fat guy, I am however tall. It's actually very comfortable to use, more so than my wife's 14 inch dell. So yes I would use a 20 inch laptop.

Personally, work gave me a 14 inch laptop which I thought was absolutely too small until I realized why they gave me a laptop rather than a desktop; I'm on site 2 days a week which means that I carry the lap-top home or to work 4 days a week. What I have found is that a 14 inch laptop is (in a lot of ways) too large and clumsy to carry around on Calgary's busy public transit system and I couldn't imagine how awkward and heavy a 20 inch laptop would be.

In my opinion a 20 inch laptop would be amazing if your goal is to drag it to and from lan-parties once or twice a week in your car, but if you're taking something to and from work every day you'd start to hate the extra size and weight.

Re:eyephones

[Farmer Tim (530755)]

As soon as the test subjects eye sockets stop smoldering.

Re:Give me one luggable and one ultra portable

[DumbSwede (521261)]

I'm aware this is a common resolution for desktop LCD, as for the odd aspect ratio, that has to do with the size of the larger glass they cut these things from, rather than throw away usable glass they choose sizes that use up all the glass. I know all this, but if you are going to have a full 20" display then make the dotpitch such that you can get a full 1080p picture out of it and support easily showing the 1080p on external HDTV (though that probably is doable with this rig as a 2nd monitor in some fashion).

There are full 1080p displays in 15" and 17", why not this EXPENSIVE 20"?