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Intel Prototypes World's Thinnest Laptop

Posted by kdawson on Thu May 24, 2007 11:28 AM
from the guys-wouldn't-be-caught-dead dept.
Portables Intel Hardware
aalobode sends us to an article up at BusinessWeek about Intel's design for a new, ultra-thin laptop — almost as thin as a Razr — designed as a fashion accessory. Intel hopes to get the high end of the laptop market growing faster, and so they are particularly targeting female consumers with the new model. It's unlikely that all of the advanced features in this prototype will make it into products, and if they did the resulting laptops would command a daunting price. One feature we can hope makes the cut is built-in cellular Internet access. From the article: "The result, code-named Intel mobile Metro notebook, is less than 0.7 inches thick — about one-quarter of an inch thicker than Motorola's iconic cell phone, making it the world's thinnest notebook. And at 2.25 pounds, it's also one of the lightest small-sized portable computers. Other features include always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies."
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  • Photos (Score:5, Informative)

    by Bananatree3 (872975) * on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:29AM (#19255249)
    photos of the new laptop [reghardware.co.uk]

    • Re:Photos (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Fx.Dr (915071) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:37AM (#19255401)
      Setting a tiny notebook against a tiny Asian woman kind of negates the 'WOW factor' of such a slim notebook. I would have suggested having Ving Rhames hold it, but that's just me.

      • Re:Photos (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:44AM (#19255535)
        Yeah, doesn't really capture the scale. I bought one of these, but I set it down at the wrong angle and now I can't find it...

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by kurokaze (221063)
        huh? there was a laptop in that pic? all I saw was the girl :P

      • They're making a big mistake if they market it too hard toward women.

        You really don't have to try that hard, chicks love laptops, and if it's thin, light, and looks decent, they'll snap them up by the dozen. The problem is, there's plenty of dudes out there that won't be able to handle that it's marketed toward women--never mind the 2 1/4lb weight, built-in bluetooth + wi-max + 802.11 + EVDO, and 14-hour battery life--if you buy it, you're gay.

        Of course, the only thing they'd have to change is make another cover for it that looks like a wallet instead of a purse and not mention that it's "for women" (what, does it latch on the right or something? keyboard designed for a longer index finger? breast rests?) and they could sell to everyone. Then again, I imagine it'll end up like the Mustang.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by curtisk (191737)
      Heres a set of images from the actual article... http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0524_metro laptop/index_01.htm [businessweek.com]

    • Re:Photos (Score:4, Informative)

      by MrNonchalant (767683) on Thursday May 24 2007, @12:00PM (#19255847)
      And more pictures [businessweek.com].

    • Reminds me of when I bought my ultra slim Sony Vaio laptop, with a Pentium 300MHz processor. I thought it was pretty cool. Eventually I grew tired of waiting for it to boot up, load programs, do anything. Maybe if it comes with a tight Linux distro.

  • finally ! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:30AM (#19255269)
    something with less girth than me ! I no longer feel inadequate.

  • 14 HOURS! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AKAImBatman (238306) * <(akaimbatman) (at) (gmail.com)> on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:31AM (#19255289) Homepage Journal
    Being super slim is a nice feature in of itself, but then I saw this (emphasis mine):

    Using flash memory in place of the standard hard-disk drive, Ziba and Intel have managed to make this laptop just 0.7 inches thick. The use of flash resulted in a side benefit: the laptop consumes less power and offers up to 14 hours of battery life. At 2.25 pounds, it's also among the lightest notebooks around.

    WOW. Can you imagine having a laptop with 14 hours of battery life? You could pretty much work on it all day, then charge it while you're sleeping at night. Assuming, of course, that the figures aren't overinflated estimations. Still...

    One thing I'm disappointed by is the lack of any sort of specs. (Or am I just blind?) What kind of processor, how much memory, how much flash disk, and what kind of graphics card this thing has are all factors that would figure into purchasing this or not. For my own needs, I think the size of the flashdisk would be the biggest factor.

    I'm not so keen on the purse idea. While it might appeal to some women, I have a suspicion that it would be at risk of theft at all times. Better to use a more nondescript bag than a fancy cover with an external screen that shouts, "Steal me! I'm expensive!"
    • It sports a Core 2 Duo processor along with WiFi, WiMAX and Bluetooth connectivity.
    • I'd buy it if it even had half that battery life. I've seen too many laptops who's battery life is 3 hours. That's when it ships. after 6-12 months of usage they drop to 2-2.5 hours. Try getting through a 3 hour lecture with that. I used to laugh at the kids in university who would scramble for a seat near a power outlet just so they could make it through the lecture without their battery dying. I'd rather just use a pen and paper at that point. Myself I used a palm pilot with a folding keyboard. Th
    • I wonder if that's because of the e-ink display. A display that uses the ambient light rather than requiring a back light can save a lot of power.

      But (at least in the present state of technology) it's probably a crummy video game machine. (In fact, as far as I'm aware, that technology doesn't yet refresh fast enough to play movies properly.)

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by mhall119 (1035984)
        Only the optional "folio" cover uses eInk, the main screen would be a more or less typical laptop screen, though the screen itself extends to the edge of the laptop, there is no plastic "frame" around it like most laptops have.

  • ...and of course (Score:4, Funny)

    by JustNiz (692889) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:31AM (#19255301)
    they'll release a new model soon that will cost $200 more just because its pink.

  • Neat (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tsa (15680) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:36AM (#19255385) Homepage
    That is a beautiful laptop. And apart from the Macs, there aren't many beautiful laptops out there IMO. If I were Intel I would lose the screen on the outside. Though it raises the WOW factor a whole lot, it's not practical when traveling, especially if you carry the laptop around like it's a purse as shown on the first picture.
    • That is a beautiful laptop.

      It's "beautiful" if you like wearing what appears to be a woman's handbag over your shoulder. I don't care for the way it looks at all. I want something that 2.25 lbs and connects to wireless networks that doesn't make me look like I'm utilizing a fashion accessory.

      Perhaps they should just sell it like every other laptop except tout its ~14 hour battery life, weight, and thickness.

      The unit's primarily designed for entirely wireless communications with reconfigurable antennae abl
      • What about E/GPRS? That would encompass a lot more coverage area than the ill-fated WiMAX.

        Does anyone bother to RTFA?

        This model's embedded chips let users access cellular, Wi-Fi, or WiMax wireless broadband networks. (Intel is expected to release embeddable chips that access all these networks in late 2007, early 2008.)

        Embedded cellular connectivity could change the way laptops are sold. In the U.S., cellular network technology varies by carrier. So PC manufacturers might have to start selling speci

    • Re:Neat (Score:5, Informative)

      by ptbarnett (159784) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:46AM (#19255571)
      If I were Intel I would lose the screen on the outside.

      If you were to RTFA, you'd discover that the screen on the outside isn't actually on the laptop. It's on the folio case that wraps around the laptop.

      The case also functions as the battery charger, although the contact is wireless.

  • Strange parallel universe (Score:5, Funny)

    by j00r0m4nc3r (959816) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:36AM (#19255391)
    Anyone else here remember when it was social suicide to even admit you knew how to turn on a computer, let alone use one? Now they come in pink, with armstraps. Somewhere along the line I have slipped into a strange parallel universe. If anyone from my homeworld can read this, please send help.

  • For the ladies? (Score:4, Funny)

    by robbkidd (154298) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:37AM (#19255415)
    I'll get tarted up if it means I can have one.

  • Ergonomics (Score:5, Insightful)

    by suv4x4 (956391) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:39AM (#19255427)
    Intel's design for a new, ultra-thin laptop -- almost as thin as a Razr

    And just like like the Razr, the keyboard is flat. And just UNlike the Razr, you'll want to type a lot on this thing, and the flat keyboard will make it a very bad experience.

    I hope the other benefits of the technology (flash drive, 14 hours online battery life), carry on to "thicker" laptops.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by tsa (15680)
      I have never come across a laptop with a good keyboard. Portability of a laptop comes at a high price. You lose a good screen, good keyboard, good video card... the list goes on. If you want an ergonomic computer, buy a desktop.

      • Nicest laptop keyboards I've ever used are on an RDI Powerlite [belgers.com] and older models of Tadpole SPARCBooks. They're actually better than most dekstop PC keyboards that I've used. Shame that my Powerlite only has a 50Mhz processor and is so heavy that your legs go numb after ten minutes of having it on your lap.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Sparr0 (451780)

        Say you've got a Flash device that really and truly only can handle the oft-quoted 100,000 erase cycles. Quality Flash should actually be better than that these days, though some of it is apparently rather worse.

        If your Flash device is "4GB" with a formatted capacity of 3900MiB, and you do nothing but write to it as fast as you can - at, say, 30MB/s - you'll still only be able to replace its entire contents every 130 seconds. At that rate, it'll take you 150 days to hit 100,000 cycles.

        - Dan [dansdata.com] (corrected for spelling)

        Extrapolate to 20GB, and buy some decent quality flash guaranteed for 200k write cycles, add a dash of write-balancing filesystem magic, voila, 4 years before the drive starts to fail if you are doing nothing but writing to it at high speed all day every day. I don't know many people who put that kind of load on their drives, so let's call it an even 24 years with an average of 4 hours a day of full speed writing. So, what was that about "several years"?

  • Big deal (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rindeee (530084) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:39AM (#19255437)
    A couple of years ago I had a Sharp Actius MM20 that was .62" thick vs. the .7" of Intel's latest. Granted there's more to Intel's prototype than small size, the 'ultra-thin'ness was the focus of this sub. And for the record, the RAZR V3 is .54" thick.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo (153816)
      The spec I read said the V3 is around .6 inches and the V3i (what I have - but I lack a micrometer or caliper) is .55 inches. Not sure about the RAZR's linux-based successor, which is coming out soon, but it's even thinner. Regardless, it's really not "almost as thin" as a RAZR; when you're talking about a phone barely over .5 inches thick, .2 inches is a very large percentage of its thickness.
  • '...but people familiar with the matter say a PC maker will announce plans to start manufacturing the machine later this year.'

    Apple makes PCs, right?

    Seriously, the day someone makes a computer about the size and weight of a real notebook will be great. Most of the computer notebooks that are in the comfortable reading range (12" screens plus) are just a little too heavy (3.5 lbs. plus). It doesn't sound like much, but when you carry it around all day, along with the rest of the crap required in moder
  • "Other features include always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies." Hmmm, by automatically joining unsecured wireless access points, perhaps? Turn on your laptop, commit a felony! (According to some Michigan prosecuters, at least)
    • In order to be successfully prosecuted for a crime, the prosecution generally has to show intent. Having your laptop accidentally connect while you're passing by a store does not (or at least should not) constitute an intent to defraud internet access. In the case of the guy in Michigan, he was parking next to the store every day and deliberately using his laptop on their WiFi without patronizing the establishment. Even when that's not illegal, it is rather rude.
        • No worries. We have laws to protect against those who intend to be stupid. Holding a bat out the window of your car sounds like a recipe for involuntary manslaughter to me.

  • FYI: Magnesium case (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ciaohound (118419) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:43AM (#19255533)
    "Champagne-colored" or not, the use of magnesium is encouraging. The thinness is worthless if it's not sturdy enough to withstand being sat on, stepped on, jammed in a bag or purse, or even just twisted in your hands. I have never bought myself a laptop, because the real road warriors require sturdier case materials than I care to spend, but I worked with a lot of old GRiD laptops and, man, they could withstand rough handling. Not dropping -- mag will shatter -- but just about anything else users could dish out.

  • Ultra Metro Man (Score:4, Insightful)

    by simpl3x (238301) on Thursday May 24 2007, @11:46AM (#19255581)
    The details look suspiciously mac like, and I would much rather have a tough shell than a screen on the outside so that I can carry it without a sleeve. I'm jitter enough thanks to my Blackberry!

    One day I'm hoping for that Powerbook 2400 replacement...
    • From TFA:

      Ziba hopes to see the computer sold with a special protective folio that, at first glance, looks like a fashionable cover for a personal diary. The folio, which clings to the laptop with embedded magnets, is equipped with contacts that connect the laptop to an external digital screen.
      The screen is on the case. You can still get a "manly" tough ass case or build your own out of the skulls of your foes.
  • are the affordable (not necessarily 'cheap') laptops, using LinuxBIOS [linuxbios.org] to boot minimal X (in under 10 seconds) that can login over the network, using no local hard drive or flash drive (of course you can always add those), with CPU's that don't run hot enough to cook your sperm, with a battery life actually measured in days instead of pitiful hours?

  • Cue: Seinfeld (Score:4, Funny)

    by GillBates0 (664202) on Thursday May 24 2007, @12:04PM (#19255907) Homepage Journal
    It's not a purse [businessweek.com], it's European!

  • HP Sojourn / Mistubishi Pedion a decade ago (Score:3, Informative)

    by pz (113803) on Thursday May 24 2007, @01:40PM (#19257495) Journal
    The HP Sojourn (a rebadged Mistubushi Pedion) explored this corner of the design space in the very late 1990s, just about 10 years ago [com.com]. I've owned a few of them. Fantastically thin at 0.72 inches (just 0.02 inches thicker than the claimed thickness of the new Intel device), with a then state-of-the-art 2 or 6 GB 9 mm disk drive and Pentium II 233 MMX processor with 64 MB of main memory. Very nice display, too. 2 PCMCIA slots, one USB 1.1 port, but no network interface. Excellent support under Linux including sleep and hibernation modes. To achieve such a slim form factor, the keyboard was chicklet-style (not unlike the HP calculators) which really didn't appeal to the power user. It was marketed to executives with the even-then astronomical pricetag of USD 6k. I bought my first one used at USD 1.5k (they were really bad at holding their value); currently you see them on eBay for under USD 200.

    These are really, really thin. With full-sized keyboards and 12.1 inch displays. Slimmer than many padfolios. I never understood why that part of the design space wasn't more fully populated, as it's such an obvious (to me) win to have a really light, really thin, computer with a full-sized display and keyboard. Perhaps we're coming back to it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jandrese (485)
      Since it's apparently made for Women, I'm guessing no.

      More accurately, I'm betting they're using the case to dissipate heat (which is going to be tough when it's covered in pleather) so they really can't afford to stick any sort of high end graphics in there. I'm betting keeping that Core2 cool will be work enough. The 14 hour battery life is another good indication that it won't play games very well, although it looks like they managed that by not putting an optical drive on there and filling up half o

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