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Razer Built a Laptop With Three Screens Because Why Not? (engadget.com) 161

Posted by msmash from the why-not dept.
At CES in Las Vegas today, Razer unveiled a prototype that could change the way we play. Behold: Project Valerie, the world's first laptop to incorporate three built-in monitors. From a report on Engadget: Each screen measures 17.3 inches with 4K resolution -- that's 12k total (11520 x 2160) viewing space. They slide out from the central lid chassis under their own power and autonomously position themselves to create a full 180-degree viewing area, powered by NVIDIA's Surround View technology, which enables programs to spread a single image across multiple monitors. All of the computer's wiring is internal so you won't have to worry about snagging power cords as the screens deploy. The Valerie also utilizes Razer's short-throw keyboard, an all-aluminum case and the computing prowess of the 17-inch Blade Pro. No word on pricing.
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Razer Built a Laptop With Three Screens Because Why Not? More

Razer Built a Laptop With Three Screens Because Why Not?

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  • Why not? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HornWumpus ( 783565 ) on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:29PM (#53612273)

    Why not?

    3 minute battery life.

    • Oh that's good, it will need charging at the same frequency as my cell phone.

    • Re:Why not? (Score:5, Informative)

      by damn_registrars ( 1103043 ) <damn.registrars@gmail.com> on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:32PM (#53612293) Homepage Journal

      3 minute battery life.

      They are targeting gamers here (and gamers with too much money, at that). Gamers don't care about battery life as they are going to be plugged in all the time anyways. Gamers that can afford such an absurd setup are probably followed around by butlers who are willing to carry car battery powered UPS units for them if they really want to be "portable". This has very nearly no practical use.

      • Gamers don't use laptops, that's just silly.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by slaker ( 53818 )

          Stupid gamers do.

          One of my customers, someone who is in no way a techie but runs a reasonably successful business, uses a 4kg. 17" Alienware laptop. His previous Alienware had its GPU die four times in two years and I suspect this one won't be any better, but since he sits in his office and plays some MMO or other at least four hours out of every work day and he makes enough to keep buying new ones, it's not like I can stop him from doing that.

          I will say that an nVidia Shield tablet with bluetooth input dev

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by epyT-R ( 613989 )

            I will say that an nVidia Shield tablet with bluetooth input devices can do pretty well for internet-based game streaming, and it's a shit-ton cheaper than a born-to-die gaming laptop.

            Yeah, if you like laggy controls and running into bandwidth caps with all that ugly, overcompressed mpeg video, it's just fine. Then there's the fake 'purchasing' akin to 'buying' movies on cable on-demand movies. If your customer is at work, it's likely he doesn't have the bw to run such a thing, certainly without being noticed. Even when things are optimal, game streaming is a laggy, hitchy experience. Inexpensive laptops with low grade geforce gpus give far better results.

            Because of its screens, this m

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kuzb ( 724081 )
          Wrong. Gamers love laptops as a portable secondary device.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Gamers don't use laptops, that's just silly.

          That's how you spot the men from the boys at a LAN party. The men will have dragged their entire gaming rig with them, monitor under one arm, boxen under the other and keyboard in the neckbeard.

          I was once at a LAN party in the early 90's when John Romeo came up to me, dropped a 3-egg width cable at my feet and muttered something sounding like "bitch". The challenge was issued and would not be rescinded until one of us got TCP/IP working in Windows 3.1.1 or booted Linux.

      • 3 4k monitors. So this laptop comes with dual 1080s? How do they manage the thermal issues?

        It's shit as a gaming PC replacement, just like all gaming laptops.

      • This has very nearly no practical use.

        Really? No practical use?

        I haven't played any games on a computer in probably a decade at this point and I would love to have extra monitors. As it is now I have 3 24" monitors connected to my work laptop (plus it's 15" which I actually don't use) for working from home. When traveling, however, it is painful being reduced to one 15" monitor again.

        Sounds like they have it set up so you can run it with 1, 2, or 3 monitors as needed. So when you are somewhere for a short period (say sitting in the airport) you

      • This has very nearly no practical use.

        I beg to disagree.

        I'm also pretty sure this isn't the first such system. I was looking at ideas like this for work back in the 2000s - and we rejected it in favour of two laptops and as many external monitors as we could beg, borrow or steal. Or even buy locally, if there were computer shops within a few hundred kilometres of the site.

        Work involved skilled people going to remote locations (typically with up to 1 satellite phone data link maxing out at 9600bps), carryi

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by secretsquirel ( 805445 )

      I can carry a power cord much easier than I can two extra monitors.

      • And why (Score:4, Insightful)

        by fyngyrz ( 762201 ) on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:59PM (#53612473) Homepage Journal

        I don't game on PCs at all, and this totally caught my interest. three, 4k displays? If the CPU/GPU power and RAM and drives are there, all you'd need to carry around to make this a decent setup are a real keyboard and a mouse. I don't give the south end of a northbound rat if it isn't "thin". I don't really care if it's light or quiet, either.

        After Apple's latest fiasco dumbing down their laptops, I'm not feeling all that resistant to going Windows, laptop-wise. My only Apple choice right now is a used machine off of EBay. Something that actually has ESC/F-keys and ports to connect to things. Something even further behind the CPU curve, sigh. Damn you, Apple.

        [runs off to look at specs]

        • I wouldn't bother looking for specs - the linked article has a video that is strangely void of anyone using it for anything except showing the Windows desktop. No actual unfolding / sliding, not even tapping on the keyboard or moving a mouse cursor.

          This thing is probably trade show smoke and mirrors.

    • 3 minute battery life.

      When I use my laptop while on-the-road, there is usually a wall outlet available. Hotel rooms, client offices, coffee shops, and even many airline seats have outlets. I rarely use my laptop for more than an hour or two on the battery.

      I would be more concerned with fragility. I would be easy someone to bump the wing-mounted monitors, and knock it off a table or desk. It doesn't look like it could survive a fall.

    • Why not?

      3 minute battery life.

      You wouldn't buy a laptop that heavy and bulky to use it unplugged. You buy it because you can't cart your desktop to the library/meeting/LAN party/other room where your kids aren't causing a ruckus.

    • It will also include a coupon for 6 visits to a chiropractor!

    • Why not?

      3 minute battery life.

      lol, perhaps, but this is the first time in probably 10 years somebody decided to make something that I instantly thought, "oh, I want that!"

      Having a multiple-screen workstation really helps for old fogies who don't use an IDE. ;) So the battery life doesn't matter, it just needs to be portable enough for travel.

      Unfortunately the weird choice of 4k resolution will probably inflate the price and make it unsuitable for the travel workstation role.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      Are there any pictures of this thing folded up or is this just another "let-the-engineers-figure-out-every-single-impossible-detail" design student project?

  • They had a ThinkPad with a second physical screen before [lenovo.com], it didn't exactly set the world's collective hearts aflutter. Granted the second one was much smaller than the primary, but they tried it and found it wasn't what the consumers wanted. I don't see why someone would want to commit to a laptop form factor with 3 screens. There are plenty of good reasons to use a laptop - I do the vast overwhelming majority of my own work on a laptop - but this seems like a solution in search of an answer.

    • I actually use three screens on my desktop. And yes, I do use all three windows. One window has my code, the second the output, the third has e-mail or diagnostic crap up. Useful to see all three at once.

      I hate working from a laptop because of the single screen.

      I suspect Razer don't have the business user in mind though.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by syn3rg ( 530741 )
        Exactly; +1

      • This is my same setup.

        The monitors are only 1080s but that is good enough for me.

        When I go into game mode I use eyefinity to create a single display port 5760x1080 which works excellent.

        When I am in work mode, I break the eyefinity configuration so I can maximize windows to individual screens. I generally have several terminals open on one monitor, e-mail and web browsing on another and remote desktop or misc windows on the third.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ChoGGi ( 522069 )

          Same here, but since I switched to a 1080 (from a 290x), the Nvidia drivers come with an app to limit maximized windows to individual screens.
          No more need to switch between surround and regular mode anymore.

          I doubt it'll work, but you could try running the setup to extract the files and see if it works on your radeon
          Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Display\nvsmartmaxapp.exe

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Junta ( 36770 )

        But would you be ok with the three monitors if they couldn't be moved vertically (just sitting *right* on the keyboard).

        Also would you settle for 17.3" panels?

        I'd rather have a single 27" panel than 3 17" panels, even ignoring the lack of a good stand.

        It's way too awkward to be portable, and it's way too limited to credibly replace a desk setup.

        • I suspect you're not going to see 27" on a laptop any time soon.. If I were using a laptop for work purposes, I'd rather 3 17" panels over any laptop screen I've seen to date.

          But to answer your question, 27" or 3x17"; depends on what I was using it for. If it was for work, absolutely prefer the three screens. If I was using this at home, mainly for gaming, or surfing the web... one large screen would be preferred.

          I use two 24" monitors and one 21"(I think) monitor in my current setup for work, so the lap

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Junta ( 36770 )

            I meant that any remotely laptop sized panel would be inadequate. Having three of them would not be an adequate substitute for multi-monitor on the desktop.

            I just think this is one 'middle ground' that doesn't really exist.

          • Actually, I've been waiting years for a laptop with a 21" or 23" lcd screen.

            I'll take that, and a full size keyboard. And maybe a detachable laser mouse. Or a mouse pad (aluminum) that swings out from the laptop for a laser mouse. I hate touchpads...they seem to have been created by someone who never suffers from the need for clarity during a file / folder selection operation, especially on a "live-ish" machine.

            • Touchpads wouldn't be so awful if they at least emulated thumb-trackballs like mid-90s laptops did. Sometime around 1999, they all quit emulating trackballs & started being optimized for use by an index finger (instead of a thumb). Why can't manufacturers at least expose the raw touch data, so a custom driver could give us back faux-trackball ballistics?

              Example of thumb-optimized ballistics: recognizing that the thumb isn't equally-agile in all directions... straightening out arcs, spreading out horizon

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by epyT-R ( 613989 )

        Many doing dev work in business also game. This machine allows most of the desktop flexibility for both in a relatively portable package. The catch is price.

    • Maybe the world wasn't ready and it was bad timing on Lenovo's part.

    • I do the vast overwhelming majority of my own work on a laptop

      work

      I think you misunderstand what kind of company Razer is. It is understandable to think that a large amount of people would do work on a Razer laptop, but they are first and foremost a gaming peripheral company. And people who buy laptops to play video games on rarely have concerns about battery life, portability, compactness, etc.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by swb ( 14022 )

      I would say crap execution. There are times where mixed size multi-monitor setups work, but at normal-ish laptop display sizes, a secondary display significantly smaller than the main display is going to be mostly useless.

    • They had a ThinkPad with a second physical screen before [lenovo.com] ... they tried it and found it wasn't what the consumers wanted

      As any Razer engineer will tell you: the problem was that the ThinkPad did not have enough monitors.

    • For me the thing is that if I have two monitors, I'm still using virtual desktops to switch things around a lot, it becomes more work than just using one monitor. With three monitors, then I wouldn't need to change virtual desktops very often.

      So two just gets in the way.

    • They had a ThinkPad with a second physical screen before [lenovo.com], it didn't exactly set the world's collective hearts aflutter.

      That may have been the one I was looking at a few years ago - I definitely remember discussing with Lenovo over getting a small (10-ish) order made which were equipped for radio-silence operations (there had been a fatality, assigned initially to an RS violation).

      We never ordered, but we did give it serious consideration. In the end, multiple laptops and external monitors were

  • Why not? Dinky monitors. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:31PM (#53612285)
    I use two extra monitors with my top two laptops, but they are a lot larger than these because I use them when docked at work or home. I wouldn't want two dinky little laptop monitors strapped onto my laptop, not even for free.
    • You gotta go for the good ol' sturdy CRT monitors on your laptop! When I was in HS, a buddy of mine brought his CRT monitor because he had a screen issue on his laptop. Looked really stupid, but hey, unlike his laptop monitor, the old (I think Dell?) clunker worked just fine! Plus, it could be used as a weapon in case anyone tried to rob him I suppose.
  • So, with all that wasted space on the base, why did they go with that ugly keyboard/touchpad layout instead of using a full-sized keyboard with the touchpad below that? Most people are going to be using that thing on a desk/table so will most likely use a USB or bluetooth mouse instead of the touchpad anyway.

    • Touchpad below keyboard causes unintentional movement unless there's an easy disable button for the touchpad. Most people using it will probably not be typing much - not sure what key size is better for gaming, but key proximity is probably more important.

      • Touchpad below keyboard causes unintentional movement unless there's an easy disable button for the touchpad.

        Such as any key on the keyboard. In Xubuntu, try Settings > Mouse and Touchpad > Devices > Touchpad > Disable touchpad while typing (0.3 s).

  • 180? Nah (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sbrown7792 ( 2027476 ) on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:36PM (#53612317)

    autonomously position themselves to create a full 180-degree viewing area

    Judging by the pictures, where the hell are they getting the 180-degree viewing area from? Are we expected to use the thing with our faces 1mm away from the screen?

  • Because Weight (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Because Why Not?

    Because weight, I imagine. How heavy is this thing?

    Don't get me wrong. I hate this move to anorexic electronics as much as the next person, cutting off hours of battery life, upgradability and replaceability of parts, and very useful peripheral sockets in a desperate attempt to save a couple more grams of weight... but if this thing has three monitors it's got to weigh far more than can be comfortably carried by hand or used in a traditional notebook space. Imagine trying to use it on an airplane.

    Speaking o

    • to save a couple more grams of weight...

      It's not to save weight. It's to save $0.10 each on 150 million devices. Sure, the 0.03% savings may not be much, but the $15M for eliminating a single USB port is.

  • Why not? (Part Deux) Airplanes. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:38PM (#53612341)
    Also, ever try to use a laptop in coach (i.e., "cattle car" or "steerage") on an airplane? There, having enough elbow room for a single small monitor (plus a keyboard + trackpad) is a challenge. I can't imagine what trying to roll out three monitors would be like.

  • But how often does it need to be repaired? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:48PM (#53612411)

    Slide out under their own power? And that's going to last, what, six weeks before it gets stuck? The screen hinge is already a primary point of failure for laptops, let's double the weight load with flimsy motors and rails! Definitely another "more money than sense" moment in computer gaming.
    And a normal keypad would be nice, too. People don't game with those anymore?

    • Fixable if they mount the left & right monitors with a hinge and let the user manually "unfold" to deploy. The motorized bit is as flimsy as you say, and therefore relegated to demonstrations at CES.

  • I always imagine these like the ultra cool prototypes at the autoshow no intent to build but guranteed to get a headline on every auto magazine. looks like they landed /. On a side note no joy on the touch pad position, are we lefties so few?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      That's been the frustrating thing with these shows, you never know which of these ideas actually end up for sale. Even when the company says "absolutely, positively this thing will ship in March", they often never are heard of again. Basically unless you've already seen it for sale, you can't bank on anything at these shows being real.

  • Meh (Score:1)

    by ShipIt ( 674797 )
    Not thin enough,
  • Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
  • This machine might be the best thing ever. It is not so much a laptop as a desktop replacement. It is a desktop, that can easily be folded up and moved to another desk without much drama.
    To emphasis this point, here is a list of the bits I need for my current three monitor desktop setup.
    1. 1. Desktop box
    2. 2. 3 x screens
    3. 3. keyboard
    4. 4. mouse
    5. 5. UPS
    6. 6. 4 x IEC power cables
    7. 7. Ethernet cable
    8. 8. 3 x display port cables.
    9. 9. desktop USB hub (cos the main box lives on the floor)
    10. 10. USB cable for hub
    11. 11. power cable for U

  • Considering 8K is in the order of 33MP, how can you say 11520*2160, with 24 mega pixels is 12K? I would expect 12K to be 11520x6480

  • I think this will be great for some gamers, and probably some programmers or admins who love multiple screens already.

    For me, I bought a 4K monitor that had a 30" diagonal and I found it too wide. I felt like it was actually straining my eyes to have things so far away at the sides. I ended up using my monitor in a vertical orientation because for some reason it seems way easier on my eyes and I've grown to prefer windows being stacked to look at up and down...

    One possible thing that could make this experi

  • Of course not.. Mainly because "Extremely high" is all they can really say given the display hardware is usually among the biggest price drivers in a laptop to start with..

    If you are asking what the price is, forget it, you cannot afford it.

  • I travel on vacation with not only my laptop, but a usb displaylink monitor. https://www.asus.com/us/Monito... [asus.com] Most times I don't need to troubleshoot anything with the servers at work, but sometimes the extra real estate comes in handy. I wouldnt mind having a way of detaching an extra monitor for day to day use, that way im not lugging aroung the extra weight, but also be able to reattach it and carry around as part of the laptop, without lugging around a completely separate piece of equipment.

  • This will never be built for so many of the reasons other posters have already mentioned (weight, power, practicality, hinge design). The first clue is "no price or availability announced".

    Things like this are the CES version of the concept car at the motor show.

  • At least the people next to you can enjoy the view.

  • I would love this. Install Linux and add a cordless mouse and I have a replacement desktop, and can play games when tired of editing code.

    Battery is a useless waste of space and weight, though. Replace the battery with an extra drive and a heavy duty cooling unit, I'd just carry a power cord.

  • will there be additional vga, dvi and hdmi outputs?

    BEHOLD SIX SCREENS ON-THE-GO!

  • Lap (Score:2)

    by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

    laptop.

    You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.

  • ... and that's for portable, but not mobile computing. Essentially when you want to have a computer on a table where you have electricity, but you still want to be able to carry it around.

    Essentially you want something like that in a rather rugged case, so it'll withstand some abuse. It doesn't matter how light or thick it is, as it won't be "carried around" with someone, but specifically carried from place A to B, probably as part of some larger setup.

    For example this could take part in stage productions c

    • ... and that's for portable, but not mobile computing. Essentially when you want to have a computer on a table where you have electricity, but you still want to be able to carry it around.

      Essentially you want something like that in a rather rugged case, so it'll withstand some abuse. It doesn't matter how light or thick it is, as it won't be "carried around" with someone, but specifically carried from place A to B, probably as part of some larger setup.

      For example this could take part in stage productions controlling the lights, or a video mixer.

      ^ This.

      I could definitely see a use for on-site commissioning, where having access to the company software/licenses without necessarily having to have access to a network connection is *very* useful. The ability to update CAD drawings more rapidly in-situ, as well as use the extra screen real-estate for hunting code gremlins could be a big time saver in the long run. Professionals won't care that this beast needs to be constantly plugged in while in use: the fact that they can simply fold it up and move o

  • i have a real workstation in the office, thanks.

    I mean - i could imagine very limited use cases where you want to have something like a movable office which you may need to set at a customer site as soon as you arrive there.

    But 17' is already big, and unless you have a table somehwere unfolding this thing is a no-go.

  • No, seriously. It's a legend.
    Because Razer simply has NO such thing as quality control.

    This is why Razer products are lucky to last a few months from date of purchase.

    If it was almost ANYONE besides Razer releasing this thing, I'd look at it.
    But it IS Razer. Not going to waste good money on their crap.

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