Portless Laptops are Coming! Run Away! or are they going to be awesome?

[GhostRoadieBL]

Summary

In a move akin to Apple's dreams for the iPhone, the world's first portless laptop is currently in the design phase from a small boutique company Craob and it may make some people a bit crabby.

 

starting with the good, specs include the usual modern thin and light tech:

i7-1280P w/ Iris Xe graphics

13.3in 4k UHD+ display

upto 32GB LPDDR5 RAM

upto 2TB NVME Gen4 SSD

Intel Wifi 6E

 

The laptop concept shows off a bezel-less display, pinhole camera punch out similar to what we are seeing on some smartphones, face unlock is unlikely and there has been no word on fingerprint scanners either.

 

By far the biggest standout shown is the wireless charging brick which magnetically attaches to the back of the screen and provides not only power but all the laptops ports including a USB-C and A ports, a thunderbolt port, SD card reader and a headphone jack.

 

This will clearly require some form of wireless connectivity to the laptop and it's still unclear how they plan to achieve thunderbolt wirelessly.

 

Quotes

Quote

Thanks to its unique portless design, the Craob X weighs about 860 grams and is just 7mm thick. The display uses a 13.3-inch panel with 4K resolution and a punch-hole webcam

 

My thoughts

Wireless charging on a laptop - LOVE IT! 

Wireless USB-C & A and a Headphone jack - LOVE IT! Wonder what kind of DAC will be in it for the headphone jack, and why not just lean into using bluetooth?

Punch-hole camera - it's fine, I could ignore it in a day or two and never think of it again

Having zero physical ports at all... not even a single USB-C... hmmm

Is it waterproof?

How did they get a keyboard that thin when Apple struggles with it?

Will this turn into a right to repair nightmare?

Thunderbolt wirelessly - really? how? physical capabilities of the current wireless technology doesn't support wireless USB-C, let alone a 10-40gbps wireless link for hooking up external graphics cards.

I guess my biggest question, can this actually happen? this can be an epic tablet replacement hitting all the right points and even if I'm stuck with a pocket-able charging brick to add ports, the security offset of no ports is pretty interesting.

 

Sources

https://craob.com/

https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/joao-silva/craob-x-prototype-aims-to-be-worlds-first-portless-intel-alder-lake-laptop/

https://mylaptopguide.com/craob-x-worlds-first-portless-laptop-on-the-way-exclusive-leak/

https://videocardz.com/newz/craob-x-is-a-concept-alder-lake-laptop-without-any-connectors

[BondiBlue]

Seeing improved wireless connectivity options would be nice, but other than that I don't see the point of a completely portless laptop. A marginally  thinner and lighter laptop doesn't make for a much improved user experience. 

[Arika]

wow, that looks stupid as fuck.

[Areco777]

6 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

Seeing improved wireless connectivity options would be nice, but other than that I don't see the point of a completely portless laptop. A marginally thinner and lighter laptop doesn't make for a much improved user experience. 

well when it comes to thinness i think the cooling solution will dictate that part of the equation 

[GhostRoadieBL]

4 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

Seeing improved wireless connectivity options would be nice, but other than that I don't see the point of a completely portless laptop. A marginally thinner and lighter laptop doesn't make for a much improved user experience. 

I like the idea for a coffee shop or travel laptop, if there's no ports without adding a box I would feel more comfortable charging at airports and at places like Def Con or HOPE

[Areco777]

Quote

2 minutes ago, Arika S said:

wow, that looks stupid as fuck.

 

agreed , its like we will remove the ports so we dont use valuable resources of nature that you will never use instead we will sell expensive docks with worse speed and we are gonna get a lot of profit while you can flaunt your portless laptop 

[dizmo]

Sweet. Honestly I could get behind something like this. I very rarely if ever used the port on my laptop. Can't wait to hear all the crying about how it's stupid...almost as if these people don't understand that there can be more than one type of product on the market, and maybe it's just not meant for them

"But but, I don't like it! It shouldn't exist! "

 

I do hope they make that hinge extra strong though. Not that a charger like that would have much weight, but I've had some seriously light hinges.

 

9 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

Seeing improved wireless connectivity options would be nice, but other than that I don't see the point of a completely portless laptop. A marginally thinner and lighter laptop doesn't make for a much improved user experience. 

7mm is a lot more than marginally thinner.

[Arika]

also you're now restricted to only being able to plug things into your laptop if you're also plugged into the wall......or i can use my current laptop and plug everything in when ever i like.....it would also be top heavy as hell when plugged in

[Areco777]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Sweet. Honestly I could get behind something like this. I very rarely if ever used the port on my laptop. Can't wait to hear all the crying about how it's stupid...almost as if these people don't understand that there can be more than one type of product on the market, and maybe it's just not meant for them

"But but, I don't like it! It shouldn't exist! "

 

I do hope they make that hinge extra strong though. Not that a charger like that would have much weight, but I've had some seriously light hinges.

 

7mm is a lot more than marginally thinner.

you realize that they will still need to add battery and other thic stuff down there , i dont think they can get it that think just becuase its portless  

[BondiBlue]

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

7mm is a lot more than marginally thinner.

I know a product like this isn't for me at all, but how does having such a thin laptop actually improve the user experience in any way compared to laptops that are already considered thin? You'd have less cooling capability the thinner you go, so there's almost certainly going to be a performance tradeoff. Then you've got things like space needed for batteries and other components. 

[Areco777]

Just now, BondiBlue said:

I know a product like this isn't for me at all, but how does having such a thin laptop actually improve the user experience in any way compared to laptops that are already considered thin? You'd have less cooling capability the thinner you go, so there's almost certainly going to be a performance tradeoff. 

and battery life too and it will be top heavy as akira said 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

19 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

i7-1280P w/ Iris Xe graphics

Good luck with not throttling the sht out of the cpu and completely ruining performance in that thin of a body

 

Either go amd or arm cause they are more efficient than intel aka less heat output cause its better to have a slightly slower cpu rather than a fast cpu that completely nukes its performance the second its given a workload

[GhostRoadieBL]

1 minute ago, BondiBlue said:

I know a product like this isn't for me at all, but how does having such a thin laptop actually improve the user experience in any way compared to laptops that are already considered thin? You'd have less cooling capability the thinner you go, so there's almost certainly going to be a performance tradeoff. 

I think it's more of an office work type laptop. With the push to do everything remotely it makes sense to have a choice between an ipad+keyboard, macbook air, some samsung tablet or a windows laptop all which are roughly the same thickness when you add a keyboard case.

 

cooling would be an issue if it was a high power CPU but it's the i7-1280P so the SSD draws almost half as much power as the CPU while the CPU is boosting. I don't think heat will really play much of a factor if the chassis is all aluminum and there's a few heatpipes to spread the surface area. For all we know the CPU is behind the screen and has that whole plate to cool it and the keyboard only houses the battery.

[ebprince the computer nerd]

If this could happen, this would be sick. I love wireless charging on laptops, that would be beautiful. But, I agree with the questions you asked. If they pull it off, it would be the biggest leap in laptops since the netbook days. But, be careful with these small OEMs though.

[BondiBlue]

1 minute ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

I think it's more of an office work type laptop. With the push to do everything remotely it makes sense to have a choice between an ipad+keyboard, macbook air, some samsung tablet or a windows laptop all which are roughly the same thickness when you add a keyboard case.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I guess we'll just wait and see how well they can manage to pull it off. 

[poochyena]

Actually, this is really neat. Basically, they moved the ports from the laptop to the charger. I hate the bezeless design though. Thats the deal breaker for me. Add a bezel, getting rid of the hole punch camera, and i'd say it looks perfect. It would mean less finger prints on the display from opening the laptop.

13 minutes ago, Arika S said:

also you're now restricted to only being able to plug things into your laptop if you're also plugged into the wall......or i can use my current laptop and plug everything in when ever i like.....it would also be top heavy as hell when plugged in

How often are you plugging things into your laptop? The only thing I plug into my tablet is the charging cable. My keyboard and mouse are bluetooth. I imagine most are the same when it comes to their portable devices.

[dizmo]

25 minutes ago, Areco777 said:

you realize that they will still need to add battery and other thic stuff down there , i dont think they can get it that think just becuase its portless  

Why? Are you implying that it doesn't already have one? That's not what the concept really lets on.

25 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

I know a product like this isn't for me at all, but how does having such a thin laptop actually improve the user experience in any way compared to laptops that are already considered thin? You'd have less cooling capability the thinner you go, so there's almost certainly going to be a performance tradeoff. Then you've got things like space needed for batteries and other components. 

You're not going to be doing heavy lifting with something like this, so performance isn't something you'd need to really worry about...though, that is something that seems odd about the config. Doesn't seem to fit the overall use of the laptop. I'd find it far more believable if it used something like a i7-1265U. Thin laptops are great. You can fit them virtually anywhere. The laptop before my T470s was a Samsung Series 9, and the difference of 9mm in height is noticeable. Quite considerably, actually.

[Blademaster91]

This seems dumb, I'd rather have a laptop with ports on it, and a laptop this thin means you're sacrificing battery as well.

[Arika]

27 minutes ago, poochyena said:

How often are you plugging things into your laptop? The only thing I plug into my tablet is the charging cable. My keyboard and mouse are bluetooth. I imagine most are the same when it comes to their portable devices.

Mouse: everyday, i dislike bluetooth mice

USB stick: at least once a week

External SSD:  twice a week

DAP to update songs: whenever i buy new music

headphones, 70% of the time i'm away from my desk

[Blademaster91]

27 minutes ago, poochyena said:

How often are you plugging things into your laptop? The only thing I plug into my tablet is the charging cable. My keyboard and mouse are bluetooth. I imagine most are the same when it comes to their portable devices.

A tablet isn't a laptop though, with a laptop you have more flexibility with devices you can plug in, and aren't being limited by performance.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

The laptop concept shows off a bezel-less display

Either I'm crazy or I'm 100% seeing black bezel around the screen

 

1 hour ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

How did they get a keyboard that thin when Apple struggles with it?

Physically attached but connected via the latest BT close proximity standard?

[WhitetailAni]

But.... why?
Who needs this??

 

That's my one question to everyone. Who needs this?

[Areco777]

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

But.... why?
Who needs this??

 

That's my one question to everyone. Who needs this?

Manufactures so they can increase there profit as they aint gonna lower the price that they saved by not including ports but are gonna earn more by selling expensive docks 

[leadeater]

28 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You're not going to be doing heavy lifting with something like this

Nor with other existing thin, very thin laptop. Not to repeat a discussion and point I've said before but reducing chassis height removes an extremely small amount of metal/material so the weight reduction is next to nothing. You'd be saving more weight by removing the fans and putting in an even weaker and tinnier heatsink and/or making the chassis the heatsink which is not great for usability comfort at all.

 

The tradeoffs are worse, not saying it shouldn't exist but the benefits are VASTLY overblown like always.

 

You can go fanless with convection air current to aid in cooling without going thin to the extreme, that's a reason not to do this.

[GhostRoadieBL]

6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Physically attached but connected via the latest BT close proximity standard?

I was thinking more about the switches, apple had the butterfly switches to make their keyboards that thin and keep it feeling like a good keyboard. This boutique probably outsourced it to a tablet keyboard manufacturer so it could be awful mushy rubber keys. They definitely have a ribbon cable up to the screen with the PC hardware behind the screen to save space.