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

[Mark Kaine]

9 hours ago, leadeater said:

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

well this is how "bezel-less" monitors are too, first they have a black boarder where it looks like theres a screen, but isnt, and second the have a admittedly very thin "bezel" so only bezel-less by name.

 

Also i think im crazy too because im seeing huge ass cable hanging on the back of the laptop, just because the wire attaches magenetically doesnt make it "wireless", but yeh, im probably crazy too.

 

 

[Sauron]

I don't know how people don't see the stupidity of removing ports to make a device slightly thinner and then force you to always have a thick dongle or dock on for it to be usable.

 

Also "wireless" induction charging is a useless and inefficient gimmick.

[Error 52]

9 hours ago, poochyena said:

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.

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.

I just checked Amazon UK and the first Bluetooth mouse to show up when you search "wireless mouse" is in 11th place. So I'm gonna go and say that, actually, the vast majority of people use dongled mice. As they should, because bluetooth is a horrible, laggy shitshow of a standard. Also, y'know, USB storage? HDMI? A lot of people sure use those a lot!

 

Anyway this laptop is fucking stupid. Love to shave off as much space as possible by forcing you to attach a giant fucking magnet to the screen to charge it or use any IO. Very practical and elegant.

[Spindel]

So…

 

…a tablet with built in keyboard. 

[SavageNeo]

4 minutes ago, Spindel said:

So…

 

…a tablet with built in keyboard. 

no. it fill run hotter and louder and when chraging the charges has a dongle

[dizmo]

10 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

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

 

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

I wouldn't mind it. I'd love a device this thin. Not with that spec, mind you, but it'd be great. 

9 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

It speaks to the insanity of the modern world where removing functionality is seen as a good thing. I guess they just have Apple levels of "courage."

That's akin to saying sedans shouldn't exist because it removes the functionality of a pickup truck. 

8 hours ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

It would be great seeing an i5 chip or the 9w i7 in this. I expect they are playing the halo product card to make sure they are noticed instead of the practical everyday user where they need to mass produce.

Haha yeah. Twist: this turns out to just be a design studio and not a hardware manufacturer. 

6 hours ago, leadeater said:

T470s isn't actually all that thin compared to other laptops. MacBook Air is a good example. This concept vs Air then Air easily, before or after the M1 switch.

 

There are a lot of other MacBook Air like laptops too, like the HP Spectre x360

 

 

 

 

Having the rear of the chassis slightly thicker to accommodate better cooling and 1 or 2 ports seems to me that it's an outright better design in every aspect including style. Seems to me CRAOB either forgot that tapering is a thing or they wanted to make a statement regardless of tradeoff, I'm going with the latter. How much sacrifices need to be made doesn't seem to matter.

 

Like I get it though, it's really cool looking design and being so thin conceptually is nice but my inability to turn my brain off invalidates all of that. Just my opinion though.

Right, but the Series 9, which I also mentioned, is thinner then both of those. The point of the comment was that thinner laptops are easier to carry around. 

 

I get it if you need the ports. But if you don't, they're just wasted space. 

5 hours ago, mr moose said:

It's great having these ultra thin laptops,  that you have to carry in a reinforced bag with extra padding so you don't break it when you rest it against a table leg.  

They're not that weak

3 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Let's be honest here. The laptop looks way dumber with that brick magnetically attached to the back that it completely takes away from the fact that it is portless. 

Haha, I'm all for aesthetics but I don't think it'd mind me since it's not something you see. Plus it'd (hopefully) not be something you needed to use often. 

2 hours ago, Moonzy said:

i wish they were using something like a logitech powerplay mousemat instead of a brick attached to the display

i can get behind portless laptops, but this iteration is lowkey dumb

Ehh I dno. I mean, it'd be cool to have both options, but carrying around a mat seems even worse then a brick.

2 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

The problem is that most companies follow such trends and the people who need the ports dont have much choice anymore

Same with the headphone jack on phones, sadly it got so widely adopted that the choices are very limited...

Not really. This isn't Apple. If a small company like this makes a product that takes off and its a huge hit, then it sort of goes to show there's more people that like it than don't, no? 

 

I don't mind the headphone jack. You can buy USB C headphones, or if you don't care that much about sound quality (though if you did why you're using a phone is beyond me) there's BT. 

55 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I don't know how people don't see the stupidity of removing ports to make a device slightly thinner and then force you to always have a thick dongle or dock on for it to be usable.

 

Also "wireless" induction charging is a useless and inefficient gimmick.

Probably because not everyone uses the ports. I mean, I get why you'd think it's stupid if you need them. But if you don't?  

 

Wireless charging isn't as efficient, true, but it works, so by definition isn't useless. 

[Moonzy]

Just now, dizmo said:

Ehh I dno. I mean, it'd be cool to have both options, but carrying around a mat seems even worse then a brick.

if it's identical profile to the laptop, it could probably fit right next to it

i used to fit my hard mousepad along with my laptop while traveling

[da na]

More like pointless laptops. 

To make it thinner and lighter you now have to carry a dongle to get any damn use out of it? Seems like extra steps to me.

[Forbidden Wafer]

Looks absolutely stupid.

[poochyena]

1 hour ago, Error 52 said:

I just checked Amazon UK and the first Bluetooth mouse to show up when you search "wireless mouse" is in 11th place. So I'm gonna go and say that, actually, the vast majority of people use dongled mice. As they should, because bluetooth is a horrible, laggy shitshow of a standard. Also, y'know, USB storage? HDMI? A lot of people sure use those a lot!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my mouse has a dongle and bluetooth, and I never had any problems with lag. usb storage? Is this 2008? Everyone uses cloud storage these days. If you need hdmi, you are likely near a power outlet anyways so you can attach the charger, so I don't see the issue there. The average user isn't a power user like you, where they need access to the ports constantly. I only use my tablet when I travel, so I don't need any ports ever.

 

2 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

Maybe if you only use a laptop for browsing or basic office use

soooo, a large section of people, including myself.

2 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

you're taking away all the convenience to need a large dock to get anything done.

Taking away what convenience? This is a tablet replacement, not a high end $2k gaming workstation desktop PC replacement.

[Kisai]

11 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

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

 

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

There are two types of customers that want a "silent" laptop:

- Business (Managers) in presentations/meetings

and

- Clerical workers who need a silent environment.

 

Neither of these call for wireless charging or portless designs, they simply call for passive cooling designs like the Macbook Air or iPad. 

 

I'd also call designs like this, along with "rolling screens" and "folding screens" as the peak of stupid. Someone out there thinks customers are stupid and will jump on any trend. Let's face it, certain trends were not because they were better, it was because they were cheaper. Nokia resisted clamshell/flipphone designs because they were stupid designs. Nintendo made the SP, DS, DSi, and 3DS clamshell designs, and then went to the tablet design that all other Apple and Android devices used. Hinges break, wires and ribbon cables in hinges break. 

 

Portless phones, tablets, laptops, etc are not what the customer wants, by any means, and given the desire to reduce eWaste, the 3.5mm headphone jack was ultimately an unfair removal, but understandable given how unreliable 3.5mm headphone jacks are on all but immobile devices (such as a desktop.) Replacing it with an extra USB-C port would have been the right compromise, but no, most devices eliminated the 3.5mm jack and then we were expected to use bloody docking stations and dongles if we wanted to listen to the device and charge it at the same time. Incredibly stupid on the parts of all manufacturers.

 

 

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Right, but the Series 9, which I also mentioned, is thinner then both of those. The point of the comment was that thinner laptops are easier to carry around. 

 

I get it if you need the ports. But if you don't, they're just wasted space. 

I didn't miss the point, even the series 9 is tapered. There is a limit to "how much easier". Having actually carried around many laptops from thick boi chungus old ones all the way through to MacBook Airs, and thinner, I would never describe the Air as remotely difficult and I wouldn't characterize any of the thinner ones as any better either.

 

It's also not wasted space, like I said put a better cooler in there, have some vents and small feet and get some air flowing through it. Immediately better cooling and you don't need a fan at all. One of the key points to why the Air has always been so light is that Apple didn't have an obsessive need to fill the entire chassis volume with boards and batteries, they put in only that is necessary.

 

Apple could make the Air portless, that is obviously the most likely, but I don't really see Apple doing that any time soon. If this concept laptop actually makes it to market I fully expect Apple to be watching it closely, see it reception, assess all it's weak points and then if they think it's overall a good idea and have ways to improve upon it then they will do it.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Not really. This isn't Apple. If a small company like this makes a product that takes off and its a huge hit, then it sort of goes to show there's more people that like it than don't, no?

Trendy != good or good idea, always factor that in. People like and do many "dumb" things.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just in case anyone forgot... Apple's ipad pros are incredibly fragile because they are so thin for the size, even having issues shipping in noticeably bent condition. Even the LG Gram is not exactly a study device as is. 

 

We've long since reached the point that thinner and lighter devices has nothing to do with port availability and is solely a negative on durability.

 

A USB-C port is 2.6mm tall. GTFO to anyone claiming wasted space or too thin on that basis.

 

 

[Brooksie359]

16 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Just in case anyone forgot... Apple's ipad pros are incredibly fragile because they are so thin for the size, even having issues shipping in noticeably bent condition. Even the LG Gram is not exactly a study device as is. 

 

We've long since reached the point that thinner and lighter devices has nothing to do with port availability and is solely a negative on durability.

 

A USB-C port is 2.6mm tall. GTFO to anyone claiming wasted space or too thin on that basis.

 

 

Honestly I find it hard to believe anyone would reasonably need a laptop that was thinner than one that only has USB-C ports. Honestly we're are far past diminishing returns at this point when it comes to thin laptops. I mean is this portless laptop any easier to carry around than say a MacBook air or LG gram? I would highly doubt it. Also with how thin this laptop is I would bet that it's keyboard sucks. 

[Quackers101]

ah yes, portless... and so you can break all of your ports in one go

[jagdtigger]

1 hour ago, poochyena said:

Everyone uses cloud storage these days.

You would be surprised how untrue this statement is in my experience. BTW cloud storage is stupidly expensive.....

[Error 52]

1 hour ago, poochyena said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my mouse has a dongle and bluetooth, and I never had any problems with lag. usb storage? Is this 2008? Everyone uses cloud storage these days. If you need hdmi, you are likely near a power outlet anyways so you can attach the charger, so I don't see the issue there. The average user isn't a power user like you, where they need access to the ports constantly. I only use my tablet when I travel, so I don't need any ports ever.

 

soooo, a large section of people, including myself.

Taking away what convenience? This is a tablet replacement, not a high end $2k gaming workstation desktop PC replacement.

 

USB storage is not a fucking power user thing lmao

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

Probably because not everyone uses the ports. I mean, I get why you'd think it's stupid if you need them. But if you don't?  

I have yet to meet a single person who doesn't regularly use at least one USB port. The inclusion of a magnetic brick that adds them is pretty much an admission that they should be on the device. There's no benefit to not having them since the tiny difference in bulk (if there even is any) is made up for by the comically thick charging brick.

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

Wireless charging isn't as efficient, true, but it works, so by definition isn't useless. 

Working but strictly worse than a pre-existing and cheaper competing solution for no benefit also qualifies as useless.

[shermantanker]

No

[Forbidden Wafer]

3 hours ago, Sauron said:

Also "wireless" induction charging is a useless and inefficient gimmick.

In this class of device, sure. For medical implants (e.g. pacemaker), it is really great. Charging while keeping the skin intact reduces quite a lot the chance of infections.

[poochyena]

47 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

You would be surprised how untrue this statement is in my experience. BTW cloud storage is stupidly expensive.....

Since when is free expensive?

 

22 minutes ago, Error 52 said:

 

USB storage is not a fucking power user thing lmao

It absolutely is. Why would a regular person be using a usb storage drive in 2022? I've only used it once in the past 5 years, and that was to get some documents printed at the library. SD cards a little more commonly used.

[Sauron]

8 minutes ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

In this class of device, sure. For medical implants (e.g. pacemaker), it is really great.

Sure, in some special cases it's a good option.

[Quackers101]

really thought we would have magnetic ports, not removing it to just be somewhere else...

Like magnetic flat and interchangeable ports with a lot better charging than "wireless charging" that was maybe just 50% efficient or something stupid.

Not really a "green" technology then again we do have wirless charging cars, so maybe it can become good enough at some point.

[jagdtigger]

17 minutes ago, poochyena said:

Since when is free expensive?

Cant decide if you are serious or joking. 15 GB is practically nothing, one vacation and its full with phones making 10MB pictures and 4k videos. Dont even want to know how much it would cost me to move my storage to the cloud....  (not to mention the trust issues and security implications, i store many sensitive documents on my "personal cloud")

Spoiler

Not to mention the infrastructure hosting several things i use....