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If you were building your dream luxury notebook, what are the top five features you’d include?
This is a very good question, and every hardware expert will give you a different opinion. The fact of the matter is it would depend on the usage you’d give to your laptop. While some features are common to all kinds of user – 54 Mbps wireless network is a minimum requirement nowadays – some other features depend on the kind of user you are.
If you are thinking of buying a notebook for replacing your desktop PC you won’t probably care about battery life, as your portable will be connected to the wall all times, weight won’t be an issue, as you won’t be carrying your PC around that much, and you will want the biggest screen size as possible, with very low response rates.
On the other hand, if you carry your laptop around, you will need a laptop with battery lasting as long as possible, a very light product and you won’t probably won’t mind to have a smaller screen if this will mean savings in battery life and weight.
I personally fall in the second group – I use laptops when travelling and covering trade shows – and thus, for me, the top five features I’d include on my dream notebook (and providing that money isn’t an issue) would be the following:
1.Longer battery life: at least six hours.
2.Solid State Drive (SSD): will provide a higher performance than a regular hard disk drive, will save energy (helping battery to last longer), will make my laptop to be virtually immune to physical damage (since SSDs don’t have mechanical parts it would be impossible to break its hard drive, because in fact it wouldn’t have one) and will make my laptop lighter (SSDs are lighter than HDDs).
3.Bluetooth: I don’t know about you but one of the most annoying things about notebooks is the pointing device that comes with it. I always have to carry a mouse around, and I always need to keep installing and removing a receiver for my wireless mouse. So it would be really nice if the laptop had already built-in support for Bluetooth for using a Bluetooth-compatible (i.e. wireless) mouse. It could even come with a Bluetooth mouse as a gift.
4.Display with touch screen. There is nothing more convenient for me than laptops where you can rotate its display in order to transform it into a digital tablet for you to take notes during a conference. A program to convert what I’ve written into a Word document is a must. I prefer laptops with smaller 12” or 13” screens if this would mean a lighter product. The touch screen could also solve my phobia to the pointing devices that traditionally come with laptops.
5.Weight: I know that at least today it would be impossible to manufacture a laptop weighting only one pound, so my dream laptop would have three pounds or less. Those who have to carry a laptop all day long know how tiring it is to carry a heavy computer all day long.
An interesting additional option would be a Blu-Ray drive. After a busy day at a trade show I always relax in my hotel room by watching a movie and of course having the latest technology wouldn’t be bad at all.
In a couple of years when Wi-Max technology becomes readily available, it will be imperative for the road warrior to have a laptop with a Wi-Max enabled laptop. Wi-Max is a wireless network technology what will allow you to connect to the internet from 4-5 miles from a Wi-Max antenna (compare this to the 125 feet range of Wi-Fi). Early adopters may want to have this technology today and luckily there are some laptops released recently coming with an integrated Wi-Max card.
Hi this is Moshe
Pleas look at my post.
Comments will be appreciated.
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/dream/7362/William_Gibson_Cyberspace_Machine
Hmmm, it seems everything we want in these dream laptops are mostly out there already... its just that they're not found in one single product. I'd like to go further on the battery life though. How about trying to find a way to generate power within the laptop? Any ideas on a self-charging laptop combining kinetics and solar energy or maybe even converting the heat from the laptop itself to produce power? I'd love a laptop that i never have to plug into a wall socket ever again. We have to make it smaller than a refrigerator though. About pointing devices or input or interface devices... why not give the full range of choices for the consumer? Leave it open-ended. Just like getting new designer clothes or buying a new car, I'd like to have "options" when you go to a computer shop. Modular architecture with interchangeable and, more importantly, upgradable parts is the way to go for me.
I'd like to have a laptop with a tablet screen with response comparable to a Wacom. Good enough for professsional graphics. A protective lid that converts to a stand, but no laptop-style split of the computer. Long battery life, eliminate the keyboard and stupid pointing device, have an on-screen touch keyboard, and lots of USB ports. The reason I'd eliminate the keyboard is that I'm more accustomed to full-size desktop keyboards, and I'd rather just carry around one of those roll-up keyboards than fumble around on a tiny one. Or, if there was a pop-out keyboard, like the folding ones for PalmPilot, that might be ok. A detached keyboard also allows me to sit in a more comfortable position when using the computer. I'd put up with more weight for more battery. Now, if only I could afford it.
So what's the up-shot of this? Are the notebook makers going to respond to this? Most keep cutting costs to stay competitive which means limited hardware. How about a survey from the people who responded to this. How much would you be willing to pay to have your dream notebook? If I had my dream notebook, I would be willing to pay $3000 for it. If you're going to get something that you plan to work on that represents your competitive edge in business, then get enough horsepower to get the competition stomped! If you get the same vanilla notebook everyone else gets you won't be any better off than they are. ( That's why I wanted all software in firmware with the option of putting my developed software in plug in ROMS ) This is the best speed and you can take then out and lock them up for high security.
You make some good points here, but there are a few places where I feel you fell short of the mark on a "Dream Luxury" notebook. As a professional photographer, there are a few things I would like to see added.
1. 10 hours of battery life should be their goal. A work day in one battery. This might not come with today's 8 cell batteries, but better power-saving features should help.
2. Solid State Drives are much more durable and reliable in tough conditions. So, as a photographer, I definitely want to see SSD's for data security. However, SSD's are not very high capacity and if I'm on assignment I may need to frequently move data to external drives. The fewer external devices I have to carry, the better. I propose one fast single layer drive for the OS and one high capacity multi layer for storage. Ideally, a large OEM like ASUS could order notebook specific drives with a fast 16GB portion sandwiched into a high capacity multi-layer disk. That would give high performance for the OS and programs, with a higher capacity for storage without adding weight, heat, or size.
3. I agree totally on the integrated Bluetooth.
4. Rotating screens that turn your laptop into a tablet are definitely the ideal. HP's tx2z series are excellent. Having the ability to use the laptop like a digital note/drawing pad makes all types of editing, interviewing, and browsing more intuitive, faster and productive.
5. Video. I need more video power. Modern laptop IGP are becoming very capable, but manufacturers are failing to add enough dedicated video ram. 128mb DDR3 must be a minimum for future high-end laptops. The performance differences are very tangible, and without it, performance becomes mediocre on a much shorter timeline. The GPU should also be upgradeable.
6. Give us three DIMM slots! Don't make me throw away the chips that came in the machine, just to add a 1/3 more memory! I'd like to see 6-8GB in this system. 4GB DIMMs are not easy to come by. In 5 years I'll be saying that about 8GB DIMMS. If I buy a laptop with an acceptable amount of memory, and a EMPTY DIMM, I can upgrade when the time comes without waste or unnecessary expense.
5. Weight is an issue for people who can't put the computer down as they work, or for people in the field who have to transport it everywhere. Three pounds is a good mark. I'd also like to a rubberized cover being made available. Something with some grip. These smooth finishes that are so popular look great, but they're not that easy to hold for a long time. They become slick and oily. A finish that was tackier, like that on a Sony DSLR grip, would be just as nice looking for the bottom of a laptop, but more comfortable.
As for Wi-Max, I'm just as happy with a Verizon Wireless usb or expresscard.
P.S. II. The sizes are not much important to me. They may be of for example 40x55x10 cm (a small laguage) with a handle for easy carrying it. The total weight of 7-8 kilograms is acceptable.
The answer depends on your needs some will want a super powerful standard or large laptop as they are ok with carrying a bulky PC all the time. For me I want a jacket size full PC with a 1/2 VGA screen so no side scrolling is needed, a full touch type keyboard, fast processor for basic business needs, plenty of connections such as USB, bluetooth, wifi, wimax, memory card slots, etc., able to be docked to a large screen when at home/office but again most of all within the size limitations of a standard jacket or suit pocket so under 7.5" x 4.25" x 1.25"
P.S. I would add some 1-4 TB/s data bus between the memory and the processor. It is obvious for all who deal with numerical data.
A good wi-fi antenna is a must, and a built-in multimedia projector would be amazing. Also, battery life is a big factor for me, battery life over size.
I think most of all I would like a laptop that doesn't overheat when I play games on it for more than an hour. They have cooling pads and fans, but that's one more thing to lug around.
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