Size matters...
posted by John Mahvi on May 18, 2007
We’re on the cusp of speccing out some new mobile platforms (aka notebook PCs or laptops), and the question comes up, what’s the right form factor for you? There are a wide array of offerings for mobility, and it is pretty easy to spec an offering, but much harder to make a recommendation.
I am responsible for all things PC, mobile and desktops in Intel IT. Right now this is a hot topic due at Intel due to the introduction of the new Intel offerings, so our internal spotlight is on our mobile upgrades for the rest of the year. As I mentioned, it’s easy enough to pick a few standards, but much harder to make a recommendation. Here’s a broad look at our offerings.
We have typically had a 5 lb thin and light 14” and 15”display offerings, and a 3 lb road warrior PC offering, that tended to suffer a bit in the performance space. My preference is the 5lb 14” notebook, good balance of weight, performance, and screen size (I use my notebook display at home, 24” wide @the office)…. We have found the 3lb. 12” folks tend to have a second display in the office and home, and the 15”ers tend to use their notebook display only. So we see a breakdown today of about 5% on the 12” notebook, 95% on the 14” and 15” offerings. Speculatively I would guess that this year with the performance gains in notebooks, and introducing a tablet, we will see an uptake of around 10-20% people preferring to move to the road warrior offerings, including the 12” tablet convertible, which is what I am targeting for my next system.
One thing to notice for you folks riding on planes …. Smaller is better….
Comments (4) (closed)
tagged: form factor, laptops, mobility, notebooks, PC, tablet
Comments
May 19 | Mike Smith-Lonergan said:
I was shocked when I joined Intel and found out that not only were Tablets not part of the official set of available PCs, but that I had to prove physical hardship that would justify the “significant additional expense” of changing from a standard laptop to a Tablet.
The retail cost of Tablets is nearly the same as equivalent laptops these days - I really hope this discrepancy doesn’t continue in the future, and that Tablets will be an available option to anyone who wants it. They’ve graduated from “neat toy” to “incredibly productive” and even give me a sense of creative freedom when I’m working on difficult problems.
May 20 | Adrian Blakey said:
Isn’t this discussion a bit pedestrian? When will we be able to have a 500gm device that looks like a cell phone and can do everything a laptop can? Time to think outsde the box a bit and make a generational leap …
May 28 | Nathan Zeldes said:
Indeed, Adrian, when?…
I’ve been investigating what this cellphone-sized PC would require for some time (my definition has been “a full sized PC that you can scrunch up and stuff in your pocket”). At present the only missing bits are (obviously) in the Human/Computer interface: you need the tiny device to provide a 12” or larger display, and an alternate input device equal or better in user experience than a standard keyboard. The display can be projected, folding, rollable, holographic, head mounted, retina scanned, whatever. The keyboard could be very weird too. Right now the best available technologies are still not there.
Of course there’s the totally out of the box option - e.g. HCI based entirely on speech, as on the USS Enterprise, or on direct brain interface, as in William Gibson’s SciFi. But we have a long way to go even on the former…
Jan 23 | Jason Cole said:
I’m surprised that Intel doesn’t deploy anything very large. I am currently a desktop user, with dual 17” CRT monitors. I find many small-screen computers to be rather claustrophobic, so The laptop I plan to purchase is a 17” Clevo (the best maker of laptops, in my humble opinion).