Tag Archives: Laptop

Sleek Laptop Stands designed to eliminate bad posture + boost WFH productivity

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To be honest, I could not survive without my laptop! It stores almost everything I hold sacred, and I need it for various purposes – from work to leisure. And most of us do spend the majority of our day working on laptops, and hence maintaining a consistently high level of productivity and efficiency is extremely integral for our work routines. However, spending hours on our laptops can cause immense strain to our hands and neck. And this is where laptop stands come in! The right laptop stand offers ergonomic angle adjustments and helps us work in a posture that does not cause physical pain and strain on our bodies. From an ultra-thin laptop stand as slim as a credit card to an e-bike with a concealed laptop stand – we’ve curated a collection of ergonomically designed and highly functional laptop stands that can help you work in the most comfortable position possible, in turn boosting your work productivity and efficiency!

1. The MOFT Z

The MOFT Z was designed keeping the original MOFT brief in mind but was made to push limits. It does come with the ability to prop your laptop at three angles, but that’s not all. The MOFT Z even transforms your sitting setup into a standing one, elevating your laptop up by as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters). The MOFT Z does this using an innovative Z-shaped folding system along with its signature PU and fiberglass material which allows the laptop stand to have a high strength to weight ratio while being thin enough to slide right into a Manila envelope. The MOFT Z was designed to be used independently, without being stuck to the back of your laptop (like the original MOFT). Slightly larger than a sheet of A4 paper and at nearly half an inch thick, the MOFT Z can be kept on your desk, stored in a drawer, or a shelf, among folders.

2. The MetaStand Pro

Measuring 0.1 inches, the MetaStand Pro might easily be the contender for the slimmest laptop stand in the world. However, thanks to the power of origami, it can hold the weight of your laptop or tablet, angling it for a comfortable working experience. The MetaStand Pro offers the ability to prop your laptop or tablet up at a variety of angles for ease of use. Using a clever origami-inspired design, it offers a mix of slimness and strength, letting you place your gadget at as many as 4 different angles comfortably without breaking a sweat.

3. PILLR

Like most laptop stands, PILLR elevates your work machine to a higher level, allowing you to view your laptop screen at a much higher, more natural angle, preventing neck fatigue. Unlike most laptops stands, PILLR, however, doesn’t look like a badly designed accessory that hides behind your expensive laptop. With a minimal, sculpture-esque design, PILLR looks pretty darn good even without the laptop on it. Its strong presence gives it the appeal of a desk sculpture, and once you place a laptop on it, the PILLR enters a functional mode, elevating your laptop to reduce neck pain and boost productivity.

4. The FLIKK Laptop Stand and Sleeve

FLIKK Laptop Stand by Jexter Lim

The designer came up with this idea after observing the irking drawbacks of traditional laptop stands. Most of them don’t provide the desired elevation and the right viewing angles. Also, they are very complicated to deploy, which mars the whole purpose. This prompted Jexter Lim to plug all the gaps that spoil the user experience and function of the accessory. The laptop stand gives you the desired viewing angle for a comfortable working regime anytime, anywhere. The goodness doesn’t end there, as it seamlessly transforms into a laptop sleeve to head to your next destination without all the bulk of a traditional laptop stand.

5. The MOFT

Desks can’t be carried around where you go, and stands are usually either bulky or heavy, given that they need to support the constant weight of the laptop plus your palms, making both solutions portability-unfriendly. The MOFT grasps that design brief almost perfectly. Thin as a coin (barely 3mm in thickness) and light as a pen, the MOFT sticks to the back of your laptop almost like a cover of sorts. When folded, it sits flat against the back of your laptop (thanks to hidden magnets), practically indistinguishable and invisible, and when deployed/unfolded, uses a clever bit of structural engineering to support your laptop in not one, but two angle settings. Channeling Dieter Rams’ principle that Good Design must be Invisible, the MOFT sits flat on the back of the laptop.

6. The RLDH Alto Standing Desk

The RLDH Alto Standing Desk is a thoughtful flat-pack accessory designed keeping in mind your multiple needs if you can’t invest in a height-adjustable desk. It is simple to carry and disassemble, with the option to adjust the height of your keyboard and mouse tray, giving it the flexibility of use with your laptop. Yes, this stylish yet functional standing desk is tailored for use with your laptop – virtually transforming your table into a standing desk when the need arises. Its flat-pack and lightweight (weighing just 6.5 lbs) nature give you the freedom to tuck it away when not needed or even to take it along during travel for remote work regimes.

7. g.flow laptop stand

Arguably, grape lab’s g.flow laptop stand is better than most other laptop stands on the market. It ticks all the boxes as an effective product but also as a sustainable product. It’s clever, lightweight, and comes in packaging that can be used as a stand too! g.flow is just an amalgamation of a lot of good ideas into one great product that does its job with 100% effectiveness and 0% negative impact on the environment. The g.flow is basically a tray made from folded recycled paper. Relying on origami tricks, the paper is stiff enough to hold up to 11 pounds of weight (enough to take the weight of your laptop and your hands too) thanks to the origami folds which not only give it strength but also create multiple channels to boost airflow and cool your laptop better. The ridged paper is specifically angled for easy viewing and typing so that you get the benefits of a cooling pad as well as a prop stand, while the device comes with a small lip on the front to keep the laptop from sliding down.

8. HUB-OX

Designed to be portable and compact, HUB–OX initially comes as a lightweight, palm-sized USB-C hub, which splits into two halves, both equipped with plenty of charging slots, HDMI connections, and ethernet ports. HUB–OX is compatible with MacBook Pro models that have four USB-C ports, generally any MacBook Pro from 2016 or any of its succeeding generations. When HUB–OX is split in two, users can plug the USB-C chargers into all four of their MacBook Pro’s ports, lifting their laptops to an angle of 7.7° to keep them charged and at eye level for the rest of the day.

9. The Triyards Laptop Stand

The Triyards Laptop Stand borrows a clever trick from a product we’ve been using for decades. Inspired by the thin-yet-effective kickstands found in most keyboards, the Triyards Laptop Stand sits flat against your machine, adding a mere 0.2 inches of thickness. Made from durable aerospace-grade aluminum, the stand adheres to the back of your laptop using a non-harmful 3M glue strip and comes with two fold-out legs that allow you to easily prop your laptop up, angling it in a way that helps it stay cool while angling the keyboard in a way that makes it easier to type. It comes with rubber legs, too, to make sure your laptop doesn’t slide around or damage the surface you’re working on.

10. The BUCK electric bike

The BUCK electric bike has a laptop stand that elegantly conceals beneath the bike frame when not in use. The moment you need to perform an important task – just park the bike, swivel the laptop stand in position, and your mobile standing workstation is ready. You just have to slide it out of the bike frame’s section and attach it to the saddle, which can be moved to a 90 degrees position to give up space for the stand. On the design front, the bicycle has a very neat minimalist look draped in white color with contrasting black sections. Since the bike is meant for the odd leisure too on rough roads, the active suspension and the high riding position are well suited for the same.

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ASUS Zenbook 17’s single screen design revives the foldable laptop fantasy in a big way

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Foldable devices are the big thing in mobile these days, but the concept isn’t limited to smartphones and tablets only. There have been a few that envisioned laptops that are all screens that can then unfold to become an even bigger screen. That idea, however, hasn’t completely caught on in the PC world, but ASUS is taking another whack at it with a foldable laptop that’s big both in size as well as ambition.

Designer: ASUS

ASUS is hardly the first company to try and sell a foldable laptop, and this is hardly its first attempt at a non-conventional laptop form. Lenovo beat it to the punch with the ThinkPad X1 Fold in 2020, albeit in a smaller 13.3-inch unfolded size. ASUS also presented its Project Precog concept back in 2018, but that had two screens more like the Microsoft Surface Neo that never came to be.

The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is not only a mouthful but also big. When unfolded, it becomes a rather sizeable 17.3-inch monitor. When folded, you get the equivalent of two 12.5-inch screens, almost like a regular 13-inch laptop. ASUS went out of its way to give the device a premium finish, like a magnesium alloy body, a built-in faux leather kickstand, and an almost prismatic black logo on dark blue glass, but there’s no escaping the fact that it’s a chunky slab of metal and fragile flexible glass. That, in turn, will have consequences for ergonomics as well as the reliability of this foldable laptop.

The use cases that ASUS presents for the Zenbook 17 Fold are almost endless. You can use it as a large all-in-one PC, or you can use it as a laptop, either with the on-screen virtual keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard that’s specially designed to sit on the lower half of the screen. You can use it like a book, with the screen barely folded in two, or as a tablet lying flat on a table. Unfortunately, ASUS wasn’t able to follow Samsung’s lead in getting support for a stylus.

These scenarios, however, rely heavily on the software that will be running on the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, namely, Microsoft Windows 11. That operating system, however, has proven not to be that friendly to tablets, and perhaps even less so to tablets that fold into laptops. ASUS doesn’t seem to be too worried that software will be the albatross around this futuristic device’s neck and will reportedly make it available in the next quarter.

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Dell envisions a sustainable laptop, allowing you to replace parts, creating a design you could grow old with

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Dell is checking all the right boxes for a laptop that is not only environment-friendly but also potentially immortal.

Laptops revolutionized the computing industry by making personal computing more portable, but it also came at the expense of some flexibility and sustainability. Unlike towering desktops, not everything inside a laptop can be easily upgraded, much less replaced when broken. Many laptops makers probably prefer that status quo, but Dell is boldly pushing an idea that could mean it will eventually sell fewer laptops.

Designer: Dell

Today, you can upgrade or replace a laptop’s memory and storage, but that’s pretty much it. You can’t upgrade the processor, add a graphics unit, or even easily replace the keyboard after years of wear and tear. That’s not even considering the materials and processes used in manufacturing these devices, which involve a lot of plastics and a lot of components that eventually end up being a lot of waste.

Dell’s Concept Luna laptop throws all of that out the window, envisioning a portable computer that would appeal to almost everyone, from the expert PC modder to the environment-conscious consumer. The company is trying to apply multiple strategies across the pipeline to not only reduce the laptop’s carbon footprint but, ultimately, also make it as long-lasting as any desktop that can get repaired or upgraded bit by bit.

The ideas that Dell has are quite interesting. In addition to using more recyclable materials, like flax fiber instead of plastic laminate, the company is also looking into shrinking the size or number of components like the motherboard to reduce the amount of energy used to manufacture them. Smarter placement of those components can also lead to better passive heat dissipation, removing the need for plastic fans inside.

Then there’s also the element of repairability, which is made easier by having only four screws to access internal components and using no adhesives. Components can be removed easily and replaced, or perhaps even upgraded with a newer part. All in all, the Concept Luna represents the holy grail of sustainable computers and is probably years away from becoming a reality.

Dell admits that the concept only touches on what is possible, not what is feasible or, more importantly, profitable. A sustainable laptop would ultimately mean people will buy fewer new laptops if they could just upgrade or replace parts of the laptop they already own. Of course, Dell could build a business around selling parts or services, but that might still be less profitable than the status quo that isn’t doing our environment any favors.

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Lenovo’s latest laptop comes with a secondary screen to keep you productive + creative in the strangest way

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Lenovo seems to be a big believer in the “two screens are better than one” adage, and it is putting that into practice in an unconventional yet surprisingly attractive way.

CES is always a time for companies to show off their latest gadgets and trinkets, which also includes new laptops to pique your curiosity until they become available for purchase. Design-wise, many laptops have started to look too much alike, differentiated only by color and branding. Lenovo’s new ThinkBook Plus seems to be part of the same flock on the outside, but flipping it open reveals an almost magical trick that’s promising to level up your work, or at least your artwork.

Designer: Lenovo

This isn’t the first time Lenovo actually went off the beaten path to offer a new take on mobile productivity. Aside from launching the world’s first foldable laptop, it also created a new line of notebooks with two screens. The first two ThinkBook Plus models put a second screen, actually an e-ink display, on the back of the laptop. This third-gen laptop does away with that but manages to still cram in a second display inside.

Opening the Lenovo ThinkBook Gen 3 immediately reveals its special feature, an 8-inch screen off to the right side of the keyboard. It’s a multi-functional screen that acts as more than just an extension of the large 17.3-inch main display. It is actually more like an extension of the keyboard that just so happens to be dynamic and completely digital.

It can be a sub-screen that apps can use to display controls like buttons and sliders, freeing the main screen for content. It can also be used like a Wacom tablet with the integrated stylus, or a handy notepad on the side for jotting down meeting notes. It can even mirror your smartphone screen, specifically Motorola phones that support the ill-named “Ready For” feature, giving you a tablet that’s always within reach. And, yes, you can also use it as a calculator in lieu of the usual numpad.

While the idea behind this unorthodox design is really appealing, the implementation does come with a few drawbacks. With a 17.3-inch screen, a thickness of 0.7 inches, and a weight of 4.4 lbs, the ThinkBook Gen 3 isn’t exactly the most portable laptop around. The placement of that second screen is also biased towards right-handed people, and there doesn’t seem to be an option for those with the opposite dexterity.

The $1,399 price tag will also be a tad hard to swallow, but you are at least getting what you pay for in terms of hardware and features. One might even argue you are getting more because of that second screen. Admittedly, it will not appeal to everyone, but the Lenovo ThinkBook Gen 3 is unusual and quirky enough to at least get people thinking and talking about it.

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Samsung’s future vision is filled with screens that fold and bend

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We’ll be seeing displays everywhere in the future, but some of them might be more than meets the eye.

We are already living in a screen-centric world. We do our work on computers, get our entertainment from TVs, and connect with other people through our smartphones. Even activities like reading books, listening to music, and staying healthy have become connected with devices like eBook readers, portable media players, and smartwatches. It probably won’t be a surprise if we one day wake up to a world filled with screens left and right, but Samsung is working to make those displays more interesting and, more importantly, more eco-friendly.

Designer: Samsung Display

Samsung is perhaps best known around the world for its smartphones and its TVs, and the company has been pushing the boundaries of its display technology for those consumer tech products over the past years. The most famous and most recent examples are perhaps the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, currently considered the standard for foldable phones. Unsurprisingly, the company won’t be stopping there and will be bending and folding every display it can for almost any device.

On the mobile device side, Samsung showed off what it calls “Flex G” and “Flex S” displays that would allow an even bigger, tablet-sized screen to fold down to the size of a smartphone. Samsung will also be targeting laptops with its “Flex Note” screen, where a 17.3-inch display can fold in the middle to form a laptop with two 13-inch screens. The goal of these foldable displays, aside from boasting of the company’s prowess, is to increase people’s mobility without hampering their productivity, letting them bring along their work and entertainment anywhere.

You might have actually seen these before if you’ve been keeping tabs on unique and interesting display devices in the past years, but Samsung also brought something completely new to CES 2022. It showed off a smart speaker that seemed to have a cylindrical screen wrapped around it. But at the tap of a button on a paired smartphone, that screen unfurls and turns into a regular flat-screen panel, turning the smart speaker into a smart TV.

With LG’s vision of transparent screens and Samsung’s future shape-changing displays, we can probably expect our world to soon be littered with these bright surfaces in whatever form they may come in. That, however, might also mean an overall increase in power usage and carbon footprint, something that Samsung is thankfully aware of. Part of the company’s big spiel this year is on sustainability through its entire pipeline, from production to packaging.

For example, it is pushing its Eco2 OLED technology that reduces power consumption by removing unnecessary components. It recently also revealed a remote control that charges via Wi-Fi waves instead of electricity. With these, Samsung is trying to promise a future that is not only all about displays but, hopefully, also green.

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This laptop desk is cushioned, has storage space & makes working from couch more ergonomic!

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Let’s be real – we spend a lot of time in the day figuring out the most comfortable work-from-home position because the bed is where we start slouching into a nap and the desk is too upright. Tony Heap was going through a similar problem and after making a makeshift laptop desk that let him work from his couch, he made it even better by adding in storage and taking care of ergonomics. Heap, really heard our cries for a comfortable laptop desk and that’s how LAPOD (laptop desk + storage pod) was born!

Whether you’re a digital nomad or a remote worker, LAPOD allows you to easily and comfortably work from anywhere. The lap desk holds all accessories such as chargers, cables, portable drives, without adding clutter to your ouch or side tables. The storage pod is also cushioned to make it comfortable when it is on your lap. No more balancing your laptop on your knee, battery indicator flashing, juggling charger, and plug while searching your bag for your earbuds to take that incoming video call!

The gentle sweeping ergonomic shape is the result of a carefully considered form designed to fit you just as well as fit your things. Raising your work up off your lap reduces wrist angle and neck-craning. “Ergonomically, we work in a multitude of different positions: sitting upright or reclined, knees together or spread, maybe one leg over the other, or sitting cross-legged yogi-style in the lotus position. To add to this, we aren’t really designed to stay sitting still, so it’s often a combination of all of the above in some sort of human posture shuffle,” adds Heap.

Single-handedly access whatever you have inside the storage pod without disturbing whatever you have on top of your desk. Need to plug into portable drives or power packs? LAPOD’s simple cable routing slot has you covered. It also features a cutaway slot in the work surface that allows you to run cables or charge batteries without navigating a ‘spaghetti junction’ at your feet or losing any valuable desk space.

Heap believes that balancing the often diverging properties is key to great material selection and development. LAPOD’s storage pod is made from high-quality rigid P.E.T. felt as it is super durable while being tactile and aesthetically pleasing. The desk is slim, lightweight, resilient, and completely hand washable. This lap desk is currently topping our list of work-from-home essentials!

Click here to shop!

Designer: Tony Heap

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The best 2-in-1 laptops for 2024

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We’re still waiting for the perfect hybrid PC that can work as well as a tablet as it does as a laptop. As we enter 2024, it seems like many companies have also given up on that ideal — but Microsoft, Apple and Samsung still have some options to consider. And we’re still seeing OS tweaks to make iOS and Android more usable for larger displays. If you’re on the hunt for your next computer and are dead-set on it being a 2-in-1, we’ve collected our current top picks here plus all of the things you should know before making a purchase.

Factors to consider before buying a 2-in-1 laptop

When you’re shopping for a 2-in-1, there are some basic criteria to keep in mind. First, look at the spec sheet to see how heavy the tablet is (alone, and with the keyboard). Most modern hybrids weigh less than 2 pounds, with the 1.94-pound Surface Pro 9 being one of the heaviest around. The iPad Pro 12.9 (2022) and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9+ are both slightly lighter. If the overall weight of the tablet and its keyboard come close to 3 pounds, you’ll be better off getting an ultraportable laptop.

You’ll also want to opt for an 11-inch or 12-inch screen instead of a smaller 10-inch model. Bigger displays will make multitasking easier, plus their companion keyboards will be much better spaced. Also, try to get at least 6GB of RAM if you can for better performance.

Finally, while some 2-in-1s offer built-in LTE or 5G connectivity, not everyone will want to pay the premium for it. An integrated cellular radio makes checking emails or replying to messages on the go far more convenient. But it also often costs more, and that’s not counting what you’ll pay for data. And, as for 5G — you can hold off on it unless you live within range of a mmWave beacon. Coverage is still spotty and existing nationwide networks use the slower sub-6 technology that’s barely faster than LTE. For now, tethering a PC to your phone is still the best way to get online.

These machines still have their limits, of course. Since they’re smaller than proper laptops, they tend to have less-powerful processors. Keyboards are often less sturdy, with condensed layouts and shallower travel. Plus, they’re almost always tablets first, leaving you to buy a keyboard case separately. (And those ain’t cheap!) So, you can’t always assume the advertised price is what you’ll actually spend on the 2-in-1 you want.

See Also:

Sometimes, getting a third-party keyboard might be just as good, and they’re often cheaper than first-party offerings. If you’re looking to save some money, Logitech’s Slim Folio is an affordable option, and if you don’t need your keyboard to attach to your tablet, Logitech’s K780 Multi-Device wireless keyboard is also a good pick.

While we’ve typically made sure to include a budget 2-in-1 in previous years, this time there isn’t a great choice. We would usually pick a Surface Go, but the latest model is still too expensive. Other alternatives, like cheaper Android tablets, are underpowered and don’t offer a great multitasking interface. If you want something around $500 that’s thin, lightweight and long-lasting, you’re better off this year looking at a conventional laptop (like those on our best budget PCs list).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-2-in-1-laptops-173038508.html?src=rss

Why the notch on the new Apple MacBook is a TERRIBLE idea from a User Interface perspective…

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The upper part of a laptop screen is often reserved for mission-critical digital elements like menus and toolbars, search bars, filenames, internet browser tabs, and other crucial information. Putting a notch there is just counterintuitive and downright senseless.

The notch was supposed to be temporary. It was supposed to eventually be replaced by a hole punch camera, or by a transparent display, but it was never supposed to stick around for so long that it manifested itself onto another range of products. Putting a notch on the iPhone could be classified as innovation back in 2017 (complex facial mapping and recognition on a handheld device… pretty impressive), however, carrying it to the laptop feels lazy. Moreover, the notch on Apple’s M1 Pro MacBooks doesn’t even do FaceID, there’s a TouchID Key on the Keyboard for authentication. It’s there because someone at Apple thought slimmer bezels would look nice, echoing a rare Jony-Ive-level of narrow-minded thinking that gave us the iPhone Bendgate, the odd Magic Mouse charger, and the lightning connector on the backside of the 1st Gen Apple Pencil.

Now Apple’s most obvious solution was to simply turn the upper bar into a black no-go zone while using programs in full-screen, so the notch doesn’t eat into the software’s interface elements. You don’t need viral internet star bastion-of-human-sensibility Khaby Lame to tell you that this basically proves that the notch wasn’t necessary to begin with. Through the duration of the keynote, Apple’s team spent a grand total of 9 seconds highlighting the notch (without ever using the word ‘notch’), and even in those 9 seconds, all that VP of Product Design Kate Bergeron ever mentioned was that the upper bezel was made 60% thinner… a feature that’s only purpose was to make the overall screen on the MacBook Pro bigger. Nothing else.

So what’s inside that notch? Well, just a camera. One single 1080p camera. This means the MacBook Pro has a notch, but doesn’t have the benefits of it, i.e., FaceID or Memojis. One can’t help but feel baffled and slightly short-changed here. From what I can tell, the notch is visible ONLY on your desktop and when you have multiple windows open… but when you maximize a task or program, the top of your display turns into a black bar, making that entire strip of screen useless for 99% of your time using the laptop. Apple does this with its own apps too – Safari, Logic, Facetime – going to show that even its own apps can’t account for the notch.

It’s a shame that the notch is the only glaring problem I have with the laptop. It sits there continuously triggering me like talking to someone who is blissfully unaware that they have spinach stuck in their teeth. If you can look past the notch, the laptops are great. The new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips push the laptop’s performance and efficiency off the charts, giving you a laptop that’s VOLUMES faster than even its older iterations. The new laptops use Liquid Retina XDR displays and come with powerful speakers that fire both upward and downward for stellar audio. The ports finally make a comeback too, and the TouchBar’s gone the way of the dodo, being replaced by a row of function keys. The laptops come with up to 8 mind-numbing terabytes of storage and 64 GB of memory, with the M1 Max chip having 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, making the laptop an absolute beast of a machine while still having a respectable 21 hours of battery life thanks to how efficient the new chips are. If you can look past the notch… the new Apple MacBook Pros have a lot to offer. I for one, am patiently waiting for the notch’s demise.

Watch the 2021 MacBook Pro introduction video below.





Innovative Laptop Designs that are better than the MacBook!

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Today, most of us are wholly dependant on our laptops, and to be honest, I could not survive without mine as well! It stores almost everything I hold sacred, and I need it for various purposes – from work to leisure! And most of us do spend the majority of our day working on our laptops and are able to maintain a consistently high level of productivity and efficiency, thanks to them. There’s no doubt that Apple’s MacBook is hands down one of the most popular laptops there is! I mean I own one myself and I am a hardcore MacBook fan. But there does come along a super cool and innovative laptop design once in a while, that makes me question my commitment and loyalty to Apple. And we’ve managed to curate a whole collection of such designs! From a maverick laptop concept that lets you adjust the height and angle of its display to a flexible laptop that could revolutionize the computer category – these inventive laptop designs might just be the perfect replacement for your beloved MacBook!

Meet the Paysage, a conceptual computing device that targets both laptop and desktop users with a unique hybrid design. Its design features a two-part construction – the main CPU, which sits within the keyboard-unit (like most laptops), and the screen, which rather than resting on the top of the keyboard, comes with a flexible construction that wraps around the top and the bottom, sandwiching the keyboard in between. This unique build is what sets the Paysage apart. Flip open half the screen and you’ve got yourself a standard laptop/netbook, equipped with a keyboard, trackpad, four USB-C ports, an Aux input, and its dedicated speakers.

For someone who is used to multi-monitor setup and using a laptop is for mere portability, the Compal Airttach is reason enough to rethink the traditional setups. The Taiwanese manufacturer reimagines the general perspective of a multi-monitor setup and gives you the freedom for enhanced productivity. This laptop has a 13-inch main screen having canted edges with the option to join the other two 13-inch displays for a 48: 9 aspect ratio wide-screen real estate. When not needed the screens can be removed for a seamless workflow.

The NeckBook, as its name should rather aptly suggest, is a laptop that has a display with a ‘neck’. Unlike conventional laptops that connect their displays directly to the base using a set of hinges, the NeckBook adds a sliding rail (or a neck) between them. Once you flip open your lid, as you would with any conventional laptop, the NeckBook lets you pull the display upwards, adjusting its height. The display slides up and down the neck, and can swivel left and right too, giving you an infinite amount of control over your viewing experience – something a regular laptop can’t.

Meet the Cubitus, a concept unique in its own right because it merges the portability of a laptop while still bringing the elevation of a laptop stand. The name Cubitus comes from the Latin word for elbow, which is an ancient unit of length. So in a way, this portable machine replicates the flexibility of human arm movement. Adding to the premise of an all-in-one design, the Cubitus includes a digitally displayed keyboard and trackpad. In addition, these accessories will be customizable according to the user’s needs, making the setup more individualized.

AIO Phone-Book with Detachable Smartphone Trackpad

AIO Phone-Book with Detachable Smartphone Trackpad

The AIO Phone-book does a bunch of incredibly radical things, let’s count them down. Firstly, it comes with a built-in smartphone that detaches when you need, and docks back to turn into a trackpad. Secondly, to account for the size discrepancy between smartphones and conventional trackpads, the phone sports a rolling display that allows it to not just expand, but bend too, turning into a mouse. If that wasn’t enough, the empty docking region on the laptop even acts as a wireless charging zone, for items like your AirPods. It’s possible that the AIO Phone-book, even as a concept, bites off more than it can chew… but hey, being creative and innovative ain’t a crime, right?

The way the Framework laptop is built reminds me of Phonebloks – a video that went viral in 2013, outlining a modular phone with swappable components. Phonebloks would present the holy grail of consumer electronics by putting the power right in the hands of the consumer. The block-based smartphone would allow you to change batteries, upgrade storage, or replace an old camera or broken screen by simply sliding the old part out and putting the new one in. The idea seemed simple, and Google even tried their hand at building it, but complications arose midway (I suspect it also had something to do with the marketing team saying it was bad for business)… however, Framework is bringing that idea to laptops, which could really use modularity given how expensive laptops can be, and how people tend to hold onto one laptop for at least 3-5 years, if not longer.

Meet the Aurora 7, a seven-screen real estate space to expand your productivity, and that too with the promise of packing it up in an instant and carrying it to your living room or even to your pal’s place. The company is in its infancy stage and has created the Aurora 7 laptop prototype that it plans to sell to enthusiasts already – moving into the future. The company plans to have the commercial version ready as soon as possible. Speaking of the design and its form, the laptop looks more like a Swiss Army Knife of the PC world has a 17.3-inch main screen. Then three other 17.3-inch display panels swivel out – one in landscape orientation that sits above the main display and the other two on either side in portrait configuration. All of them have a resolution of 3840×2160, running at 60Hz.

Equipped with an 8″ touchscreen display, the Lavie is slightly larger than the iPad Mini. The convertible laptop comes with an Intel Iris Xe graphics card and an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 mobile processor built into it (you could say that the LaVie presents Intel with its Hail Mary moment after a series of commercial failures), along with 256Gb of SSD storage and 16Gb of RAM. This pretty much makes it a good portable laptop to have on you for quick work sessions and presentations (and a neat alternative to Chromebooks), but fold the laptop’s keyboard all the way back and the LaVie Mini is a completely new beast.

Charley Bircumshaw designed a modular hybrid of a laptop-tablet so that creatives who feel inspired by more than one artistic outlet will always have their very own ‘one-stop-shop.’ By inserting bespoke hinges to the tablet, the purpose, structure, and facade of the overall design changes in order to provide alternative forms of usage. By simply removing the laptop’s keyboard and attaching a music-making unit, the product turns into your very own DJ module. Making up the design are some key components: two, fullscreen tablets, a music module, a computer keyboard, a couple of bespoke hinges, and electric grooves. Each part comes to comprise the mutability that transforms this particular design into something special.

As a refreshing approach to what a laptop could be – designer Heesung Choi from Seoul has come up with the concept idea he calls “Clutop”. A laptop that has a swanky design, since it folds into itself to become a clutch bag for stylish portability. The “normcore” design adaptation means you’ll have a lightweight laptop that matches your fashion quotient. Heesung claims it to be the world’s smallest laptop which is eye-popping in its own rights. Clutop has a screen aspect ratio of 16:9, and when closed, the 1:2 body ratio makes it fairly easy to carry along. Open it up for your tasks and you get a widescreen display that looks beautiful.

This multi-monitor laptop’s detachable screens can be used as a standalone tablet

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For someone who is used to multi-monitor setup and using a laptop is for mere portability, the Compal Airttach is reason enough to rethink the traditional setups.

A laptop brings the promise of portability that prompts many users to go for the proven useful gadget. Although it compromises on the multi-monitor setup aspect if you are carrying your laptop around, the configuration has its own set of advantages. But who says, you cannot have the best of both worlds – ie the portability of a laptop and the versatility of a multi-monitor setup on the go? What’s interesting is the fact that not only it brings the compactness aspect to a multi-monitor setup with a laptop, it is actually much more.

The Taiwanese manufacturer reimagines the general perspective of a multi-monitor setup and gives you the freedom for enhanced productivity. This laptop has a 13-inch main screen having canted edges with the option to join the other two 13-inch displays for a 48: 9 aspect ratio wide-screen real estate.

When not needed the screens can be removed for a seamless workflow. The feature I like the most is the ability to use these extra screens as a standalone big-screen tablet(s). Both the screen have kickstands, so you can use them in either vertical or horizontal orientation. All this comes with the luxury of wire-free clutter – another advantage that can’t be ignored.

Compal Airttach’s main laptop screen has no bezels, and the secondary displays also have visually no bezels. This means when in connected multi-screen configuration, the whole setup looks like one big wide-screen. When you’re done with the day’s work, the three-piece gadget can be easily carried in a folio-like bag which clearly shows the compact nature of the design.

The Airttach is still in the concept phase, and it’ll be interesting to see the details when Compal releases a prototype and hopefully a commercially viable product. Do expect Airttach to burn a hole in your pocket since the hardware and technology required to accomplish such a design will cost a lot!

Designer: Compal