Tag Archives: foldable laptop

HP Imagine 2023 showcases streamer goodies, a new All-in-One PC, and more

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The world premiere HP Imagine showcase event has now come and gone, and with it, HP announced (and subsequently released) a flurry of new products ahead of the Q4 holiday shopping rush. A rather large chunk of the conference focused on HP’s new suite of AI-powered software, but they also highlighted two new computers – including the brand’s newest foldable laptop, the Envy Spectre Fold, as well as the new Envy Move All-in-One PC which looks kind of like a portable iMac for Windows users.

HyperX, which is HP’s gaming arm, also has three new gizmos for streamers to play with this holiday season: the HyperX Vision S Webcam, the HyperX Audio Mixer Audio Interface, and the HyperX Caster Microphone and Camera Arm.

Designer: Hewlett-Packard (HP)

The HP Envy Move seems to be the flagship of HP’s late-2023 lineup, which makes sense given that it’s HP’s first computer to merge the power of a mid-tier desktop with the portability of a laptop, allowing it to be picked up and moved to any part of the home thanks to its built-in rechargeable battery. It’s not a cutting-edge gaming PC by any means, but its built-in 23.8″ 2K display, 13th gen Intel i5 CPU, 16 gigs of LDDR5 RAM, and 1TB of solid state (SSD) storage make it a solid workstation with light gaming and media capabilities at its $899.99 asking price.

If you’re a streamer, however, you’ll likely want to pay more attention to the slew of useful tools HyperX has made available, such as the HyperX Vision S webcam which records in 4K at 60 frames per second for a relatively affordable MSRP of $199.99. It’s also advertised to include a magnetic privacy cover for when you want your private moments to be completely private, worry free, without needing to take the entire thing down and set it up again later when it’s time to stream again.

HyperX has also introduced its new microphone and camera arm, called the HyperX Caster, which looks like a nifty tool to quickly get a wide variety of XLR and USB mics set up and ready to go on any desk – without all the usual hassle. It appears to have plenty of reach, and even contains a built-in cable management system to declutter your streaming area of any loose cables. Unlike most of the other products announced at Imagine, you’ll need to wait until February 2024 before you can get your hands on this one.

Also available starting in 2024 is the new HyperX Audio Mixer, a “professional-quality” USB audio mixer that is compatible with XLR mics – out of the box, at that. Whether or not it competes against comparable mixers like the Elgato Stream Deck (or Razer’s equivalent) remains to be seen, but given the rising popularity of streaming across nearly every social media platform and every interest category, it’s exciting to watch more manufacturers like HP enter the space with their own products.

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LG Gram Fold offers another foldable laptop that no one has asked for yet

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Foldable phones are, slowly but surely, becoming a common sight in markets, but these aren’t the only devices that are trying to change the form of computing, figuratively and literally. Their numbers are drastically fewer, but laptops that are all screen and that can fold in half also exist if you know where to look for them. Just like with foldable phones, however, there are big reasons why they aren’t flying off shelves, reasons that don’t seem to matter much to LG. Although it is better known for its TVs and appliances, the company has also dabbled with lightweight laptops under its “Gram” brand. Now it’s expanding that roster with a not-so-lightweight laptop that is pretty much a large screen that can fold in half.

Designer: LG

Just like with foldable phones, the rationale for foldable laptops is having a larger screen without actually doubling the size of the laptop itself, which is already quite a big device. The solution is to completely remove the keyboard, settling for a removable Bluetooth alternative, and getting the screen to fold in half so that it could still be stowed in the same space as a regular laptop. Unlike touch-centric phones, however, doing away with the essential keyboard isn’t as easy to do, which is one of the major design puzzles foldable laptops have yet to solve.

That hasn’t stopped major PC manufacturers from trying to launch such products, though with extremely limited success. These include the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, now in its second-gen, and the ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold, which seems to have evaporated from shelves. The basic design is similar: you have a large screen that you can fold into a laptop angle and then put a thin wireless keyboard on top of its lower half, or use it as a large monitor on its own.

The LG Gram Fold that was just announced in South Korea is now different in terms of design, but it seems that it will be setting itself apart in one critical aspect. It runs on a 13th-gen Intel processor, unlike its peers who are already years behind in processing power and technology. It also has some pretty solid specs, but in almost all other cases, the formula is still the same. It supports pen input, turning it into a viable digital art device, though the built-in graphics might be a little underwhelming. It also weighs around 1.2kg, which makes the Gram a misnomer yet again.

And like its peers, it is also quite expensive, running around $3,800, presuming it even launches globally. It’s an inaccessible piece of novelty, one whose usability in the real world is still highly in question. Along with the lack of activity from other manufacturers, LG’s unexpected dip into this nascent and niche market is anything but puzzling. Foldable laptops might still be the future of portable computing, but it’s questionable whether people will be willing to part ways with that amount of money for them at this point in time.

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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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This foldable laptop can be carried around like a clutch for the ultimate tech-fashion statement

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Gadgets these days are shrinking in size owing to the technological innovations and design implementations that compliment them. There are foldable phones like Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Surface Duo that are radically changing how we perceive our mobile devices to be like. Laptops have also seen this paradigm shift – with young buyers preferring lightweight folding screen products that promise ultra-productivity on the go.

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. Then you have the keyboard with a trackpad on one side, and a secondary UI for multitasking, running on top. This UI comes handy for keeping all the widgets and controls for easy access.

The unibody lip that folds up to secure the laptop in closed configuration acts as a smooth palm rest, but it can very well be a monochrome screen to extend the multitasking aspect further. It could even house a slim battery pack to give Clutop some extra juice when the main battery runs out.

The colors proposed for Clutop by the designer are equally upbeat. Urban dwellers will fancy the bold carbon, baby lavender, subtle light grey, and cool green options. The flap can be had in leather or fabric texture depending on the user’s preferences. So, do you think this fashion-forward laptop design should make its way beyond the blueprint stage?

Designer: Heesung Choi

Dell made an intriguing pair of dual-screen and foldable tablet concept PCs

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We may have left 2019 in the rearview mirror, but we clearly haven't given up on the foldable and dual-screen dreams just yet. In addition to a new flagship XPS 13 and a 5G-ready business laptop, Dell is here at CES 2020 with a few concept devi...