I cannot possibly imagine what I'd do with a "rollable" laptop, but I do see one tiny benefit to foldable phones; reduced pocket consumption. Having a smaller device or a device that gets smaller is just two different ways to solve my main beef with modern phablets.
Personally, I wish someone would just make a clamshell smart phone where I open it up to a single screen on one half and a physical keyboard on another, but that's a different discussion.
That all said, I'm curious to hear from the people who want this device. What's drawing you to it? What problem does this type of display on a laptop solve for you? What are your concerns about its robustness or longevity, if any?
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I'm not sure about robustness, would have to wait and see tests.
Working I usually prefer to have 2 normal + laptop screen when docked instead of a single extra-wide ones some at the office use when docking their laptops.
Part of it is that much software today is designed for 16:9 or 16:10 layouts and work less well in 4:3 squared form fashions (why splitting an external wide-screen is often less optimal than 2 "normal" 16:9 externals).
Now, for on the road use I've bought an external 16:9 screen but sitting next to the laptop the head-turn to the left/right is a tad too large to be fully comfortable (When docked I sit a tad further away so the 2+1 screens give a smaller angle).
Finally, coming back to this one, if as the article mentions you get 2x 16:9 layouts stacked on top of each other it'll be pretty neat for coding/debugging/testing. Top part for browser or other target environment and lower part for debugger/code editor without needing to lug anything apart from my computer with a reasonable head-turning.
Just physically tried the layout when writing this with my external USB-screen and it's probably as comfortable as goes without external keyboard+external screens, probably even an improvement over just regular laptop screen since you can look more straight ahead on the top part than with a normal laptop on a table!
I don't want a laptop larger than about 13.5" because it wouldn't fit nicely in my backpack anymore. So, the only way for me to add screen real estate is to expand vertically.
That said, the bendy screen tech is far away from having a place in my life. I value durability very highly in my technology.
[1]: these pictures should help you visualize it: https://postimg.cc/gallery/6pz9Gz1
The phone I had in mind is akin to Motorola's RAZR Ultra. As opposed to opening like a book the way Samsung's latest does, unfolding the "top" half provides a smaller-than-average smartphone screen, leaving room for a Blackberry-style keyboard below.
I'm in that niche market where I do not need a large screen on my phone since I am mostly reading text as opposed to watching media. It's not likely I'll ever get precisely what I want due to practicality of both manufacturing and what the general market demands are. I've come to terms with it, but if someone ever drops such a device, I will get in line for it.
- https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator
It's really too bad that they can't do software, because the hardware is amazing
The rollable laptop seems to be something in the same vein? It is much smaller than a laptop with that screen size.
Is this your own experience? I’ve personally rarely suffered for horizontal space, but very often for a bit more vertical space, especially with web-browsing now being so vertically cluttered.
I think many workflows are top-to-bottom in a way that benefits from more vertical space to keep it all in view - though development is probably exceptionally well-suited. My current setup (cribbed from an ex-colleague) is two vertical screens side-by-side, and I miss it whenever I’m working with a horizontal display.
But your avoidance of vertical splits likely comes for the same reasons I have a rotated screen - shrinking the vertical space in a buffer by any amount on a horizontal display quickly hits some kind of ergonomic limit where you just can’t see enough of the file at a time. I find that not only splits, but also console output, search results , etc. take up too much vertical space.
- The OS toolbar
- The browser tab and url bar
- often: A fixed website header
- sometimes: A fixed website footer
Sometimes I'm left with only ~600px of vertical content space. Which isn't much for reading content, much less for skimming it or getting an overview.
You can have vertical tabs in Firefox without any plugins now.
Regarding headers, in my browser, I have a built-in option to disable sticky headers. I don't remember any sticky footers.
Are website header and footer that common nowadays? I tend to think it is more a thing from the past nowadays.
Basically, upper part of this roll-up becomes a good "main-screen" and you can still have an auxillary lower part for extra stuff.
https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/lenovos-tran...
it would have been _amazing_ for usage as a manual/teaching aid in a shop setting.
Apple and Samsung are the only large manufacturers shipping competent pen tech anymore.
> The other audible quirk is the ThinkBook’s “you’re doing it wrong” alarm: If you start closing the lid with the screen extended, or you move the screen while it’s rolling, the laptop emits a high-pitched tone. It’s the most 90s-motherboard-ass thing I’ve heard in a long time, but I find its needling sound oddly charming.
Would I expect to read this in a corporate press release? Not really. Would I expect to find some author trying to be a bit funny in a Verge article? Probably. Is it borderline offensive? I don't think so, wouldn't even think about it unless I read this comment first.
I'm not really bothered by the profanity, but WTF does "90s-motherboard-ass" even mean as a modifier for a noun?
If you're not going to use it as a single screen, it's not that much better than carrying around a USB-C portable monitor, unless you switch locations several times each day.
there are so many things I don't understand, same with foldable phones. I am also super happy companies like framework exist, give me a few choices, I don't need much, I want to forget times of tetrising my PC when I was a kid.
By wanting to, and then choosing to?
> Now I have a rollable screen, what does it even mean..
Did you.. click on the link?
There are plenty of brands with a more limited product range and simpler market positioning, as you just pointed out. If those are a good fit for you and you like them, that's great. There's a reason macbooks and chromebooks are so popular.
I honestly don't get why someone would feel compelled to publicly complain about the very existence of products that they don't want or need or understand.
I like this idea, I wouldn't buy one but I always want more vertical space on a laptop screen.
I think it's telling that they aren't rolling this out in a ThinkPad-branded device. The bendy screen tech isn't really there yet. The screen surface is still wiggly, and reliability still isn't what it should be.
Exactly. I've been doing this with a tablet on a stand for a few years..there's a whole subreddit on having ergonomic travel computers: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/
... anything for installs, I guess.-
When did we stop doing laptop trackballs? (I know, I know, the last laptop with a trackball is able to legally drink by now)
bonus side effect: if someone spills a drink across the coffee shop table you don't have to try and grab it before the liquid spreads to beneath it
Dynamically resizable displays have been a thing for like 2 decades - check out any GUI VM with guest extensions.
Maybe if it unrolled horizontally instead I would hate it less.
I am happy to see a laptop with a portrait orientation, though. The only thing landscape is good for is watching video. Everything else is better in portrait.
crinkly•6mo ago
grues-dinner•6mo ago