Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 224 posts

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#191

Post by mrep »

mgiannopoulos wrote: post #189
mrep wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which model are you currently on because my top of the line 2013 15 inch MBP is still running like a champ. If you are willing to try out windows, the surface pros are actually pretty sweat. I got one for my gf for grad school and will probably get one for myself if my MBP ever dies.

Retina 2012 MBP but the battery is practically dead and the monitor seems to be not bright as it used to be. I wouldn’t mind a CPU/RAM upgrade.

Don't know if you'll get much of a cpu upgrade these days but ram definitely helps. I got mine with 16GB of ram to be future proof since I saw that ram tends to be a major cause for slowdowns as developers constantly eat up more as computers get better. This seems especially brilliant in hindsight considering top of the lines are still at 16GB.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#192

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

keyle wrote: post #78
_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until much more recently than I care to admit I'd never experienced an TrackPoint, and was (consequently) of the opinion that laptops were nearly unusable without a table and external mouse. TrackPoints make laptops actually usable (for me, at least).

yeah I had an old thinkpad that had one (pre-lenovo). Once I got used to it, it was the best pointing device by far. But anyone trying to use it on my laptop would instantly go 'nah-ah'.

I have an older X200 which does lack a trackpad. I'm currently using a X230 which does have a trackpad, but I ended up physically disabling it (and the finger-print reader) simply by unplugging them, so when the Microsoft-powered 'teaching interface' in my own class failed (well, actually lots of times, but memorably – in two different semesters – when the students were giving presentations) I had to put my own machine in service as the 'projector driver', almost of the students were flummoxed by the TrackPoint (since the TrackPad obviously won't work, being unplugged), despite being business students who (I thought) should be familiar with ThinkPad and their TrackPoints.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#193

Post by nilkn »

brazzledazzle wrote: post #179
camillomiller wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was here at computex and I could try a preview unit before the announcement. It’s pretty cool bu ASUS has a bit of work to do on the response times. The interface is a bit laggy, but I think it’s totally fixable in software before they’ll come out. Trying it in person, it struck me as a pretty cool concept. I could totally see apple taking a similar approach.

I think Apple may replace the entire bottom half with touch screen. The touchpad is getting bigger and the keyboard flatter.

This is exactly what I'm expecting too. It's more practical than replacing the entire keyboard, and it would allow them to maintain their current strategy of avoiding touchscreens on the screen itself.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#194

Post by alkonaut »

meuk wrote: post #112
sheerun wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just display what's on main screen and have nice touch support without having your fingerprints visible on screen and wiggling laptop.

That could work well! Although it's not really what the article suggests. If you have Spotify on your touchpad like in the picture in the article, that means that you can't use your touchpad - I imagine it would be bloody annoying.

There has to be some kind of quick switch to toggle between direct input to the small screen, and using it as a touchpad. E.g drag in from outside the edge of the small screen to begin using it as a touchpad. Drag from the inside and out off the screen to switch to direct touch.

For obvious reasons it can’t be both a touchpad and a touch screen at the same time.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#195

Post by deno »

TomK32 wrote: post #68
jeswin wrote: post #13

I think this is a wonderful idea, given that touchscreen responsiveness and power optimization have been a focus of research over the last decade. At worst it's a touch pad, at best it's so much more. Of course a lot depends on how software developers will embrace it - and I hope Linux users get some love. (I wish Asus and reviewers will stay away from gimmicks like watching movies on it.) In any case, far better tha…

Re linux support, my bet is that the small screen is just another eDP and easy peasy to use.

Ahh, expecting hardware vendors to behave in a sane and rational manner. Good luck with that ;)

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#196

Post by AlexandrB »

brazzledazzle wrote: post #179
camillomiller wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was here at computex and I could try a preview unit before the announcement. It’s pretty cool bu ASUS has a bit of work to do on the response times. The interface is a bit laggy, but I think it’s totally fixable in software before they’ll come out. Trying it in person, it struck me as a pretty cool concept. I could totally see apple taking a similar approach.

I think Apple may replace the entire bottom half with touch screen. The touchpad is getting bigger and the keyboard flatter.

That would make for a pretty terrible laptop. iPad pro with keyboard cover would be better at that point.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#197

Post by reitanqild »

ajross wrote: post #158
djsumdog wrote: post #148

Dave 2D had a great video review on this product. What makes this totally different from the touch bar is with the touch bar, you have to wait for developers to add support in their products (or as a dev, write your own tooling). Apple has the muscle to simply make everyone support their crappy bar. The ZenBook screen is usable right away by anybody. You can just drag any window there. It can be your Steam chat while…

> I wonder if it will work on Linux. If it's on one of the built-in Intel graphics outputs, then it will likely work out of the box (though of course none of the desktops will understand where it's supposed to be and probably put it in the wrong place, etc...). If it's some crazy piece of hardware Asus found, then maybe never.

> (though of course none of the desktops will understand where it's supposed to be and probably put it in the wrong place, etc...).

Changing display layout on modern Linux desktops is really really simple IMO.

You just open display settings and drag them into the layout you want.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#199

Post by slantyyz »

cozzyd wrote: post #168
b212 wrote: post #120

I'm never ever going to buy another ZenBook again. I got one for my girlfriend and another one for my dad, around the same time one of my dev friends also decided to move to ZenBook from rMBP. Compared to Macbooks it looks, feels and works cheap (the trackpad, d'oh), but that's not the major issue as almost everything is that way excepting Surafaces/XPSes. But the real issue here is this: hinges. They're horrible. Th…

Hmm the hinges on my zenbook ux305 have seemed solid. Can't speak to other models. Have had it for almost two years.

Same for my zenbook ux501. I find the build quality to be not far away from a 2011 15" MBP.

Re: Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen

#200

Post by qubex »

nilkn wrote: post #193
brazzledazzle wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple may replace the entire bottom half with touch screen. The touchpad is getting bigger and the keyboard flatter.

This is exactly what I'm expecting too. It's more practical than replacing the entire keyboard, and it would allow them to maintain their current strategy of avoiding touchscreens on the screen itself.

I’m expecting that shift to coincide with the adoption of ARM-based A-series CPUs to offset for the double energetic consumption of the screens and to provide an ”obvious to the typical consumer that doesn’t understand techy stuff” advantage from these new laptops. Late 2019 with the next iteration of macOS after Mojave seems about right, so users will be able to load iPad apps from the iTunes App Store on it from the get-go.
Post reply on HN