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Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

wsj.com

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Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#71

Post by toast0 »

freeone3000 wrote: post #42
unethical_ban wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if, and hear me out on this, the person needs to take their workstation with them to multiple locations? Or, as can be the case with smaller quarters, simply wants to? Yes, desktops have this featureset. Why don't laptops, is the point of the article. (Answer: either laziness, arrogant design aesthetic, or NSA conspiracy)

Laptops, by necessity, have smaller fans, since they're smaller. Same amount of cooling with a smaller fan means the fans spin faster, and faster fans are louder. Laptops simply can't have acceptable performance with adequate cooling unless you're willing to compromise on either noise, or running x86.

If you stuck the processor behind the screen, you could get a lot more airflow.

Let the bottom be essentially be a battery, keyboard, mouse, and a docking station. And the lid be processor, memory, a m.2 for storage and an m.2 for wireless. Put a big, but thin fan on top of the processor and lots of venting on the side. Probably won't be very thin though.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#72

Post by notriddle »

drcode wrote: post #24
sandworm101 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> or at least a physical cover. I want a mechanical microphone switch too. Being seen can be embarrassing but being caught saying something can end your career instantly. See that school board that all had to resign after they were caught badmouthing parents.

Of course, let's not forget that the core problem here is the "end your career instantly" part, not the design of the microphone.

Sending a video feed that you don't want to send is not okay, even if it doesn't put you out of a job. The excessive severity is just exacerbating something that would be a problem anyway.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#73

Post by anotheryou »

Make usb-c docking work...

I got an older dell xps that get's heart trouble on 3rd party usb-c chargers (short freezes under moderate load) and is throttled even through the expensive dell dock.

I got a lenovo with linux (maybe linux is at fault) where hdmi through usb-c causes all sorts of issues.

---

allow to limit charging to 80% (dell can do it, should double battery life. Too bad my xps batteries die a bloaty death every 2 years anyways... :)

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#75

Post by olyjohn »

asdff wrote: post #64

If we are to redesign the laptop why can't we admit that it's current design and use cases are at odds? People are running zoom and docker and slack and a dozen other things at once. We waste more resources than ever doing the same chat/etc. stuff we've been doing for 25 years. Things aren't moving faster, fans are going full tilt and CPUs throttle down. What the people need more than anything is for manufacturers to…

It's the same craze affecting smartphones. We get rid of useful features like headphone jacks just to save 0.25mm of thickness. Thickness that nobody would ever notice in a practical use case. We buy thin, fragile phones and then put them in big thick cases.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#76

Post by throwaway74737 »

Smartphones come with many physical sensors. Laptops are bigger and have more power, so they should have just as many.

- Very good quality cameras front and back, including IR, dot projector and flash

- Analog audio I/O

- GPS receiver

- 3D accelerometer and gyroscope

- Magnetometer

- Ambient light level and color temperature

- Ambient temperature, air pressure, hygrometer

- Radiation detector

- Wasn't there some research into a user-facing radar that could detect gestures?

- GPIO and SDR

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#77

Post by freeone3000 »

toast0 wrote: post #71
freeone3000 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptops, by necessity, have smaller fans, since they're smaller. Same amount of cooling with a smaller fan means the fans spin faster, and faster fans are louder. Laptops simply can't have acceptable performance with adequate cooling unless you're willing to compromise on either noise, or running x86.

If you stuck the processor behind the screen, you could get a lot more airflow. Let the bottom be essentially be a battery, keyboard, mouse, and a docking station. And the lid be processor, memory, a m.2 for storage and an m.2 for wireless. Put a big, but thin fan on top of the processor and lots of venting on the side. Probably won't be very thin though.

This is how the surfacebook has been built. It's a problem because (1) you don't actually have more room on the top than the bottom, since these are the same size (2) the side vents are actually less surface area than simply having the bottom be fans. It doesn't work out well, there's just no way to have the airflow.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#78

Post by notriddle »

toast0 wrote: post #71
freeone3000 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptops, by necessity, have smaller fans, since they're smaller. Same amount of cooling with a smaller fan means the fans spin faster, and faster fans are louder. Laptops simply can't have acceptable performance with adequate cooling unless you're willing to compromise on either noise, or running x86.

If you stuck the processor behind the screen, you could get a lot more airflow. Let the bottom be essentially be a battery, keyboard, mouse, and a docking station. And the lid be processor, memory, a m.2 for storage and an m.2 for wireless. Put a big, but thin fan on top of the processor and lots of venting on the side. Probably won't be very thin though.

In addition to freeone3000's problems, having the CPU in the screen also means you need a sturdier way to keep it vertical, instead of using the tiny hinges that normal "bottom heavy" laptops use.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#79

Post by fwip »

throwaway74737 wrote: post #76

Smartphones come with many physical sensors. Laptops are bigger and have more power, so they should have just as many. - Very good quality cameras front and back, including IR, dot projector and flash - Analog audio I/O - GPS receiver - 3D accelerometer and gyroscope - Magnetometer - Ambient light level and color temperature - Ambient temperature, air pressure, hygrometer - Radiation detector - Wasn't there some rese…

How do any of these, beyond the cameras, improve the work-from-home experience?

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#80

Post by rchaud »

mvip wrote: post #13

> Let’s Redesign the Laptop for a Work-from-Home Era Isn't that just called a desktop? ;)

No, because your home is your home, and your desktop might be located somewhere where other people are around, e.g. spouse, roommates, parents or children. That's not really workable for video calls.
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