Whatever happened to Japanese laptops? • Hacker News Board

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#91

Post by jpatokal » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:03 AM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #74

benzesandbetter wrote: post #54

In the early 2000's Japan was way ahead in the Sub-notebook market. As subnotebooks and tablets have come into popularity and wide availability worldwide, this arbitrage opportunity has narrowed significantly. In 2007, I picked up a Panasonic R6 (10" LetsNote/toughbook). It was a great little machine, and I ran both Windows and Debian on it. The keyboard was a bit cramped, and the circular trackpad was pretty lame, b…

> The keyboard is both english and Japanese So, Japanese, then? Or does it have English labels on the modifier keys?

This usually implies a QWERTY keyboard with Japanese kana printed on the keys and a way to switch modes:

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSH1YLn...

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#92

Post by dep_b » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:15 AM UTC

I bought a Sony VAIO MultiFlip 13A for my wife because she loves Sony's design and she wanted a touchscreen, so we bought the basic model with an SSD.

a) of a 128GB SSD, only 90GB was left after Sony took wat they thought was necessary

b) the fan was incredibly noisy, it would crash randomly and would eventually die and take the notebook with it

c) when put in a less performant mode, it's really less performant and still gets really hot

d) the touch screen freaks out and other issues once it gets hot

e) it still ran Windows

That's what happened to Japanese laptops in my personal experience. Now I could eventually fix a) and b), e) was still required for Adobe software and it's still a freaking hot slow laptop that freaks out once in a while.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#93

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:15 AM UTC

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87

Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

[deleted]

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#94

Post by kw71 » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:15 AM UTC

notoothpaste wrote: post #75

dba7dba wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was probably more like having some engineers and guys in shop/factory work weekend to meet the demand, on top of what they were already supposed to do.

In order to create a prototype with a port in a different location, they would need, at the very least, to produce a one-off motherboard PCB, and a one-off injection molded case. That they could justify doing so to produce near production quality results for a small order either indicates impressive manufacturing flexibility, or an inefficient manufacturing process.

Your assumptions that they would need to redesign and tool up for brand new complex motherboard and housing parts are incorrect. This is a foolish way to accommodate a request to physically move a connector.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#95

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:15 AM UTC

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87

Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

[deleted]

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#96

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:16 AM UTC

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87

Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

[deleted]

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#97

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:17 AM UTC

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87

Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

[deleted]

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#98

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:18 AM UTC

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87

Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

[deleted]

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#99

Post by va3agav » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:18 AM UTC

amiga-workbench wrote: post #87

Tepix wrote: post #69

I bought a Toshiba Libretto L1 back in 2001 via the Internet (using translation services) and had it shipped to Germany. It was a fantastic form factor: A super wide 10" 1280x600 display (143dpi) which was so wide that it left enough room for a decent keyboard. The CPU was a Transmeta Crusoe 600Mhz which was, unfortunately, the bottleneck of the system. One other highlight I remember about this machine: Despite not h…

I've got a few Libretto's kicking around, they are fantastic machines, full pentium class UMPC's I've also got a GPRS modem for my 100CT and it makes a nice portable IRC machine. http://i.imgur.com/IUp4U7p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SuMjceM.jpg

Oh boy, I'm not going to hide my envy, those beasts look really sexy.

Re: Whatever happened to Japanese laptops?

#100

Post by kw71 » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 11:21 AM UTC

tluyben2 wrote: post #68

Spooky23 wrote: post #16

The japanese companies were pretty amazing in the commercial space. My employer had a few Fujitsu ultra portables in the circa 2007 timeframe. One of our internal customers mentioned to a salesguy that they needed a particular port in a particular location on the laptop, not expecting anything. Two weeks later, they Fedexed a loaner/prototype with the port. Really an amazing experience. We were buying 5-6 figure quan…

I had Fujitsu laptops from beginning of the 2000s until around 2009; the quality and support were amazing. You paid for it but man these things were good. Panasonic makes great laptops as well but these days it really does not warrent the high pricetag...

I'd buy another Fujitsu if they had any current models with displays that are up to date. Seems someone there thinks that anyone who is using a portable doesn't need a display taller than 768 (or some other absurdly low number of) pixels.