HP reveals bonkers $5k foldable tablet/laptop/desktop
- Reference: 1694753886
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/09/15/hp_reveals_bonkers_5k_foldable/
- Source link:
To understand how the device makes those transformations, know that its innards are packed behind a 17-inch, 1,920 x 2,560 OLED touchscreen. There's a kickstand in the back of the screen so it can rest on a surface as illustrated below.
[1]
HP's Spectre Foldable PC in desktop mode – Click to enlarge
Fold the screen in half and the Bluetooth keyboard you see at left above can click into place to produce a 12.3-inch laptop, as depicted below.
[2]
HP's Spectre Foldable PC in laptop mode – Click to enlarge
The keyboard has a hinge of its own that lets it tilt down a little, allowing it to be placed half-way down the second half of the screen to produce a one-and-half-sized laptop.
[3]
HP's Spectre Foldable PC in 1.5 x laptop mode – Click to enlarge
It can also be used as a 17-inch fondleslab – a configuration we're sure you can imagine without an extra image.
Under the skin you'll find an [4]Intel Core i7-1250U – a ten-core Alder Lake with a pair of performance cores and eight efficient cores. 16GB LPDDR5-5200MHz RAM is aboard, along with a one-terabyte NVMe SSD, Intel Iris XE graphics, Wi-FI 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. Power flows in to one of the two Thunderbolt 4 with USB Type-C ports that can also handle DisplayPort duties.
The machine measures 277.05 x 191.31 x 21.4 mm when folded, and weighs 1.354kg without a keyboard or 1.624kg with the Bluetooth input device.
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All of the above will set you back $4,999
[6]
Which is a lot for a PC, in 2023 or most of the last 20 years. Especially a PC that, like this one, is powered by last year's Intel CPU.
Foldables, however, command premium prices in the smartphone market, where Samsung has emphasized how stylish they are compared to boring old rounded rectangular prisms.
[7]
This device's flexibility certainly gives HP Inc. a point of difference – whether it's practical remains to be seen. The machine is currently available for pre-order in the US only, with delivery in "limited quantities in October" and overseas sales starting later in the northern Autumn/Fall. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/09/15/hp_spectre_foldable_desktop_mode.jpg
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/09/15/hp_spectre_foldable_laptop_mode.jpg
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/09/15/hp_spectre_foldable_big_laptop_mode.jpg
[4] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/226454/intel-core-i71250u-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-70-ghz/specifications.html
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZQQrRJvfLSyJDQIXBpJI5gAAAgo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQQrRJvfLSyJDQIXBpJI5gAAAgo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQQrRJvfLSyJDQIXBpJI5gAAAgo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I think you'd have trouble putting one of those laptops on a music stand.
Or indeed a bicycle...
This does rather remind me of a former client who complained that she always had to scroll down to read the text on her website.
It transpired that she refused to wear glasses and had her screen set at maximum magnification.
1990s laptops that weighed as much as a bicycle.
This is El Reg, you need to be precise with your units of comparison. Do you mean a Specialised Aethos Pro Ultegra Di2 (6.7Kg) or a Pashley Princess Sovereign (22.4Kg)?
For folding PCs it would be a Brompton.
Probably a Bakfiets.nl cargobike (~40kg)...
I'd like to register a formal objection to the Starbucks grande latte become a Reg SI unit of mass, weight or, indeed, anything.
Also blame users:
"My laptops to heavy and I need a new one"
Show the new laptops are basically made of thing plastic bags and only save 200g
"Yes thats way lighter"
*Next week*
"The screen is too small on this laptop"
*Go BOFH mode*
Laptop, schmaptop - I say flaptop
Why do people call these things laptops? Impossible to use such a floppy thing without some kind of firm, flat support. It's many years since I last saw anybody try to use even a conventional one on their lap. It's so rare that the things can be capable of burning your knees and nobody cares.
Come on Reg, get your nickname coiner charged up and logged on.
Apart from the ubiquitous but unmarketable craptop, how about flaptop? Much more descriptive of the definitive folding-screen form factor.
Re: Laptop, schmaptop - I say flaptop
Seconded! Excellent name!
Re: Laptop, schmaptop - I say flaptop
And parenthetically just a hundred years since flappers were all the rage!
so it's kind of the same as the Thinkpad Carbon X1 fold, just a smidgen larger. And you can have one: Lenovo seem to have run out of the things, which indicates that they didn't sell well.
I would like a lower-powered version just for the screen. That gives me one-two pages of music at a piano or on a music-stand.
Unfortunately most fondleslabs top out at less than 14.4" needed for an A4 page (or the aspect ratio is all wrong, optimised for movies). I blame reviewers who now all complain if a device is heavier than a Starbucks grande latte and forget 1990s laptops that weighed as much as a bicycle.