Most insane laptops?
What are your favorite insane laptops?
Mine is the Dell Rugged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F56ION4_n0
Bump and fall proof, liquid proof, sand proof (and cat hairs proof I assume), extreme heat/cold proof, can be used as a blunt weapon in an emergency. Ridiculously overkill for anyone that's not a geologist working in Antarctica or an archaeologist in the Gobi desert, and ridiculously overkill is fun
GPD Win Max 2. I love this little thing so much. ~8-10 hours of battery life, up to 64GB RAM, 16-core Ryzen on the newest model, 2K display. It's only 10 inches and it can run Cyberpunk with raytracing. It also has two slots for SSD's and an optional LTE module.
The sticks are hall effect sensors, so there's no drift (looking at you, Nintendo). The keyboard is backlit and feels way too satisfying for something this small. (I actually like typing on it)
On the backside of the device, you can slide out two metal covers and place them on top of the thumbsticks, hiding them and making the device look more professional.
I once took this to a customer doing a training session and dropped the line "This thing is more powerful than all the computers in this room" and it was probably true.
10/10 device - it's a solid laptop though I worry about longevity (they're a bastard to repair because the arts are all hard to find).
Upside is it's the perfect machine for travel gaming!
That's true, but I found parts like the bottom chassis, display assembly and keyboard on Aliexpress. They probably have the joystick modules too.
The only thing I couldn't find were the actual rubber thumbsticks, which might become a problem in the future when they wear out. GPD promised to sell them individually a while ago, but as of yet, they haven't done so.
Do you grip the device in both hands to use the joysticks, or do you just move them around with your thumbs? It looks rather thick, but also very cool.
When gaming, I hold the device in both hands, just as they depict in their marketing material:
When I'm on location and I have it sitting on the desk, I use the left joystick for scrolling and the right for moving the mouse, it works really well and I don't have to grip it (I configured AntiMicroX on Linux to translate the inbuilt Xbox controller to mouse movements).
It also has a builtin mouse mode, but you have to press the right trigger to speed up the mouse, so it's very unconvenient when you're not holding the device in your hands.
How hot does it get under load of stuff like Cyberpunk or similar programs? I am always jazzed to see high-end laptops, but I am aware of heat being a given. We get a lot of normies (or gamers that dip their toes into PC gaming) that have more money than sense just demanding the most powerful laptop. And they bring them in for us to check-out due to how hot they get. Some of it comes down to them not knowing how to stop all the programs from starting up with it and causing it to heat up from the jump even before launching a game or whatever. lol
It's around ~48°C under my regular coding workload (Chrome, Firefox, Slack and phpStorm opened with a video playing). It's basically unhearable under these conditions, with the fan running on the lowest speed.
The max temperature it gets to is ~83°C, which it will reach fairly quick when playing demanding games like Cyberpunk and the device gets a little warm, but not annoyingly hot then. Yes, it's a little thicc boii, but that works for its benefit because the thickness comes from the big heatpipe, fan and cooler.
Disclaimer: I put a PTM7950 pad onto the CPU and it greatly benefits from it. Temps with regular paste are worse - I definitely reached temps in the 90s before (but it was not throttling).
Have they gotten better? I had the first GDP Win and it was really underwhelming.
It is really well made. I had to take the whole machine apart to put in a QWERTZ keyboard and almost everything is easily replaceable and maintainable. The frame feels as sturdy as a typical Macbook chassis, the joystick elements are screwed in and can be swapped quickly, the motherboard and cooling system are also well assembled.
The only thing I hated is that they glued the power button onto the backlight foil of the keyboard. I don't know what they were thinking, but glueing a flimsy flextape onto a flimsy foil is a horrible decision. Granted, most people probably never change their keyboard (but they didn't have the 64GB model with German layout back when I bought it).
I didn't see the LTE module? Is it m.2 form factor?
It's proprietary I think, you can buy it as an accessory and put it in yourself or get the machine with it already builtin.
the design is insane, the people behind it are insane, the story is double-insane.
Wait. Is that windows AND android ?
yes. yes it is.
Fun fact: „Fön“ translates to hairdryer in German.
Whaaat? I can't believe someone thought this was a good idea 😂
yea and then you install windows on it
95 obviously, for the vibes
Fujitsu Lifebook P-2046. It was semi-rugged with a magnesium alloy chassis but, the real awesome bit was the Transmeta Crusoe processor. It was super power efficient (~15hr between charges with the extended battery) and performed decently. The thing was really ahead of its time.
Anything run on a Crusoe is just amazing. Even when it didn't live up to the hype, what it did was amazing.
For my purposes (note taking in college), it absolutely lived up to the hype. No x86 laptop that I could find at the time came close to its battery life.
Mine.
Quad screen portable setup, baybeh! Razer's Valerie aint got nuttin' on me!
ThinkPad W701DS. Depending on configuration it has an intergrated Wacom digitiser w/ pen, a built-in Pantone colorimeter, two RAIDed hard drives and of course the glorious second screen that pops out.
The w700ds/w701ds ("Dual Screen")
... was not Lenovo's last try at putting two screens on a laptop; see also the X1 Fold and Yoga 9i
Those things aren't nearly as cool, though (IMO)
I was laughing my ass off at the "two 250GB hard drives" until I saw that the video was 16 years old 😮
I don't think the Mediaworkstations a-X2P ever came out of "limited production", but with an EPYC processor, desktop GPU and 6 screens it still meets the mark IMO.
[Edit]: Sorry, a pair of EPYC processors. And it's a shipping product.
Not so sure whether it ever was a shipping product, and the company apparently disappeared https://www.techradar.com/pro/company-behind-most-powerful-mobile-workstation-ever-vanishes-say-goodbye-for-your-dreams-of-owning-a-192-core-transportable-computer-with-3tb-of-ram
Apparently you can never have too many screens 😂
Those hinges must have been mighty strong. Or was there something to prop up the 6 screens?
This bad boy can take two 5.25"s at same time.
Same
TWO floppy readers? 😮
My father had an Osborne 1. Loved it, played so many hours of Space Invaders on it. :)
Those things aren't as rugged as they imply. Go for a brief jaunt and skip a little while swinging it by the handle. It'll turn into a laptop shaped projectile and leave a dent in both the ground and your wallet.
I actually used OPs Dell as a paramedic. It wasn't bad but I still prefer toughbooks
I got a couple I really like, though for vastly different reasons:
Could you elaborate on the reform? I hear the hype yet to me it looks like a severely overpriced tv box with some low-grade peripherials strapped to it in the least space efficient way possible. Did they got rockchip to release sources instead of blobs or something? What is the praise actually for?
I've sketched out ideas for something like the MNT Reform, but with a Framework motherboard, and it's surprisingly hard to whittle down the form factor any more without sacrificing unique and useful features, like the user-replaceable battery cells and modular mechanical keyboard. Those were the main attractions for me, and it is indeed very weak hardware for the price. Tallying up the component prices, it's about as good as it gets without economies of scale while insisting on libre firmware.
Could you elaborate on the reform?
For some reason, I was under the impression that laptops in the MNT Reform series were the only laptops that were manufactured using open (source) hardware only. Or, if there were others, that it must have been doing something so special that they deserved to be put on a pedestal. But, currently, I don't feel confident enough to state why it would be superior over say the Olimex TERES-I or Pinebook Pro.
I hear the hype yet to me it looks like a severely overpriced tv box with some low-grade peripherials strapped to it in the least space efficient way possible.
We definitely pay a premium, but I don't know exactly why. Especially when the aforementioned Olimex TERES-I and Pinebook Pro are almost an order of magnitude cheaper.
Did they got rockchip to release sources instead of blobs or something?
From what I understood, Rockchip offers (at least some of) its SoCs as open source hardware. So, what MNT Reform did for the SoC is order them as open source hardware and include/publicize/provide all the schematics (etc).
What is the praise actually for?
FWIW, the open source hardware aspect is what I was intrigued by*.
I am on my third Rugged. Two lemons, third one is fine. Beware, these have hardware issues and get the extended warranty.
The laptop with a full sized mechanical keyboard on it. Oh and dual 330w power bricks.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/407225/acer-predator-21-x-review.html
Wait a laptop with full mechanical keyboard and CURVED SCREEN? 😮
Getac made some pretty cool ones.
The newer ones don't have the weird gel keyboard, they're pretty sweet.
Who's going to start the YouTube channel for it called "Kennit?" where you see just what you can use it to do? First episode should be as an oar.
That's needs to happen! I also want to see if it can be used effectively as a tennis racket.
Panasonic Toughbook CF-XZ6
I've got a CF-25 here. I keep meaning to find the power supply and seeing if it still works :)
MSI titan line of monsters "technically a laptop, but is closer to a overkill desktop gaming monster". They all weighs like 6 kilos
Developed with the military and aerospace industry in mind
😮 😮 😮
The way this thread is going I'm almost expecting someone to post a space laptop that's vacuum resistant next, just in case you need to watch youtube on a space walk
Reminds me of SOL, a solar powered rugged laptop running Ubuntu. I think they are on that for the past 10 years or something.
I won't lie that's pretty cool!
This was recently featured on Linus Tech Tips: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Ruggedized-trifold-computer-offers-three-18_1600635369600.html
Wow, that looks like something I'd drag to LAN parties in the late 90s.
Where’s your trackball my dude
Let summon BOSS: Expanscape Aurora 7
I would like to argue but I can't... you win 😅 That's just... I don't have words. Just wow 🤯 🤯 🤯
It doesn't look like this is even past concept stage, and it's already mostly obsolete. Is there something close to this that's a modern commercial product I can buy?
OMG I must have it.
i could definitely use something like this when i take a shit
Just to bask in the ridiculous awesomeness of it.
For the same reason why cars that can't ride over the slightest speed bumps are sold: low self-esteem and a high urge to stroke one's own ego.
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✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.
gooning
travelling gooners
…words fail me.
Bravo, fellow meatbag.
I wasn't ready to see that thing. Would have sprayed my drink out if I were drinking at the moment your link loaded. lol
I would love to have that just to show to co-workers and friends, just to see their reactions. I could see it being kind of nice to have if I really really needed multiple screens. But would never want to bring it anywhere unless it is staying in a hotel room for like a week and working (which I don't have a job that would even give that situation to happen anyway). Still nice to see mobile workstations still have room for wild-ass designs like that. Kind of like how more smart phones used to have really wild selling points.