How Practical are 20-inch Laptops?

GeneralPacket writes "A 20-inch laptop might sound perfect for a game of Grand Theft Auto on the way to work, or navigating a mammoth spreadsheet. But are they really usable as laptops, or are they just luggable desktops? This week CNET attempted to work on the super-sized 20-inch Dell XPS M2010 laptop while travelling across London on the subway. The resulting video review is hilarious. This is not your typical tech video review — it's actually funny, and, refreshingly, completely advertising-free. The reviewer is in constant fear that anti-terrorism police are about to swarm him. Would you use a 20-incher?"

They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[garcia]

Most people don't want a "laptop". Instead, they want something that they can take to Panera and do their work w/o being in the office. My wife and father both have one of these huge laptops. They are uncomfortable to carry (they use backpacks), they suck power (she gets about an hour of battery life), and they are loud.

I rely on my Sidekick for most of my work (e-mail, calendar, and notetaking) and I use a Thinkpad for anything more serious. While I am always looking for something even smaller everyone else seems to look for something larger.

MORE POWER ARRR ARR ARR.

Re:Now he just needs...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just don't wear it in Britain. They'll gun you down without a second thought.

Re:Not much bigger than a 17 inch

[eebra82]

If you're comparing the difference in size between 14" to 17" and 17" to 20", think again. Although the increment is the same, it's still a lot bigger.

Ugh

[be-fan]

You couldn't even open that thing in an airplane seat. Hell, my 13.3" macbook is almost too big for comfortable economy-class use. And the attendant back, pain, oh god...

I don't know what kind of idiot would subject themselves to this. Why not just get a nice big external display like everyone else does?

Re:Out of personal experience

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this thing is really a portable desktop, rather than a laptop. Good for LAN parties, but you'd never be able to use it in a typical airplane environment for instance. I don't see it competing with Thinkpads and the like, the way people seem to expect.

Re:Not much bigger than a 17 inch

[HappySqurriel]

I have a 17 inch dell laptop, and yes I do use it on my lap, and no I am not a huge fat guy, I am however tall. It's actually very comfortable to use, more so than my wife's 14 inch dell. So yes I would use a 20 inch laptop.

Personally, work gave me a 14 inch laptop which I thought was absolutely too small until I realized why they gave me a laptop rather than a desktop; I'm on site 2 days a week which means that I carry the lap-top home or to work 4 days a week. What I have found is that a 14 inch laptop is (in a lot of ways) too large and clumsy to carry around on Calgary's busy public transit system and I couldn't imagine how awkward and heavy a 20 inch laptop would be.

In my opinion a 20 inch laptop would be amazing if your goal is to drag it to and from lan-parties once or twice a week in your car, but if you're taking something to and from work every day you'd start to hate the extra size and weight.

Actually it seems fairly luggable.

[MsGeek]

Compare this machine to the 20" iMac rather than a lappie. This machine is the result of Dell buying Alienware. It's designed to be lugged to LAN parties rather than used in a typical lappie manner. I suspect it's packing a Core Duo. Someone also mentioned RAID 0...that's a very gamer kind of thing to add to a machine. If this was a Road Warrior lappie I would have instead opted for RAID 1 for data redundancy and "automatic backups." However RAID 1 slows, rather than speeds, disk access so it would be a downer for the gamer crowd.

Is it me or does this machine also seem to be built of sterner stuff than the average Dell lappie? I work at the library at my university and we have Dell lappies exclusively. They are built like plastic pieces of crap. Loose ports are epidemic. I really baby them when I move from place to place because I know that other people don't. The toughness of this machine, I suspect, is another example of Alienware's influence.

I'd love one

[CaptnMArk]

Big screen laptop would enable many things:

- normal keyboard (I'd love a proper keyboard, see www.pckeyboard.com)
- 2 hard drives (for RAID-1)
- bigger battery or two
- better cooling
- more I/O ports
- more expansion slots
- maybe even include a resting/charging place for a (wireless) mouse

Weight is a minor problem, price is a bigger one.

Re:Don't copy that floppy!

[Anonymous Coward]

The laptop magazine article you've linked to via Engadget isn't a video, it's a few photographs! A few photographs VS a four minute video. I didn't laugh at the photos on Laptop Magazine, but I did laugh at the video in the Slashdot story.... It may be a similar idea, but I prefer CNET's exectution of it.

Vision issues

[kin_korn_karn]

I do all my writing on my 15" laptop. If it were any smaller, I would have trouble reading it. Jacking the font size up results in a smaller amount of the page on the screen at a time, which results in scrolling incessantly, which means I waste more time with the arrow keys and extreme right side of the trackpad.

So, there is a practical purpose for these things. Believe me, if I could work on a 13" screen, I would.

I would buy one

[Brandybuck]

...or are they just luggable desktops?

What's wrong with a luggable desktop? While I wouldn't want to use this in a subway, plane, bus, etc, it sounds ideal to set on your hotel room desk. I love my 12" iBook, but it is not a workstation. Its screen is too small and its keyboard too cramped. Its good for use in a cramped plane seat, but sucks trying to do real work in the hotel room. But this 20" laptop sounds like it could be my home system away from home.

Re:Out of personal experience

[kallisti777]

Full disclosure: I am a Dell salesman.

An architectural design firm in my area has a couple of these. If you look at the "power under the hood", you'll see why they chose them as portable workstations. For the CAD and graphics work they do, this model was a perfect fit, and I've never heard a complaint about it being too heavy to move from the office desk to the conference room table and back.

Now carrying this thing on a tube train during a morning commute? What are you, daft? I whine about having to carry my 5 pound Latitude and an overnight bag. My thanks to eebra82 for being able to tell the differences between apples and oranges.

What I really want...

[drsmithy]

I get the point of these massive laptops - they're really just more convenient "portable computers" for people who want something that's all in one and easy to move from desk to desk.

However, what I really want (and I'm sure many would agree) is a small - 12" - 14" laptop that can drive *two* external monitors (I'd even be only marginally disappointed if it required disabling the internal screen to do so).

I'd really like a laptop to use (for work) as my only machine, but I'm way too used to having a pair of 21" LCDs to use anything smaller for real work.

I am somewhat surprised Apple hasn't brought out a machine capable of this - but then again I'd expect it to come from one of the less well known manufacturers (like Asus) first.

Re:Obligatory Penis Comment

[Scanner-Darkly-IRE]

"Would you use a 20-incher?" I think the bigger question here is .. Would you Own a Dell? As nice as that one looks I still wouldnt bee seen dead in public that that 4 letter logo :)

Re:eyephones

[Farmer Tim]

As soon as the test subjects eye sockets stop smoldering.

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[RobertLTux]

easy a true Road Warrior (geekus nomadicus) woudl have the following handy

1 power squid
2 small router
3 Towel (of hand size)
4 half dozen power bars

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[Anonymous Coward]

That's their loss for stupidly excluding one of the largest tech markets in the world. I'm sure they'll blame the US for it somehow.

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[Wdomburg]

Not everyone does the bulk of their work at a desk. I spend the bulk of my time in conference rooms, other people's offices, colocations, etc, etc. If I was one of those people who only transport their laptop from room to room or from their car, I might consider something larger than my current 14.1".

Re:They are nothing more than desktops for Panera

[usrusr]

rock musicians?

Re:cargo in tow

[Anonymous Coward]

Albeit with a 20" you can probably cancel your membership at the gym.

Wow, you must be pretty weak if you think that lifting a 20lbs laptop is a workout.