Last year saw original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) try to breath new life into the ailing PC market with devices boasting a range of new features, functionality and form factors. We round out five of the most creative examples we identified in 2014.
Dell’s ruggedised laptops
The PC maker now claims to be the only tier 1 vendor in the world with a “fully rugged” laptop portfolio, which includes two machines: the Latitude Rugged and Latitude Rugged Extreme.
While Dell has sold fully rugged laptops in Australia prior to 2014, the vendor expanded the portfolio with the new devices, including a convertible tablet and vehicle mount options.
Some might call it a bold move, considering the cheapest machine in the new lineup was priced at $4,799 at the time of writing. The standout vendor in the rugged laptop space until now has been Panasonic.
Dell’s machines come with a choice of 12-inch and 14-inch screens. The Rugged Extreme also has a “stealth” mode, which when pressed, turns off all sound and keyboard backlighting.
While PC hardware margins are not what they used to be, a Dell spokesperson told CRN earlier this year that rugged devices are “actually very profitable,” describing the segment as very lucrative.
“We think there's a huge opportunity. Whether you're in public sector, first responders, government, oil and gas,” the spokesperson said.
Acer’s and Lenovo’s “tent” mode
Acer went all-out with creative ergonomics in 2014, introducing no less than six “modes” for its convertible Aspire R 13 two-in-one. This includes tent mode, designed to squeeze a laptop into airplane seat trays or, as Acer suggests, a small kitchen for viewing recipes.
The feature relies on placing the screen inside a separate frame, allowing the screen itself to rotate independently of the frame. The result is that the screen can be reversed, or used as a stand itself (see video above).
Similar ideas have been seen before, though Acer has added a “dual torque hinge” to this design – a feature it claims will help keep the screen steady when fingers are pressed against it.
Lenovo also has tent mode for its Yoga Tablet 2 Pro and a hook for hanging the device. The two-in-one also a hinge that delivers a “more stable touch”.
Lenovo’s built-in projector
This vendor announced a first for its lineup in 2014: a tablet with a built-in projector. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro 13 is capable of projecting a 50-inch image, turning “any dark room into a home theatre” (a claim that home theatre vendors could be expected to challenge).
For optimal results, Lenovo recommends the tablet be used approximately 2 metres from the projection surface to create a 50-inch image. The image is projected in 16:9 format.
Lenovo claims up to three hours playback time and the device has JBL twin front-facing speakers, a 5W bass subwoofer and Dolby surround.
Lenovo appears to be trying to capitalise on what it claims is a high proportion of end users that use tablets at home to watch digital content. The vendor cites its own 2013 study in claiming that more than half of users watch TV on tablets “several times” a week, though the vendor did not specific for how long.
Dell to debut “3D” camera for tablets
Dell claims its Venue 8 7000 Series tablet will be the first with a new “3D” camera from Intel. The camera records a high-definition depth-map along with the image – a Dell video shows a user tracing the length of a tree with their finger, revealing the height of the tree.
The camera has three lenses according to the Intel site: a “conventional camera”, an infrared camera and infrared laser projector. As well as allowing users to refocus photos taken with the camera, the system is also designed to detect body movements and facial expressions – games that allow children to interact by waving hands and arms is one potential application.
The Venue 8 7000 – which at 6mm thick is the world’s thinnest tablet, according to Dell – recently won the 2015 CES "Best of Innovation" award.
Intel is also promoting the camera's ability to take photos of objects then use the data to produce a copy on a 3D printer.
Intel hoping to see its camera in all-in-one desktops and tablets across the industry – Intel lists Acer, Dell, Asus, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo and NEC as vendors that will include the camera in their hardware, which is called the Intel RealSense Snapshot Depth Camera.
The tablet is being sold in the States for US$399. An Australian release date and pricing had not been announced at the time of writing.
Asus’ 3-in-one
This isn’t the first device from Asus with a detachable phone, but we’ve included it in this list because it’s interesting to see that Asus is persevering with the idea.
The Transformer Book V was unveiled in June 2014 when it was described as the world’s first five-mode, three-in-one laptop. Not only does it run both Windows and Android but it has a detachable phone with a five-inch screen.
The Android phone is the world’s first five-inch LTE smartphone with an Intel Atom quad-core processor, according to Asus. Dock the phone with the larger device and the laptop runs in Android mode. There is also a hardware button to switch between Windows and Android.
With a detachable 12.5-inch screen, this device also vies with some of the largest tablets on the market.
Asus had not announced a released date or price for Australia at the time of writing.
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