I know it's been tried in the past, but how about designing a laptop that has inexpensive replaceable and/or upgradeable modules. i.e. CPU, Video, LCD, etc. It would be nice to be able to upgrade to a better laptop without having to buy another laptop.
Other improvements I'd like to see are:
1. OLED screens.
2. A standard & smaller power supply for all laptops. (I'm sure this would be a cost saver for HP)
3. Longer battery life.
4. Standard specification/connector for a docking station.
5. Backlit keyboard.
Far out ideas 0X
How about a virtual reality style display and keyboard. I travel every week and I'd love to just put on some glasses and gloves, to be able to get some work done on the airplane. I always seem to sit behind the person that has to recline the seat as far as it will go. :?
come on HP "lets make the computer personal again".... ohhh wait, u did that already. lol
well lets make it lower priced then. even recently, when comparing prices to other pc makers, HP is not on the same page, i know the quality is better(shiny), but everyone has a budget too. HP makes great laptops no doubt about it, but would i buy i, yes & no, i would, if it was priced right. have better web sales. eg. buy a $500 HP AIO printer and get a FREE laptop*
(*after $400 MIR). be creative. drop the compaq line (we get it, they suck) learn from dell on how to sell a lot of good pc's for cheap. by the way i own acer. lol. but only because the price was too good to pass. sorry. but lets see if u can change it.
A laptop needs to be able to replace my desktop (primarily a speed issue)
I want it configurable to include all wireless connectivity options (WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular 3G - HSDPA & HSUPA) and they need to be able to work concurrently.
It needs to have something other than the standard MS bluetooth stack, which is - frankly - pants.
I want it to be able to *charge* (not simply run) from car and aeroplane power outlets. Ideally, it should charge while being used but I'd live with charging when the actual laptop is off.
I'd like it not to fry my legs if I have to use it on my lap.
I'd like a webcam built in: It would be more robust than an add-on cam and be closer to the screen. I'm fed up with video conversations with people who aren't looking at me because their webcam is so far from their video window.
Long, long battery life. Ideally 6 hours plus. And a wizard which would help me configure power options (do I want the network card powered up?) by telling me the (estimated) cost or benefit in run time of having the various options on or off.
It needs to be able to be covered by a worldwide fix-on-site warranty. If my screen breaks when I'm travelling, I want to be up and running in a few hours.
Out-there ideas:
I'd like the keyboard to pop out and be usable wirelessly at a distance from the laptop. I'd like a pop-out wireless mouse/trackpad too: When I'm working at my desk, the screen is too close for comfort if I use the built-in and fixed laptop keyboard.
I'd love the LAN connection to pop out and connect wirelessly to the laptop too. That way I can connect to hotel (etc.) networks without having to sit at the desk.
This little survey is right on time! I am in the market for a new laptop, so for the past couple weeks I' ve done some research. And, interestingly, my choice #1 would be HP, this one ttp://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&series_name=tx1000z_series&tab_switch=true&a1=Display&v1=12.1%26quot%3B&tab=specs. If I had a choice I would replace AMD processors with Intel, faster HDD, or even SSD, and very important - backlite keyboard. With my choice of options offered by HP it comes out with $1500 range, which is reasonable I think. What I want from laptop. managable size, fast, quiet, reliable, capble of multitasking (I noticed lately that loptops offered by retailers are pretty much build to run operating system and few preinstalled apps, that most likely I won't need, same goes for PPC :twisted: ) So ability to buy it costomized is very, very important! Cheers!
P.S. My #2 choice was OQO O2 (If only it had HSDPA module instead of EV-DO). And #3 - HTC Shift but after latest news I see that it would not have enough power for my tasks.
Make a decent small gaming laptop. A gaming laptop is nothing more than a high end notebook with a good vid card. Now, not everybody wants to carry around a 17in or even 15in notebook with them.
1) Make one around 13.5-14in LED backlit screen. Glossy. at around 1280x800.
OR
15.4-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) to give true HD viewing.
2) 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (4MB L2 Cache,800MHz FSB)
OR
Something as fast.
3) Nvidia's 8600m GT or better. DO NOT SKIMP ON THIS! By the time you come out with this laptop, i'm sure they'll be something faster. Stick it in here! As long as you got the battery and heat under control, people will buy a small yet lightly heavy notebook if they game on it.
4) at least a 5400rpm or 7200rpm option harddrive
5) decent battery life. at LEAST 2.5-3hrs watching a movie on full brightness and sound. Gaming life can vary.
6) Stick a big battery on it. People will buy it. Look at the IBM T61p, it sold so well, they removed it from the website because of delays.
7) At give it the norm for everything else, usb/dvd burner 8x/2GB RAM/etc.
8) Keep the weight of the 13-14in under 6lbs, the 15in needs to be under 7 in order to compete with IMB and such.
Show the gamer a small notebook that can do 3dmark06 into the 3k+ and he'll buy this notebook if its under 3k. Closer to 2.2k if you want to sell it like hotecakes.[/b]
A gripe of mine with laptops has always been how poorly placed sockets and switches are.
A couple of people above have already mentioned about USB sockets, but it's worse than that. Why are headphones typically on the side so that when you lean back, the cable stretches across the front of the machine blocking access to the keyboard (and putting strain on the plug).
No switches or buttons should be on the external edges of the laptop. I am fed up with on/off buttons on the outside (which then get activated as you're putting the laptop in a bag), WiFi switches which can get knocked accidentally (and you're then wondering why you can't get a network connection for some minutes) and in particular CD Drive buttons... Aaargh. My latest laptop has a CD drive on the left hand side and the eject button is exactly where you put your fingers when you pick the laptop up... thus ejecting the tray.
So... HP... if you're listening... it's a minor issue, but one that's so easily addressed... just think where you're putting things!!
* A Blue-ray / HD-DVD combo drive (ie. can play back both formats as well as DVD/CD reading/writing) - I don't mind whether it can burn Blue-ray or HD-DVD, so long as I can watch movies in both formats.
* Certified Wireless USB (plus the usual wireless features of Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi b/g/n)
* cutting edge graphics (with dedicated RAM), preferably from nVidia.
* 5.1 surround sound
* Dual 7200 rpm hard drives
* 1 Gbit LAN
* Option to not have a Brightscreen screen! I don't like them.
* Available in 17", not only 20" (ie. the new 20" HP laptops currently have the latest cutting edge features, but are not available in 17" equivalents yet).
I purchased a Compaq a while ago and while the specs were great for the time I purchased it, the laptop shutdown constantly from heat. I used it primarily for work developing applications with some heavy memory and cpu intensive applications and minimal gaming.
At least dual core
SATA drives and/or Flash drives 32GB or 64GB
upgradeable to 4 GB of RAM
High End Video with it's own memory not from the system at least 256 but 512 would be better and VGA and DVI ports
DVD burner with some decent speed on read and write
Wifi / Bluetooth
Decent Sound card
Express Card Slot
at least 6 USB 2.0 slots
built in microphone
microphone and headset ports
SVideo Out
TVCard would be nice but not necessary
Gigabit Ethernet
I have an HP Pavilion zd8000 (2005 model) as my main work computer.
1. Better cooling- more efficient and quieter. This thing gets hot and the noisy fan runs 24/7
2. Better battery - this thing was rated for about 1 hr battery life when new and now gets about 1 minute (seriously!), so is completely useless in airports unless I can find an AC outlet.
3. Better built-in card readers. The built-in SD card reader on this thing only handles up to 1 GB- it chokes on 2 GB cards. I have PDAs 2 years older than this thing that do a better job. edit:a driver update allows it to read 2 GB cards, but it still can't read a Transcend 4 GB (non-compliant) SD (not SDHC) card that my Windows Mobile 2003 PDAs and USB card readers can read.
4. Remove (or make optional) weird built-in keyboard shortcuts. Many times if I type capital C then the next letter acts as a shortcut if I'm typing fast. e.g. "CE" is similar to C then alt+E (which opens the Edit menu in Visual Studio). This drives me nuts and prevents me from typing efficiently. This seems to be at a very low level in the system and I couldn't figure out any way to disable this "feature". Never experienced it with any other machine.
__________________ 32 GB iPhone 3GS, various iPods
Many Windows PC's, Early 2009 Mac Mini, Early 2008 MacBook Pro 15"
Better placement of sockets and switches
Linear Mode
