The creators of Gscreen’s latest contraption—the SpaceBook Dual-screen laptop—new it was getting harder and harder to shock the jaded technophile community when they went into the brainstorming sessions that eventually gave birth to this beast. Rather than just being comfortable with faster processors and more ram or Super AMOLED screens, Gscreens decided to double down and give users two screens on one machines.
Now dual screen technology is nothing new in the desktop PC community—I’ve been running a dual-screen capable machine for years no—and even with laptops the addition of a USB port can mean slapping on another screen is as simple as plugging and playing but to have two physical screens built in to a single machine is something quite unique.
The SpaceBook was first announce almost three years ago now and has remained relatively off the grid as far as leaks are concerned. The company did reassure us that they were still planning on releasing these machines last year but up until last month nobody new when.
Now the full specs are out for us to drool over and I would say that these machines are really worth getting excited about.
The SpaceBook offers two 17.3 inch screens on one machine capable of resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 each. The screens open by sliding and provide a massive 34 inch workspace for work, play, or just killing time on FaceBook. Each screen can display a separate image or they can be slaved to create one elongated display. In addition, you can leave the primary display in place if you want a single-screen machine for the time being and breakout the other if you find you need a little more room to play with.
The addition of the two screens may seem like a sales gimmick but the company didn’t really skimp on any of the particulars in order to cut the production cost of the SpaceBook. Currently, there are two models available. The less powerful machine boasts a 2.66GHz Core i5-560m processor (pretty snappy if I do say so) and 4GB of DDR3 RAM. In addition, users will enjoy the benefits of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTS 250m card (with 1GB of dedicated RAM) and a 500 GB hard drive with read/write speeds up to 7200rpm.
The less-impressive specs include a “super multi-drive” (DVD=/-rw = DVD-RAM), and a plethora of ports. The whole thing is tied together nicely in a fairly lightweight magnesium alloy chassis. Of course it’s not going to be entered into the featherweight contest against and MacBook Airs but for a dual-screen machine it’s no elephant.
The “bargain” model will cost you $2,395 and you will have to put half down against your pre-order to secure your computer.
The beefier machine will cost you $2,795 (half down for pre-order reserve) but the specs are suitably impressive. You’ll have access to a 1.73GHz Core i7-740QM processor bundled with 8GB of RAM. The rest of the accoutrements remain the same so if you want an even bigger hard drive you’re going to have to shell out even more cash.
Now while most non-professional laptop users will definitely not need the performance that they get out of these machines (and definitely should consider shopping more budget-minded machines) pros and pro-wannabes can definitely put the extra desktop space to work.
The obvious application is in the coding world (think code on one screen, preview on the other) but these machines will also appeal to the business crowd who have to have spreadsheets, documents, and websites open and running all at once. Rather than flip through tabs or keep minimizing and maximizing, the data is displayed all the time.
The only possible drawback I can see from having two screens ins that your battery life will suffer dramatically. Strangely enough, the official SpaceBook page doesn’t list what type of battery the machines use or what their expected life span is. Still, if you’re willing to spend nearly $3K on a portable PC, you probably can afford a few hundred for a spare/larger capacity battery.
Hit up the official Gscreens website for more and to pre-order your own machine.
Post a Comment