1623

That’s great to hear.

Just bought the wife an Asus Zenbook 13 that looked pretty unbeatable for $700 (she needs some ability to do photo work, so I wasn’t going to get her whatever cheapo thing that chokes on the GIMP). Very nice build quality, absolutely thin-n-light, and no slouch under the hood. She hasn’t complained about heat or anything, so hopefully it’s the thing that gets the job done.

If I had more money to burn on toys, I’d buy myself an i5 Surface Pro 7 with the pen and touchscreen at Costco for $1k. But the existing machine does the thing and that’d be a vanity device for sure. It’s not like I’m out pitching clients.

1624

Do any laptop manufacturers regularly use 3:2 screens these days? Or do most still use 16:9?

After using Surfaces for years, I can’t go back to 16:9 screens on laptops.

1625

Not much 3:2 outside Microsoft but there are a bunch of laptops with 16:10 screens, including the new 2020 XPS line with the thin chin bezels. 16:10 splits the difference basically, 3:2 is like 16:10.6.

1626

I have a 2016 XPS 13 and I’m generally very pleased with it except for the fact it’s got some kind coil noise that you can hear when the room is totally silent and for some reason it’s not very good sometimes at going into sleep mode and then income back to a computer with no battery left.

1627

Same. Strongly prefer the taller rather than wider screens for laptop and tablet screens. Although if a screen gets big enough, then I think wide makes sense (e.g., 24” and 27” desktop monitors). I wonder if 17” may be big enough where wider is fine.

1628

Note the XPS 17 is 16:10, so it is taller than most screens.

1629

Yeah, the form factor of the Nexus 7 was just so awesome… I still miss having something that size. A little bigger than phones, but much lighter than virtually all other tablets.

That is possibly why I’m interested in the Duo, but really… not interested enough to shell out that kind of money.

1630

The review embargo doesn’t help. Plus there’s other interesting and expensive technology coming out!

1631

Aw shit, you’re right, today does end in ‘Y’!

1632

The Huawei ultrabooks were 3:2 (3000x2000), but they’re not exactly readily available in the US for obvious reasons

1633

Youch! Not looking good for the Duo based on this review.

1634

Marques Brownlee’s review. TL;DW: It’s not for most people, has some problems, but version 2 should be good.

1635

This seems to be the common theme to most reviews. Really looking forward to see what they do.

1636

The hardware does look really nice, from a purely aesthetic perspective.

1637

Dieter basically in the same boat as Brownlee. Microsoft didn’t stick the landing, but they’re also on to something.

1638

I don’t even mind the hardware downsides MKBHD talks about, except maybe the pocketability. It just comes down to cost and the fact that this will have near zero software support outside of MS, because of that cost. At, say, £600, it might be worth it even so just for a better mobile Office experience. But not at the price it is.

1639

Dieter said the review unit was basically unusable until it was patched very recently, due to performance and stability issues (which explains the review embargo). If they can pull off another comparable round of improvement it could become interesting. But if it turns out that they’ve boxed themselves in by only shipping 6GB RAM on a device built for multitasking…

1640

I split-screen my 8" android tablet daily to run my little business. I loved the original idea of the Courier. I probably couldn’t use it as a phone, though (I’m on Google Fi, and I doubt they support it, though I haven’t looked), and the cost is crazy for a tablet. Maybe if they iron out some software problems and sell off back-stock for less than $600 when V2 comes out I’ll pick one up.

1641

Dual-screen phones are an in-between thing, they only exist because true folding screens aren’t quite there yet, with their plastic covers and all. In another year or two folding screens will improve to the point where they become truly usable, and prices will eventually drop so they’re mainstream, and then we’ll all have them, because they’re obviously superior.

But dual screen phones, their time is short.

1642

I agree with all that… But at the same time, that hinge is really sweet for some reason.