IT Management: GScreen's dual-screen SpaceBook laptop landing this November

mardi 30 août 2011

GScreen's dual-screen SpaceBook laptop landing this November

By Gloria Sin | August 29, 2011, 12:31pm PDT

Summary: This positively alien-looking, dual 17″ HD LED screens in one, 10-pound gScreen SpaceBook laptop is no Photoshop joke, and is geared for the Photoshopping/video/spreadsheet editing-types.

I don’t know about you but I increasingly use my smartphone and tablet to display my emails and other information so I can work more efficiently on my laptop without constantly switching between a million tabs and windows. This two-screened alien of a laptop, the gScreen SpaceBook, taps into the need for multiple screens especially when you’re on-the-road.

The SpaceBook features two 17.3-inch HD LED-backlit screens (1920 x 1080) that slide out from the center and are available in matte or glossy finish, with a quad-core i7 740QM at 1.73GHz CPU, 8 GB RAM, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M GPU, 500 GB hard drive (7200rpm), a 6-in-1 and an internal super multi-DVD drive. I’m surprised it doesn’t offer a hybrid or dual solid state/traditional hard drive like some gaming machines, but the specs are in-line with high-end laptops. Weighing in at a beefy 10-pounds, with a magnesium alloy chassis, this is designed for processor-intensive work but can also play most modern games according to NotebookCheck (just don’t tell the boss).

Other specs include:

Communication Intel pro / wireless (802. 11b / g / n) network connection. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Speaker: Build-in speakers,1.5W. I/ O.
Connectors/Jacks:
1 x DC-in jack
1 x HeadPhone out (with S/PDIF)
1 x Mic-in
1 x RJ45 LAN (w/ metal shielding)
3 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x eSATA (+USB)
1 x IEEE Firewire
1 x HDMI
1 x MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro memory card slot
web cam
Dimensions: Width - 16 1/2
Depth - 12 5/8
Thick - 1. 7/8
Battery: 6 Cell, li-ion
OS: Windows 7 Professional

This portable powerhouse is the brainchild of the Anchorage-based, gScreenCorp CEO Gordon Alan Stewart. He literally drafted this dual-screen design on the back of a McDonald’s napkin when he had to work on a tourism video filming every single island in Hawaii for six months in 2003, but understandably did not want to haul his multiple monitors and desktop to every hotel to edit his footage.

Likewise, this 10-pounder is geared for other content creators like designers, programmers, film editors, architects, and even accountants who need to deal with large Excel files would appreciate the extra-wide or multiple displays this laptop allows. But the convenience doesn’t come cheap: the variant with the i7 CPU costs $2099, while the i5-powered machine will set you back $1899. For now, the SpaceBook is only available in America and Canada via gScreenCorp’s website and require a deposit to secure a laptop for a November delivery, which it is accepting starting today.

What would you do with your dual-screen laptop, if you had one?

[Source: Microsoft Experience Blog, gScreenCorp press release, gScreenCorp website]