A Dual-Screen 10.1" Laptop In Time For the Holidays

JoshuaInNippon writes "Japanese computer manufacture Kohjinsha has announced that it will begin selling a 10.1" dual-screen laptop on Dec. 11 — in Japan only. While it is not the first dual-screen laptop, a title claimed by the monstrous 17" Lenovo Thinkpad W700ds series, the Kohjinsha sure looks much more portable and stylish. The Thinkpad's extra screen pulls out slightly from one side for about a 40% increase on its display, whereas on the Kohjinsha's two full separate screens spread out symmetrically from the center. While specs are admittedly lower than the Thinkpad, the DZ series certainly wins on cost. The starting price will be ¥79,800, about $900, in Japan (exporters will likely mark that price up slightly), compared with the Thinkpad at well over $2,000. Kohjinsha says the laptop is great for working on 'large business documents' (e.g. excessively wide spreadsheets), or watching videos while surfing the Web, which is likely what most users will be doing with it. The timing and the price certainly make the Kohjinsha DZ series a tempting toy idea for holiday giving — perhaps to oneself."

Butterfly Keyboard

[lobiusmoop]

I can remember when IBM first tried this trick, but with the keyboard instead of the screen [wikipedia.org].

Re:More than a gimmick?

[sammyF70]

I'm running Mint Linux on a 10'', 1GB Ram, 160GB HD Acer Aspire 1 here, and I can definitely do multiple things at once on it without everything grinding to a halt ... well I would if I had the screen real estate. As it is, I'm bound to switch between workspaces, so a second screen would come nicely, especially if I don't have to lose the low form factor which was, at least for me, the main attraction about the AA1 (I had a 8.9'' previously, but the SSD died and all I could get my hands on afterward was a 10'' ... in pink. I'd have gladly bought a small one if I had had the opportunity). Sure, a 21'' ~notebook~ offers a lot of screen space, but a 10'' netbook is the way to go in terms of mobile computing (unless you only want to watch youtube clips, then go get a smartphone).

Re:Made in Japan: Cheaper Alternative?

[E IS mC(Square)]

>> The price for the laptop made by Kohjinsha (based in Japan) is $900. The price for a laptop having similar features and made by Lenovo (based in China) is $2000. This pricing is quite surprising.

Similar features? Where?

Kohjinsha:
==========
two thin 10.1 inch widescreen LCD screens with 1024x600 (WSVGA) display
AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 ( 1.6GHz ) processor 1GB of memory (with a max of 4GB)
a 160GB 2.5 inch SATA hard drive
an ATI Radeon HD 3200 internal graphics accelerator
a wireless LAN + Bluetooth
a 1.3 megapixel webcam
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit.

Lenovo (basic, with nothing extra)
============
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9600 (2.8GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
17" WUXGA 400NIT TFT + 10.6"WXGA+ TFT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M 48-core CUDA parallel computing processor 512MB (dedicated)
2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
Ultranav + Fingerprint Reader
Non-RAID HDD, 160 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN) with My WiFi Technology

Re:Made in Japan: Cheaper Alternative?

[bemymonkey]

Awesome. The SECONDARY display on the Thinkpad has more pixels than both of the Kohjinsha's displays combined.

WSVGA (1024x600) is a step back into the last decade...

Re:It's a Acer Aspire One with 2 screens

[drinkypoo]

The 1.2 GHz K8 is already substantially faster than the 1.6 GHz Atom. The 1.6 GHz K8 will widen the gap even more substantially.

Re:It's a Acer Aspire One with 2 screens

[drinkypoo]

The Athlon is a bit more power-hungry, but it's hard to say just how much because this machine also has a bigger screen with the brightest backlight I've seen yet. The battery in this unit is much larger, etc etc. I get the feeling that the Atom-based system is 10-20% better in that department. Short form, if you want the longest runtime, get the Atom... especially if you plan to run anything other than Windows, the only place you're going to get full power management support at this point. (I would guess that there will be Athlon L110 support in the kernel in a tiny version or two.)

Re:Made in Japan: Cheaper Alternative?

[ikea5]

Kohjinsha is actually a subsidiary of Inventec based out of Taiwan. Inventec designs and manufactures Kohjinsha products.