This is thin. Using flash memory in place of the standard hard-disk drive, Ziba (The Motorola RAZR designer) and Intel have managed to make this laptop just 0.7 inches thick. The use of flash resulted in a side benefit: the laptop consumes less power and offers up to 14 hours of battery life. At 2.25 pounds (abt 1kg), it’s also among the lightest notebooks around.
When Intel commissioned Ziba, in Portland (Ore.), to design this laptop, it asked the design firm to develop a device that would be roughly comparable in thickness to Motorola’s famed Razr phone, which won accolades for thinness. Motorola’s just-unveiled Razr2 phone is thinner still: 0.46 inches when closed. But where the Razr only connects with cell-phone networks, this laptop can also access the Web via Wi-Fi and WiMax wireless-broadband connections.
Unlike most notebooks, this laptop’s screen isn’t encased, photo-frame-like, in a plastic rim. Instead, the glass extends to the very edges, mimicking a look found in high-end flat-panel TVs. The screen contains light sensors, which adjust brightness automatically. It also features a built-in video camera.
Ziba hopes to see the computer sold with a special protective folio that, at first glance, looks like a fashionable cover for a personal diary. The folio, which clings to the laptop with embedded magnets, is equipped with contacts that connect the laptop to an external digital screen. That display can be used to read e-mail or display a screensaver or photo (the sort of personalization popular with cell phones). The folio, which plugs into an electric outlet, can also double as a wireless charger for the laptop and other devices.
