Step 1: Follow Yanko Design on Twitter and Tweet: Just entered to win a HP Envy 15. Just follow @yankodesign and retweet http://bit.ly/2j7spn
Step 2: Come back to YD and tell us how the The $1,800 HP Envy 15 Notebook will make a difference in your life.

This HP Envy 15 Notebook Can Be Yours….

• It’s got immense power and offers maximum speed and mobility with the upcoming Intel® Core™ i7 Processor and up to 16GB of DDR3 1066 MHz system memory with four SODIMM memory slots.
• The versatile storage options include the ability to add two solid-state drives in a RAID-0 configuration to improve the overall speed of the ENVY 15 while providing ultimate disk performance.
• A choice of two 15.6” HP Brightview high-resolution LED backlit displays, including the Full High Definition LED HP Ultra BrightView Widescreen Display with up to 300 nit, provides the best display experience for a notebook in this class.
• The ENVY 15 has an optional Slim Fit Extended-Life Notebook Battery, giving users up to seven hours of battery life.

Follow Yanko Design on Twitter and tweet this post on your Twitter and you could be the one taking home this HP Envy 15 Notebook!

Contest Ends: November 23, 12:00am PST

As I said before it’s almost too thin. If it weren’t for the softly bezeled edges the Adamo XPS might also be the world’s sharpest notebook. Weighing only 3.2lbs with the 20WHr battery installed is quite impressive but my favorite feature is the capacitive latching device. Por que? There’s no button or indentation to lift open the Adamo XPS. Just swipe your finger across a touch sensitive bezel and the lid magically magnetically unlocks.

The design is quite interesting. In lieu of the usual perpendicular form most notebooks take, the Adamo XPS opens up to an angle. The keyboard is raised for better ergonomics and all that space underneath facilitates cooling. The screen is slightly recessed because the entire keyboard plane folds into the display. When you look at the Adamo’s profile, what you’re really looking at is the screen housing.

I’m avoiding the phrase “wafer thin” because that implies flimsiness. The Adamo XPS is far from it. It’s incredibly sturdy and any give comes from the carefully seamed joints, alas the Adamo is not a unibody design. The keyboard looks almost like polished stone but it’s actually metal. How novel and appropriately chic! On the left edge is single USB  and display port. The opposite side has another USB port, an audio jack and power connector.

All the exterior sex appeal doesn’t mean diddly if it chugs during everyday use (cough – MacBook Air). I’m not a PC user so this was also my first experience with Windows 7. Upon start-up I was greeted with a facial recognition option. I didn’t try it because I was in no mood to see my mug in the incredibly bright 13.4″ HD (720p) screen. Once in, Windows 7 looked like a supremely clean version of Vista. All the nonsensical gadgets were gone and the taskbar now had a companion ala Mac OS X dock. I don’t want to make this a Windows review so lets just say I browsed, interneted and emailed without pause. The Adamo XPS is fast.

Dell has been on a roll lately releasing computers that step outside the proverbial grey box. The Adamo XPS looks like a winner in most areas but since we’re a design site, lets get picky. The corners are a little bit too rounded. The trackpad is too small. The speakers are too quiet. The bezel around the display is too noticeable. You’ve got the grey aluminum on the exterior and the black hugging the display. This double whammy makes the screen feel smaller. It would also have bee nice to move the Dell logo off the display area down into the keyboard because it’s way too distracting where it is. What Dell deserves snaps for is the beautiful, crisp screen. The keyboard is a dream to type on and that capacitive latch is like concept finally making it to reality. It’s unnecessary but design is only half about function – the other is emotion and that latch immediately introduces the idea of a computer far more advance if not a little cooler than anything else out there.

Specs:

• 13.4″ HD WLED (720P) display
• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4GHz
• Integrated Intel graphics
• 4GB DDR3-800MHz RAM
• Thin Micro SSD 128GB
• Integrated webcam with security face recognition
• Full size keyboard with touchpad gestures
• Built-in 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1
• 2x USB 2.0, audio, DisplayPort
• 20WHr li-ion battery
• Windows 7 Premium 64-bit OS
• 3.2lbs

Optional attachments:

• VGA, HDMI i/o
• External optical DVD+/-RW, Blu-ray Disc

Designer: Dell

 

Designer: Je Sung Park

Let me set the ball rolling….Flexible display…you next….

Designers: Julia Kaisinger, Pia Weitgasser, Martin Zopf & Tony Weichselbraun

REWORKED LAPTOP

I’m sure you remember the oldest drawing pad, the Koala, if you went to school when the Apple IIe was the main model. I do. I thought that drawing tablet was the greatest invention ever invented.

For some, that thought stayed strong. Inventors, illustrators, designers, and artists galore use drawing tablets every day! But they’re a little bit of a hassle. Why? Because they’re a whole other tool you’ve gotta take out.

But with this tablet/laptop concept from Victor Bivol, we’ve got total portability! Finally I can get a hot chocolate and double-chocolate brownie in the coffee shop and draw with all the other hipsters in my city.

Thank you Victor!

Designer: Victor Bivol

Design Concept: Laptop for professional designers from Victor Bivol on Vimeo.

10) MacBook Touch by Tommaso Gecchelin

Highlights: flexibility in form-factor via iSpine technology, flexible OLED screen, and Magic Dock that externalize ports to keep the appearance clean.

9) HP LiM (Less is More) Concept by Jeffrey S. Engelhardt

Highlights: use of Bamboo fabric across the aluminum frame of the PC, 19″ transparent touch OLED screen along with a wireless keyboard, virtual trackpad.

8 ) Evolve Modular CPU by Vas Obeyesekere of Point Innovation

Highlights: transforms between mobile and home computing configurations and can expand or contract its module based components to meet any user’s needs.

7) Mac Folder by Tryi Yeh

Highlights: a re-worked User Interface that resembles the iPod Touch or iPhones’, super-slim multi-touch screen.

6) Dual Screen Computer by Yong-Seong Kim

Highlights: a large slot behind the LCD display that can accommodate the notebook thus allowing you to use it as a desktop, notebook’s screen transforms into a second display in portrait mode.

5) Canvas by Kyle Cherry

Highlights: designed for those in the creative arts fields, offers a wide are for workspace.

4) The Napkin PC by Avery Holleman

Highlights: Uses e-ink and RF technology, designed for group collaborations, has pens like modules that transmit info to the base station PC, processed info is displayed on the napkin which is actually e-ink paper.

3) Book Laptop by Kyle Bean

Highlights: it showcases the trend that we have become so dependent on technology and the virtual world, that we have forgotten about the REAL one that we live in.

2) B-membrane by Won-Seok Lee

Highlights: built-in projector that removes the need for a separate monitor, a membrane keyboard that appears when needed, integrated optical drive, projector can beam ambient lights.

1) Sony Vaio Zoom Notebook Concept by Eno Setiawan

Highlights: thin glass form factor, touchscreen holographic technology, screen is completely transparent and the keyboard goes opaque when switched off.

A product just large enough to fit with books, small enough for anyone to lug around in the average sized bag. This is difficult to push, as modern day laptops are evolving toward this model anyway, but hay lets just skip a few steps, shall we?

Take a look below at the several concepts for books that will play an integral role in the future; in our scary, scary lives as electronic zombie creatures. Also watch the video below to get a terrifying glimpse into the future where a 12 year old, 7th grade student named Joseph has himself a netbook to help him through the day.

*An interesting note: Joseph has replaced Shawnimals as the creator of Wee Ninja in this alternate reality!

Designer: Students at SCAD

Scenario for Smartbooks from David Malouf on Vimeo.

Gecchelin reasons if Apple were to go small, flexibility may be more important than hard rigidness – a trend current Apple laptops buck because they’re in favor of unibody construction. Flexible OLED technology may be the key because it can provide the rich color and resolution density needed for a smaller screen without being a power hog and resists damage by its malleable nature. The thinnest screens now are barely 8mm thick and can fold like a piece of paper.

The core of this concept is a technology he calls iSpine. Like the spine of a book, the tech avoid excessive compression on the screen, yet allows the laptop to sit in multiple viewing positions. Go from a normal laptop with screen and touchscreen board – to a large widescreen canvas for drawing, presentation or movie watching. To keep everything minimal, ports like power, the mini display, and additional USB are externalized on a “Magic Dock” to keep most of the laptop slim and clean of an array of holes and plugs.

Designer: Tommaso Gecchelin

Designer: Tryi Yeh

Lets deliberate/debate and see how we can make this Notebook the ultimate Apple Book…. just for fun! Are you guys with me?

Leave your ideas, opinions in the comments.

Designer: Isamu Sanada