Notebook computers might be great for their portability, but for many users they have one serious disadvantage: lack of screen real estate. Upstart computer maker gScreen wants to change that, though, with its upcoming SpaceBook 2009 which will offer not one but two 15.4-inch LCD LED-backlit displays, which open up and sit side-by-side.
Although gScreen hasn’t committed to precise specs or specified the resolutions of the displays, the company says the systems will offer either Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT or Quadro FX 1700M graphics with 512 MB of dedicated video memory, a 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. The SpaceBook 2009s will also feature an HDMI output, an IEEE 1394 port, an ExpressCard slot, a 9-cell lithium ion battery, and a full size keyboard, and should be available with either Windows Vista or Windows XP (no mention of Windows 7). The SpaceBook 2009 should be available by 2009 in Amazon.com; gScreen says it also plans to offer the SpaceBook 2009 internationally, as well as through etailers like Buy.com and Newegg.com
The company blog also says gScreen is working on a SpaceBook with dual 13.3-inch displays.
Usability studies have often shown that multiple displays—or, rather, the larger desktop areas offered by multiple displays—are a great way to improve productivity, since they enable users to see more information at once, organize their applications and windows more efficiently, and spend less time managing their applications. The SpaceBooks won’t be the first dual-screen notebooks, though: Lenovo’s W700ds, introduced late last year, sports a slide out secondary display for things like tool palettes, widgets, and small applications.
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