As part of the ongoing story, at IFA, two PC makers unveiled 14-inch laptops that weigh about a pound less . Apple’s paragon of portability, the 13-inch MacBook Air, weighs 2.7 pounds.
As part of the ongoing story, this won’t be a column bashing Apple (although it’s kind of embarrassing for an “Air,” though.).
As part of the ongoing story, what I’d like to highlight, however, is that we truly live in a fresh age of purpose-built computing, where you can increasingly buy the right device for what you want to do, rather than simply buying a good overall PC and forcing it to adapt.
As part of the ongoing story, people were tired of lugging four- or five-pound Compaqs from place to place. In the PC industry, thin-and-light laptops have existed for years, but I was incredibly impressed by both Lenovo’s AeroBlade concept and the Acer Swift Blade that debuted at IFA. It’s worth using the MacBook Air as a jumping-off point, though, because the Air was the first widely used, mass-market laptop designed for a specialized market: the thin-and-light laptop.
The report highlights that contrast that against the upcoming wave of Nvidia-powered RTX Spark laptops on the horizon, and we have a genuinely juicy topic to sink our teeth into.
The report highlights that the focus of this newsletter is productivity: from programs to devices to peripherals, all with the idea to get what you need to get done, efficiently. Welcome to PCWorld’s newsletter, Smart Mode!
As part of the ongoing story, if you want the most recent issue in your inbox each week, just sign up right here . I’m your host, Mark Hachman, covering the productivity tips, tools, and trends that you need to know about, both from within PCWorld and beyond.
According to the latest update, redefining the thin-and-light laptop.
The report highlights that most of my hands-on period was spent waving the thing around, marveling at how light it felt in the hand. Acer’s TravelMate P6 14 AI impressed me earlier this year, when it business laptop debuted at roughly 2.2 pounds.
As part of the ongoing story, but no! A 1.76-pound weight is crazy, and literally about the weight of the water bottle you probably tote around and lift to your lips every so often. Lenovo’s 1.76-pound AeroBlade concept might be Frore’s first debut of its AirJet cooling chip in mainstream notebooks, but it too is just an almost ludicrously lightweight laptop. Thin, too: Lenovo had to expand the chassis to add USB-C ports. I haven’t been able to do the same with the Acer Swift Blade that Acer debuted at IFA, which I would have expected to ship at something like 2 pounds even.
According to the latest update, because both firms believe that consumers want and will buy truly lightweight laptops. Is this in response to ultraportable devices like phones and tablets? Probably. But it also pushes the PC into a fresh niche: ultralight laptops, which really haven’t existed before. Why bother?
Industry observers note that thin is in. Mark Hachman / Foundry. Lenovo;’s Project AeroBlade.
The report highlights that [The top 5 ultralights, based on some web searching: Fujitsu FMV Zero (1.40 lbs); Acer Swift Blade 14 (1.76lbs); Dynabook Portégé X30L-K (1.99 lbs); Dynabook Portégé Z40L-N (2.11 lbs); Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition (2.16 lbs).].
According to the latest update, roughly thirty RTX Spark laptops and mini PCs are expected by the end of the year, apparently leaning harder into the tech industry aspect than I would have thought. At the same time, the laptop industry is also going in the opposite direction: chunkier, higher-performance laptops with Nvidia’s fresh RTX Spark chips inside.
In a fresh development, i tend to think that they’ll be AI and productivity devices with some tech industry capabilities tossed in — more of an Arm-specific creator-class PC. I will be very interested if the GPU can be turned off entirely, however, preserving the long battery life that Windows on Arm PCs are known for. I’m honestly not sure that Nvidia and its partners will or should position these as tech industry PCs; after all, they have a MediaTek Arm CPU as their front end, and while Arm CPUs can play some platform releases, they can’t play every single one in the PC ecosystem — and gamer nerds can get extremely pedantic about such things.
As part of the ongoing story, they have a niche, they have a purpose, and it’s really up to PC makers, retailers, reviewers, analysts and pundits to do a better job describing who these PCs are good for. It’s also up to you to ponder about what you want in a PC, and then search it out. They’re out there, or they will be. Neither this thin-and-light renaissance nor the upcoming RTX Spark offerings are PCs for everyone.
Industry observers note that niche PCs are there to do what you want.
According to the latest update, so I went hunting. Part of productivity is finding the right tool for the job, after all. The problem is that there’s a sea of product names out there, without much clarification about what certain PCs are actually good for!
Industry observers note that in a category almost by itself: a Windows tablet that you can buy a keyboard and a pen for, and take notes. Pen-first productivity tablet: Microsoft Surface Pro .
According to the latest update, want a laptop you can ink upon, but with more battery? Lenovo has you covered, and with a solid Lunar Lake chip, to boot. Pen-forward laptop: Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 .
As part of the ongoing story, data-entry specialist: Lenovo ThinkPad G16s Gen 4 : Might have a bit too much horsepower under the hood, but a business laptop with an accompanying numberpad is what you need.
As part of the ongoing story, some people like large, single screens without a lot of weight, and this three-pound machine meets those needs….even with an RTX 5050 chip GPU inside. Large-screen mobile office: LG gram Pro 17 .
As part of the ongoing story, dual-screen, long battery life: Asus ZenBook Duo : A 99Wh battery plus Intel’s Panther Lake means this thing runs forever, and you have the option of a single (folded) or two screens.
According to the latest update, a 14-inch portable workstation with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ for running local AI models. Here, battery life really isn’t the point. Local-AI workstation: HP ZBook Ultra G1a .
According to the latest update, buy once, upgrade forever (well, kinda). Tradeoff: the price. When upgradability matters: Framework Laptop 13 (or any other Framework, really).
As part of the ongoing story, a 3.3-pound tech industry laptop that doesn’t look like one, allowing you to use it for work and play. Tech industry crossover: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 .
As part of the ongoing story, i liked the ProArt series more when was chasing the Surface Laptop Lab, but the ProArt still offers the virtual scroll wheel and other tools specifically for creatives. Creator laptop: Asus ProArt PX13 .
In a fresh development, optimized for audio, from a vendor which sells audio production devices and programs. Music production: RokBox MC Mobile X Pro Audio Laptop .
According to the latest update, dust, water, and vibration resistance. A real niche, but you can’t do that with a Mac. Ruggedized on-the-go: the Panasonic Toughbook .
Industry observers note that from there, you can move into the more generic categories — best overall laptop , for example — or decide what characteristics work best for college students, like long battery life.
As part of the ongoing story, first, they’re not productivity devices, but second, they’re often all aimed at the same target audience: the most performance for the least amount of money. I’d put mini PCs into the same sphere, as they’re all (to my knowledge) compact devices offering a generic mix of compute, storage, and I/O. I’m leaving out tech industry laptops.
Industry observers note that sometimes a product simply stumbles into a niche, like how the Mac mini and its M5 silicon has become the darling of some AI enthusiasts. More and more, however, devices vendors are exploring fresh revenue opportunities, and that means mining niche approaches that they might have ignored years earlier. Most people tend to buy a laptop in one of two ways: they’re looking for a “good” laptop, or they’re looking for one optimized for a certain task.
As part of the ongoing story, start considering what really matters to you when you’re buying PC devices. One of the things I try to do with my reviews is explain the “story” of what effect various technologies will have in the real global stage. You can use our own Smart Answers tool for further, tailored recommendations. So what do you need to do?
According to the latest update, the PC ecosystem doesn’t suffer from the same disadvantage. Seek and ye shall find. Circling back to the original point: I think Apple’s been forced into a “one size fits all” approach, because of their lack of product diversity.
According to the latest update, productivity in the news:.
The report highlights that this story was a fun one to write, though: the 49ers and the Rams played last week in Australia, and how each team dealt with jet lag differed . I talked with a pair of sleep experts for their assessment, along with details of how you can beat jet lag on your travels. If you’ve ever had a night with no sleep and then stumbled through meetings the next day, you know: this is a productivity story. This is actually an off week for me, while I help move my son into college.
According to the latest update, it stinks . Google also has a fresh Gemini desktop app for Windows.
The report highlights that productivity tip of the week:.
As part of the ongoing story, i’m skeptical, too, but a 2024 study (n=34, meaning 34 participants) showed that a group of people with plants in the room (four, in this case) performed markedly better in memorizing tasks and other to-dos. If this is real, than there’s an easy hack toward improving productivity: put a plant on your desk.
According to the latest update, “When people engage with natural environments, the complexity and patterns in these settings offer soft fascination—a gentle form of stimulation that engages undirected attention, allowing the directed attention system to rest and recover, ultimately restoring cognitive function and attention capacity,” Psychology Today reported.
According to the latest update, what plants? I don’t know. Maybe I should start working out of my kitchen, where my wife has a green(er) thumb. The productivity increase occurred over time, not right away.
According to the latest update, thanks for reading!
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