Laptop with triple displays: Ever done?

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theGryphon

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Using my work laptop in the last months, I'm missing my 34" 21:9 1440P display for productivity... Then, I started thinking, how hard would it be (for a manufacturer) to add two wing displays to a laptop?..

Visualize this: You open your laptop lid, then two wings open to the sides (each wing being half the size of the lid) with some neat hinge design. If the display is 16:9, each wing can easily be 7:9, giving a 30:9 viewing area! If the display is 1440P, we're talking about 4800x1440!! If it's 1080P, it's still 3600x1080!

How neat would that be! You could open 4 documents easily! Or, play games on the middle monitor while keeping your browser and something else open on the wings!

The only negative would be that the lid would be double the thickness. That negative would be non-issue especially if we're talking about a business class laptop, or a gaming laptop.

What do you think? Anyone heard of such a design?

Edit: The neatest implementation would of course be with a fold-able display. I've seen Samsung playing around with the idea of folding OLED displays. They call it Youm display, I think...
 
There have been laptops with multiple displays (or some method to attach one) but they're very rare and niche since the given market is very niche.

Separate companion displays are more commonly offered instead.
 
Not a small laptop but my Asus G75 with gtx660m could run 4 displays. I ran 2 1440p monitors via hdmi and display port plus the internal screen. Still had the vga output to use if needed. I like the idea of having a screen or screens clipped to the side but haven't seen anything like that. Depending on your laptop you might be able to get creative and fashion something up
 
My Sager with gtx970m runs up to 4 displays as well.
 
The Thinkpad W700ds is the only laptop I have ever seen with a secondary display actually affixed to the unit (and that display was only 10.6" diagonal). That was discontinued back in 2009 or 2010?
 
Deinos said:
The Thinkpad W700ds is the only laptop I have ever seen with a secondary display actually affixed to the unit (and that display was only 10.6" diagonal). That was discontinued back in 2009 or 2010?
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Nice! That's what I'm talking about, kinda...
Two additional displays, one on each side, opening with hinges rather than being retractable.

This mockup is exactly what I mean:

macdual.jpg


Ghetto version of that:
http://www.geeknewz.fr/48-heures-pour-un-triple-ecrans-sur-pc-portable-24731
packed-pixels-extra-laptop-display-by-matt-relf-620x340.jpg



I also found this mockup with full size wings:
hqdefault.jpg

Original source is a Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85JZBNa0xTw


Also found this prototype, which probably never surfaced:
http://gizmodo.com/5346996/gscreens-dual-screen-spacebook-coming-soonish
182gbtz3nbsc7jpg.jpg



Finally, I found the following. Not a laptop per se, but a portable (kinda) PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ZXagqnOL8
mqdefault.jpg
 
The only negative would be that the lid would be double the thickness.
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There's also price, reliability, and battery life.
 
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tybert7 said:
This is not what you meant, but more usable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LUAN1gCC9E
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Thanks, but maybe you missed the point here a little. I was talking about laptops, as in portable systems, that you can just open up in a few seconds.

Sure though, battery life will degrade with so many LEDs, but I was more thinking in terms of mobile workstations / portable gaming systems / desktop replacement systems that need to be connected to the outlet for full performance anyway.
 
The hinges on laptops have a hard enough time standing up to a single display.

Add 2 more displays and you are going to end up with a highly unreliable system.

I am guessing that a machine like that would easily be north of $5k, and not really be all that portable.

12-15lbs anybody?

I am guessing that they would sell less than 1,000 units.
 
cyclone3d said:
The hinges on laptops have a hard enough time standing up to a single display.

Add 2 more displays and you are going to end up with a highly unreliable system.

I am guessing that a machine like that would easily be north of $5k, and not really be all that portable.

12-15lbs anybody?

I am guessing that they would sell less than 1,000 units.
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Well, if you use low quality hinges and thick and heavy lids, of course it would be weak and heavy. There are laptops with screens less than 4mm total. These wing displays especially do not need to be thick or heavy, since they will be inside as the laptop closes.

12-13lbs is surely an exaggeration. Even a Dell M6800 (17.3", huge laptop) is less than 8lbs. I'm sure you can make wing displays weigh round 0.5lb each...

Say the extra displays add 5mm (remember, I'm talking about half-size wings), and 1lbs total. I don't see that being a problem for a desktop replacement laptop which is already 8lbs and 40mm thick... The benefits would be substantial though.

And, yeah, they could ask $5K for this. As long as it has high performance internals, good warranty, I'm sure as hell they can sell way more than 1,000 of them just in the US. I'm thinking Dell could do this as part of the Precision line-up, or HP as a Zbook, or Lenovo to add to their mobile workstation line-up, or ASUS or MSI to add to their gaming series laptops... For gaming series, $5K would be too much of a premium though...
 
theGryphon said:
12-13lbs is surely an exaggeration. Even a Dell M6800 (17.3", huge laptop) is less than 8lbs. I'm sure you can make wing displays weigh round 0.5lb each...

Say the extra displays add 5mm (remember, I'm talking about half-size wings), and 1lbs total. I don't see that being a problem for a desktop replacement laptop which is already 8lbs and 40mm thick... The benefits would be substantial though.
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It isn't the weight of the display that will make it heavy, it will be an even more substantial battery. The manufacturers may or may not use a discrete GPU to power the 3 displays (due to outputs as well as power to drive that resoluttion) as well as an even bigger battery to power those graphics chips and displays just so they can hit a check box on minimum battery life for marketing purposes.

That being said, I think an inbetween solution might work. Instead of 3 full size displays, use a 15-17" main screen flanked by 2 low power 7-10" vertical displays much like the MacBook with 2 ipads hanging off it in the pic above. That might be doable without making it a heavy beast. The 2 smaller displays would each be half the width of the main display and would fold into the same space as the main display.
 
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CaptNumbNutz said:
It isn't the weight of the display that will make it heavy, it will be an even more substantial battery. The manufacturers will consider using a discrete GPU to power the 3 displays (due to outputs as well as power to drive that resoluttion) as well as an even bigger battery to power those graphics chips and displays just so they can hit a check box on minimum battery life for marketing purposes.
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Sure, they'll do that, but I don't see how it's gonna go above 9lbs. I mean, I gave you the weight of a Dell Precision M6800, a 17.3" laptop, with a quad-core CPU, a 75Watt Quadro GPU, two heatsinks, and with so much overhead to accommodate modularity, components no-one uses anymore (Express-port), a DVD drive, and an incredible 97Whr battery (which could be the highest on any laptop). THAT's less than 8lbs and only (!) 40mm thick.

Unless someone decides to build the laptop out of 2mm steel, or make it 20" or something, I don't see how it's gonna be more than 9lbs, even with the added displays.

If someone decides to do this, I'd like to believe that they will think of the design as a whole, rather than as an afterthought. It can be done very elegantly. Design and manufacturing capabilities have evolved to much that something that could cost an arm and a leg 10 years ago is now mainstream. I mean look at all the acrobatic 2-in-1 designs (especially the Yoga Pro 3), look at Macbooks, even Surface Pro line... there are very sophisticated techniques in there. So, don't tell me they would use an archaic design and manufacturing know-how to build this thing! :p
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
It isn't the weight of the display that will make it heavy, it will be an even more substantial battery. The manufacturers may or may not use a discrete GPU to power the 3 displays (due to outputs as well as power to drive that resoluttion) as well as an even bigger battery to power those graphics chips and displays just so they can hit a check box on minimum battery life for marketing purposes.

That being said, I think an inbetween solution might work. Instead of 3 full size displays, use a 15-17" main screen flanked by 2 low power 7-10" vertical displays much like the MacBook with 2 ipads hanging off it in the pic above. That might be doable without making it a heavy beast. The 2 smaller displays would each be half the width of the main display and would fold into the same space as the main display.
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I still think it is a non-starter. For any serious work, a 17" main with two half screens on each side is just lame an not useful.

I wouldn't even consider a triple screen one unless all 3 screens were at least 1080p.

And for gaming... it would not be that useful either. The video card power you would need would make you have to have it plugged in all the time, not to mention the heat produced.

And then there is the problem with the hinges. I have been doing IT work for the past 15 years and they still have not come up with a solution that holds up really well long term.

The screws/bolts always work themselves loose. In some designs this even leads to cracking of the frame the motherboard sits in.

They would need to use a lot higher quality materials than what is currently used as well as a lot beefier design in order to accommodate multiple screens.
 
cyclone3d said:
I still think it is a non-starter. For any serious work, a 17" main with two half screens on each side is just lame an not useful.

I wouldn't even consider a triple screen one unless all 3 screens were at least 1080p.

And for gaming... it would not be that useful either. The video card power you would need would make you have to have it plugged in all the time, not to mention the heat produced.

And then there is the problem with the hinges. I have been doing IT work for the past 15 years and they still have not come up with a solution that holds up really well long term.

The screws/bolts always work themselves loose. In some designs this even leads to cracking of the frame the motherboard sits in.

They would need to use a lot higher quality materials than what is currently used as well as a lot beefier design in order to accommodate multiple screens.
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You're such a downer! :p :D
 
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