Kohjinsha's doublewide laptop display

Kohjinsha's transforming dual-display notebook.

(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET)

CHIBA, Japan--This otherwise run-of-the-mill laptop from local PC purveyor Kohjinsha has not one, but two widescreen displays.

One of the 10.1-inch screens actually slides behind the other, so it's able to be closed like a normal laptop. When they slideout they form an admittedly odd-looking, but useful dual display setup.

Also inside the laptop: a 1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon Neo-MV40, 4GB of memory, Bluetooth, a TV tuner, and a biometric fingerprint reader. The OS will be Windows 7 Home Premium, graphics are DirectX 10 compatible, and the whole thing weighs about 4 pounds. More photos of the sliding screens in action after the jump.

One screen can be stored behind the other.

(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET)

The second screen is now completely stowed.

(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET)

[sheathe]

Here's another company I've been watching that has a dual-screen laptop: http://www.gscreencorp.com/

[CreativeMalcolm]

Wow... worst idea ever...

[Rants&Raves]

No, actually for portable software development this would be very very cool.

(Worst comment ever ?)

[jlt0x]

I disagree also. I'm a "laptop-only" user. My laptop replaced an ancient desktop and is the sole PC for the office, travel, and teleworking. Besides needing screen space for Office documents, web research, web-oriented business sites, e-mail programs, etc; I also need ample space for photo viewing & modifying, and for AutoCAD drawings.

The dual screens "in one package" would allow me to use one full screen for a major task and group the others on the other screen. It would eliminate a lot of the window clutter/stacking on one screen.

[Owen93]

jltox: you can do the same thing on a mac using spaces.

[callandor87]

@Owen93:

Virtual desktops and dual, physical screens are completely different. One of the most obvious differences would be you can see both screens at once, while you can only work on one desktop at a time.

[Police_States_of_America]

would be interested if there was no black area seperating the screens. they must be awkward to use like that

[Grifter02]

Monitors have frames. I have never seen a monitor without a frame that you can setup side-by-side and have no gap in-between. Have you?

[Y_Less]

Yes, sort of: http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/alienware-curved-display-rocks-crysis-at-2880-x-900/

[Police_States_of_America]

pretty sure i have, they were probably OLEDs

[gerrrg]

I think I'd rather wait until flexible OLED screens come out.

[katznaperr]

Well it definitely demands attention. It is hard to see the functionality of it however, especially considering how fragile it must be. Can you see this thing really working correctly even 1-2 years out with average travel/usage of the multimedia target audience?

[albanusalain]

I can imagine how useful this could be, but most of all it will entice people's eyes (well, at least I did). One thing though, how much the price it will be and how long will the battery lasts? It will have little use as a laptop if I can only use it for an hour or a little so but then have to run around just to find an electricity wall socket.

[paul613]

For me, double-tall would be far more valuable. At work, I use three 23-inch LCDs side-by-side, each 1920 pixels tall. It's great to be able to read an entire Web page without scrolling, or edit a Word document larger than life, three pages across.

[tim.lsr]

Agreed. When some people see my rotated displays they ask - why? I always respond - which direction does your mouse scroll wheel move most? For productivity, I want height.