Battle of the giraffe-necked laptops

The 'Longneck'

(Credit: Philips)

As fond as we are of Philips designs, we're a bit curious about the origins of its new "Longneck" laptop. The photos we've seen look awfully similar to images of the "FlyBook VM" from Japan's Dialogue that were widely circulated last December.

But no matter. Philips has done what Dialogue didn't, which is offer the computer at a bearable price. With what seem to be comparable specs--an extendable 12.1-inch widescreen LCD, Intel Core Duo chip, 1GB of memory and a 100GB hard drive--for just under $1,700, according to Tech Digest. That nearly half the price we last saw for the FlyBook, which was going for almost $3,000.

The 'Flybook'

(Credit: Dialogue)

We're still not entirely sure why one would go to great lengths to get an ostrich-like laptop, other than to make an impression at the local Wi-Fi cafe. As we noted with the FlyBook, there are much cheaper ways to elevate a screen to eye level, if that's the goal. Since then, in fact, we've found even more gadgets to keep you out of the chiropractor's office.

Always remember: Your neck is more important than your laptop's.

[riredale]

Again, you're missing the point

There's a huge advantage to this kind of laptop design, and it's not to raise the screen up a couple of inches. It's to make laptop computing workable on an airline tray table. Just pull the screen up and towards you a bit, and now your laptop can sit comfortably on an airline tray table even if the bozo in front of you has his chair fully reclined.

I'm really hoping this kind of laptop design becomes commonplace soon. Millions of road-warriors would no doubt agree.

[fleurya]

A great design for certain disabled people

It may be quite a minority, but certain people with uncorrectable visual
impairments can really benefit from this design. Laptop use is becoming more of
a necessity, but people who have a hard time reading the smaller screens have a
big problem reading screens comfortably or have to hunch over to see them.
This helps bring the screen to their eye level no matter where they need to use
the laptop.

[kalfdjkladjflajkd]

Ergonomics!

I am surprised that no one has built something like this. The screen should be at eye level, your arms should be at the lap level. Any other setup is a problem to the arms or neck.