The most genre-defying, computer-redefining laptops of 2018

The Future of Computing: Innovation and Experimentation

I've been thinking about operating systems lately, and I have to say that I think in the future, mobile and desktop devices are going to have to finally like the device so that we're not like we're gonna have a unifier. Yeah, yeah, I mean I think the fact that Chrome OS is being used in schools so much is brilliant. On Google's part, it's just from a marketing standpoint - once you get used to this, although what's interesting is I've talked to kids about Chromebooks and they're like "I hate my Chrome" because they're given by schools are like $200, so they're like "Oh, Chrome". That's true; they're like give me anything other than a Chromebook.

This got me thinking about the future of computing. What's interesting is I've talked to kids about the Chromebooks they get in school, and they're like "I hate my Chrome" because they're just junky computers. Yeah, yeah that's true; they're like give me anything other than a Chromebook. Alright, got that.

Let's move on to our next one here. This laptop wins the award for craziest most experimental I don't even know if we'll see a computer like this again. Well again, this is like I think this is forward-looking. This is pointing to the future of computing - it's the Yoga Book C 9:30. This was the most interesting laptop I reviewed this year by far as you can see there. It doesn't have a keyboard; yeah it's just all just all a screen. Yeah, it feels horrible to type on it. I can imagine.

I remember I actually did try typing on this when when you had a area - it is a weird experience. Just completely flat; just like that. You're just tapping on a screen, without the haptic feedback. It's like there's no keyboard. Like, I need to feel like I'm typing something more than that. So, like, the eating screen also works as an eReader - so you can flip it around and read books on it. But I think there are obvious issues with this device because when you think about two screens, you could do so much with them. Like, if you're not using a keyboard, you can put all sorts of functions in there other than the keyboard. There's just like all sorts of stuff you could do.

I think that's an interesting thing - do you think this is something that more people are going to do? I think I think the obvious problem has been the keyboard; people who need a keyboard need that feedback, can we get more haptic feedback on some right and that's probably what kept companies from pursuing products like that until the tech is there. That being said, Lenovo was just like "we're gonna do it, throw it out, see what happens". And I have to give them props for that because if the products are out there people are experiencing them seeing them, there's gonna be a demand for that and I think companies will push to actually solve that problem of fixing the haptic feedback thing.

So, these are the top three that I picked. There are probably a couple more that you know - like maybe that surface. But these are the ones that I would point to. And the one that I would say does it the best is the HP specs and leather.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enback with more digital trends live thanks for tuning in like we said drop in those comments and questions right there and now we are joined by luke larson hello Luke hey Greg how's it going really good so best products of 2018 is kind of been something that we've been talking about on the show and there's a huge feature up about it but beyond that there's also all kinds of interesting features and things that have come out this year over this last yeah and I you know it's like it's funny cuz like talking about products of the year and we review so many products in the office so for me I'm reviewing all these laptops all year and you know give great ones like the XPS 13 you guys just talked about uh-huh but like they're also just like weird things that come through and even in like laptops where people it's tends to be a little more conservative a little more like say me say me you know yeah that's a laptop right but there are like occasionally just like these like weird laptops that come out you know there's like differences yeah well I mean and you look at so many I can't even imagine you know how many you see throughout the year right and I'm sure looking at the differences when somebody does something that's a little bit out of the ordinary I'm sure it stands out right it really stands out because a lot of them look the same like yeah a lot of them all of you right exactly but we are in an interesting moment right now with laptops where companies are starting to like experiment and just like try things which is kind of a cool moment of being cuz like I think it has been very much the same for years yeah I think now we're just like in an interesting moment so hopefully it's like a transition into some cool stuff something cool maybe at CES yeah yeah so for all the ones we're gonna talk about like I I see these as things that are going to be there forward-looking not all of them are super successful and in in terms of how they actually function and how you actually would use them today but they all point to something in the future I think that it could be interesting nice well why don't we walk through some of the different ones you've got one here in studio and I know I was saying earlier that we might have all three but we've got some images for the other one so we'll talk about the other ones as well well we've got this one right here yes and this one I think it's good to start with because this one is the one that does experimental and weird except does it in a way that actually works well as an actual product you can actually use this for what it's intended to like you'd be totally happy buying it so so this which one is this that we have here this is the HP Spectre folio and the thing the main thing Roth of that is the thing is made of leather so that's so fascinating me so I you know if you're looking at it right now you might think that this is just a case that's on there right so you know that you put on outside of it but no this is actually actually like the computer is built into the leather and on the front side you can see on the back it just looks like a case kind of yeah it looks like it's like an actual physical right right well spoilers oh alright you can see like the the keyboard deck like goes right into the leather and so you get this really interesting totally new we've never seen a product like this quite before and it's not thick it's not yeah like bulky because of the Heather because the leather but yeah so what what is the point of making out of leather I mean other than you know a school I mean I think there's the first thing which is just like it looks cool and I think not only does it look cool I think it has like a premium kind of feel like yeah great your car you put leather in the seats or whatever you're like I think that's the idea here it's like not the litter yeah exactly it comes in a couple different colors and and what's really cool about it is I'll show the the other really cool thing about the leather what it allows it to do because this is a two in one device so it is a laptop like unlike a lot of tuned ones you can actually put on your lap and use it as a normal laptop it feels totally normal but because of the leather you can actually you know do this cool thing with the two-in-one functionality so basically that pops out there oh nice and you can slide it forward and you get that mode which is a really weird mode but basically it's kind of like a medium mode you know you might watch a movie there but you also have access to the trackpad there the whole thing is touch obviously so like you can do that and then you can also move it back and go full you know tablet mode like that that's really what allows it to do that is the leather because a lot of obviously leather is a you know a flexible that's true cereal it's not like plastic or metal now going forward do you think this is something that other companies will adopt or that they'll continue out of this or is this just a one-off like yeah let's see if we can do it you know it might be like the leather specifically might just be a one-off thing but I do think that what this is pointing to is a future where companies are starting to start to use these different materials other than just plastic or like aluminum or something yeah we're gonna see them to start to experiment with like what else can we make this out of to make it stand out in the market because and and what really allows them to do this this could not have been made a few years ago at least not in the way that it it is here because this has a Intel y series processor in it which is super low power it's fanless completely fine list of like the heat is really low and that's what allows them to put they can you know put this leather wrapping on it yeah so it's a it's super hot and right right and it but it's so it's a low-power but it's also like a pretty good performer so like you could use this as your main laptop you would have no problem at all with that it's not gonna like blow off the charts but it's it's totally capable right you know has a great battery life all the kind of things you would want in a laptop so I made outta love it so would you buy the I would use one I don't know if I'd get the fully loaded leather with the outer coat yeah yeah I think it takes a certain amount of like I don't know I don't think I would either like this doesn't quite fit me right I need a leather laptop I would use one if it were give it to me totally not I don't think I would purchase one but I do think that's pretty neat yeah and they're trying out some different things yep you know given a different look and adding more style into it because like you said they all looked so much the same that maybe style is going to be one of the differentiations yeah especially they can like I said I think we can actually do it in a way that doesn't like ruin the entire computing experience you know like I think in the past gimmicky things like that would just like it's worthless outside of the gimmick whereas this is like it's actually a really capable one so that's the HP Spectre folio HP Spectre folio okay and then we've got a couple more that we wanted to talk about - so again to look at some of Luke's the the weirdest or some of the most out there laptops the ones that took a little bit of a chance on some things yeah good or bad which one do you want to talk about here well we'll save the weirdest for last so let's go next to the pixel slate okay pixel slate yeah we've brought on the show before but I wanted to mention it because it has I think it's pointing towards a future where it's experimenting a lot with operating system okay it's a software now is this a Chrome OS this is Chrome OS and it's a tablet obviously you can see there in the video but like a surface pro like you've got here it's you know it can be used as a laptop also means that keyboard that attaches to it what's interesting about the pixel slate and what Google's doing with Chrome OS is you've got there you're there there I am in a different day different if you had the same shirt I've always wanted it that could happen at some point okay oh yeah I've only got so many shirt the pixel slate though has Android apps on it and it has all this new tablet functionality that kind of takes Chrome OS which is to believe in you know a desktop operating system and makes it a tablet you know it's like an it actually merges those two worlds in a really interesting way and unlike really anything that's out there yeah you know they don't really have that on the iPad you don't really have that in Windows 10 they have the kind of the full picture it's not a perfect product it's got tons of issues but I think this is the future that like a lot of people thought would have been here a long time ago right that kind of crossover yeah yeah so you think that's where a tenant will ever have like this much functionality as like a Windows I I would hope so you know I think like Google is gonna continue to like put some of those features into it but also like I think the way we use computers is changing yeah our dependent right on web applications and just like the browser is is increasing by the day you know just I mean everything I mean I don't know how much I've switched you that's just Google box you know yeah I mean I switch to a lot of that so yeah I can see that that's the way it's going I think it's it's definitely a hot-button issue but I mean even by our comments that we had earlier today people get very defensive about Chrome or they're very against it uh-huh one of the other end and that's going to be Google's main adversary here is just like overcoming public opinion cuz I think people just like Chrome OS it's cheap it's like junky you can't do anything with it it's just a web browser you know right house and all those things are legitimate but I think not so much I'm not talking so much about this specific operating system but I think in the future mobile and desktop yeah are gonna have to finally like the device so that we're not like we're gonna have a unifier yeah yeah I mean I think the fact that that Chrome OS that Chromebooks and everything like that are being used in schools so much brilliant move on Google's part just from a marketing standpoint like your goods yeah once you get used to this although what's interesting is I've talked to kids about that and they're like oh I hate my chrome like the Chromebooks they give schools are like $200 you know so they're like Oh Chrome they'd only reaffirming the fact that these are like junky computers yeah yeah that's true they're like give me anything other than a Chromebook alright maybe that's why I'm not doing the marketing for Google all right got that let's go on to our to our next one here yeah and this laptop this one wins the award for craziest most experimental I don't even know if we'll see a computer like this I mean really again well again this is like I think this is forward-looking this is pointing to the future of computing it's the yoga book C 9:30 this was the most interesting laptop I reviewed this year by far as you can see there it doesn't have a keyboard yeah it's just all just all a screen yeah it's got two screens one the bottom one where you normally would have a keyboard is a eating screen so it feels horrible to type on it yeah I can imagine and I remember I actually did try typing on this when when you had a area yeah it is a weird experience just a completely flat I mean it just feels like you're tapping on I mean that's you are you're just tapping on a screen just a blank screen right without that haptic feedback yeah that yeah at least I need just to feel like I'm I don't know just yeah it just feels weird excited not I like touch typing like you have to kind of like yeah so like there's obvious like issues so the eating screen also works as a like eReader so you can like flip it around you can read it read books on it so there's like these like interesting advantages I don't think this device fully took advantage of the possibilities because when you think about the fact that you can have two screens like you can you could do so much with a second screen yeah you know like if you're not using keyboard you can put all sorts of like functions in there other than the keyboard you know there's just like all sorts of stuff you could do yeah I think that's an interesting thing like do you think this is something that more people are going to do yeah I think I think the obvious like problem has been the keyboard like people who need a keyboard yeah I need that feedback can we get more haptic feedback on some right and I think that's the vestibule question that's what probably has kept companies from pursuing products like that until the tech is there whereas lenovo was just like we're just gonna do it just do it throw it out see what happened I have to give them like props for that because like if the products are out there people are experience experiencing them seeing them there's gonna be like a more of a demand for that and I think companies will be push to actually solve that problem of like fixing the haptic feedback thing you know yeah I think I that's what I'm hoping for at least I think coming out of that yeah yeah Wow well and again these are the top three that you picked these are the top three there's probably a couple more that I'd you know thrown the surface go maybe that's a kind of a weird it's a little tiny tablet so there's a couple different you know weird understand that those are the three that I would point to and the one that I would say does it the best is I hear the HP specs the leather gotta have the leather that I have the weather well Luke thank you so much for hopping on to talk about these yeah I mean these are definitely interesting it's always it's always crazy you know where the innovation goes and what's actually gonna take off and what won't take off you know we'll know policy in a year yeah yeah whether whether this becomes a trend or other companies start doing it again and there an article up about this we're just kind of talking about these there's articles about all these computer you can check out those reviews for all three of these comparisons and what and what's what's your Twitter handle Twitter Hannah's la la Larson en eleven at Larsson 11 on Twitter follow Luke alright Luke thanks so muchback with more digital trends live thanks for tuning in like we said drop in those comments and questions right there and now we are joined by luke larson hello Luke hey Greg how's it going really good so best products of 2018 is kind of been something that we've been talking about on the show and there's a huge feature up about it but beyond that there's also all kinds of interesting features and things that have come out this year over this last yeah and I you know it's like it's funny cuz like talking about products of the year and we review so many products in the office so for me I'm reviewing all these laptops all year and you know give great ones like the XPS 13 you guys just talked about uh-huh but like they're also just like weird things that come through and even in like laptops where people it's tends to be a little more conservative a little more like say me say me you know yeah that's a laptop right but there are like occasionally just like these like weird laptops that come out you know there's like differences yeah well I mean and you look at so many I can't even imagine you know how many you see throughout the year right and I'm sure looking at the differences when somebody does something that's a little bit out of the ordinary I'm sure it stands out right it really stands out because a lot of them look the same like yeah a lot of them all of you right exactly but we are in an interesting moment right now with laptops where companies are starting to like experiment and just like try things which is kind of a cool moment of being cuz like I think it has been very much the same for years yeah I think now we're just like in an interesting moment so hopefully it's like a transition into some cool stuff something cool maybe at CES yeah yeah so for all the ones we're gonna talk about like I I see these as things that are going to be there forward-looking not all of them are super successful and in in terms of how they actually function and how you actually would use them today but they all point to something in the future I think that it could be interesting nice well why don't we walk through some of the different ones you've got one here in studio and I know I was saying earlier that we might have all three but we've got some images for the other one so we'll talk about the other ones as well well we've got this one right here yes and this one I think it's good to start with because this one is the one that does experimental and weird except does it in a way that actually works well as an actual product you can actually use this for what it's intended to like you'd be totally happy buying it so so this which one is this that we have here this is the HP Spectre folio and the thing the main thing Roth of that is the thing is made of leather so that's so fascinating me so I you know if you're looking at it right now you might think that this is just a case that's on there right so you know that you put on outside of it but no this is actually actually like the computer is built into the leather and on the front side you can see on the back it just looks like a case kind of yeah it looks like it's like an actual physical right right well spoilers oh alright you can see like the the keyboard deck like goes right into the leather and so you get this really interesting totally new we've never seen a product like this quite before and it's not thick it's not yeah like bulky because of the Heather because the leather but yeah so what what is the point of making out of leather I mean other than you know a school I mean I think there's the first thing which is just like it looks cool and I think not only does it look cool I think it has like a premium kind of feel like yeah great your car you put leather in the seats or whatever you're like I think that's the idea here it's like not the litter yeah exactly it comes in a couple different colors and and what's really cool about it is I'll show the the other really cool thing about the leather what it allows it to do because this is a two in one device so it is a laptop like unlike a lot of tuned ones you can actually put on your lap and use it as a normal laptop it feels totally normal but because of the leather you can actually you know do this cool thing with the two-in-one functionality so basically that pops out there oh nice and you can slide it forward and you get that mode which is a really weird mode but basically it's kind of like a medium mode you know you might watch a movie there but you also have access to the trackpad there the whole thing is touch obviously so like you can do that and then you can also move it back and go full you know tablet mode like that that's really what allows it to do that is the leather because a lot of obviously leather is a you know a flexible that's true cereal it's not like plastic or metal now going forward do you think this is something that other companies will adopt or that they'll continue out of this or is this just a one-off like yeah let's see if we can do it you know it might be like the leather specifically might just be a one-off thing but I do think that what this is pointing to is a future where companies are starting to start to use these different materials other than just plastic or like aluminum or something yeah we're gonna see them to start to experiment with like what else can we make this out of to make it stand out in the market because and and what really allows them to do this this could not have been made a few years ago at least not in the way that it it is here because this has a Intel y series processor in it which is super low power it's fanless completely fine list of like the heat is really low and that's what allows them to put they can you know put this leather wrapping on it yeah so it's a it's super hot and right right and it but it's so it's a low-power but it's also like a pretty good performer so like you could use this as your main laptop you would have no problem at all with that it's not gonna like blow off the charts but it's it's totally capable right you know has a great battery life all the kind of things you would want in a laptop so I made outta love it so would you buy the I would use one I don't know if I'd get the fully loaded leather with the outer coat yeah yeah I think it takes a certain amount of like I don't know I don't think I would either like this doesn't quite fit me right I need a leather laptop I would use one if it were give it to me totally not I don't think I would purchase one but I do think that's pretty neat yeah and they're trying out some different things yep you know given a different look and adding more style into it because like you said they all looked so much the same that maybe style is going to be one of the differentiations yeah especially they can like I said I think we can actually do it in a way that doesn't like ruin the entire computing experience you know like I think in the past gimmicky things like that would just like it's worthless outside of the gimmick whereas this is like it's actually a really capable one so that's the HP Spectre folio HP Spectre folio okay and then we've got a couple more that we wanted to talk about - so again to look at some of Luke's the the weirdest or some of the most out there laptops the ones that took a little bit of a chance on some things yeah good or bad which one do you want to talk about here well we'll save the weirdest for last so let's go next to the pixel slate okay pixel slate yeah we've brought on the show before but I wanted to mention it because it has I think it's pointing towards a future where it's experimenting a lot with operating system okay it's a software now is this a Chrome OS this is Chrome OS and it's a tablet obviously you can see there in the video but like a surface pro like you've got here it's you know it can be used as a laptop also means that keyboard that attaches to it what's interesting about the pixel slate and what Google's doing with Chrome OS is you've got there you're there there I am in a different day different if you had the same shirt I've always wanted it that could happen at some point okay oh yeah I've only got so many shirt the pixel slate though has Android apps on it and it has all this new tablet functionality that kind of takes Chrome OS which is to believe in you know a desktop operating system and makes it a tablet you know it's like an it actually merges those two worlds in a really interesting way and unlike really anything that's out there yeah you know they don't really have that on the iPad you don't really have that in Windows 10 they have the kind of the full picture it's not a perfect product it's got tons of issues but I think this is the future that like a lot of people thought would have been here a long time ago right that kind of crossover yeah yeah so you think that's where a tenant will ever have like this much functionality as like a Windows I I would hope so you know I think like Google is gonna continue to like put some of those features into it but also like I think the way we use computers is changing yeah our dependent right on web applications and just like the browser is is increasing by the day you know just I mean everything I mean I don't know how much I've switched you that's just Google box you know yeah I mean I switch to a lot of that so yeah I can see that that's the way it's going I think it's it's definitely a hot-button issue but I mean even by our comments that we had earlier today people get very defensive about Chrome or they're very against it uh-huh one of the other end and that's going to be Google's main adversary here is just like overcoming public opinion cuz I think people just like Chrome OS it's cheap it's like junky you can't do anything with it it's just a web browser you know right house and all those things are legitimate but I think not so much I'm not talking so much about this specific operating system but I think in the future mobile and desktop yeah are gonna have to finally like the device so that we're not like we're gonna have a unifier yeah yeah I mean I think the fact that that Chrome OS that Chromebooks and everything like that are being used in schools so much brilliant move on Google's part just from a marketing standpoint like your goods yeah once you get used to this although what's interesting is I've talked to kids about that and they're like oh I hate my chrome like the Chromebooks they give schools are like $200 you know so they're like Oh Chrome they'd only reaffirming the fact that these are like junky computers yeah yeah that's true they're like give me anything other than a Chromebook alright maybe that's why I'm not doing the marketing for Google all right got that let's go on to our to our next one here yeah and this laptop this one wins the award for craziest most experimental I don't even know if we'll see a computer like this I mean really again well again this is like I think this is forward-looking this is pointing to the future of computing it's the yoga book C 9:30 this was the most interesting laptop I reviewed this year by far as you can see there it doesn't have a keyboard yeah it's just all just all a screen yeah it's got two screens one the bottom one where you normally would have a keyboard is a eating screen so it feels horrible to type on it yeah I can imagine and I remember I actually did try typing on this when when you had a area yeah it is a weird experience just a completely flat I mean it just feels like you're tapping on I mean that's you are you're just tapping on a screen just a blank screen right without that haptic feedback yeah that yeah at least I need just to feel like I'm I don't know just yeah it just feels weird excited not I like touch typing like you have to kind of like yeah so like there's obvious like issues so the eating screen also works as a like eReader so you can like flip it around you can read it read books on it so there's like these like interesting advantages I don't think this device fully took advantage of the possibilities because when you think about the fact that you can have two screens like you can you could do so much with a second screen yeah you know like if you're not using keyboard you can put all sorts of like functions in there other than the keyboard you know there's just like all sorts of stuff you could do yeah I think that's an interesting thing like do you think this is something that more people are going to do yeah I think I think the obvious like problem has been the keyboard like people who need a keyboard yeah I need that feedback can we get more haptic feedback on some right and I think that's the vestibule question that's what probably has kept companies from pursuing products like that until the tech is there whereas lenovo was just like we're just gonna do it just do it throw it out see what happened I have to give them like props for that because like if the products are out there people are experience experiencing them seeing them there's gonna be like a more of a demand for that and I think companies will be push to actually solve that problem of like fixing the haptic feedback thing you know yeah I think I that's what I'm hoping for at least I think coming out of that yeah yeah Wow well and again these are the top three that you picked these are the top three there's probably a couple more that I'd you know thrown the surface go maybe that's a kind of a weird it's a little tiny tablet so there's a couple different you know weird understand that those are the three that I would point to and the one that I would say does it the best is I hear the HP specs the leather gotta have the leather that I have the weather well Luke thank you so much for hopping on to talk about these yeah I mean these are definitely interesting it's always it's always crazy you know where the innovation goes and what's actually gonna take off and what won't take off you know we'll know policy in a year yeah yeah whether whether this becomes a trend or other companies start doing it again and there an article up about this we're just kind of talking about these there's articles about all these computer you can check out those reviews for all three of these comparisons and what and what's what's your Twitter handle Twitter Hannah's la la Larson en eleven at Larsson 11 on Twitter follow Luke alright Luke thanks so much\n"