Top 10 Iconic Notebooks that Changed Mobile Computing

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That's a pretty good selection there. I remember several of these when they came out, particularly the W700ds, but had missed a few too.

For the HP HDX Dragon, wasn't there also an Acer 20"? I seem to recall seeing both side-by-side at the local store. Although the HP HDX may well have been both first, and better built/specced.

 

I think you're right, but I don't recall the details. Looks like Acer is trying the 20"+ market again with its recently-announced Predator 21X.

One other Acer notebook I thought about including in this article was a 17" notebook they produced at least a decade ago ...it was interesting not because the screen was 17", but because it was a 5:4 aspect ratio with a 1280x1024 resolution. I believe it was the only 17" 5:4 notebook to exist. I've been hunting for the model, it's not the easiest thing to google since all you get is monitors.

Charles

 

Acer Aspire 1714SMi, you have much to learn Padawan.

Of the same era with a Pentium 4, ewww, but perhaps a bit more interesting would be the Fujitsu N5010. It offered a 16" display running at 1400x1050, but I believe Fujitsu was using MVA displays for the SXGA+ LCDs, which would give you much better PQ.

 

That's the one, nice find.
It's even uglier than I remembered. And bigger: 2.2" thick, 15.7 pounds.

Charles

 

I remember when I first saw the Sony Vaio X505 in a magazine ad, and then in person. I wanted it so badly--at the time, I was using an old hand-me-down Pentium III Dell Latitude.

But then I saw the Thinkpad T42 and knew that eventually, I'd want a Thinkpad of my own. Thanks for the memories, Charles!

 

I had a used Dell Inspiron 5000 with a 600MHz PIII and SXGA+ screen when the X505 came out ...I know (knew) the feeling!

Charles

 

I remember that one too, because I've seen one live. Back in the old days when I worked retail we had an Acer rep visiting our store with that laptop. It was pretty big, don't remember much else though

 

Wow, that's a big laptop even by my standards, and I've never owned a laptop that was less than 6.75 pounds and also had a working battery. Still, that would be an awful lot of vertical real estate. 1280x1024 is a little low for my resolution tastes these days - though I did use a 1280x1024 monitor at 17" or 19" at work for part of last year because it offered more physical vertical real estate than the new 16:9s that were the alternatives - but crank it up a notch or two and I could see it being a nice desktop replacement configuration.

I remember reading the Predator 21X announcement. Probably a good one to keep on the notes for the next iteration of this, being the first curved notebook, as well as a beast of one overall. It also weighs a ton, but it's true that it's still more convenient for a LAN than even a small desktop + a monitor. Although I was impressed with how small the Alienware Alpha was when a friend got one; it's not that much more inconvenient to take one of those around with a monitor than it would be a Predator 21X, and less so if the host has a spare TV to connect to.

The MSI that was the first with a mechanical keyboard last year (or was it 2014?) would be another one to keep on the burner for next time; the new Acer has shown the mechanical keyboard isn't a one-off.