Intel Shows Laptop With 4 Screens, LCD and OLED

By Marcus Yam
published

Extreme multitasking with extreme laptop touching!

It's IDF, which means that Intel will put on display some of its prototype ideas. While Intel itself doesn't create systems, it does have some design influence on how its technology is put together.

One of the more interesting ideas from Intel is the multi-screen laptop. While making a laptop with more than one display isn't a new concept (Lenovo's W700 or the gScreen), integrating four into one is a new mark. Of course, they're not all four full sized, but with one LCD and three auxiliary OLED, it's certainly neat.

What makes the Intel prototype even more interesting is that it features multitouch on all of its screens, allowing users to manipulate and move content from one screen to the next, as can be seen in the videos on CNet.

It may be cost prohibitive right now, but the possibilities for multitasking and very enticing.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • kingssman
    hmmmm im gonna be the first to say that they should put the screen on the outside of the main screen so you can operate your laptop with the lid closed, say like media player or something. OR introduce slide out OLED panels and have them act as extra monitors though smaller. The tiny 4x3 displays on the keyboard pretty much make it look like a space for more buttons rather than being actual screens. If wanna multi touch so bad why not introduce it into the trackpad? or better yet make a giant OLED trackpad that is around the size of Apple's and have that serve as the multi touch?
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    Kingssmanhmmmm im gonna be the first to say that they should put the screen on the outside of the main screen so you can operate your laptop with the lid closed, say like media player or something.+1
    Reply
  • doomtomb
    I like.
    Reply
  • Dyseman
    Intel shows it off, but it almost has to be driven by ATI or nVidia for any performance other than icons and internet.
    Reply
  • Major7up
    I would rather have one larger extra screen than the smaller ones shown, it seems disjointed and wasted space. Even one step further I would rather have a dual screen laptop then you wouldn't need any of those smaller three to begin with. I could see maybe one of those to show new email messages or similar info but not three.
    Reply
  • Dyseman: It's just like the desktop PCs that elite corporate stock traders use, they have 3 to 8 monitors on their workstation, but they're being driven by crappy PCI (not PCIe) graphics cards, and have noticeable flicker and lag.
    Reply
  • maigo
    Would be fine for IMing if the viewing angle is good
    Reply
  • Montezuma
    Kingssmanhmmmm im gonna be the first to say that they should put the screen on the outside of the main screen so you can operate your laptop with the lid closed, say like media player or something. OR introduce slide out OLED panels and have them act as extra monitors though smaller. The tiny 4x3 displays on the keyboard pretty much make it look like a space for more buttons rather than being actual screens. If wanna multi touch so bad why not introduce it into the trackpad? or better yet make a giant OLED trackpad that is around the size of Apple's and have that serve as the multi touch?
    I remember, when Vista was first introduced by Microsoft, that they had a guy on a slide holding a closed laptop with a small LCD screen on the outside of the laptop lid. I always wondered where that idea went.
    Reply
  • XD_dued
    Looks like useless expenses to me! I know i wouldn't miss it, but that's just me. How bout some dx11 cards? XD (yes, they can play crysis...)
    Reply
  • wildwell
    It looks more like a movie prop than a functional tool. I agree that a screen on the outside would be more useful than 4 screens on the inside.
    Reply