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Form factors I want to see come back

Categories: Ideas and rants
By: , IntoMobile
Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 11:19 PM

The shower apparently is a short term solution for my post CES exhaustion. I’m listening to my body and it is telling me to go to bed. I want to show this Sony Clie PDA off before I snooze because it’s a form factor I fell in love with and want to see come back:

Sony_clie_pegnr70v

The screen rotates and folds over the keyboard so you can now access the device via touch. Sony also made this beauty:

Sony_ux50

Friend of mine, Greg from CES, actually owns one of those. They were way ahead of their time when released but I think Nokia can strike gold by bringing it back.

Still don’t get it?

Look at any tablet PC. The screen sits on a single central hinge so that it may open and close like a regular laptop. The beauty of this device however … is that the screen can rotate and collapse over the keyboard so now you’re basically holding a writing/touch surface.

May the next internet tablet adopt this design, as well as the next E series device!

Advantages:

  • Screen can be protected at all times
  • Full QWERTY keyboard available when you need it
  • Can make your device look like an internet tablet
  • Can make your device look like an iPhone (zing! … iPhone commentary some other day)

Goodnight!

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About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Marc Orchant

    Blast from the past! I actually owned and used both of those Sony devices. I was pretty ticked off when Sony suddenly abandoned the Clie line and left a lot of users holding the bag. The funny thing is, with the amazing articulated hinge on the N93, Nokia has already demonstrated it has the engineering skills and product vision needed to manipulate the relative position of the display to screen for different use cases.

  • Ed

    Way cool. I also had both of those. The UX-50 was really ahead of its time. WiFi, BT, Camera…

  • Ricky Cadden

    fyi – alot of the newer laptop tablet pc’s are this form factor. Like a regular laptop, hinged at the center, you can swivel it around and lay it flat and you’re good to go. Freakin awesome.

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    yea i basically agree with what everyone here already said, these sony clie’s were WAYYY ahead of their time

    now i want to see them come back with newer, faster, and lighter technology!