Porsche Design’s Book One laptop[1] is a prime example of when aesthetics completely take over — when other parts of the device suffer and you lose focus on how well it actually works.
The form factor set by Microsoft’s Surface Book [2]is probably one of the best approaches to a convertible laptop. Why? Simplicity: the screen detaches from the body to become a tablet, then can be reattached for the traditional clamshell design.
It can be a good experience, especially true if the pen input works well, the battery life is solid and the aesthetics fit like a jigsaw puzzle. The Surface Book does this, the Book One as well, but it doesn’t work as well.
Why is there a “Porsche Design” laptop?
Quite a few luxury car manufacturers (eg. Ferrari[3], Lamborghini[4], BMW[5]) have a design studio or brand they use to sell (expensive) merchandise that sport their brand. It’s just brand appeal. Porsche Design has previously designed an Android phone; a tablet computer is the next step up, if you really think about it.
At least you don’t have worry about power, because the Book One has a solid spec sheet. A 7th-gen, dual-core Core i7 processor is clocked at 2.7GHz (2.9GHz on turbo) paired with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, Bluetooth 4.1/WiFi and Windows Hello login.
To say this as a 20-year-old who is still in college may sound hypocritical. But honestly, the Book One feels like the product of a bunch of college students who got really excited about their first hardware project, only to realize how much work then has to go into the software.
If I...
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