See that’s the point that I think most are missing about Stage Manager which is that it is very much within the IOS paradigm and is not attempting to be simply the alternative to what exists on Mac or Windows.
You can make good arguments either way (and they are very much a hot topic both internally and in our customer base) but Apple has been pretty explicit in everything they have said that this is the future.
And I’ve seen experiential evidence that the people that have the biggest complaints /difficulties with it are the most long-term Mac and Windows users, myself included. However, those that started their computing with a smartphone, like my daughter seem to be mostly fine with it.
That being said even Apple talks about it in terms of being a version 1.0 release and that they intend to rapidly iterate on it.
I know you are right - Apple’s real hooks on me are only:
Blue bubbles
FaceTime with grandkids
Photos/videos with kids and grandkids, and just generally
iOS familiarity
iCloud is no better for me than OneDrive; Apple News + is only a magazine convenience, and not near as compelling as I’ve made it out to be before; iTunes works fine for my needs across platforms.
Weight isn’t really much of an issue now, but surface area has not changed. If a device has too big a surface area, then it simply is not going to fit in.
There’s quite a noticeable difference in portability between 10/11" devices and 12/13" devices. An inch is pretty big!
I’ve loved my 12.9 IPP for art, but it’s not great for portability, especially with the Magic Keyboard. I can’t wait till the 11" gets a better display so I can upgrade. I don’t think I’ll mind the smaller surface area for art. I was used to a 12" Lenovo before, which due to aspect ratio was very similar in size to the 11" IPP. It felt much more portable than the 12.9 IPP too.
The only misgiving I have with this…is the keyboard doesn’t have a trackpad.
Other then that, I love every bit of this. I do agree with the general sentiment that we would all rather have the more portable Neo, but this thing is essentially a dual screen laptop.
If your someone who’s on the go this a perfect dual screen device since with the kickstand, having the second monitor stacked on top makes this perfect for most situations where having a 2nd monitor to the left or right of the device isn’t feasible.
When I think of small coffee shop tables, this is a down right perfect solution. Maybe even an airplane seat? I think the overall dimensions would make that still hard, but it could be doable in a business or first class seat. And its nice to have a second monitor without having to worry about power or cables. Even for single cable connected monitors, sometimes the cabling itself at a minimum would still be very annoying. This removes that problem entirely and instead replaces it with a keyboard/kickstand folio set up.
It many ways, this is quite similar to what I’ve mostly already achieved with my Surface Pro 8 with a Samsung Tab S8+ mounted on top of it, but more elegant and less prone to falling over (depending on the folio kickstand)
Kind of curious the reaction this baby will get once it hits a best buy show table. But if lets say this ends up being a massive successful for Lenovo; could that persuade Microsoft to bring the Neo back to life?
I really hope so. This could be one of those “tipping points” types of things and we see a variety of variants of this “new” form factor.
OTOH Though the original Surface Pro has had a number of “nice try” efforts by the other manufacturers, none of them seems to have cracked the code of what makes the Pro great so to speak.
I am often the last to give MS its due, even if most of the time it is for unreleased/unfinished products. The Surface Pro has been a real success, and thorn in Apple’s side, for some time now. No, it is not a volume leader, but neither are Lexus/Accura/Infinity. The Neo, even though canceled, was a marvel of design and engineering, and the Duo, despite quality control issues, is still an incredible design.
I used Lexus et al above because that’s the niche that MS can serve on the PC side - the high end desired devices that are not the Apple BMW/Mercedes class of overpriced but even more highly prized status symbols. HP tries it as well with things like the DragonFly and Spectre Folios, but I still think it is MS’ role to fill. So I hope they keep swinging; push out an iPhone/Fold worthy Duo 3 successor; and take another swing at the Neo with WOA innards…
While I haven’t seen any video that shows the kickstand in detail my initial reaction was that they licensed it from Mouse computers in Japan. They’ve had a few models like that (single screen device) since a few years back and it is based on origami and is suprisingly sturdy.
If you set it in portrait mode, can you expand both sides to show one screen?
It looks like it expands in landscape, but I have not seen it in portrait.
The other big question I have is, what is the stylus technology?
If this uses current Wacom EMR, it’s an insta-buy for me — but I just can’t bring myself to go back to Wacom AES.
If not, hopefully the form-factor will catch on, Samsung will make one w/ S-Pen support, and I’ll finally be able to replace my Samsung Galaxy Book 12.
One thing which I will note — a device like this screams for a customizable on-screen keyboard, and for a multi-touch mode where one can press a key on the on-screen keyboard while drawing w/ the stylus.
One is actually a power input port and “might” support USB but not TB. Lenovo themselves wasn’t clear on it when I asked and the unit I saw was an engineering sample which means it could be different in the released product.
BTW: one thing that makes me lean toward the belief that it’s two TB/USBC ports is the likely Intel motherboard I think they might be using which only natively has two TB/USBC ports.
It’s certainly possible that Lenovo could add additional hardware ports to their design however. HP often does similar with their Envy line for instance where they add a HDMI port.
Last but not least and Lenovo specific, we have seen engineering samples from them in the past where one of the USBC like ports morphs into their proprietary fast charging ports on actual release and that connector is nearly the same size, though it is actually asymmetrical in relation to a true USBC port.
