Asus W5Fe: Welcome to the dual-screen Vista laptop era

Related entries: Laptops

When former Intel CEO Craig Barret told us laptops of the future would come with two screens, we mocked him. Attendees of the 2003 Intel Developer Forum had to physically restrain themselves from throwing rotten tomatoes, such was the ludicrousness of the proposal. Seriously, does anyone even use the second screen on their mobile phone?

The series of laptops, codenamed Newport, were said to have a main screen and an additional external display built into the top of the lid. These could be used to scan emails, access a calendar, check network connections and monitor downloads without having to fire up the laptop.

It sounded like a total gimmick at the time, (why not just open the lid?) but we've just taken a look at the Asus W5Fe, one of the first Newport laptops, and have to concede the second screen could come in useful. It comes with its own power switch, a four-way directional pad with a central selector button, and a menu button for choosing which task you want to perform.

The system is provided by PortalPlayer Preface, and known officially as Windows SideShow -- a Vista-only technology that lets you do all of the above while the laptop is switched off, on, or hibernating. PortalPlayer reckons SideShow will let you access flight departure information, movie show times, alerts, play games, movies, images and MP3s. And the best part: it can run for "hundreds of hours without draining your notebook battery," according to the PortalPlayer site.

We can't wait for this to hit the streets (probably some time after Vista's release) -- not necessarily because we want to use any of the functions, we're just complete posers. Imagine the looks you'd get on the train! -RR

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Comments

JohnNWed 4 October, 2006 5:47pm

The article is somewhat misleading, labelling the two-screen technology as "Vista-only". In fact, Vista may be the only Microsoft product to support it, but Microsoft's Vista is hardly the only game in town, and, may very well not be your best choice to run on a laptop or leverage this particular feature (particularly if you have your own ideas on how you'd use it).

SpencerWed 4 October, 2006 6:33pm

Windows SIDEshow, not SLIDEshow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SideShow

Nick Hide, Sub-editor, CNET.co.ukThu 5 October, 2006 9:58am

Re: SideShow. Thanks for pointing that out, it's been fixed. -NH

AnonymousWed 4 October, 2006 6:45pm

FYI: The technology used is called "Windows Sideshow," not Windows Slideshow.

AnonymousWed 4 October, 2006 10:00pm

[1] (looking at all the spots where the rubber coating has been scratched off my Thinkpad's lid): What a great idea not to put any buttons or screens on that surface...
[2] Gosh, it's _so_ *ugly*. Look, my laptop has had something bulky for breakfast!

AnonymousThu 5 October, 2006 12:34am

I believe when they say that it is Vista only, they mean VISTA only. A hack might come out for Linux at some time, but there is no way that this will be backwards compatable with XP, or heaven forbid OSX :P Sure you can load something else on the laptop, just don't expect the second screen to work...

AnonymousSat 17 February, 2007 12:43am

If you ask me then the W5Fe is a useless gadget. New Vista remotes are coming out soon which lets you do the exact same stuff as the W5Fe sideshow. Now why buy a laptop which has 1 memory slot upgradable to only 1.5GB ram, got a hump on its back, 2 USB ports and overpriced for its features? I'd rather wait for the remote and get me a Dell XPS M1210.

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