Helium Balloons & PC Anorexia

[caption id="attachment_8471" align="alignright" width="300"] NEC LaVie X[/caption]

In an article on the world's lightest full carbon fiber ultrabook this writer made the observation that "the practical limit on laptop weight reductions is near; otherwise we shall be filling balloons with ultrabooks instead of helium". Apparently the technology universe has its own sense of humor, because a few weeks later I wrote an article on helium-filled hard-disk drives.

In an article on the Microsoft Surface tablet I coined the term "tech industry anorexia" with the observation that: "The entire ecosystem of smartphone, tablet, and laptop manufacturers seems to be fanatically dedicated to device anorexia, focusing in on the religious mantra of thin-and-light form-factors to the harm of their designs and the detriment of end-users."

In the month of July I covered two laptops announced only one day apart from each other. Both laid claim to the title of "world's thinnest": the Acer Aspire S5 & Samsung Series 9, with each having a legitimate claim within the precise context of their statements. Acer called its Aspire S5 the "world's thinnest ultrabook", while Samsung called its Series 9 the "world's thinnest premium laptop", which would seem to make both companies' claims a distinction without a meaningful difference.

Arriving for Japanese consumers two days after Christmas 2012, NEC's LaVie X will apparently make its first appearance in Japan, with a girth that would make an anorexic Hollywood runway model faint: 12.8-millimeters, or just 4-thousandths more than a half-inch thick, and a weight of 3.5-pounds. This doll-face however, gazes back at you with its 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 IPS (In-Plane Switching) display screen, while its waistline hides 4 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD, and a Core i7 CPU. The price will make some feel a bit light-headed as well, making its entry at about US-$2,100.