BARCELONA—Porsche Design today released its first 2-in-1 laptop, a characteristically high-end, Core i7-based detachable that, if you're going to sum it up, is like a German-designed Yoga Surface Book.
"Because it would be boring if we did a normal computer, we said we want to be best in class, and it had to be designed in Germany," said Roland Heiler, chief design officer of Porsche Design.
The Porsche Design Book One, which will be available starting in April for $2,495 and up, was co-designed by Porsche, Microsoft, and Intel, and built by Quanta. The design is attractive, with a minimalist aesthetic.
The Book One is very much like a Surface Book with a Performance Base keyboard, with a few changes. It's bendier, obviously; the Surface Book's hinge doesn't go all the way back. The hinge itself is worth quite a long look: it's like a more industrial take on Lenovo's watchband hinge, inspired by automotive gears.
The pen is lighter than the Surface Book's and has one side and no clip. (I prefer the Surface Books' more solid pen.) It attaches right side up rather than upside down. In addition, the keyboard isn't quite as good. The keys feel shallower than the Surface Book's. It's not as bad as, say, the type cover of some 2-in-1s, but the keys don't have the satisfying clacky throw that makes the Surface Book's keyboard one of the best on the market. And, of course, there's no discrete graphics. The 13.3-inch, 3,200-by-1,800 16:9 aspect-ratio screen looks great in a dark room, at least.
The Book One runs Windows 10 Professional. Inside, there's a Core i7-7500U at 3.5GHz, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB Intel SSD. There's also a 5-megapixel camera facing you for Windows Hello. These specs jibe with the high-end market that Porsche Design is pursuing.
The tablet portion has one USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3, volume buttons, and a headphone jack. The base portion has another USB-C port, two USB-A ports, and a microSD card slot. The mix of USB-A and USB-C is more flexible than what the Surface Book offers (it lacks USB-C).
Press a button on the side, and a blue light appears when it's ready to detach. In tablet mode, it's a bit unwieldy, though. I didn't weigh it, but it feels even heavier than my Surface Book's tablet. That might just be confirmation bias, though. It's clear how to reattach the tablet, and the metal pins are very solid.
The 360-degree hinge works in all the expected modes: the screen flips upside down for table tent mode, and the keyboard disables itself when you turn the screen all the way back for tablet mode.
Overall, the Book One is an interesting remix of some high-end detachable concepts. It has the processor and storage to compete with the Surface Book, Lenovo Yoga laptops, and 2-in-1 entries from Acer, Asus, HP, and Dell. Its flexibility is striking—if only the keyboard measured up to the stellar standards set by Microsoft and Lenovo. Check back in April for a full review.