The advancement of technology is driving many products to develop in the direction of extreme simplification, gradually removing some "unnecessary" functions or designs. Just like the development history of smartphones, physical keyboards, slide covers, flip covers and other designs in the era of feature phones were replaced by simple full screens. The same is true for laptops, , and product designs are constantly making subtraction.
At this CES 2022 exhibition, Dell released the XPS 13 Plus laptop with a new design. This product focuses on the concept of extremely simplified design. While inheriting the full screen development idea of XPS series, it further simplifies the design of keyboard and trackpad. Judging from market feedback, some users do not agree with the design plan of Dell XPS 13 Plus, believing that such a design is just like a model and cannot improve office efficiency. So, is the concept of minimalist design a trend in laptops? What impact will it have on users?
"Simplified" rule in notebook design
Dell XPS 13 Plus's design idea reflects to a certain extent the future development direction of the laptop industry. Compared with previous products, the design form of Dell XPS 13 Plus has not changed, and it still follows the design idea of traditional notebooks. However, the design of many hardware modules has been modified to make the product simpler and more futuristic, which has a complete set of "simplification" rules.
First of all, in the screen part, notebooks have been removing thick borders in recent years, creating a "boundless" visual impression through ultra-narrow borders. The Dell XPS 13 Plus uses a 13.4-inch narrow bezel display. Because the bottom bezel is too narrow, the original Dell DELL English logo on the B-side (display) was forced to be removed. The full screen of smartphones has also experienced a similar situation. The frontal design of the phone is gradually becoming homogeneous, and other designs must make way for the screen-to-body ratio.
After all, there are many narrow-bezel laptops nowadays, and many users are tired of similar designs. The real design highlight of the Dell XPS 13 Plus is the simplification of the design of the keyboard and trackpad, which is the main source of its praise and complaints.
In the keyboard part, the keyboard layout of Dell XPS 13 Plus is quite compact, and the spacing between each key is very small and almost stuck together, which easily increases the probability of accidentally touching of fast typing. Considering the light and thin design of the body, the key stroke of the machine is only 1 mm, which is much shorter than the key stroke of ordinary thin and light notebooks, and the feeling of hitting paragraphs when typing is poor.
Secondly, Dell XPS 13 Plus does not use the traditional physical F key, and the function keys on the top of the keyboard are capacitive virtual design, just like a simplified version of the Apple Touch Bar, which completes the interaction in the form of direct touch. It is speculated that it is a space problem that has forced Dell to give up using physical function keys. The top of the keyboard is close to the axis area of the notebook, and it is difficult to plug the key caps of the same size. However, in order to maintain the overall appearance of the keyboard, I do not want to use half-size key caps, so I choose a good-looking but not easy to use virtual key buttons.
touchpad is a major eye-catching point of Dell XPS 13 Plus. It uses a frameless glass touchpad, which will provide vibrating feedback when pressed. The palm rest and the touchpad integrate into one to enhance the simplicity of the C-side. However, according to feedback from some foreign media, the touchpad area is limited, and the frameless design makes users forget the touchable boundaries and drag files outside the touch area to cause an inconsistent user experience. In addition, in terms of interfaces, the Dell XPS 13 Plus performs more radical than the MacBook, removing the original SD card slot and 3.5mm headphone jack, and only retaining two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports.
From the design of Dell XPS 13 Plus, it can be seen that the current "simplification" rule of notebooks is mainly about screens, keyboards, trackpads and interfaces. Among them, the increase in screen-body ratio is more universal, and it conforms to the trend of full-screen development of electronic products, but the changes in other parts are not suitable for most consumers. Many mainstream products in the past have been constantly subtracting their designs, but most of them have been "limited" to change some designs, such as MacBook Air, which uses a pressure trackpad to replace the traditional mechanical trackpad while still retaining the touch border.
There is no doubt that minimalist design has become a consensus in the notebook industry. Even gaming laptops are gradually bidding farewell to the "silly big black and thick" design and changing into new molds with simpler designs. The author believes that the extremely simplified development of laptop is affected by multiple factors, and jointly promotes manufacturers to change their design routes.
First, at the technical level, the maturity and popularization of some electronic component technologies have made the extremely simplified development of notebooks possible. Applications including thinner screen display assembly, pressure touch detection module and linear motor not only improve user experience, but also optimize the hardware layout of the notebook, thus achieving a simpler and more beautiful visual effect.
Secondly, at the market level, the inversion of the PC market forces manufacturers to make changes and stimulate users' demand for new changes. Data from Gartner, a market research agency, shows that the global market CR5 concentration rate in the third quarter of 2021 was close to 80%, with fierce competition among top players, and PC shipments increased by only 1%. The epidemic has accelerated the development of online office/learning, but after this wave of phone replacement, users’ demand for new replacement is weak. It is worth noting that compared with the self-contained Apple , Windows manufacturers need more design innovation due to system homogeneity to attract more users to choose from.
Good design and innovation are worthy of praise, but excessively radical changes are separated from the actual needs of users. In the process of pursuing minimalist design, manufacturers still need to put user needs first to avoid products that are popular but have no market.
Extreme simplification also requires moderate
Apple's MacBook series is a representative of over-simplification in the laptop industry. The 2017 12-inch MacBook with fanless, single USB-C interface and butterfly keyboard has been criticized by many users. At this stage, computers that adopt overly simplified designs are destined to be just a plaything for a small number of users. The new MacBook Pro series is to fill in the pits dug in the past and embrace the multi-interface and physical function buttons again.
In other words, even Apple, which has a strong industry influence, cannot achieve absolute minimalist design simplification. Other laptop manufacturers still need to calm down when chasing the minimalist design of their products. The gradual change is more in line with the general laws of the development of new things.
On the one hand, innovation at the product design level must be based on technological innovation. Exaggerated design without technology will only bring counterproductive effects. Take the pressure touch panel technology as an example, which mainly involves two aspects: pressure detection and vibration feedback of touch. In order to achieve the effect of simulated pressing, it is necessary to place a vibration unit under the touch panel. It is not realistic to directly build the entire laptop palm rest into a touchpad. Not to mention the high cost, a large number of vibration units will occupy a lot of internal space, which will directly affect the battery life of the laptop.
Taking the products of Huawei and Lenovo as an example, in order to expand the touch area and improve the product's aesthetics, Huawei MateBook X Pro 2022 extends the touchpad touch area to the opening and closing of the notebook, achieving the effect of single-sided and borderless. Lenovo YOGA Pro 14s adopts a "unbounded" design similar to Dell XPS 13 Plus. The difference is that Lenovo divides the touchable area through frosted glass , and does not blindly pursue minimalist visual effects.
(the top is Huawei MateBook X Pro 2022, the bottom is Lenovo YOGA Pro 14s)
On the other hand, some current technologies "atmospheres" are not suitable for the extremely simplified development of laptops. A key issue that is easy to ignore is that USB-C is difficult to leverage the market for most interfaces. The promotion of USB-C has driven the market cake of other interface organizations (involving the agreement authorization fee).
HDMI Association founding members include veteran companies such as Sony , Toshiba and Hita , and USB-C belongs to the USB-IF Association. Different interests have led to many obstacles in the marketing of USB-C. Some manufacturers will not regard USB-C as the only interface of the device, and still adopt the product strategy of , which is parallel to multiple interfaces. Similarly, other associations such as SD cards do not want USB-C to unify the world.
The author believes that the limitations at the technical level and market level are two major problems in the development of extremely simplified laptops. These two mountains are difficult to overcome in the short term. Considering the user experience and the simplified design of the products, manufacturers can only make limited changes or develop in other directions.
Compared with hardware, software experience should be another important direction for Windows manufacturers to build product differentiation. There are fewer places where Windows can be customized than Android, but this is not a reason why manufacturers do not pay attention to improving software capabilities. Huawei, a new player in , not only brings multi-screen collaboration, but also brings new pressure trackpad gameplay, realizing functions such as double-clicking screenshots on single knuckles and sliding the left edge to adjust brightness, making the trackpad gameplay of Windows laptops not inferior to Mac products.
Compared with some unpractical and extremely simplified designs, the effective combination of software and hardware is the fundamental reason for manufacturers to retain users. Due to the fierce impact of the large-screen smartphones, PC shipments have declined for many years. The epidemic has given the PC industry new development opportunities, but if manufacturers want to attract more users, they have to come up with more "hard-core" innovations to meet users' various needs for laptops.
There is no doubt that minimalist design has become a consensus in the notebook industry. Even gaming laptops are gradually bidding farewell to the "silly big black and thick" design and changing into new molds with simpler designs. The author believes that the extremely simplified development of laptop is affected by multiple factors, and jointly promotes manufacturers to change their design routes.
First, at the technical level, the maturity and popularization of some electronic component technologies have made the extremely simplified development of notebooks possible. Applications including thinner screen display assembly, pressure touch detection module and linear motor not only improve user experience, but also optimize the hardware layout of the notebook, thus achieving a simpler and more beautiful visual effect.
Secondly, at the market level, the inversion of the PC market forces manufacturers to make changes and stimulate users' demand for new changes. Data from Gartner, a market research agency, shows that the global market CR5 concentration rate in the third quarter of 2021 was close to 80%, with fierce competition among top players, and PC shipments increased by only 1%. The epidemic has accelerated the development of online office/learning, but after this wave of phone replacement, users’ demand for new replacement is weak. It is worth noting that compared with the self-contained Apple , Windows manufacturers need more design innovation due to system homogeneity to attract more users to choose from.
Good design and innovation are worthy of praise, but excessively radical changes are separated from the actual needs of users. In the process of pursuing minimalist design, manufacturers still need to put user needs first to avoid products that are popular but have no market.
Extreme simplification also requires moderate
Apple's MacBook series is a representative of over-simplification in the laptop industry. The 2017 12-inch MacBook with fanless, single USB-C interface and butterfly keyboard has been criticized by many users. At this stage, computers that adopt overly simplified designs are destined to be just a plaything for a small number of users. The new MacBook Pro series is to fill in the pits dug in the past and embrace the multi-interface and physical function buttons again.
In other words, even Apple, which has a strong industry influence, cannot achieve absolute minimalist design simplification. Other laptop manufacturers still need to calm down when chasing the minimalist design of their products. The gradual change is more in line with the general laws of the development of new things.
On the one hand, innovation at the product design level must be based on technological innovation. Exaggerated design without technology will only bring counterproductive effects. Take the pressure touch panel technology as an example, which mainly involves two aspects: pressure detection and vibration feedback of touch. In order to achieve the effect of simulated pressing, it is necessary to place a vibration unit under the touch panel. It is not realistic to directly build the entire laptop palm rest into a touchpad. Not to mention the high cost, a large number of vibration units will occupy a lot of internal space, which will directly affect the battery life of the laptop.
Taking the products of Huawei and Lenovo as an example, in order to expand the touch area and improve the product's aesthetics, Huawei MateBook X Pro 2022 extends the touchpad touch area to the opening and closing of the notebook, achieving the effect of single-sided and borderless. Lenovo YOGA Pro 14s adopts a "unbounded" design similar to Dell XPS 13 Plus. The difference is that Lenovo divides the touchable area through frosted glass , and does not blindly pursue minimalist visual effects.
(the top is Huawei MateBook X Pro 2022, the bottom is Lenovo YOGA Pro 14s)
On the other hand, some current technologies "atmospheres" are not suitable for the extremely simplified development of laptops. A key issue that is easy to ignore is that USB-C is difficult to leverage the market for most interfaces. The promotion of USB-C has driven the market cake of other interface organizations (involving the agreement authorization fee).
HDMI Association founding members include veteran companies such as Sony , Toshiba and Hita , and USB-C belongs to the USB-IF Association. Different interests have led to many obstacles in the marketing of USB-C. Some manufacturers will not regard USB-C as the only interface of the device, and still adopt the product strategy of , which is parallel to multiple interfaces. Similarly, other associations such as SD cards do not want USB-C to unify the world.
The author believes that the limitations at the technical level and market level are two major problems in the development of extremely simplified laptops. These two mountains are difficult to overcome in the short term. Considering the user experience and the simplified design of the products, manufacturers can only make limited changes or develop in other directions.
Compared with hardware, software experience should be another important direction for Windows manufacturers to build product differentiation. There are fewer places where Windows can be customized than Android, but this is not a reason why manufacturers do not pay attention to improving software capabilities. Huawei, a new player in , not only brings multi-screen collaboration, but also brings new pressure trackpad gameplay, realizing functions such as double-clicking screenshots on single knuckles and sliding the left edge to adjust brightness, making the trackpad gameplay of Windows laptops not inferior to Mac products.
Compared with some unpractical and extremely simplified designs, the effective combination of software and hardware is the fundamental reason for manufacturers to retain users. Due to the fierce impact of the large-screen smartphones, PC shipments have declined for many years. The epidemic has given the PC industry new development opportunities, but if manufacturers want to attract more users, they have to come up with more "hard-core" innovations to meet users' various needs for laptops.
