Intel's UrbanMax slider laptop concept unveiled at IDF

Intel appears to be firing on all cylinders at IDF. Besides whatever surprised they have planned for tomorrow, the chip-maker rolled out a prototype of a convertible laptop / tablet / MID / UMPC / netbook / super-gadget called the UrbanMax. There's not much in the way of specs on the device, but as you can see from the photos, it utilizes a combination sliding / tilting screen to transform into any variety of configurations. The display is a resistive touchscreen, though it's not clear what the guts are made up of here. The whole thing reminds us of a giant Tilt, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. One more pic after the break.

[Via jkkmobile]

[Blacksheep @ Aug 19th 2008 9:27PM]

Looks good and I like the concept of a laptop/umpc-slider/tablet. Of course I'd like to see the internal hardware to see if it's a real winner.

[TheStupidOne @ Aug 19th 2008 9:39PM]

Holy guacamole Batman an oversize OQO PC!

[ssrat_ @ Aug 19th 2008 9:32PM]

Looks good, now we just need the specs, the price and whether or not it will be released in the US.

Of course after looking at the Gateway, I have to keep saving since the "just a reader" is getting more stuff to drool over

[hiko36 @ Aug 19th 2008 9:33PM]

That thing is beautiful... Brought a tear to my eye *sniff*

[pieboy @ Aug 19th 2008 9:40PM]

whoah, that's pretty sexy (especially compared to that xo competitor they made a while ago). I'm assuming it has WiMAX?

[BobTurbo @ Aug 19th 2008 9:41PM]

Why is it that Intel comes up with excellent industrial design concepts and then the OEMs output ugly junk?

[linuxamp @ Aug 19th 2008 9:42PM]

I'm glad they also made it tilt. It would be very difficult to read while touch typing if it only slid.

[linusk01 @ Aug 19th 2008 9:50PM]

indeed. except for lazy couch sessions. its perfect for that with or without tilt :) i still need to master thumb-typing though...

[Itsuru @ Aug 19th 2008 9:43PM]

Wouldn't it be really uncomfortable to type on that keyboard while holding it?

[Jack @ Aug 19th 2008 9:46PM]

Well only if you walked around while you were typing, which would make you look like a complete fool.

[Marcus @ Aug 19th 2008 10:24PM]

Oh my god! It's super sexy. It appears to be running Vista, from the bottom picture.

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:14AM]

Yep....

[rob_lobstuhh @ Aug 19th 2008 9:53PM]

Well I dunno who or what "unvieled" is but this one's looking good.

[Jeremy K. @ Aug 19th 2008 9:58PM]

I would be worried about destroying the screen when storing the gadget.

[mklab @ Aug 19th 2008 10:05PM]

This thing looks really nice.

[Jon Nelson @ Aug 19th 2008 10:06PM]

Clearly, it needs a second person to hold it up while the first types, considering the ridiculous size of it.

Personally, I don't want to be standing on the bus asking a stranger to hold on to it so I can quick shoot off an email to someone.

[Renegade0721 @ Aug 19th 2008 10:06PM]

Nice concept

[marc @ Aug 19th 2008 10:12PM]

um...i'd say it's more like a shift then a tilt....though maybe more useful/popular

[bidur @ Aug 19th 2008 10:18PM]

can u tilt the screen .. like laptop ? if yes then this is superb ..

but hopefully its price wont be above 1500$....

[KarlW @ Aug 19th 2008 10:20PM]

Looks gorgeous, although hideously impractical. Besides, I've yet to see an app that actually has practical benefit from a touchscreen. Even on the iPhone, it's more of a space-saving feature than an application-enhancing interface.

It's a shame Intel don't actually release any of these things. They could be a hit in the consumer electronics market (but then, I suppose it would hurt Intel's relationships with OEMs. As it is now, Intel makes way too much money from OEMs to risk that sort of behaviour).

[SoloSalsa @ Aug 19th 2008 11:54PM]

Too true. WANT

[forshor @ Aug 20th 2008 8:46AM]

Haha, that thing looks ridiculous.

[Rhino @ Aug 19th 2008 10:24PM]

Sexy! But.... Still a bit big 4 me...

[Yevon @ Aug 19th 2008 10:32PM]

Yeah, that's what she said.

Sorry, I really had to say it.

[Mike Bertolino @ Aug 19th 2008 10:23PM]

looks awesome.

[untitled @ Aug 19th 2008 10:29PM]

C'mon Engadget, keep the Tablets coming.. no whamies no whamies.. STOP!

[pneumeric @ Aug 19th 2008 10:39PM]

I like the form factor, and it looks cool but...
I am not a fan of resistive touch screens, touch is now seeing it's second (third?) wave of poularity, because in certain implementations (I don't need to say it do I?) it is quick and intuitive.
Resistive touch is sluggish, cumbersome and unresponsive!
there are so many other ways to implement touch, I fear intel chose this because it is cheap, but will sucker in the fad hoppers.

[Bleck @ Aug 19th 2008 10:58PM]

What is the point of this? Buy a Tablet PC? Seriously, a slide out keyboard?

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:14AM]

$

[Happy_man @ Aug 19th 2008 11:25PM]

Is that the HTC Touch Pro XL?

[Korrupzion @ Aug 19th 2008 11:37PM]

OMG its an giant iPhone *¬*

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:15AM]

The iPhone uses a dual core ARM processor.

Windows isn't portable enough to run on ARM.

This is not an iPhone.

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:22AM]

...Quick addendum-- Windows mobile obviously runs on ARM-- but on the desktop, Windows relies on binary third party drivers for pretty much everything, and Vista is a desktop operating system. Vista does not run on ARM. I also suspect that there are many source level bugs throughout desktop windows drivers, such as endian-ness assumptions, that would keep them from working on ARM, which no one ever catches because no one's /trying/ to run them on ARM.
It's an obscure technical merit of----
Oh wait, you weren't thinking nearly that hard when you left your dumb comment, were you?
This is nothing like the iPhone.
Get off the internet.

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:23AM]

(I hate how text doesn't tell you if someone's joking or not. Please use sarcasm tags.)

[ghostshadow @ Aug 19th 2008 11:38PM]

looks allot like the HP 1100 from a few years ago. Even though the HP didn't slide, it was a tablet like that.

[Carl Lumma @ Aug 20th 2008 12:03AM]

Seriously, I hate to say this without any explanation, but this is the stupidest design I've ever seen in my life.*

-Carl

* Yes, this is hyperbole, but that doesn't make it any less true.

[The_Steven @ Aug 20th 2008 12:08AM]

Hey, no fair! I wanted to make the "Giant Tilt" comment!

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2008 12:31AM]

I wish I had a system monitor for my brain that told me when I needed sleep. I don't get tired until long after I need to go to bed.
That is to say that I think my frontal lobe just committed a massive fail and i'll see you fine folks in the morning.
(It was totally obvious that the dude /was/ joking, and I don't know how the heck I didn't catch that.)

More on topic, Intel, that looks great, keep moving forward. I especially love how all these lines between different kinds of devices are just getting blurred all over the place. Used to be phone, laptop, desktop, etc. and now it's like phone, smart phone, really smart phone, MID, not-so-M-ID, ultraportable, veryportable, notebook, mini desktop, kinda-mini-desktop.....
It's a testament to the pervasiveness of computing I guess.

[Mitchell Oke @ Aug 20th 2008 12:34AM]

Looks like a slightly redesigned HTC Shift. In fact the keys look like a complete rip off of the Shift keys, which are ok but certainly not great.

[thefiendster @ Aug 20th 2008 1:23AM]

looks like a giant ppc

[Imran @ Aug 20th 2008 4:01AM]

[borat]Is verry nice[/borat]

If it has the power to run CS3 Suite and 3D Max and Autocad as well as the Orange Box (with the ability to plug in a mouse) it would be sweeeeet.

[monkey @ Aug 20th 2008 4:26AM]

If it were a wacom based screen I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Fantastic for using graphics apps beyond the artrage and sketchbook pro. Everything else I use (maya, zbrush, photoshop) relies heavily on access to the keyboard at all times, and on a regular convertable tablet pc this is just to difficult. You either have it in laptop mode and its a pain to draw on, or in slate mode where you map the 5-way button as best you can, but you always need a bunch more keys.

Cmon intel, active digitiser and slidey slidey keyboard for the animators please!

[Weili @ Aug 20th 2008 7:44AM]

How is this innovation?

This is nothing more than an enlarged slider cell phone...

[gavinovz @ Aug 20th 2008 8:49AM]

I can see the sliding screen getting snapped off. Still neat looking.

[@froM@n @ Aug 20th 2008 11:22AM]

To all the idiots calling it an oversized slider phone. Look at these extra pics and shut the hell up. http://www.itechnews.net/2008/08/19/intel-urbanmax-concept/

[@froM@n @ Aug 20th 2008 11:21AM]

Hopefully they'll actually release this concept instead of making it just to say they can.

[@froM@n @ Aug 20th 2008 11:27AM]

To all the idiots calling it an oversized slider phone. Look at these
extra pics and shut the hell up.
http://www.itechnews.net/2008/08/19/intel-urbanmax-concept/

[Jim @ Aug 21st 2008 4:10PM]

Resistive touch only? Did you guys miss the N-trig pen & multitouch versions???

[Jenelle @ Aug 24th 2008 2:04AM]

very nice design, hopefully it will be affordable

[intuna @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:43PM]

This would be perfect as a Home Automation, finger touch activated, input device depending on how it would stay powered and what stand -is/would be- available for semi-permanent table top use. It would run our HomeRunner application perfectly.

I like it. Wonder what the price would be?