Why does Dell always refuse to push the ultra-thin commercial notebook to the extreme?

A small and delicate champagne tower , A simple sugar cake , In the applause of a group of guests and reporters , Several long-term cooperative Chinese customer representatives received gifts .

10 month 25 The morning of , Enter China 21 Dell in used such a minimalist way , For its commercial notebook Latitude Celebrate 25 One year old birthday .

Sunjun, marketing director of Dell Greater China commercial terminal solutions 、 Senior manager of Dell global terminal solutions marketing department T-Jay Cook、 McLaren group coo Jonathan Neale Jointly Latitude 25 Anniversary .

The birthday party was arranged at 2019 A corner of Dell technology peak exhibition hall . Not far away , It is a band composed of Dell employees . Throughout the exhibition , He / They are all singing their own songs .

This arrangement inadvertently creates a dynamic and static balance . in any case , Visitors stop in front of the industrial solutions booth caused by their own interests , Will walk around to Latitude In front of the booth . As a basic productivity tool , In the exhibition area full of enterprise level programs , It is one of the few products that have no barrier with all visitors .

There is the first generation of Dell on the booth Latitude, There are also the latest Latitude 7400 Two - —— This high-end two in one commercial notebook product designed with a new design language , There's a touch screen , Sure 360 Turn over .

Left ：1989 year Dell The first portable laptop Dell 316LT; Right ：2019 New year Latitude 7400 Two in one commercial notebook

Its fuselage is derived from a piece of complete aluminum , from CNC Integrated technology .A Surface and C The surface uses the drawing technology , The side adopts high-speed diamond cutting technology to pursue high brightness , More detailed surfaces are sand blasted , Plus all kinds of laser carving input and output Port identification , The total process exceeds 20 Avenue .

In the new design language , The luxurious craftsmanship gives it a sharp appearance , This is quite different from the previous generation of design languages that tended to be stable . Even people who are not so emotional , At the moment of contact with it, you will also feel a similar aggressive mood ; Or simply , A feeling of success .

This is Dale Latitude What the design team wants to give it . One is called “ The original 30” The design idea guides the shaping of this subjective impression .

This is contemporary “ Experience design ” The content of , It points to the whole time and space user experience , Instead of simply modeling in early industrial design 、 The pursuit of color, etc .

“ The original 30” It also includes the original 30 minute 、30 God , as well as 30 Months . In addition to the integration of the concept of time and space , This is also a design vision that covers the gradual trend from perceptual cognition to rationality .

Latitude 7400 After the two in one listing, the company has received high praise . stay 2019 year CES On , It won the CES Innovation Award .

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According to the design of Dell design team , When the user's experience “ achieve ”30 God even 30 After a month , The user will get some already set use experience .

There is an imperceptible “ The doctrine of the mean ”, Dell Latitude Zhaohaiming, a senior manager, called it “ Balance ”.“ For example, the balance between performance and experience ”, He said , This is Dale Latitude Design principles .

How to understand this balance ？ Users who use laptops as production tools , Rarely try to describe the difference between commercial and home laptops . They look slightly different , But there are not so many differences .

“ They differ in eight dimensions .” Zhaohaiming said ,“ Not all laptops are suitable for office .” The dimensions he said included security 、 reliability 、 Endurance 、 manageability ……

A simple example ,Latitude The maintenance service period shall be at least 5 year . It means , When the user holds 5 Years ago, Latitude When entering Dell service station , Maintenance engineers can still find its accessories on the shelves of the spare parts warehouse , And home laptops won't have such treatment . This difference is in the design ideas of commercial and household products , A typical difference .

2019 A corner of Dell technology peak exhibition hall

In the past 9 month ,IDC A copy called 《 The new connotation of commercial computers and workstations in the future work scene 》 White paper for . In this white paper ,IDC The two types of products are just “ not quite the same ” The point of view is that the user is interested in commercial notebook computers “ Cognitive misunderstanding ” The first one of .

“ This is a big mistake .”IDC Li Rui, senior research manager of China, said , Such misconceptions also include the right to “ ultrathin ” The cognitive , as well as “ The more battery cells , The better the endurance ” Equal concept .

“ The pursuit of ultra light and thin may make users ignore performance and heat dissipation ,” He suggested that ,“ Commercial notebook users need to pursue portability and flexibility , Not at the expense of performance .”

Dell has the same attitude towards “ ultrathin ”, This led its design team to finally come up with a proposal for “ small ” The pursuit of . stay “ ultrathin ” The concept is popular today , This makes Latitude It seems a little special .

“ We have made a very in-depth study of the user's use environment and habits , Regularly communicate with global customers every year .” Dell Latitude Chenzhihang, product manager of commercial notebook, said , quite a lot Latitude All the features of are derived from this .

A data from Dell shows that ,Latitude Of users 76% All in 2 Work has been carried out in more than places , More than half of users are 3 Worked in different places . therefore , The real demand of users is portability , That is to say “ Thin and light ” Medium “ light ”, instead of “ thin ”.

Dell believes that this demand is corresponding to “ small ” More accurate . In this way , Those who pursue... On a higher level “ ultra-thin ” Commercial notebook computers , It's more like a consumer aesthetic influence , Finally, the concept of deviation .

“ thin ” Still important , But it should be combined with the experience in a complex business environment “ Balance ”—— If the user doesn't need a laptop to cut vegetables , Then it should be properly directed to “ small ” The advantages that can be brought about .

In the current market , This is a significant difference between the two design ideas ： With the same screen size , What do users of commercial notebooks need “ Thinner 、 Bigger ”, still “ Thicker , Smaller ”？

Dell chose the latter . So , It pays to increase the thickness 1 Mm or so .

Compared with household products , Commercial notebooks have a higher frequency of keyboard use . To reduce finger fatigue caused by typing at work , The key is the key . So it's not hard to understand , Users ultimately need to be comfortable and that 1 Choose between millimeters —— Compared with ultra thin mainstream 1.3 Mm bond range ,Latitude Provides 1.6 Mm or more .

To ensure the physical safety of the fuselage, it is also objectively required to increase some thickness . Although ordinary employees usually don't need to worry about it , But for business owners and producers of products , When thickness is related to enterprise data security and business security , The balance needs to be tilted .

for example , To avoid screen fragmentation caused by accidental crushing during carrying , You need to leave enough space in front of the screen ; To protect the hard disk from accidents , It is necessary to add metal frame reinforcement .

There are also requirements for battery life and performance for heat dissipation , It also requires users to find a balance between thickness and experience .

at present Latitude Provide... As short as possible 16.9 Hours of endurance （Latitude 3 system ）, As long as Latitude 7400 Two - （ It belongs to the highest end 7 system , It is consistent with the figures representing the BMW model series ） Then you can choose 26 Battery configuration for hours of battery life （ All the above are official data ）.

Zhaohaiming joked , This means that users can fly back to China and the United States under working conditions without charging —— But that's obviously too much work . Tesla's CEO Musk may need one , It is said that when he reduced his working hours to a week 90 Less than hours ago , Work every week 120 Hours , That is, more than 17 Hours ……

The design under these comprehensive considerations makes Latitude It is thicker than some models of friends 1 Mm or so , But it's dissipating heat 、 But the key range and endurance have better performance . Zhaohaiming said , With narrow border design ,Latitude The width of becomes smaller . Zhaohaiming compared a friend product of the same level , Width difference 2 Cm or so . This small size allows a woman to put it in a smaller bag .

“ The narrow border design can meet the user's requirements for large screen size , It can also reduce the occupied area of commercial notebooks , At the same time, the narrow frame design will also make the commercial notebook have good portability . therefore , Choose a narrow border design for commercial notebooks to ensure screen size , It can also reduce the fuselage area , Users should not simply pursue frivolity , The balance between performance and portability , In order to satisfy more What kind of office scene and use environment .”IDC The white paper suggests that .

This portability is IDC Commercial notebooks are included “ Ease of use ” The category of . It also believes that the key points that commercial notebook users need to consider also include manageability 、 Customized PCaaS, And the endurance capability mentioned above .

As after 25 The 10th generation product series in , This generation Latitude There are also many innovative designs for the demand characteristics of commercial products , Such as intelligent induction of quick wake-up 、 Support WiFi 6、 Active steering antenna 、 Optional energy saving screen , And optional electronic anti peeping screen, etc , All point to productivity and productivity .

Also in IDC In the white paper , These points have clear goals .IDC Think , With the subdivision of the work scene , In the future, users will have higher and higher requirements for commercial computers .

“ Whether mobile office or teleconference , Whether it is professional design or data analysis , We all need commercial computers with security and reliability , It is able to control all kinds of professional software smoothly , And it can flexibly switch various working interfaces , Meet all kinds of job requirements . The future is the era of man-machine cooperation , With AI、 big data 、 Cloud computing and other technologies are constantly reshaping the working scene , Users' requirements for terminal commercial computers will also be higher and higher .”IDC In the white paper .

at present , For different business environments ,Latitude Already in 25 In the middle of the year, many series have been derived , Interesting examples are those that can be used in a variety of extreme climates and environments Latitude Rugged Series ruggedized laptop .

McLaren group and Dell have more than 20 years of cooperation history , The McLaren racing team goes to... During the race season 21 In different places , Will use this series of products . Jonathan, chief operating officer of McLaren group · Neil said at the summit , Now in the McLaren group , There must be Dell products within one meter , There must be Dell products in a millisecond .

【IT Chuang Ji Ji 】 Creating the future of Technology . Founder Qi Meng , For senior technology we media people , Previous appointment 《 Business partners 》 Deputy editor-in-chief 、《 Computer business newspaper 》 Editor in chief 、 Urban media reporters , More than 14 year . The column with the same name has been settled on various mainstream media platforms .