I totally get that @minute went for a more easily portable 13” form factor for the MNT Reform Next. (And will definitely put money into one once I have enough spare budget).
But, having been a fan of larger laptops for a sizeable portion of my life, I was wondering if somebody has been thinking designing a larger shell (with bigger screen, and eventually more battery space) – like 14", 15" or 16" i.e. a “portable workstation”-class one – where the elements of the Next could be transplanted.
(I know that given the thickness of the Next, this would result in quite a chonk. OTOH, I still love my Dell Latitude E6500, and started as a kid on my dad’s work Toshiba T3100, so…)
Maybe not as large as you’d like, but I’ve been toying around with a 3:2 screen for the classic mnt reform because to me that is the ideal aspect ratio. Its a relative of the innolux panel currently used N135NCG-GT1. Problem is its edp1.4 instead of 1.3 maybe due to the extra resolution, and I don’t think rk3588 supports edp1.4 so waiting for a qualcomm module to be released. Physically it just about fits if you remove the speakers from the top panel. The chassis would still have to be extended about 1-2cm, but then there should be room to move speakers to the main body.
I could be way off base because I don’t know anything about embedded displays, but I think the epd1.4 is the only issue preventing it from working.
I would personally love a 14” option for whatever the next laptop is. Bigger screen means less eye strain when not plugged into a monitor, keyboard layout for all languages could be 1:1 to what consumer and enterprise 14” laptops use, and it would still fit in work purses which are usually in my experience designed to accommodate 14” laptops and no bigger
In theory this is possible with Reform Next due to the switch to a non monolithic motherboard. However, display compatibility and signal integrity may be concerns depending on how the ribbon cables will have to be extended in order to fit inside a larger chassis. Hope someone gives it a try! I’d love to see the evolutionary possibilities of the platform