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posted by martyb on Wednesday July 10 2019, @10:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you-have-to-ask-the-price... dept.

Epson Announces the Perfect Business Notebook, but Good Luck Trying to Buy One in USA:

The notebook PC market is a complex one—practically every manufacturer is trying to follow Apple into the thin and light market, even as Apple quietly admitted defeat this week, discontinuing the 12" MacBook with a lone USB port and 3.5mm jack after four years. This race to make thinner laptops has impacted even Lenovo's business-focused ThinkPad line, with the 13.3" ThinkPad X390 limited to one M.2 SSD, soldered down RAM, and a battery that can only be replaced if you unscrew the case.

Naturally, this direction has upset many in the ThinkPad enthusiast community, as the brand has strayed from the user-serviceability that made it the go-to option when the brand was under IBM's stewardship. In an interview with TechRepublic,  Lenovo's vice president of global commercial portfolio and product management Jerry Paradise noted that "Our job is made up of a series of trade-offs, it's never one perfect answer," noting that professionals who often travel in airports "are a big segment of our customers... they want less weight, and they want something that slides down their bag and doesn't take a lot of space."

Epson's just-announced Endeavor NA520E delivers all of the features of classic ThinkPad systems, at a lower weight than the ThinkPad X390, and with competitive specs—adding just 2.1 mm of thickness allows for two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, two M.2 2280 SSD slots, a 1080p display with narrow bezels, up to an Intel Core i7-8565U CPU, a wealth of ports, and durability without being a tank. But you'll have to buy it in Japan.

[...] Epson's PC business is a Japan-only, built-to-order operation, making the prospect of purchasing one a complex task. Likewise, it is only available with a Japanese keyboard—which is perfectly usable in English, though with a smaller space bar.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:12AM (2 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:12AM (#865574)

    I remember when the first VAIOs came out in Japan. Half the weight of NA laptops at the time, blazingly fast for the time - faster than my work desktop which was only about a year old. Then 3ish years later NA got them with the same component specs but a thicker heavier case. :/

    Well, yeah, that's the American version. Look at cars on the road in Japan vs. cars on the road in the US.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by goodie on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:58AM (1 child)

    by goodie (1877) on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:58AM (#865593) Journal

    was about to say this... In Europe, stop/start has been a standard feature for at least 10 years. In NA, it's reserved for luxury brands. like seriously, we are screwed...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:14PM (#865807)

      in America, start stop is not a luxury feature anymore.
        hi Honda pilot has it and it is a piece of shit.
      The amount of gas this could potentially save is basically nothing, and in return, you get much greater wear on the battery and your starter. They have to be oversized to take the increased wear and tear of always starting and stopping car and it makes for an unpleasant driving experience.