Hands on with the HP FireFly prototype laptop

Earlier today we got a bit of face time with HP’s 13-pound prototype laptop dubbed Firefly. This large monstrosity packs a heap of goods like an Intel quad-core proc, secondary screen, dual graphics cards and ‘5.1 sound’. The Firefly has four speakers plus a subwoofer that is placed under the wrist rest. Strange, I know. Sound quality was pretty good but the bass coming out of the wrist rest was weird.

This beast is Phil McKinney’s (HP’s Personal Systems CTO) and he actually lugs it around with him. He noted that he has to use an extra large bag from Timbuk2 just to get it around.

The powerbrick or as Phil calls it the UPS is quite large and is actually the same one that comes with the Firebird desktop.

HP didn’t say this outright but they alluded to the fact that they could place the trackpad on the left side for those that are left-handed. It currently sits on the right side.

Notice the silver grills? Yeah, that’s what’s keeping the laptop cool and bumping your music. There are two fans that sit underneath and the rig is actually air-cooled believe it or not. Phil even said he’s had it on his lap and doesn’t suffer from overheating.

There’s no chance of it hitting the market, but the HP team will undoubtedly pull certain pieces of it for future products. I’m not sure I could lug around a 13-pound laptop, anyway.

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