This incredible $500 laptop has built-in 7-inch tablet, a tiny removable webcam and even Microsoft Office
Post Prime Day browsing just brought up a totally bonkers piece of technology
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
I briefly came across this laptop while doing myAmazonPrime Day duties and on closer look it looks like a barely believable product that reminds me of theLenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3. TheZWYING DQ156Ncosts just under $488.88 on Amazon with free delivery; at the time of writing though, it was temporarily out of stock.
Its unique selling point is the fact that it has a 7-inch 1280 x 800 pixel secondary display on the right of its keyboard, where the traditional numeric keypad would be. That display is not detached so cannot be used as a secondary portable monitor which is a shame.
Speaking of detachable, I like its detachable 2-megapixel webcam that can be slotted into its own little dock for ultimate privacy (there’s also a fingerprint scanner) and the fact that it runs onWindows 11 Pro, a clear indication of the audience it is targeting.
The laptop runs on anIntelCeleron N5105, one which is reasonably fast, and paired with 16GB memory and a 1TB SSD. Its size means that it will likely accommodate another storage component to increase its internal capacity.
The larger of the two displays is a 15.6-inch full HD IPS display with narrow bezels (due to the absence of a webcam). It has plenty of ports (two full size USB 3.0 ports, a Type-C connector, a HDMI one and a headphone jack) and a microSD card slot. Power is available through a DC port, which some may view as a bad thing as you can’t power it via a laptop docking station for example.
If all that is not enough to convince you that it is a good deal, then how about this. It has a color backlit keyboard (don’t ask why) and comes with a preinstalled version ofOffice 2019Professional Plus,Microsoft’s popularoffice suite.
A great fit for professionals
As noted in the hands-on review of the aforementionedLenovoproduct, having the secondary touchscreen more naturally placed to the right of the keyboard rather than along the top of it (like theZenBook Duo from Asus) replicates the experience of using a separate Wacom or similar tablet off to the side. Perhaps a value candidate for ourbest laptop for photo editingguide.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
That works great when you are working away from your desk. However, the DQ156N doesn’t have a wedged profile which means that extensive use of the secondary screen may cause fatigue to your right hand as you can’t rest your wrist. The secondary display also integrates seamlessly with note-taking apps like Microsoft OneNote to allow you to take notes during meetings or during class.
I couldn’t find any review of this laptop anywhere online but it’s great to see that a tiny notebook vendor is being bold with its design. If things go wrong, you can always buy a protection plan from Amazon; a 4-year one for you laptop, delivered by Asurion, cover malfunctions as well as accidents.
Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled inwebsite buildersandweb hostingwhen DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.
New fanless cooling technology enhances energy efficiency for AI workloads by achieving a 90% reduction in cooling power consumption
Samsung plans record-breaking 400-layer NAND chip that could be key to breaking 200TB barrier for ultra large capacity AI hyperscaler SSDs
NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Sunday, November 10 (game #252)
