Porsche Design Book One: Test under fire
7.9.2017
Translation: machine translated
Journalist Dominik Bärlocher goes abroad with an untested laptop. The Porsche Book One is supposed to withstand seven days of constant stress. How does the deluxe device fare when it's really only performance that counts and the good looks don't matter?
During the IFA, video producer Stephanie Tresch and I worked over 90 hours in seven days. My most important tool was the Porsche Design Book One, a laptop that is also a tablet. The device was unveiled to the world at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and I couldn't wait to test the classy-looking device.
I am an avowed fan of Porsche design. I like the hard and clear lines, the few design accents and the general look, which is somewhere between polished and industrial. It does look as if it has been trimmed for performance. But is that enough? What's underneath? Anyone can read and write tech specs. But in the end, one thing counts: how does the device perform in everyday use?
As time goes by, I suddenly heard from the office of Category Manager Remo Pascale that the Book One could be tested at IFA. I was happy to agree to the test and when all the formalities were completed and I had the device in front of me on my desk in Zurich, my first doubts crept up on me. Porsche had never made a laptop before. I was basing my decision to test it solely on a piece of paper with specs and the fact that I liked the look of the device.
I had the HP Spectre x360 with me at the Mobile World Congress. I was able to test the device for a week beforehand. So I was sure that the small HP would be a loyal and reliable partner in Barcelona. But I had no reference points from the Book One other than Marketing and Tech data. Would it let me down? Where does the device have flaws and what should I look out for?
With a slightly queasy feeling, I packed the device into my rucksack and travelled to the airport.
What I expect from an operational laptop
I demand a lot from a laptop. Above all, it should be good for writing. Of course, as a journalist, that's the core task. But what many people don't realise is that the modern journalist is also a photo editor, a reasonably competent photographer and all sorts of other things. Online journalists in particular don't recognise the separation of powers. My laptop must therefore be able to process data quickly, have a decent screen and be able to run Photoshop smoothly. And above all: the keyboard has to fit.
That was my biggest concern, because laptop keyboards are often a bit strange.
The keyboard of the Book One is similar to that of the Apple Macbook, which bodes well, because Apple can do a lot. Including really good keyboard layouts. At least on the hardware side.
The battery also has to cope with a lot. I've worked for over 90 hours in the last seven days, many of them on the laptop. The longer the battery life, the better.
Test under fire
Berlin. Night. I switch on the Porsche Design Book One. It's the acid test for the luxury manufacturer's expensive device. The first keystrokes. My fingers fly over the keyboard and the text is written. The key spacing is almost perfect. When typing, I lift my right hand from the keyboard more often than my left, and I rarely find myself instinctively returning to the starting position. Good. Very good, in fact. Because I can't afford any trouble with the keyboard. If the Book One had failed here, I would probably have bought peripherals.
About the peripherals. The Book One has been through a lot. A card reader was more or less always connected to the device, as was a mouse. I connected the mouse, an MX Master in the classic version, not the 2S, to the laptop via Bluetooth. It worked without any problems and had the advantage that I had one of the two USB 3 ports free for other peripherals. I plugged a keyboard in there, which I received from the manufacturer Bloody for 24 hours for testing purposes.
This was the first time I realised that the feature of rotating the screen completely around the device can be quite nice. At first, I wanted to try setting up the device like this: Λ. I was counting on the screen rotating so that I could work in a really modern and stylish way. But it didn't work. I could have done some troubleshooting here and I would have done that in the office in Zurich, but if I just have to start writing, I don't have time for that. I definitely don't have time for that in Berlin during the IFA. So I set it up like this: L. The keyboard is in front of the L, so _ L. Works perfectly. Test passed
The two things that annoy me a little
The Porsche Book One purrs and can easily handle everything I throw at it. A hundred Chrome tabs open? No problem at all. But the device isn't quite perfect
The screen flickers. This has happened to me about a handful of times over the course of the week. I'm sitting at the dining table in an old Berlin flat and writing my texts. Suddenly the screen goes black for a tenth of a second and then the picture is back and the Book One doesn't act like anything was wrong. Processes are all still running normally and my minimal ad hoc monitoring of system resources shows nothing out of the ordinary. Fortunately, no data is lost, because then I would throw the thing out of the window in a high arc. I have no patience for such antics during a trade fair. I really don't. You work 90 hours in seven days and then say "Oh yes, I have patience for computers when they're acting up".
The screen partition of the Book One can be detached to turn it into a tablet. I realised from the start that I would neglect this function if I needed it at all. Because nobody really wants to write a whole text on a tablet. That's why the screen always remained firmly attached to the keyboard partition, even if only as a support for the screen with the Bloody Keyboard. The unpleasant side effect: in Chrome, the device identifies itself as a tablet and so websites such as 20min.ch are opened in the mobile view. Why am I reading the Swiss tabloids in Berlin? I want to know what my colleagues are doing and whether they are here too. Maybe I'll bump into them and discuss something. Good times. And really, 20min, am I getting that right? You weren't here at all? You've missed something! Next time we can go out for pasta together.
I don't like the reduced version of websites. Not on tablets and certainly not when I have all the peripherals of a full computer at my disposal. Forcing Chrome to display the desktop version doesn't help here. Bollocks. All right, then I'll just read a little less news. It turns out that I can manage just fine without my flood of news.
The conclusion after a week and around 121,000 letters typed, not counting corrected spelling mistakes, emails and comments on digitec.ch: The Porsche Book One is impressive. It has gone from a test device to a loyal partner and I will miss it. Not only does it look damn good, but it also does a lot. The stylish workhorse is a device that I would wish on anyone who is prepared to invest a lot of money in good machinery. Because the Porsche Book One rocks.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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