[olalonde]

It's kind of sad that Apple has virtually no competition for its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air in terms of build quality (last time I checked, I'd be happy to be proved wrong). Nowadays, I barely care about "hard" specs (CPU, memory, etc.) when shopping for a laptop, what I really care about is: low heating, low weight, thinness, long battery life and strong build quality. Although I'd rather use Linux than OS X, it's hard to find a laptop of comparable quality to the MacBooks for the requirements I mentioned (of course, it isn't to hard to find if what you are interested in is raw speed and performance).

[_mayo]

Vizios new laptop and ultrabook look like they may be competitors. They've designed them from the ground up and ship without bloatware if you choose to run Windows. http://www.vizio.com/computing/

[cmelbye]

That picture is hilarious, it's literally a clone of Apple's Mac line-up, right down to the wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad.

[DigitalJack]

When minimalism is a desired trait, it isn't far fetched to see competing firms to come up with similar designs.

[cmelbye]

I don't understand the belief that minimalist design is obvious and that everyone else totally would've designed it the same way.

It's almost like when someone walks up to a work of art and remarks that they easily could've done it themselves. Yeah, but you didn't.

Minimalist design is hard, and you're kidding yourself if you honestly think that Vizio's line of computers would've looked the same had Apple never existed.

[DigitalJack]

I totally agree minimalist design is hard. But I believe that in a given genre, minimalist designs will converge. Not completely, but they will tend toward one another simply by virtue of having a common destination. In this case having the simplest laptop design that can still get the job done.

I think that Apple has done the grunt work of whittling away the bulk material toward a minimal design. It would be stupid of somebody else with the same goals to try to pretend that Apple's efforts bore no fruit (sorry, camp not intended) and ignore them.

[MetaCosm]

Beyond that, Apple's minimalist design isn't manufactured by Apple -- so they tool up companies all over the world to make these Intel based 24" / 27" all in one computers. Obviously when Visio goes to a company that already built them for Apple, there is way lower production risk.

[MetaCosm]

What is hilarious about stealing the best ideas from your competitors. It was Steve Jobs who pointed out that the best steal.

http://youtu.be/CW0DUg63lqU

"We have always been SHAMELESS about stealing great ideas" ... someone does it back to Apple and suddenly it is criminal (patent lawsuit fun) or laugh worthy because it looks similar?

[falling]

Look, I'm a Mac user, but it's time we cut down with this, it makes me sick like the stupid kids on Gizmodo. The Vizio computers look good and they are not Mac clones. They picked the right ideas from Apple that nobody else picked up and they are doing a great job without looking the same.

[cmelbye]

Oh, the computers look very nice, but they're a direct response to what Apple puts out.

The Thin+Light machine is yet another Ultrabook that competes with the Macbook Air, keeping in mind that the Macbook Air was introduced in 2008 and the Ultrabook initiative started in 2011.

The All-in-One desktop is clearly a response to the iMac, right down to the Magic Trackpad.

I don't understand the stigma of pointing out these "inspirations".

However, I do admire the simplicity of Vizio's product line. If it were Dell, the laptop would be called something like the "Inspiron 14z Ultrabook™".

[dantheman]

Thinkpads are still quite nice.

[Variance]

I have a T420s with an SSD, and it's a charm. Light but solid. A refreshingly honest appearance, too, especially if you like the more boxy and somewhat cyber-industrial look that Thinkpads have. A little less gimmicky and passe than minimalism (and not just Apple's minimalism) tends to be.

[Danieru]

Plus no one will ever steal it.

I've had two people say to my face "Wow, that's an old computer".

Which is silly since it is the world's coolest looking laptop.

[Variance]

Does this mean that Thinkpads are retro now? People always seem surprised that my thinkpad has a trackpoint-nub-thing and yet is less than a year old.

[vacri]

Also surprising was that standard thinkpads survived more military tests than those all-enclosed 'toughbook' designs.