Great project! I am glad you are sharing this. I hope it will result in a real product.
Creative professionals are an excellent market to focus on since there are a lot of different requirements and there is a great need for new products to fulfill these.
For me, these would be the priorities in order of importance:
- CPU and GPU performance
- Solid State Drive 500Gb upwards
- Portability
- Display size
- Aesthetics
- Quietness and minimal active cooling requirement
As for the design:
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The box shape based on miniITX form factor sounds good. I once did a project creating a custom aluminum case for this board with the brief to make it fit home appliances better as well as modular and modifiable - it worked well. No need for exotic shapes, it just is practical to have it fit on the desk with minimal product footprint and be able to put things on top. Styling to match furniture/interior design is a great idea - how about deep pastels combined with wood. And indirect LED lighting for the status indicators.
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Modularity seems like a good idea, to have more capacity and performance through additional plug-in units at home while keeping it portable. I definitely see a new product niche here with a tablet transforming into a laptop with the addition of a core box, then with additional modules at home to make it even more powerful. Would a rollable display or one that folds in half be feasible? I wouldn’t even mind a small crease in the screen if it would allow me to occassionally work on a large screen. I also wouldn’t mind taking it along if it comes in a tailored backpack. I used to take the bike to and from work, and wanted to keep my laptop running but it would not get cooled properly. It would be a benefit to for example have air flow into the backpack and cool the product so you can keep the system running. And be able to plug it in to the electric bike or car to charge it.
I look forward to seeing the progress!