First Interchangeable Notebook

[sn0wl]

When Intel first made comments back in March that it wanted laptops to have interchangeable parts to make repairs and upgrades easier for the consumer, many folks thought that it was a great idea that would never see the light of day. Well, one of the first notebooks to back the Interchangeability Initiative has been introduced.

Notebook Review reports that Micro Express is showcasing its HEL8016 notebook which is manufactured by Compal. While most notebooks have interchangeable processors, hard drives and memory, the HEL8016 goes a few steps further by allowing users to swap batteries, keyboards, LCD displays, optical drives and power adapters between notebooks.

While the 6 pound HEL8016 won’t win any beauty contests or be considered a notebook that you would want to lug around all day long in a carrying case, it does come pretty well spec’d. The 15.4" WXGA display is powered by a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics card and supports up to a 2.33GHz Core Duo processor (it also supports the upcoming Core Duo 2 processors), up to 2GB of DDR2 memory and up to a 120GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive. It also features an 8x Multi-Format DVD burner, fingerprint reader, 1.3MP webcam and optional Bluetooth.

It’s nice to see at least one manufacturer jumping on the Interchangeability Initiative, but we’re going to need to see a lot more manufacturers make the leap before we see the true benefits. It remains to be seen whether the big dogs like Dell, HP, Toshiba or Lenovo will jump into the fray.

News from: DailyTech