As laptops have become thinner and lighter, there have been sacrifices along the way. Often, those sacrifices come in the area of port selection, as ultra-portable laptops keep getting bolder about omitting things like USB-A ports, 3.5 mm jacks, and SD card readers for the sake of portability and style. Whether you think that’s inconvenient or incredible, take a look at the Craob X laptop. It takes minimalism to a new level—it has zero integrated ports.
Spotted by My Laptop Guide on Monday, the Craob X claims to be the “world’s first port-less ultrabook.” Craob’s website provides limited information about the Craob X laptop and nothing about the company itself. There’s no release date beyond a vague “coming soon” advertisement. Overall, there’s very little detail about the Craob X, making us skeptical about if or when it will be available. In fact, we can’t even find mention of the company existing beyond this website.
Still, the Craob X presents an interesting idea for the future of ultraportable laptops. While even the trimmest ultraportable will typically offer at least a USB-C port, the Craob X’s deck is empty. And we can see why—there’s barely room to fit anything there.
According to Craob’s website, the 13.3-inch laptop is 0.28 inches (7 mm) thin and weighs 1.9 lbs (861.83 g). That’d be pretty impressive, even compared to other lightweight clamshells. Measuring 0.58 inch (14.8 mm) thick and weighing 2.64 lbs (1,197.48 g), the Dell XPS 13 is 107.14 percent thicker and 38.95 percent heavier than the Craob X’s claimed measurements.
You can presumably use Bluetooth to connect peripherals to the device, but the site does not address the laptop’s Bluetooth capabilities.
Of course, the laptop still needs a way to get power. The Craob X uses a MagSafe-like device that attaches magnetically to the laptop’s lid. Dubbed the PortsHub, the wireless charger has ports of its own—USB-C, USB-A, Thunderbolt (version not disclosed), a headphone jack, and an SD card reader—so it can charge other devices, too. It’s unclear how much power the wireless charger can put out, how quickly the PC will charge with it, or if the charger can power other devices and your laptop simultaneously.
It’s also unclear if the wireless PortsHub will send data to the PC. The SD card reader and headphone jack on the wireless charger imply that it will, but it would be difficult for the PortsHub to support Thunderbolt 4’s maximum bandwidth of 40 Gbps over Wi-Fi 6E, the only wireless protocol confirmed to be in the laptop.
The Craob X continues its striking design with incredibly small borders emphasized by a webcam integrated right into the 4K display.
The laptop claims to use an Intel 12th-generation Alder Lake mobile CPU, namely the Core i7-1280P. Intel’s P-series is fit for thinner laptops with less powerful cooling. More specifically, the chip runs at a 1.8 GHz base clock speed, and it has six performance cores (going up to 4.8 GHz) and eight efficiency cores (up to 3.6 GHz). The Craob X will also have up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 2TB of PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD storage.
The Craob X envisions a world where port-less laptops are a serious consideration. It will be interesting to watch the reception of the Craob X—and even more intriguing to see if it leads other laptop manufacturers to make even bolder omissions in port selection.
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Update 2/1/2022, 3:15pm ET: This article was edited to provide additional information about Craob.
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1830824