This Dual-Screen Laptop Proves That Sometimes Ambition Overwhelms Practicality

As makers, it’s usually a good idea to be ambitious in your projects. If a device is purely practical, then there is likely already a commercial product on the market filling that need. The more imaginative you get, the likelier it is that you’ll make something unique and noteworthy. But, there is such a thing as project that’s too ambitious, as proven by Anitomicals C’s dual-screen laptop.

In most dual-screen setups, the monitors are placed side-by-side — a practical way to gain valuable screen real estate. In this case, however, the screens are vertically stacked in the clam shell of the “laptop,” with one screen taking the place of the usual keyboard. Anitomicals was inspired to take this approach after seeing the small touchscreens placed near the top of the keyboard on newer Apple MacBooks.

Inside the laptop, which Anitomicals describes as a “DIY dual-screen portable desktop,” are the kinds of components you’d expect to see on a gaming rig. Those include an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700X processor, 32GB of RAM, two SSDs, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 mini graphics card. That is, of course, in addition to the two 14" LCD monitors.

This build is impressive in its scope, but Anitomicals himself admits that it’s completely impractical. The entire computer weighs a whopping 22 pounds, and measures 20 x 14 x 3.5 inches — and still needs an external keyboard and mouse. So, Anitomicals went back to using a regular old mini desktop, which is actually smaller.