At CES 2025, Intel let journalists into its non-public “Innovation Showcase,” the place we noticed issues like prototype next-gen laptops and big stereo 3D handheld gaming PCs.
Whereas I used to be there, I additionally noticed a heavy steel handheld on a desk that didn’t appear… absolutely hooked up… to its display screen. After I lifted the display screen, it got here away simply.
It felt suspiciously gentle to be an actual pill, so I flipped it over and noticed three connectors beneath:
Above it, on a shelf, was a laptop computer with a suspiciously sized chunk of plastic on the underside that regarded like an ideal match. A minute later, Intel gaming evangelist Colin Helms confirmed: I used to be an idea modular PC.
That module accommodates an entire Intel Lunar Lake laptop, your complete guts you’d must make one work exterior of peripherals and display screen. It’s principally a reboot of Intel’s deserted Compute Card thought, besides it is not all Intel’s doing and also you in all probability should never count on it to ship.
It’s an idea from Quanta, an organization whose title you don’t sometimes see on the laptops and tablets they create, as a result of Quanta is an ODM (like Compal, Pegatron, Wistron, and Apple’s higher identified iPhone provider Foxconn) that designs and manufactures {hardware} on behalf of name names.
Quanta’s calling the entire modular system the “AI8A,” and the aforementioned module at its coronary heart is the “Removable AI Core.” Helms advised me it plugs into different idea computer systems as effectively, together with an all-in-one desktop that Intel didn’t have to indicate off. And presumably, just like the Compute Card thought, you may improve your laptop simply by placing a brand new new module into it.
The modular laptop computer has plenty of concept-y bells and whistles too, so many who Intel’s CES workers hadn’t even labored all of them out but.
For begins, the laptop computer has a motorized hinge, so you possibly can inform it to open and shut its personal lid; it additionally claims to supply eye-tracking that allows you to sling round multitasking home windows simply by the place you’d like them to be. It apparently comes with a mouse built-in into a hoop that you may put on.
Essentially the most mundane: a built-in Qi wi-fi charging pad within the palmrest, with indicator lights to indicate your battery’s remaining capability.
I couldn’t strive any of it working, sadly, nor did I handle to ask what “AI8A” means, as a result of I mistakenly thought it mentioned Aiba till I checked my pictures intently simply now. Nor may we hotswap the module between the hand held and laptop computer, because the module apparently does not have a battery inside.
Once more, this can be a cool computing idea automobile: it’s unlikely that this laptop will ever ship, even in a extra sensible / much less gadgety type. Fortunately, we’ve begun to see some actual, sensible modularity within the laptop computer area because the demise of Intel’s Compute Card. Framework simply celebrated its fifth anniversary this week, and Dell took a smaller step ahead at CES with its first modular repairable USB-C port.
Photographs by Sean Hollister / The Verge
