Just like its parent company, Porsche Design specializes in the creation of devices that offer a unique set of features with an eye towards high-end styles. This month the company introduced its Ultra One laptop, which offers a 15.6-inch Full-HD touchscreen display in a chassis that is thinner than most 13-inch mobile PCs, and with a fanless cooling design, is also dead silent as well.

In terms of design, the Porsche Design Ultra One comes in a magnesium chassis with polished stainless-steel elements; the body measures 359×249.5×13.8mm and the complete laptop weighs around 1.5 kilograms. The chassis features a special hinge block that puts virtually all ports of the machine at the back in a bid to hide cables when they are in use and further emphasize ‘Apple MacBook’ style minimalism without actually removing  the USB Type-A, USB Type-C, HDMI, and microSD ports. Of course, it is debatable whether these ports are in a comfortable place to use, but at least they are present.

At the heart of the Porsche Design Ultra One notebook is Intel’s low-power 8th Generation Core i5-8200Y or i7-8500Y (Amber Lake-Y) dual-core processors, which use Intel's UHD Graphics 615 and come with a TDP of just 5 W. The CPU is accompanied by 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM as well as a 512 GB or 1 TB SSD, depending on the model (see the table below for details). Since Intel designed the processor to be as energy efficient as possible, do not expect the Porsche Design Ultra One to offer performance akin to that expected from Porsche cars. What it will likely offer is a very long battery life assuming that there is a high-capacity battery under the hood.

In order to make the Porsche Design Ultra One notebook as comfortable to use as possible, the manufacturer equipped it with a backlit keyboard featuring large flat keys (I wonder what mechanism they use) with keys like PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Ins, Del, as well as a special key to launch the Calculator app. Furthermore, the laptop has an oversized touchpad, a page from Apple’s book, and a fingerprint reader.

On the multimedia side of things, the Porsche Design Ultra One features stereo speakers co-designed with Harman/Kardon, and Cortana-supporting microphone array. For some reason, the manufacturer never mentions any webcam that is also not seen anywhere, so either it is hidden, or is not there, which is odd, given lifestyle nature of the device.

Porsche Design Ultra One
  Ultra One i5 Ultra One i7
Display 15.6-inch 1920×1080 with touch
CPU Intel Core i5-8200Y
2C/4T
1.30 GHz - 3.90 GHz
4 MB
Intel Core i7-8500Y
2C/4T
1.50 GHz - 4.20 GHz
4 MB
Graphics HD Graphics 615
RAM 8 GB 16 GB
SSD 512 GB 1 TB
HDD  
ODD  
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.2
USB 3.0 2 × Type-A
2 × Type-C
GbE -
Card Reader microSD
Other I/O HDMI, microphone, stereo speakers by Harman/Kardon, audio jack
Battery ?
Dimensions Width: 359 mm
Depth: 249.5 mm
Thickness: 13.8 mm
Weight Starting at 1.5 kg
Additional Information Link Link
Price $1,350 $1,800

The Porsche Design Ultra One i5 and i7 laptops will be available in late December for $1,350 and $1,800, respectively. The company is currently taking pre-orders.

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Source: Porsche Design (via Liliputing)

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  • MamiyaOtaru - Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - link

    can we please move away from the giant chins? No reason not to have a little more vertical room.
    Aesthetically, looks pretty nice otherwise
  • abufrejoval - Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - link

    A 4k screen would push thermals to the point where the CPU can longer give you deskop response times (and my eyes wouldn't benefit), but 1920x1200 should really be the new bottom line, if only to get rid of those fat useless logos under the screen.
  • vFunct - Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - link

    That has to be the worst keyboard layout I've ever seen.
  • Findecanor - Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - link

    That's just German layout, because Porsche Design is based in *drumroll* Germany.
    A US version of this keyboard would have the right legends on the keys for English and most likely a horizontal Enter key and long left Shift.

    The sizes of the keys is pretty much standard, and much better than what Apple offers. Their European Enter-key is shamefully skinny for instance.
  • Findecanor - Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - link

    Good selection of ports, but I think the headphone jack belongs on the left and the SD-card reader belongs on the right.
    Too bad that they don't have USB C for charging on both sides. It could otherwise be awkward to make the charging cable reach the power outlet in hotel rooms and other places.
    A HDMI port should also preferably be some distance from the USB A ports, to avoid confusion when fumbling around at the back.
  • Foeketijn - Sunday, November 24, 2019 - link

    I bought one of the first yoga pro's with a i5 ivy bridge I think. Still use it and I'm glad I paid extra for the sold design etc. And I never think the CPU should have been faster. I wonder if this Y type proc has more or less CPU power. I would try this one if it had a better resolution/ratio. at least 1920x1200.

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