with actual engineering they probably only need 1 or 2.
The question I have for them is “why”.
Is it reallyworth it to have the entire laptop be 2mm thinner?
Even 1mm.
We are making so many tradeoffs as of this time. The keyboard on the new Thinkpads are way worse compared to the old ones, much more difficult to repair, and, in fact, do not have memory slots. Yes, the newer ones are easier to pack, but the old one still fits, and if you are talking about comparable … ok the S230U also lack memory slots. But the Dell 3511 do?
I do think that there is a cost to repairability, but we have to think about what that actually means. Will your 1.3 inch tablet laptop be literally so thick it is unusable? No. It’s very useable. So long as you have a desk. But nobody really uses a 12 inch tablet on their laptop, either. Will it be nicer if it’s .75 inch rather than 1.3? Yes, and people have pulled it off. But not by much.
I’m very against putting these inside laptops. Unless they cost similarly compared to a regular centrifugal fan
The answer I have for you is “no moving parts”.
Fans have a bearing and a shaft. They will fail.
Also aren’t the farore supposed to be quieter, better static pressure, more ariflow per unit area? Fans have always been shoe horned into laptops, these are probably a better solution, just not yet.
The current frore jet are 1st gen devices and are ‘small’. I heard the CEO say that while the current 1st gen “airjet pro” devices have up to a 10W cooling dissipation capacity they are on track to release more powerful airjet that can achieve up to 15/20 watt dissipation in the coming years. So instead of stacking 3-4 airjet minis, a thin and light would need just 1-2.
I think this tech would be very much like USB-C. Despite it has been around for more than 5 years now, we still see USB-A devices being released (logitech unified receiver anyone?) The adoption of this technology would likely be a slow 5-6 years.
Moving parts isn’t a problem to me. I’ve had laptops used daily for 15 years and the fans have lasted fine. As long as the fan isn’t hard to replace, it doesn’t seem like a big issue.
The biggest issue for me still remains with these Frore devices, dust. It’s still moving air through it. So it will still need to cleaned, is it even possible to fully open their devices to clean the air path? Doesn’t look like it. That would be a hard dealbreaker.
Look at the tradeoffs that are made for things like the LG Gram. Wobbly screen, flexing chassis, a lacking IO, near instant throttling on anything that is done, etc. Some people will chase that light and thin aesthetic to the ends of the earth and I can appreciate that. I would never get one but I like seeing what the limits are.
If their generational improvements are as good as they claim they may outperform fans in a couple generations (in heat rejection per volume and maybe even heat rejection per power), then it’ll probably start making sense. Right now it’s more of a cool toy.
Zotac’s mini-pc which are meant for light commercial uses (think of computers running the billing in a department store) are already out. So, I guess we will soon have real world results about the efficacy of their cooling technology soon.