Dell's 16-inch XPS prototype is a glimpse of the future

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials

Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings

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Dan Ackerman

Jan. 8, 2008 4:03 p.m. PT

There's a well-worn axiom in journalism that finding three examples of the same thing in short order officially constitutes a trend. With that in mind, take a look at this prototype Dell XPS laptop being shown under glass at the Dell booth. It's a 16-inch laptop, called the XPS 630i, and the unusual size displays images in a true 16:9 screen ratio (like your HDTV), rather than the 16:10 screen ratio found in most 14.1-, 15.4- and 17-inch laptop displays.

While Dell is the only PC maker showing off a 16-inch prototype to the public, it's not the only company interested in new laptop screen sizes. We can think of at least two other brands (and possibly more) that are all working on both 16-inch and 18-inch laptops, which makes this an official trend in our book.