Everything under the Porsche Design moniker is ugly as shit. A quick google image search of `porsche design` reaffirms this. Even their most plain and simple external drive designs are (at least to myself) tacky looking. I don't mean to be inflammatory about it but I can't be the only one to think this is ugly?
No you're not wrong, they are the "Pierre Cardin"[1] of tech products, essentially slapping their "P O R S C H E" typeface on anything half decent and shinny to win some licensing bucks.
Bang & Olufsen[2] they are not, but they like to position themselves in the market as if they were.
Even B&O made a couple atrocious UI mistakes. I remember one, the Beosound 5, that completely failed when you had hundreds or thousands of audio tracks accessible bringing up endless lists of things to finger-drag through. Of course, it's not an easy UI problem to solve, but that thing should have never appear in a store that way.
There was a reddit post a few days ago about how crazy it was that the original Porsche design was heavily reject by some company the guy worked for. I couldn't help but express the same opinion as you, I think I even used the same phrase. I guess there's something to be said for being able to inducing extreme opinions on both sides.
To use while commuting (like on a train/plane?), or ease of lugging? I would think once you get to your destination, you're now stuck with it rather than a laptop, unless you have a dock. What's a good setup for these? I think they're interesting, I just don't get them yet.
I am struggling to know who this is for. I can't imagine my Ferrari owning boss buying one of these to go with the Cayenne his wife drives and I can't imagine her giving up her rose gold Macbook Air for one of these things. My brother in law, forced to sell the 912 by my sister actually does actually consider buying anything Porsche that is non-car, again I can't see him getting this ultimate laptop even with his favourite logo on it.
Yet, if you are into classic cars or brand new Porsche cars then anything less than £5K is not a lot of money, compared to the money pit that a deluxe car is this laptop is a steal.
Where I think they went wrong was in making a product that was just the logo slapped on. If this was the de-facto laptop for doing all your timings and engine performance things in the pitlane then it would have genuine utility. Not everyone is flying around Silverstone every weekend but when that happens it is nice to have all the gear. The flimsiest of Porsche 'app' would have been all it needed perhaps with some sensible ruggedizing to make the laptop something that would sit well in the workshop environment or 'mounted to the rollcage or dashboard'. As well as the ruggedizing a good selection of sensors borrowed from a mobile phone would help too, maybe with a camera pointing outward from the screen too for telemetry and video. The SDK could be published too.
With a professional rather than a designer product I could see the Porsche laptop winning over buyers like my friends that cherish the cars.
It's wired that it's 100€ cheaper than Microsoft's Surface Book with similar specs.
I'd be interested how good the quality is.
It seems wired to think of Porsche Design as a competitor to Microsoft and Apple... You have for example the PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI MATE 9. But it costs 1400€ -> not competitively priced.
My guess is that for a lot of Porsche Design products, these are an answer to the question "What else can I buy that has the Porsche logo on it since I can't buy the car?"
So some competition consideration is taking place when they set prices.
Well other manufacturers have had limited edition vehicles that can with accessories that didn't have much to do with cars other than branding. For some the exclusivity is a nice bonus.
still manufacturers run the risk of any technology oriented accessory or similar having issues and tarnishing the brand
Porsche Design products (clothes, home appliances) are present in many malls, at least where I live. The design is very goofy (more so than even of their cars), and prices are competitive with higher-quality brands. Seems like there's a market segment which would trade some quality off for a sports car brand.
I personally do support your viewpoint, it's very unclassy to have anything car-branded if you don't have that very car.
Lucky they specify 'Porche Design' on the lid, otherwise I'd be confused and maybe think it was their payroll department or maybe the sanitation staff that designed it.
