Third Wave, focusing on "enjoyment of owning" with common design of PCs for general users and creators

THIRDWAVE F-14TG (left two) and raytrek X4-T (right two). The appearance is almost the same because it is a common design

By adopting a common design, there is room to create points other than "cospa"

At the briefing, Mr. Kazuhito Sato, General Manager of the Product and Marketing Division, explained the background of this measure. introduced.

What is required for PCs of BTO manufacturers is "cospa". However, since the price of the main parts of a personal computer is almost the same, it will be necessary to reduce the design, development and distribution costs in order to increase the cost performance. Mr. Sato says that in pursuit of cost reduction in design and development, "design, appearance, and 'fun to own' tend to be left behind."

This time, the two brands adopt almost the same design. In addition to keeping development costs down, we aimed to provide comfortable operability and enjoyment of ownership.

The price of "THIRDWAVE F-14TG" is 99,980 yen for the 256GB storage model and 104,980 yen for the 512GB model. The price of "raytrek X4-T" is 109,980 yen.

Continuing, THIRDWAVE and reytrek brand managers explained the features of each product. The THIRDWAVE brand F-14TG consists of two models with different storage capacities (256GB/512GB), with the standard lapis blue color and the limited color SAKURA.

The raytrek brand X4-T adopts an sRGB 99% compatible LCD and a high-end CPU, Core i7-1165G7 (F-14TG is Core i5-1135G7), considering design uses such as illustration production. increase. Storage is only 512GB. Colors include black and rose gold.

What is common to both products is that the top plate uses a 3-direction aluminum hairline processing "Trinity Stripe", a JIS layout compliant keyboard with an equal pitch of 19.6 mm, a main memory of 16 GB, and a power supply of 65 W USB PD. Such. The attached AC adapter is a cable separation type considering portability.

In addition to Type-C x 2 that supports USB PD, Thunderbolt 4, and Displayport Alternate Mode output, it has a total of 5 ports, including 3 Type-A of USB 3.2 Gen1/Gen2 and USB 2.0. Other than that, HDMI 1.4a, headset terminal, microSD card reader, and other interfaces are abundant for the size of the main unit.

When I listened to both of them, I could see the points that they could not compromise on. If you think of it as a general laptop, it's a stylish looking and an easy-to-use keyboard (including removing the power button from the keyboard area). For creators, a display with a wide color gamut is essential. Also the highest possible CPU and storage (including external) is important. That's why Thunderbolt 4 is inevitable. This product has the same features other than the LCD and CPU, and you can see that it satisfies both requirements.

Reducing the main memory is one of the effective measures to keep the price down, but during the development, it was advised that 16GB is required for using Office, which was reflected in the specifications this time. . Since the main memory of this product is directly attached to the motherboard, memory expansion is not possible. In that sense, I think the specs of 16GB are very good.

The product development concept is "Gosho Miyu"

Finally, Mr. Hiroshi Nagata, Manager of the Sales Development Section, Development Department, Quality Product Division, Product and Marketing Division, who is in charge of development, As a concept, it is a product that has passed rigorous tests assuming long-term use, "Takumi", a mechanical design that pursues the operability of the keyboard to the utmost limit, and sophisticated appearance quality that incorporates various processing technologies. We will introduce the "beauty" of our company and the "friends" that have realized high-quality products through cooperation with overseas suppliers and the establishment of a management system from product design/development to manufacturing.

"Beauty" is important to pursue the joy of owning, but "strength" and "craftsmanship" are also indispensable to raise the basic functions of a notebook computer. I'm impressed that you're sticking to this point. In addition, manufacturers are struggling to develop personal computers in a situation where business trips are not possible due to the corona sickness. I felt that it was wonderful to be able to properly announce the product.

Third Wave has tried to standardize the platform for 14-inch products this time, and it seems that this direction will continue in the future. I feel that this policy is a direction for high-performance products that require high-performance CPUs and GPUs, and that gaming products and creator products that mainly focus on video editing have a high affinity.

This presentation was not only a product presentation, but also a place to listen to the improvement points seen from the eyes of the reporter. Here are some of the things I noticed about the new product.

Let's start with the left side of the main unit. Place connectors that are frequently inserted and removed in front of you. Since the USB-C port is a power supply terminal, I wanted at least one to be the farthest. Considering that the use of the USB-C port will increase in the future, it is best that the two ports are arranged on the left and right. By the way, what you can see on the front side is the "switch for forcibly disabling the webcam and microphone".

Next is the right side of the main unit. Since many people use the mouse on the right side, I would like the headset terminal to be on the left, but that would congest the left side, so there is no way to do it (you can avoid it by using an L-shaped adapter). Considering the use of creators, I would like a full-size SD card slot, but considering the space, this may be difficult. By the way, it is not a tilt-up liquid crystal, but it can be opened almost 180 degrees.

For hairline processing, the panel is put into a special processing machine, but the mark can only be applied in one direction. In other words, the hairline process is performed three times to achieve this trinity stripe, which also costs money. In the case of high-end products, the panel is "cut out" by CNC processing, but although the product this time is press-processed, which is excellent in terms of cost, we used a bending process that could not be achieved with a single press. In addition, a diamond edge is also applied by cutting, and it is a product that cares about the appearance within a limited range. The photo is a prototype sample, so the color is different from the product version. By the way, the reason why there is no white color is because the hairline processing this time does not shine.

The keyboard was fairly flexible. This is because a reinforcing iron plate is laid on the bottom of the keyboard and a large number of screws are used. On the other hand, as a result of sticking to the standard layout and equal pitch, the short space bar seems to be divided into likes and dislikes. To put it bluntly, there aren't many people who type in JIS kana, so it's better to remove the kana characters from a design standpoint, but this is also a matter of pros and cons.