I use to have one computer with three attached monitors on three different video cards. Usally, the center screen used to have the augmented 3D card. So, I had to leave my country and got a notebook. Pretty good, but I miss the blissful feeling of an enhanced desktop, and a jumpig pointer from screen to screen, and, well; some screen savers look terrific in the expanded screens. So, why not take the central screen, attach another two flat monitors that you can flip open from side to side? I accept that the notebook will grow a liitle bit fat and heavy, but Boy! What a view. I also think that you will need a really big battery to keep the trhee monitors running. But if you are on the go, perhaps it would be good to have the option to shut any monitor at any time. Anyway, having tree panels should make the base of the laptop unstable. Perhaps a big fat battery would be great to stabilize it. (...And if you tought an apple powerbook 17" was cool, try 42" on a intel notebook!)
-- noyola, Oct 12 2003

(?) What it might look like . . . http://bz.pair.com/fun/bb.htm
shockwave, or quicktime or wmv. Your choice. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004]

How O.L.E.D.s work. http://science.howstuffworks.com/oled.htm
At howstuffworks.com [BJS, May 15 2006]

Sort of... https://www.mobilepixels.us/products/duex
Close enough to baked... [neutrinos_shadow, Jul 07 2020]

Where would you be that you could take advantage of this and not be better served by a desktop system or docking station?
-- phoenix, Oct 12 2003


[Phoenix] Portability. Try and take your desktop, keyboard, mouse, tower and three monitors for a spin... And imagine... you just sit on a bench, open up the notebook, unfold the screens sideway, fire the thing up, and have three full screen apps running smoothly without the somehow clumsy Alt+Tab... AHhhhhahhhhh a breath of fresh air.
-- noyola, Oct 12 2003


If your laptop supports monitor spanning on the VGA out, just take another slim LCD along with you. If you want to get fancy, have a custom case made up that folds out in the way you describe.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Dec 20 2003


Add some good sound and a DVD; you have a large screen TV
-- kurtynlsn, Feb 22 2004


By the apperance of concept on the video file that bristolz provided, you would not be able to "shut any monitor at any time" as noyola said you could, and still be able to view the two other screens, if the left screen were folded shut you would only be able to view the right screen.

To solve the large consumption of electricity problem, it could possibly have oganic light-emitting diodes screens (O.L.E.D.s), which are much more efficient than L.C.D. screens.
-- BJS, May 15 2006


OK, as long as you buy three seats every time you fly, 'cause nobody would want to sit next to you!
-- SledDog, May 15 2006


Just too bulky. Add some flatscreens to your desk.
-- ironfroggy, May 16 2006


Also, scrolling across all three screens with that little nub or a touchpad would be terribly slow! The touchpad barely keeps up with getting from one side of a single screen to the other, and ALT+TAB is quick and priceless.
-- ironfroggy, Oct 04 2006



random, halfbakery