Laptops are in the classroom, the boardroom and even in my personal home office underneath my fingers as I write this post. They're everywhere we go, so they tend to blend into the background — boring ol' workhorses. As such, it's easy to remember each and every laptop I've come across that isn't as boring as creamed wheat.

Below, you'll find five laptop setups that made me raise my eyebrow. I probably don't want to own any of them if I'm being honest, but at least they're interesting. Plus, their keyboards all probably work better than this nightmare MacBook Air I'm ttyyppiinngg on right now.

ThinkBook Plus Gen 3

The second screen experience is fine as long as you're just browsing social media while only kinda paying attention to the TV. In most other cases, having two screens apart from each other tends to be a bit more than our brains can manage.

In effect, this laptop has an eight-inch tablet embedded next to the keyboard. I suppose it's fine for drawing, but the fact that it's stuck in one spot and one orientation makes it kind of a pain in the butt to work around. If you actually need to draw, you're better off just grabbing an iPad or a Wacom tablet.

Ben Heck's Console Laptops

Ben Heck (Benjamin Heckendorn if you're nasty) has been laptop-ifying consoles for as long as I can remember. He cuts down the boards as small as possible, and somehow manages to cram these power-hungry machines into something approaching the shape of a laptop. Of course, nobody would ever keep it on their laps, but the effort is appreciated nonetheless.

Macintosh Portable

This 16-pound behemoth is a lot closer in looks and size to luggage than it is the modern conception of a laptop. It's even running on a lead-acid battery, so that explains some of the enormous weight. Of course, this proto-laptop dates back to 1989, so I have to cut it some slack. And just a few years later, Apple had a much better solution with the PowerBook.

Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED

I have to give Asus credit here — this is a better way to implement a second screen. It's still mostly stuck in place, but the horizontal orientation and the substantial tilt toward the user makes this a more sensible option than the ThinkBook above. Turns out, you need to be able to see the secondary screen to actually make use of it. A detached tablet is still a better bet as far as I'm concerned though.

Fold-Out Screens

You can never have enough screen space, so there have been multiple companies trying their darnedest to make a folding three-display setup work on a laptop. Nobody has really perfected it quite yet, but I understand the appeal. As displays get lighter and thinner, it's inevitable that other companies will tackle the tri-monitor dream again and again until somebody is happy with the results.

Laptops aren't the only ridiculous tech product. Check out these very strange iPhone accessories.

[Image: Shannon Morse]