Eve, the Finnish start-up which counts its users as part of its design team, first came to our attention with their crowd-designed 2-in-1 tablet, the Eve V in 2017. Fast forward three years and the company has just started pre-sales of its successor. The Eve V (2020) is, once again, the result of consultation with the Eve Community, with the final design a result of contributions from 2403 stakeholders giving their say on how the product will be specced. The Eve V (2020) is slightly bigger than its predecessor, with a 13.4“ touchscreen made of edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass, in either WQUXGA or full UHD, depending on the variant you pick. As with the last model, the clarity and accuracy of the monitor is a major consideration with the resulting display offering HDR10, and a 1.07 billion color gamut.
The processor has been upgraded to Intel’s 11th generation Tiger Lake processors in either i5 or i7 variant, with Intel Iris Xe discreet graphics. Because of the Thunderbolt 4 compliant port, there’s also the option to add an eGPU. There are 16-32GB of LPDDR4X of RAM and either 500GB or 1TB of SSD NVMe Storage. Connectivity comes courtesy of WiFi6, Bluetooth 5.0, plus optional LTE and A-GPS. Unlike its predecessor, there are no USB-A ports this time, which helps keep the overall thickness of the machine down. Instead, two USB-C ports are offered, with one doubling as the aforementioned USB4/Thunderbolt port. There’s also a built-in microSD card reader and a 3.5mm jack with built-in pre-amp.
There’s a front camera clocking in at 720p, with a 5MP rear camera, both compliant with Windows Hello, plus a fingerprint reader mounted on the power button. The whole shebang is housed in an anodized aluminium housing, with an integrated kickstand and comes bundled with a backlit folio keyboard (in US, UK, German, Nordic, French or Spanish locale) and Wacom 2.0 compliant pen. One of the decisions made by the community was that the second generation Eve should run Windows 10 Pro out-of-the-box as standard and with absolutely no bloatware. With the renewed possibility of Android apps in Windows, the combination of operating systems could prove stellar. Another decision taken by the committee was that the souped-up speakers will be front-facing, rather than downward facing
We loved the original Eve V. Our main gripes with it were the age of the processor, the weight, the lack of LTE and the lack of a rotary/hinged keyboard. All but the latter have been answered in this model, showing that, far from being a “camel”, the right group of minds can create something really special. We should add that the rotary keyboard is still on the wish list this time, but who knows, it could appear as an accessory. Oh - and it’s also roughly the same weight, but with a display which is over an inch bigger on the diagonal, it doesn’t feel as heavy.
The Eve V (2020) is available for pre-order in seven configurations: depending on the processor, RAM, storage size, and whether or not LTE and GPS are included. The entry-level device clocks in at $1399, with the top device clicking in at $1999. All include the folio keyboard and V Pen - however, these are promotional prices which will increase incrementally as we move closer to launch.
Eve V (2020) is scheduled for delivery in Q3 of 2021, but by the company’s own admission, that’s a conservative estimate based on bitter experience and it hopes to start early-bird deliveries before that. Eve will be available globally, and will also be going into retail for the first time, albeit at a significant mark-up.
Whether or not you were involved in the speccing process, there’s no denying that the idea of another “Made by Us” laptop is exciting, and we’d love to know what you think. Was it right to ditch the USB-A? Would you have preferred LTE as standard? Wish it came in a different color? Let us know in the comments.
If you’d like to reserve a device and lock in the current price, you can do so with a $300 deposit, at this link. Eve's next product, the Spectrum crowd-designed monitor is due to ship in Q1, 2021.