So, /. says that a laptop is in the works… ! Comments? Detailed specs?
Which laptop discussion? There were slides about a potential laptop before the end of the year shown at a recent RISC-V conference, but this was just a teaser with no useful info. It was just to indicate that at least one organization has plans to make a laptop at some time, hopefully before the end of the year. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has such plans for instance, and some info is available in the Asian time zone RISC-V Open Hours meeting notes. For instance RISC-V Open Hours (2022-June-09) - Google Slides
Recently, a company in China has announced that they are making a laptop, but no useful info has been released yet. It might just be a grab for publicity to be first. Or it might be a real useful product. No way to tell at this time. The only info available is in their blog post. ROMA Pre-order - Xcalibyte - Software Application Quality, Compliance & Security
SiFive Forums is probably the not best source of info for SiFive competitors. Maybe try RISC-V slack, or the #riscv Libera IRC channel.