A laptop (also laptop computer), often called a notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a "clamshell" form factor, typically having a thin LCD or LED computer screen mounted on the inside of the upper lid of the clamshell and an alphanumeric keyboard
on the inside of the lower lid. The clamshell is opened up to use the
computer. Laptops are folded shut for transportation, and thus are
suitable for mobile use. Its name comes from lap,
as it was deemed to be placed on a person's lap when being used.
Although originally there was a distinction between laptops and
notebooks (the former being bigger and heavier than the latter), as of
2014, there is often no longer any difference.
Laptops are commonly used in a variety of settings, such as at work, in
education, for playing games, Internet surfing, for personal
multimedia, and general home computer use.
Laptops combine all the input/output components and capabilities of a desktop computer, including the display screen, small speakers, a keyboard, hard disk drive, optical disc drive, pointing devices (such as a touchpad or trackpad), a processor, and memory into a single unit. Most modern laptops feature integrated webcams and built-in microphones, while many also have touchscreens. Laptops can be powered either from an internal battery or by an external power supply from an AC adapter.
Hardware specifications, such as the processor speed and memory
capacity, significantly vary between different types, makes, models and price points.
Design elements, form factor
and construction can also vary significantly between models depending
on intended use. Examples of specialized models of laptops include rugged notebooks for use in construction or military applications, as well as low production cost laptops such as those from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, which incorporate features like solar charging and semi-flexible components not found on most laptop computers. Portable computers, which later developed into modern laptops, were originally considered to be a small niche market,
mostly for specialized field applications, such as in the military, for
accountants, or for traveling sales representatives. As the portable
computers evolved into the modern laptop, they became widely used for a
variety of purposes.
Terminology variants
The terms laptop and notebook
are used interchangeably to describe a portable computer in English,
although in some parts of the world one or the other may be preferred.
There is some question as to the original etymology and specificity of
either term—the term laptop appears to have been coined in the
early 1980s to describe a mobile computer which could be used on one's
lap, and to distinguish these devices from earlier, much heavier, portable computers
(informally called "luggables"). The term "notebook" appears to have
gained currency somewhat later as manufacturers started producing even
smaller portable devices, further reducing their weight and size and
incorporating a display roughly the size of A4 paper; these were marketed as notebooks to distinguish them from bulkier laptops. Regardless of the etymology, by the late 1990s, the terms were interchangeable.
History
As the personal computer
(PC) became feasible in 1971, the idea of a portable personal computer
soon followed. A "personal, portable information manipulator" was
imagined by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1968, and described in his 1972 paper as the "Dynabook". The IBM Special Computer APL Machine Portable (SCAMP) was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the IBM PALM processor. The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype.
As 8-bit CPU machines became widely accepted, the number of
portables increased rapidly. The first "laptop-sized notebook computer"
was the Epson HX-20, invented (patented) by Suwa Seikosha's Yukio Yokozawa in July 1980, introduced at the COMDEX computer show in Las Vegas by Japanese company Seiko Epson in 1981, and released in July 1982. It had an LCD screen, a rechargeable battery, and a calculator-size printer, in a 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) chassis, the size of an A4 notebook. It was described as a "laptop" and "notebook" computer in its patent.
The portable micro computer Portal of the French company R2E Micral
CCMC officially appeared in September 1980 at the Sicob show in Paris.
It was a portable microcomputer designed and marketed by the studies and
developments department of R2E Micral
at the request of company CCMC specializing in payroll and accounting.
It was based on an Intel 8085 processor, 8-bit, clocked at 2 MHz. It was
equipped with a central 64 KB RAM, a keyboard with 58 alpha numeric
keys and 11 numeric keys ( separate blocks ), a 32-character screen, a
floppy disk : capacity = 140 00 characters, of a thermal printer : speed
= 28 characters / second, an asynchronous channel, a synchronous
channel, a 220 V power supply. It weighed 12 kg and its dimensions were
45 x 45 x 15 cm. It provided total mobility. Its operating system was
the aptly named Prologue.
The Osborne 1, released in 1981, was a luggable computer that used the Zilog Z80 and weighed 24.5 pounds (11.1 kg). It had no battery, a 5 in (13 cm) cathode ray tube (CRT) screen, and dual 5.25 in (13.3 cm) single-density floppy drives. Both Tandy/RadioShack and Hewlett Packard (HP) also produced portable computers of varying designs during this period. The first laptops using the flip form factor appeared in the early 1980s. The Dulmont Magnum was released in Australia in 1981–82, but was not marketed internationally until 1984–85. The US$8,150 (US$21,160 today) GRiD Compass 1101, released in 1982, was used at NASA and by the military, among others. The Sharp PC-5000, Ampere and Gavilan SC released in 1983. The Gavilan SC was described as a "laptop" by its manufacturer, while the Ampere had a modern clamshell design. The Toshiba T1100 won acceptance not only among PC experts but the mass market as a way to have PC portability.
From 1983 onward, several new input techniques were developed and included in laptops, including the touchpad (Gavilan SC, 1983), the pointing stick (IBM ThinkPad 700, 1992), and handwriting recognition (Linus Write-Top, 1987). Some CPUs, such as the 1990 Intel i386SL, were designed to use minimum power to increase battery life of portable computers and were supported by dynamic power management features such as Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow! in some designs.
Displays reached 640x480 (VGA)
resolution by 1988 (Compaq SLT/286), and color screens started becoming
a common upgrade in 1991, with increases in resolution and screen size
occurring frequently until the introduction of 17" screen laptops in
2003. Hard drives started to be used in portables, encouraged by the
introduction of 3.5" drives in the late 1980s, and became common in
laptops starting with the introduction of 2.5" and smaller drives around
1990; capacities have typically lagged behind physically larger desktop
drives. Optical storage, read-only CD-ROM followed by writeable CD and later read-only or writeable DVD and Blu-ray players, became common in laptops early in the 2000s.
Types
Since the introduction of portable computers during late 1970s, their form has changed significantly, spawning a variety of visually and technologically differing subclasses. Except where there is a distinct legal trademark around a term (notably Ultrabook), there are rarely hard distinctions between these classes and their usage has varied over time and between different sources.
Traditional laptop
The
form of the traditional laptop computer is a clamshell, with a screen
on one of its inner sides and a keyboard on the opposite, facing the
screen. It can be easily folded to conserve space while traveling. The
screen and keyboard are inaccessible while closed. Devices of this form
are commonly called a 'traditional laptop' or notebook, particularly if
they have a screen size of 11 to 17 inches measured diagonally and run a
full-featured operating system like Windows 10, macOS, or GNU/Linux. Traditional laptops are the most common form of laptops, although Chromebooks,
Ultrabooks, convertibles and 2-in-1s (described below) are becoming
more common, with similar performance being achieved in their more
portable or affordable forms.
Subnotebook
A subnotebook or an ultraportable, is a laptop designed
and marketed with an emphasis on portability (small size, low weight,
and often longer battery life). Subnotebooks are usually smaller and
lighter than standard laptops, weighing between 0.8 and 2 kg (2-5 lb), with a battery life exceeding 10 hours. Since the introduction of netbooks and ultrabooks, the line between subnotebooks
and either category has blurred. Netbooks are a more basic and cheap
type of subnotebook, and while some ultrabooks have a screen size too
large to qualify as subnotebooks, certain ultrabooks fit in the
subnotebook category. One notable example of a subnotebook is the Apple MacBook Air.
Netbook
The netbook is an inexpensive, light-weight, energy-efficient form of
laptop, especially suited for wireless communication and Internet
access. Netbooks first became commercially available around 2008, weighing under 1 kg, with a display size of under 9". The name netbook (with net short for Internet) is used as "the device excels in web-based computing performance". Netbooks were initially sold with light-weight variants of the GNU operating system (with Linux
kernel), although later versions often have the Windows XP or Windows 7
operating systems. The term "netbook" is largely obsolete,
although machines that would have once been called netbooks—small,
inexpensive, and low powered—never ceased being sold, in particular the
smaller Chromebook models.
Convertible, hybrid, 2-in-1
The latest trend of technological convergence
in the portable computer industry spawned a broad range of devices,
which combined features of several previously separate device types. The
hybrids, convertibles and 2-in-1s emerged as crossover devices, which share traits of both tablets and laptops. All such devices have a touchscreen display designed to allow users to work in a tablet mode, using either multi-touch gestures or a stylus/digital pen.
Convertibles are devices with the ability to conceal a
hardware keyboard. Keyboards on such devices can be flipped, rotated, or
slid behind the back of the chassis, thus transforming from a laptop
into a tablet. Hybrids have a keyboard detachment mechanism, and
due to this feature, all critical components are situated in the part
with the display. 2-in-1s can have a hybrid or a convertible form, often dubbed 2-in-1 detachables and 2-in-1 convertibles respectively, but are distinguished by the ability to run a desktop OS, such as Windows 10. 2-in-1s are often marketed as laptop replacement tablets.
2-in-1s are often very thin, around 10 millimetres (0.39 in), and
light devices with a long battery life. 2-in-1s are distinguished from
mainstream tablets as they feature an x86-architecture CPU (typically a low- or ultra-low-voltage model), such as the Intel Core i5, run a full-featured desktop OS like Windows 10, and have a number of typical laptop I/O ports, such as USB 3 and Mini DisplayPort.
2-in-1s are designed to be used not only as a media consumption device, but also as valid desktop or laptop replacements, due to their ability to run desktop applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is possible to connect multiple peripheral devices, such as a mouse, keyboard and a number of external displays to a modern 2-in-1.
Microsoft Surface Pro-series devices and Surface Book are examples of modern 2-in-1 detachables, whereas Lenovo Yoga-series computers are a variant of 2-in-1 convertibles. While the older Surface RT and Surface 2 have the same chassis design as the Surface Pro, their use of ARM processors and Windows RT do not classify them as 2-in-1s, but as hybrid tablets. Similarly, a number of hybrid laptops run a mobile operating system, such as Android. These include Asus's Transformer Pad devices, examples of hybrids with a detachable keyboard design, which do not fall in the category of 2-in-1s.
Desktop replacement
A desktop-replacement laptop is a class of large device which is not
intended primarily for mobile use. These devices are bulkier and not as
portable as other laptops, and are intended for use as compact and
transportable alternatives to a desktop computer.
Desktop replacements are larger and typically heavier than other
classes of laptops. They are capable of containing more powerful
components and have a 15-inch or larger display. Desktop replacement laptops' operation time on batteries is typically shorter than other laptops; in rare cases they have no battery
at all. In the past, some laptops in this class used a limited range of
desktop components to provide better performance for the same price at
the expense of battery life, although this practice has largely died
out. The names Media Center Laptops and Gaming Laptops are used to describe specialized notebook computers, often overlapping with the desktop replacement form factor.
Rugged laptop
A rugged laptop is designed to reliably operate in harsh usage
conditions such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures, and wet or
dusty environments. Rugged laptops are usually designed from scratch,
rather than adapted from regular consumer laptop models. Rugged laptops
are bulkier, heavier, and much more expensive than regular laptops, and thus are seldom seen in regular consumer use.
The design features found in rugged laptops include a rubber
sheeting under the keyboard keys, sealed port and connector covers,
passive cooling, very bright displays easily readable in daylight, cases
and frames made of magnesium alloys that are much stronger than
plastics found in commercial laptops, and solid-state storage devices or
hard disc drives that are shock mounted to withstand constant
vibrations. Rugged laptops are commonly used by public safety services
(police, fire, and medical emergency), military, utilities, field
service technicians, construction, mining, and oil drilling personnel.
Rugged laptops are usually sold to organizations rather than
individuals, and are rarely marketed via retail channels.
Business laptop
A
business laptop is a laptop designed for those in a workplace.
Typically, it is ruggedised, with consumer facing features, like high
resolution sound, removed to allow the device to be used for pure productivity. It may sometimes include business oriented features like TPM, Fingerprint Scanner, Smart Card Reader and/or a Pointing stick.
Hardware
The basic components of laptops function identically to their desktop counterparts. Traditionally they were miniaturized
and adapted to mobile use, although desktop systems increasingly use
the same smaller, lower-power parts which were originally developed for
mobile use. The design restrictions on power, size, and cooling of
laptops limit the maximum performance of laptop parts compared to that
of desktop components, although that difference has increasingly
narrowed.
In general, laptop components are not intended to be replaceable
or upgradable, with the exception of components which can be detached,
such as a battery or CD/CDR/DVD drive. This restriction is one of the
major differences between laptops and desktop computers, because the
large "tower" cases used in desktop computers are designed so that new motherboards, hard disks, sound cards, RAM, and other components can be added. In a very compact laptop, such as laplets, there may be no upgradeable components at all.
Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta, and some other laptop manufacturers have created the Common Building Block
standard for laptop parts to address some of the inefficiencies caused
by the lack of standards and inability to upgrade components.
The following sections summarizes the differences and
distinguishing features of laptop components in comparison to desktop
personal computer parts.
Display
Internally, a display is an LCD panel which could be TFT backlit or LED backlit which talks to the laptop using the LVDS
protocol, while externally, it can be a glossy screen or a matte
screen. Most modern laptops feature a 13 inches (33 cm) or larger color active matrix display based on LED lighting with resolutions of 1280×800 (16:10) or 1366×768 (16:9)
pixels and above. Models with LED-based lighting offer lesser power
consumption and often increased brightness. Netbooks with a 10 inches
(25 cm) or smaller screen typically use a resolution of 1024×600, while
netbooks and subnotebooks with an 11.6 inches (29 cm) or 12 inches
(30 cm) screen use standard notebook resolutions. Having a higher
resolution display allows more items to fit onscreen at a time,
improving the user's ability to multitask, although at the higher
resolutions on smaller screens, the resolution may only serve to display
sharper graphics and text rather than increasing the usable area. Since
the introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina display
in 2012, there has been an increase in the availability of
very-high-resolution (1920×1080 and higher) displays, even in relatively
small systems, and in typical 15-inch screens resolutions as high as
3200×1800 are available. External displays can be connected to most
laptops, and models with a Mini DisplayPort can handle up to three.
Central processing unit
A laptop's central processing unit
(CPU) has advanced power-saving features and produces less heat than
one intended purely for desktop use. Typically, laptop CPUs have two
processor cores, although 4-core models are also available. For low
price and mainstream performance, there is no longer a significant
performance difference between laptop and desktop CPUs, but at the high
end, the fastest 4-to-8-core desktop CPUs still substantially outperform
the fastest 4-core laptop processors, at the expense of massively
higher power consumption and heat generation; the fastest laptop
processors top out at 56 watts of heat, while the fastest desktop
processors top out at 150 watts.
There have been a wide range of CPUs designed for laptops available from both Intel, AMD, and other manufacturers. On non-x86 architectures, Motorola and IBM produced the chips for the former PowerPC-based Apple laptops (iBook and PowerBook).
Many laptops have removable CPUs, although this has become less common
in the past few years as the trend has been towards thinner and lighter
models. In other laptops the CPU is soldered on the motherboard and is
non-replaceable; this is nearly universal in ultrabooks.
In the past, some laptops have used a desktop processor instead
of the laptop version and have had high performance gains at the cost of
greater weight, heat, and limited battery life, but the practice was
largely extinct as of 2013. Unlike their desktop counterparts, laptop
CPUs are nearly impossible to overclock.
A thermal operating mode of laptops is very close to its limits and
there is almost no headroom for an overclocking–related operating
temperature increase. The possibility of improving a cooling system of a
laptop to allow overclocking is extremely difficult to implement.
Graphical processing unit
On most laptops a graphical processing unit (GPU) is integrated into the CPU to conserve power and space. This was introduced by Intel with the Core i-series of mobile processors in 2010, and similar accelerated processing unit
(APU) processors by AMD later that year. Prior to that, lower-end
machines tended to use graphics processors integrated into the system chipset,
while higher end machines had a separate graphics processor. In the
past, laptops lacking a separate graphics processor were limited in
their utility for gaming and professional applications involving 3D
graphics, but the capabilities of CPU-integrated graphics have
converged with the low-end of dedicated graphics processors in the past
few years. Higher-end laptops intended for gaming or professional 3D
work still come with dedicated, and in some cases even dual, graphics
processors on the motherboard or as an internal expansion card. Since
2011, these almost always involve switchable graphics so that when there
is no demand for the higher performance dedicated graphics processor,
the more power-efficient integrated graphics processor will be used. Nvidia Optimus and AMD Hybrid Graphics are examples of this sort of system of switchable graphics.
Memory
Most laptops use SO-DIMM (small outline dual in-line memory module) memory modules, as they are about half the size of desktop DIMMs.
They are sometimes accessible from the bottom of the laptop for ease of
upgrading, or placed in locations not intended for user replacement.
Most laptops have two memory slots, although some of the lowest-end
models will have only one, and some high end models (usually mobile
engineering workstations and a few high-end models intended for gaming)
have four slots. Most mid-range laptops are factory equipped with 4–6 GB
of RAM. Netbooks are commonly equipped with only 1–2 GB of RAM and are
generally only expandable to 2 GB, if at all. Laptops may have memory
soldered to the motherboard to conserve space, which allows the laptop
to have a thinner chassis design. Soldered memory cannot be easily
upgraded.
Internal storage
Traditionally, laptops had a hard disk drive (HDD) as a main non-volatile storage,
but these proved inefficient for use in mobile devices due to high
power consumption, heat production, and a presence of moving parts,
which can cause damage to both the drive itself and the data stored when
a laptop is unstable physically, e.g. during its use while transporting
it or after its accidental drop. With the advent of flash memory technology, most mid- to high-end laptops opted for more compact, power efficient, and fast solid-state drives (SSD), which eliminated the hazard of drive and data corruption caused by a laptop's physical impacts.
Most laptops use 2.5-inch drives, which are a smaller version of a
3.5-inch desktop drive form factor. 2.5-inch HDDs are more compact,
power efficient, and produce less heat, while at the same time have a
smaller capacity and a slower data transfer rate.
Some very compact laptops support even smaller 1.8-inch HDDs. For SSDs,
however, these miniaturization-related trade-offs are nonexistent,
because SSDs were designed to have a very small footprint. SSDs feature a
traditional 2.5- or 1.8-inch or a laptop-specific mSATA or M.2 card's form factor. SSDs have a higher data transfer rate, lower power consumption, lower failure rate, and a larger capacity compared to HDDs. However, HDDs have a significantly lower cost.
Most laptops can contain a single 2.5-inch drive, but a small
number of laptops with a screen wider than 15 inches can house two
drives. Some laptops support a hybrid mode, combining a 2.5-inch drive,
typically a spacious HDD for data, with an mSATA or M.2 SDD drive,
typically having less capacity, but a significantly faster read/write
speed. The operating system partition would be located on the SSD to increase laptop I/O performance. Another way to increase performance is to use a smaller SSD of 16-32 GB as a cache drive with a compatible OS. Some laptops may have very limited drive upgradeability when the SSD used has a non-standard shape or requires a proprietary daughter card. Some laptops have very limited space on the installed SSD, instead relying on availability of cloud storage services for storing of user data; Chromebooks are a prominent example of this approach. A variety of external HDDs or NAS data storage servers with support of RAID technology can be attached to virtually any laptop over such interfaces as USB, FireWire, eSATA, or Thunderbolt, or over a wired or wireless network to further increase space for the storage of data. Many laptops also incorporate a card reader which allows for use of memory cards, such as those used for digital cameras, which are typically SD or microSD
cards. This enables users to download digital pictures from an SD card
onto a laptop, thus enabling them to delete the SD card's contents to
free up space for taking new pictures.
Removable media drive
Optical disc drives capable of playing CD-ROMs, compact discs (CD), DVDs, and in some cases, Blu-ray Discs
(BD), were nearly universal on full-sized models by the early 2010s. A
disc drive remains fairly common in laptops with a screen wider than 15
inches (38 cm), although the trend towards thinner and lighter machines
is gradually eliminating these drives and players; these drives are
uncommon in compact laptops, such as subnotebooks and netbooks. Laptop
optical drives tend to follow a standard form factor, and usually have a
standard mSATA
connector. It is often possible to replace an optical drive with a
newer model. In certain laptop models there is a possibility to replace
an optical drive with a second hard drive, using a caddy that fills the
extra space the optical drive would have occupied.
Inputs
An alphanumeric keyboard is used to enter text and data and make other commands (e.g., function keys). A touchpad (also called a trackpad), a pointing stick, or both, are used to control the position of the cursor on the screen, and an integrated keyboard is used for typing. An external keyboard and mouse may be connected using a USB port or wirelessly, via Bluetooth
or similar technology. With the advent of ultrabooks and support of
touch input on screens by 2010-era operating systems, such as Windows 8.1, multitouch touchscreen displays are used in many models. Some models have webcams and microphones, which can be used to communicate with other people with both moving images and sound, via Skype, Google Chat and similar software.
Laptops typically have USB ports and a microphone jack, for use with an external mic. Some laptops have a card reader for reading digital camera SD cards.
Input/output (I/O) ports
On a typical laptop there are several USB ports, an external monitor port (VGA, DVI, HDMI or Mini DisplayPort),
an audio in/out port (often in form of a single socket) is common. It
is possible to connect up to three external displays to a 2014-era
laptop via a single Mini DisplayPort, utilizing multi-stream transport technology. Apple, in a 2015 version of its MacBook, transitioned from a number of different I/O ports to a single USB-C port. This port can be used both for charging and connecting a variety of devices through the use of aftermarket adapters. Google, with its updated version of Chromebook Pixel,
shows a similar transition trend towards USB-C, although keeping older
USB Type-A ports for a better compatibility with older devices. Although being common until the end of the 2000s decade, Ethernet network port are rarely found on modern laptops, due to widespread use of wireless networking, such as Wi-Fi. Legacy ports such as a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, serial port, parallel port, or FireWire are provided on some models, but they are increasingly rare. On Apple's systems, and on a handful of other laptops, there are also Thunderbolt ports, but Thunderbolt 3
uses USB-C. Laptops typically have a headphone jack, so that the user
can connect external headphones or amplified speaker systems for
listening to music or other audio.
Expansion cards
In the past, a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) or ExpressCard
slot for expansion was often present on laptops to allow adding and
removing functionality, even when the laptop is powered on; these are
becoming increasingly rare since the introduction of USB 3.0.
Some internal subsystems such as: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or a wireless
cellular modem can be implemented as replaceable internal expansion
cards, usually accessible under an access cover on the bottom of the
laptop. The standard for such cards is PCI Express, which comes in both mini and even smaller M.2 sizes. In newer laptops, it is not uncommon to also see Micro SATA (mSATA) functionality on PCI Express Mini or M.2 card slots allowing the use of those slots for SATA-based solid state drives.
Battery and power supply
2016-era laptops use lithium ion batteries, with some thinner models using the flatter lithium polymer technology. These two technologies have largely replaced the older nickel metal-hydride
batteries. Battery life is highly variable by model and workload and
can range from one hour to nearly a day. A battery's performance
gradually decreases over time; substantial reduction in capacity is
typically evident after one to three years of regular use, depending on
the charging and discharging pattern and the design of the battery.
Innovations in laptops and batteries have seen situations in which the
battery can provide up to 24 hours of continued operation, assuming
average power consumption levels. An example is the HP EliteBook 6930p
when used with its ultra-capacity battery.
A laptop's battery is charged using an external power supply
which is plugged into a wall outlet. The power supply outputs a DC
voltage typically in the range of 7.2—24 volts. The power supply is
usually external and connected to the laptop through a DC connector
cable. In most cases, it can charge the battery and power the laptop
simultaneously. When the battery is fully charged, the laptop continues
to run on power supplied by the external power supply, avoiding battery
use. The battery charges in a shorter period of time if laptop is turned
off or sleeping. The charger typically adds about 400 grams (0.88 lb)
to the overall transporting weight of a laptop, although some models are
substantially heavier or lighter. Most 2016-era laptops use a smart battery, a rechargeable battery pack with a built-in battery management system
(BMS). The smart battery can internally measure voltage and current,
and deduce charge level and SoH (State of Health) parameters, indicating
the state of the cells.
Cooling
Waste heat from operation is difficult to remove in the compact internal space of a laptop. Early laptops used heat sinks
placed directly on the components to be cooled, but when these hot
components are deep inside the device, a large space-wasting air duct is
needed to exhaust the heat. Modern laptops instead rely on heat pipes
to rapidly move waste heat towards the edges of the device, to allow
for a much smaller and compact fan and heat sink cooling system. Waste
heat is usually exhausted away from the device operator towards the rear
or sides of the device. Multiple air intake paths are used since some
intakes can be blocked, such as when the device is placed on a soft
conforming surface like a chair cushion. It is believed that some
designs with metal cases, like Apple's aluminum MacBook Pro and MacBook Air,
also employ the case of the machine as a heat sink, allowing it to
supplement cooling by dissipating heat out of the device core. Secondary
device temperature monitoring may reduce performance or trigger an
emergency shutdown if it is unable to dissipate heat, such as if the
laptop were to be left running and placed inside a carrying case.
Aftermarket cooling pads with external fans can be used with laptops to
reduce operating temperatures.
Docking station
A docking station (sometimes referred to simply as a dock)
is a laptop accessory that contains multiple ports, and in some cases
expansion slots or bays for fixed or removable drives. A laptop connects
and disconnects to a docking station, typically through a single large
proprietary connector. A docking station is an especially popular laptop
accessory in a corporate computing environment, due to a possibility of
a docking station to transform a laptop into a full-featured desktop
replacement, yet allowing for its easy release. This ability can be
advantageous to "road warrior"
employees who have to travel frequently for work, and yet who also come
into the office. If more ports are needed, or their position on a
laptop is inconvenient, one can use a cheaper passive device known as a port replicator. These devices mate to the connectors on the laptop, such as through USB or FireWire.
Charging trolleys
Laptop charging trolleys, also known as laptop trolleys or laptop carts, are mobile storage containers to charge multiple laptops, netbooks, and tablet computers at the same time. The trolleys are used in schools that have replaced their traditional static computer labs
suites of desktop equipped with "tower" computers, but do not have
enough plug sockets in an individual classroom to charge all of the
devices. The trolleys can be wheeled between rooms and classrooms so that all students and teachers in a particular building can access fully charged IT equipment.
Laptop charging trolleys are also used to deter and protect
against opportunistic and organized theft. Schools, especially those
with open plan designs, are often prime targets for thieves
who steal high-value items. Laptops, netbooks, and tablets are among
the highest–value portable items in a school. Moreover, laptops can
easily be concealed under clothing and stolen from buildings. Many types
of laptop–charging trolleys are designed and constructed to protect
against theft. They are generally made out of steel, and the laptops
remain locked up while not in use. Although the trolleys can be moved
between areas from one classroom to another, they can often be mounted
or locked to the floor or walls to prevent thieves from stealing the
laptops, especially overnight.
Solar panels
In some laptops, solar panels are able to generate enough solar power for the laptop to operate. The One Laptop Per Child Initiative released the OLPC XO-1 laptop which was tested and successfully operated by use of solar panels. Presently, they are designing a OLPC XO-3 laptop with these features. The OLPC XO-3 can operate with 2 watts of electricity because its renewable energy resources generate a total of 4 watts. Samsung has also designed the NC215S solar–powered notebook that will be sold commercially in the U.S. market.
Accessories
A common accessory for laptops is a laptop sleeve, laptop skin,
or laptop case, which provides a degree of protection from scratches.
Sleeves, which are distinguished by being relatively thin and flexible,
are most commonly made of neoprene, with sturdier ones made of low-resilience polyurethane. Some laptop sleeves are wrapped in ballistic nylon to provide some measure of waterproofing.
Bulkier and sturdier cases can be made of metal with polyurethane
padding inside and may have locks for added security. Metal, padded
cases also offer protection against impacts and drops. Another common
accessory is a laptop cooler,
a device which helps lower the internal temperature of the laptop
either actively or passively. A common active method involves using
electric fans to draw heat away from the laptop, while a passive method
might involve propping the laptop up on some type of pad so it can
receive more air flow. Some stores sell laptop pads which enable a
reclining person on a bed to use a laptop.
Changes in certain features
Some
of the components of earlier models of laptops can easily be replaced
without opening completely its bottom part, such as keyboard, battery,
hard disk, memory modules, CPU cooling fan, etc.
Some of the components of recent models of laptop reside inside.
Replacing most of its components, such as keyboard, battery, hard disk,
memory modules, CPU cooling fan, etc., requires removal of its either
top or bottom part, removal of motherboard, and returning them back.
Obsolete features
Features that certain early models of laptops used to have that are not available in most current laptops include:
- Reset ("cold restart") button in a hole (needed a thin metal tool to press)
- Instant power off button in a hole (needed a thin metal tool to press)
- Integrated charger or power adapter inside the laptop
- Floppy disk drive
- Serial port
- Parallel port
- Modem
- Shared PS/2 input device port
- VHS or 8mm VCR
- IrDA
- S-video port
- PC Card / PCMCIA slot
- ExpressCard slot
- CD/DVD Drives (starting with 2013 models)
- VGA port (starting with 2013 models)
Comparison with desktops
Advantages
Portability is usually the first feature mentioned in any comparison of laptops versus desktop PCs.
Physical portability allows a laptop to be used in many places—not only
at home and at the office, but also during commuting and flights, in
coffee shops, in lecture halls and libraries, at clients' locations or
at a meeting room, etc. Within a home, portability enables laptop users
to move their device from the living room to the dining room to the
family room. Portability offers several distinct advantages:
- Productivity: Using a laptop in places where a desktop PC cannot be used can help employees and students to increase their productivity on work or school tasks. For example, an office worker reading their work e-mails during an hour-long commute by train, or a student doing their homework at the university coffee shop during a break between lectures.
- Immediacy: Carrying a laptop means having instant access to information, including personal and work files. This allows better collaboration between coworkers or students, as a laptop can be flipped open to look at a report, document, spreadsheet, or presentation anytime and anywhere.
- Up-to-date information: If a person has more than one desktop PC, a problem of synchronization arises: changes made on one computer are not automatically propagated to the others. There are ways to resolve this problem, including physical transfer of updated files (using a USB flash memory stick or CD-ROMs) or using synchronization software over the Internet, such as cloud computing. However, transporting a single laptop to both locations avoids the problem entirely, as the files exist in a single location and are always up-to-date.
- Connectivity: In the 2010s, a proliferation of Wi-Fi wireless networks and cellular broadband data services (HSDPA, EVDO and others) in many urban centers, combined with near-ubiquitous Wi-Fi support by modern laptops meant that a laptop could now have easy Internet and local network connectivity while remaining mobile. Wi-Fi networks and laptop programs are especially widespread at university campuses.
Other advantages of laptops:
- Size: Laptops are smaller than desktop PCs. This is beneficial when space is at a premium, for example in small apartments and student dorms. When not in use, a laptop can be closed and put away in a desk drawer.
- Low power consumption: Laptops are several times more power-efficient than desktops. A typical laptop uses 20–120 W, compared to 100–800 W for desktops. This could be particularly beneficial for large businesses, which run hundreds of personal computers thus multiplying the potential savings, and homes where there is a computer running 24/7 (such as a home media server, print server, etc.).
- Quiet: Laptops are typically much quieter than desktops, due both to the components (quieter, slower 2.5-inch hard drives) and to less heat production leading to use of fewer and slower cooling fans.
- Battery: a charged laptop can continue to be used in case of a power outage and is not affected by short power interruptions and blackouts. A desktop PC needs an Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to handle short interruptions, blackouts, and spikes; achieving on-battery time of more than 20–30 minutes for a desktop PC requires a large and expensive UPS.
- All-in-One: designed to be portable, most 2010-era laptops have all components integrated into the chassis (however, some small laptops may not have an internal CD/CDR/DVD drive, so an external drive needs to be used). For desktops (excluding all-in-ones) this is divided into the desktop "tower" (the unit with the CPU, hard drive, power supply, etc.), keyboard, mouse, display screen, and optional peripherals such as speakers.
Disadvantages
Compared to desktop PCs, laptops have disadvantages in the following areas:
Performance
While
the performance of mainstream desktops and laptop is comparable, and
the cost of laptops has fallen less rapidly than desktops, laptops
remain more expensive than desktop PCs at the same performance level.
The upper limits of performance of laptops remain much lower than the
highest-end desktops (especially "workstation class" machines with two
processor sockets), and "bleeding-edge" features usually appear first in
desktops and only then, as the underlying technology matures, are
adapted to laptops.
For Internet browsing and typical office applications, where the
computer spends the majority of its time waiting for the next user
input, even relatively low-end laptops (such as Netbooks) can be fast
enough for some users.
Most higher-end laptops are sufficiently powerful for high-resolution
movie playback, some 3D gaming and video editing and encoding. However,
laptop processors can be disadvantaged when dealing with a higher-end
database, maths, engineering, financial software, virtualization, etc.
This is because laptops use the mobile versions of processors to
conserve power, and these lag behind desktop chips when it comes to
performance. Some manufacturers work around this performance problem by
using desktop CPUs for laptops.
Upgradeability
Upgradeability
of laptops is very limited compared to desktops, which are thoroughly
standardized. In general, hard drives and memory can be upgraded easily.
Optical drives and internal expansion cards may be upgraded if they follow an industry standard, but all other internal components, including the motherboard, CPU and graphics, are not always intended to be upgradeable. Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta and some other laptop manufacturers have created the Common Building Block
standard for laptop parts to address some of the inefficiencies caused
by the lack of standards. The reasons for limited upgradeability are
both technical and economic. There is no industry-wide standard form factor for laptops; each major laptop manufacturer pursues its own proprietary
design and construction, with the result that laptops are difficult to
upgrade and have high repair costs. Devices such as sound cards, network
adapters, hard and optical drives, and numerous other peripherals are
available, but these upgrades usually impair the laptop's portability,
because they add cables and boxes to the setup and often have to be
disconnected and reconnected when the laptop is on the move.
Ergonomics and health effects
Wrists
Prolonged use of laptops can cause repetitive strain injury because of their small, flat keyboard and trackpad pointing devices. Usage of separate, external ergonomic keyboards
and pointing devices is recommended to prevent injury when working for
long periods of time; they can be connected to a laptop easily by USB or
via a docking station. Some health standards require ergonomic
keyboards at workplaces.
Neck and spine
A
laptop's integrated screen often requires users to lean over for a
better view, which can cause neck or spinal injuries. A larger and
higher-quality external screen can be connected to almost any laptop to
alleviate this and to provide additional screen space for more
productive work. Another solution is to use a computer stand.
Possible effect on fertility
A study by State University of New York
researchers found that heat generated from laptops can increase the
temperature of the lap of male users when balancing the computer on
their lap, potentially putting sperm count
at risk. The study, which included roughly two dozen men between the
ages of 21 and 35, found that the sitting position required to balance a
laptop can increase scrotum temperature by as much as 2.1 °C (4 °F).
However, further research is needed to determine whether this directly
affects male sterility. A later 2010 study of 29 males published in Fertility and Sterility
found that men who kept their laptops on their laps experienced scrotal
hyperthermia (overheating) in which their scrotal temperatures
increased by up to 2.0 °C (4 °F). The resulting heat increase, which
could not be offset by a laptop cushion, may increase male infertility.
A common practical solution to this problem is to place the
laptop on a table or desk, or to use a book or pillow between the body
and the laptop.
Another solution is to obtain a cooling unit for the laptop. These are
usually USB powered and consist of a hard thin plastic case housing one,
two, or three cooling fans – with the entire assembly designed to sit
under the laptop in question – which results in the laptop remaining
cool to the touch, and greatly reduces laptop heat buildup.
Thighs
Heat generated from using a laptop on the lap can also cause skin discoloration on the thighs known as "toasted skin syndrome".
Durability
Laptops are generally not durable, however there are certain exceptions.
Equipment wear
Because
of their portability, laptops are subject to more wear and physical
damage than desktops. Components such as screen hinges, latches, power jacks, and power cords
deteriorate gradually from ordinary use, and may have to be replaced. A
liquid spill onto the keyboard, a rather minor mishap with a desktop
system (given that a basic keyboard costs about US$20), can damage the
internals of a laptop and destroy the computer, result in a costly
repair or entire replacement of laptops. One study found that a laptop
is three times more likely to break during the first year of use than a
desktop.
To maintain a laptop, it is recommended to clean it every three months
for dirt, debris, dust, and food particles. Most cleaning kits consist
of a lint-free or microfiber
cloth for the LCD screen and keyboard, compressed air for getting dust
out of the cooling fan, and cleaning solution. Harsh chemicals such as
bleach should not be used to clean a laptop, as they can damage it.
Parts replacement
Original
external components are expensive and usually proprietary and
non-interchangeable; other parts are inexpensive—a power jack can cost a
few dollars—but their replacement may require extensive disassembly and
reassembly of the laptop by a technician. Other inexpensive but fragile
parts often cannot be purchased separately from larger more expensive
components. For example, the video display cable and the backlight power
cable that pass through the lid hinges to connect the motherboard to
the screen may eventually break from repeated opening and closing of the
lid. These tiny cables usually cannot be purchased from the original
manufacturer separate from the entire LCD panel, with the price of
hundreds of dollars, although for popular models an aftermarket in
pulled parts generally exists. The repair costs of a failed motherboard
or LCD panel often exceeds the value of a used laptop. Parts can also be
ordered from third party vendors.
Heating and cooling
Laptops rely on extremely compact cooling systems involving a fan and heat sink
that can fail from blockage caused by accumulated airborne dust and
debris. Most laptops do not have any type of removable dust collection
filter over the air intake for these cooling systems, resulting in a
system that gradually conducts more heat and noise as the years pass. In
some cases the laptop starts to overheat even at idle load levels. This
dust is usually stuck inside where the fan and heat sink meet, where it
can not be removed by a casual cleaning and vacuuming. Most of the
time, compressed air can dislodge the dust and debris but may not
entirely remove it. After the device is turned on, the loose debris is
reaccumulated into the cooling system by the fans. A complete
disassembly is usually required to clean the laptop entirely. However,
preventative maintenance such as regular cleaning of the heat sink via
compressed air can prevent dust build up on the heat sink. Many laptops
are difficult to disassemble by the average user and contain components
that are sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD).
Battery life
Battery
life is limited because the capacity drops with time, eventually
requiring replacement after as little as a year. A new battery typically
stores enough energy to run the laptop for three to five hours,
depending on usage, configuration, and power management settings. Yet,
as it ages, the battery's energy storage will dissipate progressively
until it lasts only a few minutes. The battery is often easily
replaceable and a higher capacity model may be obtained for longer
charging and discharging time. Some laptops (specifically ultrabooks) do
not have the usual removable battery and have to be brought to the
service center of its manufacturer or a third-party laptop service
center to have its battery replaced. Replacement batteries can also be
expensive.
Security and privacy
Because they are valuable, commonly used, portable, and easy to hide
in a backpack or other type of travel bag, laptops are often stolen. Every day, over 1,600 laptops go missing from U.S. airports. The cost of stolen business or personal data, and of the resulting problems (identity theft, credit card fraud,
breach of privacy), can be many times the value of the stolen laptop
itself. Consequently, physical protection of laptops and the
safeguarding of data contained on them are both of great importance.
Most laptops have a Kensington security slot,
which can be used to tether them to a desk or other immovable object
with a security cable and lock. In addition, modern operating systems
and third-party software offer disk encryption functionality, which renders the data on the laptop's hard drive unreadable without a key
or a passphrase. As of 2015, some laptops also have additional security
elements added, including eye recognition software and fingerprint
scanning components.
Software such as LoJack for Laptops, Laptop Cop, and GadgetTrack
have been engineered to help people locate and recover their stolen
laptop in the event of theft. Setting one's laptop with a password on
its firmware (protection against going to firmware setup or booting),
internal HDD/SSD (protection against accessing it and loading an
operating system on it afterwards), and every user account of the
operating system are additional security measures that a user should do. Fewer than 5% of lost or stolen laptops are recovered by the companies that own them,
however, that number may decrease due to a variety of companies and
software solutions specializing in laptop recovery. In the 2010s, the
common availability of webcams on laptops raised privacy concerns. In Robbins v. Lower Merion School District
(Eastern District of Pennsylvania 2010), school-issued laptops loaded
with special software enabled staff from two high schools to take secret
webcam shots of students at home, via their students' laptops.
Sales
Manufacturers
There are many laptop brands and manufacturers. Several major brands
that offer notebooks in various classes are listed in the adjacent box.
The major brands usually offer good service and support, including
well-executed documentation and driver downloads that remain available
for many years after a particular laptop model is no longer produced.
Capitalizing on service, support, and brand image, laptops from major
brands are more expensive than laptops by smaller brands and ODMs. Some brands specialize in a particular class of laptops, such as gaming laptops (Alienware), high-performance laptops (HP Envy), netbooks (EeePC) and laptops for children (OLPC).
Many brands, including the major ones, do not design and do not
manufacture their laptops. Instead, a small number of Original Design
Manufacturers (ODMs) design new models of laptops, and the brands choose
the models to be included in their lineup. In 2006, 7 major ODMs
manufactured 7 of every 10 laptops in the world, with the largest one (Quanta Computer) having 30% of world market share. Therefore, identical models are available both from a major label and from a low-profile ODM in-house brand.
Battery-powered portable computers had just 2% worldwide market share in 1986. However, laptops have become increasingly popular, both for business and personal use. Around 109 million notebook PCs shipped worldwide in 2007, a growth of 33% compared to 2006. In 2008 it was estimated that 145.9 million notebooks were sold, and that the number would grow in 2009 to 177.7 million. The third quarter of 2008 was the first time when worldwide notebook PC shipments exceeded desktops, with 38.6 million units versus 38.5 million units.
May 2005 was the first time notebooks outsold desktops in the US
over the course of a full month; at the time notebooks sold for an
average of $1,131 while desktops sold for an average of $696. When looking at operating systems, for Microsoft Windows laptops the average selling price (ASP) showed a decline in 2008/2009, possibly due to low-cost netbooks,
drawing an average US$689 at U.S. retail stores in August 2008. In
2009, ASP had further fallen to $602 by January and to $560 in February.
While Windows machines ASP fell $129 in these seven months, Apple macOS laptop ASP declined just $12 from $1,524 to $1,512.
Laptop Disposal
The
list of materials that go into a laptop computer is long, and many of
the substances used, such as beryllium, lead, chromium, and mercury
compounds, are toxic or carcinogenic to humans. Although these toxins
are relatively harmless when the laptop is in use, concerns that
discarded laptops cause a serious health risk and toxic environment
damage, were so strong, that the Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) in Europe specified that all laptop
computers must be recycled by law. Similarly, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has outlawed landfill dumping or the incinerating of discarded laptop computers.
Most laptop computers begin the recycling process with a method known as Demanufacturing (Demanufacture), this involves the physical separation of the components of the laptop.
These components are then either grouped into materials (e.g. plastic,
metal and glass) for recycling or more complex items that require more
advanced materials separation (e.g.) circuit boards, hard drives and
batteries.
Corporate laptop recycling can require an additional process
known as data destruction. The data destruction process ensures that
all information or data that has been stored on a laptops hard drive can
never be retrieved again. Below is an overview of some of the data
protection and environmental laws and regulations applicable for laptop
recycling data destruction:
- Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)
- EU Privacy Directive (Due 2016)
- Financial Conduct Authority
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act
- PCI-DSS Data Security Standard
- Waste, Electronic & Electrical Equipment Directive (WEEE)
- Basel Convention
- Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
- FACTA Sarbanes-Oxley Act
- FDA Security Regulations (21 C.F.R. part 11)
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
- NIST SP 800-53
- Add NIST SP 800-171
- Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act
- Patriot Act of 2002
- PCI Data Security Standard
- US Safe Harbor Provisions
- Various state laws
- JFAN 6/3
- Gramm-leach-Bliley Act
- DCID
Extreme use
The ruggedized Grid Compass computer was used since the early days of the Space Shuttle program. The first commercial laptop used in space was a Macintosh portable in 1991 aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-43.
Apple and other laptop computers continue to be flown aboard manned
spaceflights, though the only long duration flight certified computer
for the International Space Station is the ThinkPad.
As of 2011, over 100 ThinkPads were aboard the ISS. Laptops used aboard
the International Space Station and other spaceflights are generally
the same ones that can be purchased
by the general public but needed modifications are made to allow them
to be used safely and effectively in a weightless environment such as
updating the cooling systems to function without relying on hot air
rising and accommodation for the lower cabin air pressure.
Laptops operating in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as
strong vibrations, extreme temperatures, and wet or dusty conditions
differ from those used in space in that they are custom designed for the task and do not use commercial off-the-shelf hardware.