Consumer & Gadgets

Why a dedicated Zoom device makes sense

In the beginning of the week, Microsoft announced something that, at first blush, sounds so cool, until you start to break it down.

Energy & Green Tech

Researchers create a roadmap to better multivalent batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are recognized for their high energy density in everything from mobile phones to laptop computers and electric vehicles, but as the need for grid-scale energy storage and other applications becomes more ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Apple brings PC-like trackpad to iPad tablets

Apple's new iPad brings PC-like trackpad capabilities for the first time, as the company seeks to make its tablet even more like a laptop computer.

Consumer & Gadgets

Why laptops could be facing the end of the line

Microsoft's recent announcement that it would end support for users of its Windows 7 operating system had stress written all over it. The company advised that important day-to-day tasks such as personal banking and online ...

Hardware

Intel at CES to spring laptop cooling news?

What does Intel have up its sleeve for CES 2020? One of the surprises, say a bunch of recent articles, might well be a thermal module solution for laptops. The new design could allow vendors to create fanless notebooks and ...

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Laptop

A laptop is a personal computer designed for mobile use small enough to sit on one's lap. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device (a touchpad, also known as a trackpad, and/or a pointing stick), speakers, and often including a battery, into a single small and light unit. The rechargeable battery (if present) is charged from an AC adapter and typically stores enough energy to run the laptop for two to three hours in its initial state, depending on the configuration and power management of the computer.

Laptops are usually shaped like a large notebook with thicknesses between 0.7–1.5 inches (18–38 mm) and dimensions ranging from 10x8 inches (27x22cm, 13" display) to 15x11 inches (39x28cm, 17" display) and up. Modern laptops weigh 3 to 12 pounds (1.4 to 5.4 kg); older laptops were usually heavier. Most laptops are designed in the flip form factor to protect the screen and the keyboard when closed. Modern tablet laptops have a complex joint between the keyboard housing and the display, permitting the display panel to twist and then lay flat on the keyboard housing. They usually have a touchscreen display and some include handwriting recognition or graphics drawing capability.

Laptops were originally considered to be "a small niche market" and were thought suitable mostly for "specialized field applications" such as "the military, the Internal Revenue Service, accountants and sales representatives". But today, there are already more laptops than desktops in businesses, and laptops are becoming obligatory for student use and more popular for general use. In 2008 more laptops than desktops were sold in the US and it has been predicted that the same milestone will be reached in the worldwide market as soon as late 2009.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA