They say that the laptops of tomorrow will be lighter and faster, will boot almost immediately, and will have longer-lasting batteries. All that's left is making them purely touch-based, and we could very well be talking about present-day tablet PCs.
All kidding aside, though, it's no coincidence that tablet-like characteristics have been the emulation basis for future portable computers. As it stands now, portable gadgets like smartphones and the aforementioned tablet PCs have taken the electronics consumer market by storm; and while laptops are portable themselves, certain factors keep them from going all out on full portability convenience. That is, on the plus side, laptops still retain much of the functionalities of full-fledged desktops. On the other hand, being saddled with desktop-like laptop components are preventing them from the kind of portability enjoyed by tablets.
Still, trends are developing now that are expected to put laptops back in the limelight. Whether it's improved laptop parts or rethought design schematics, these trends certainly look promising for laptops to come back in a big way.
1. Better Displays
Whereas older laptop screens were plagued with poor color contrast, narrow viewing angles, and resolutions that only reached until 1,366 x 768 pixels, current emerging technologies are saying that that needn't be the case.
Apple's Retina Display is one such technology. Although already introduced a few years back, it wasn't until the release of the latest MacBook Pro this year that the tech was able to show what it was truly capable of: 2,880 x 1,800 pixels of high-definition goodness, which is well beyond the current HD standard of 1080p (that's 1,920 x 1,080 pixels).
Another technology promising big things for the future of laptop screens is Samsung's Super AMOLED. Although implemented only in the company's smartphones at the moment, the tech nevertheless shows that excellent color contrast and viewing angles is indeed possible on portable gadget screens.
2. Improved Graphical Quality
The releases of the Radeon 7000M and the GeForce 600M lines of video cards (from AMD and NVIDIA, respectively) have been a boon to the laptop industry. These laptop parts are designed to match the graphical outputs of high-end desktop GPUs while still keeping heat generation to a minimum; a definite plus for cramped laptop chassis.
3. Elimination of Ports
With laptop casings getting smaller by the year, not enough space is left for ports. As such, there has been a drive to make peripheral hardware integration wireless.
NFC (near-field communication) technology, in particular, is making waves. If developed further, we could very well be seeing it expand its use from being a credit card substitute to a full-blown means for inter-gadget connectivity.
4. Faster Data Access
Finally, solid state drives are storage devices that have no need for mechanical parts, as opposed to hard drives with their disks and whatnot that require some time before its parts are set in place for data retrieval.
Bottom line: SSDs give faster data access, which is why more and more laptops are installing the laptop components.
Powerful laptop parts, sleek designs, and more streamlined portability: If these trends are anything to go by, we just might have an idea what laptops will look like in the near future.
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