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Laptop Computers

The first battery powered portable computer, the EPSON HX-20, was introduced in 1981. Until then there were some portable computers, but without the rechargeable battery pack that makes a laptop.
The EPSON HX-20 was an amazing achievement, because it had more components then most of today’s laptop computers. The integrated mini-printer is something that was crossed off the list right after the EPSON HX-20, declaring it impractical for travel. Laptop computers entered their golden age with the invention of Lithium-ion batteries and color LCD screens. These two components made it possible to carry around a whole computer in a small briefcase.

2008 was the first year when the number of laptops sold in the US was greater than the number of desktops sold. This was due to recent performance increases in the laptop sector, their performance and other capabilities came very close to desktops. While desktops are still the cheapest computer systems round and have the biggest possibilities for upgrade, they lack portability and occupy larger spaces with many wires and cables hanging out, making them a less esthetically solution than laptops that need only one cable when they are connected to AC power. Laptop computers in general are more quiet and more energy efficient than desktops, because developers had to minimize power consumption to extend battery life, while collaterally reducing noise that’s mainly generated by fans, because less power consumption needs less cooling. Laptop hard drives are also more efficient, despite the fact that they are 4 times smaller than desktop hard drives.

Although for many years laptop hard drives were limited by rotation speed to 4200RPM and 5400RPM, today laptop hard drives with the highest capacities come in 7200RPM versions too, some even with reduced seek time compared with standard 7200RPM 3.5” desktop hard drives. It seems that the smaller form factor was also adopted in the enterprise sector, because smaller discs may spin at higher RPMs with less friction, so if seek time and efficiency is greater, there are no logical reasons for not adopting the smaller form factor for all computer types. Motherboards made for laptops are also more eco-friendly. They are almost as efficient as desktop boards while their size is much smaller:

The same thing can’t be said about laptop optical drives. Unfortunately their speed has been drastically reduced. Today’s models have a maximum of 8X DVD read/write speed while desktop optical drives grow ever higher, today’s top speed being 24X for desktop drives, although at a very high power consumption. Desktop optical drives may consume as much as 25-30Watts of power, while most complete laptop systems consume as much in average. Processors and graphics cards reach about 75% of desktop performance, while power consumption stays below 25%, thus making laptop components far more efficient. The only notable downside of laptops is the screen backlighting. Laptop screens have to be very thin, so the backlighting can’t be as good as on desktop monitors, affecting viewing angle. Fortunately Resolution, speed and image quality are not affected by this. In the future we can expect laptops to become more and more popular, with performance closer to desktops. Price drops are also to be expected, but when it comes to home or office use, desktops offer comfort that laptops can never match with their keyboards mounted so close to the screen.