Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 62.78.140.190 (talk) at 23:53, 23 November 2003 (moved text to up). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A laptop computer (also known as notebook computer) is a small mobile personal computer, usually weighing around from 1 to 3 kilograms (2 to 7 pounds). Notebooks smaller than a DIN A4 sheet of paper and weighing around 1 kg are termed subnotebook and those weighing around 5 kg a desknote (desktop/notebook). They essentially contain the same components as their desktop counterparts, however miniaturized and optimized for mobile applications. Early predecessors of the laptop include the Osborne 1 and the Macintosh portable, both of which weighed in the 20-30 pound range but offered a non-stationary computing platform. The cost of weight, and resulting value to a consumer, is mostly low in desktop computers and high in cheap laptops. Laptops are capable of much of what their desktop counterparts can do. They have many of the same components, but they are miniaturized. Laptops usually have LCDs for their screens and smaller SODIMM (Small Outline DIMM) chips for their RAM. They often have a touchpad or a pointing stick, but an additional computer mouse or keyboard can be attached.

Laptops are typically popular among students, travellers, and telecommuters. They replace a full, traditional computer. The cheapest models cost less than $1000. Most modern laptops use an active matrix display, with screen sizes 14.1" or larger. Many have PCMCIA expansion bays for expansion cards. Internal hard disks are smaller 2.5" compared to desktop computers which have 3.5". Display adapters and sound cards are integrated. Laptop batteries usually last about 2-5 hours. Docking stations are used for expanding connectors and quickly connecting many components to the laptop. The lightest notebooks weigh 1.5 kg and the heftiest 3 kg. Modern laptops can handle games but can be limited by their display adapter type.

In the mobile employment Notebooks NiMH or LiIon batteries are used for the power supply and reach running times between 2 and 6 hours, depending upon current consumption of the equipment and the manufacture of the battery.

With progress in microelectronics, notebooks are now comparable with desktop PCs, have opposite this even some advantages, so that the manufacturers introduced a new device class, the desknotes as mentioned above. This form of notebook is particularly adapted for this purpose, by doing without currentsaving technology for mobile use, high-capacitative batteries and more efficient components from the desktop range built into somewhat larger housings. The resulting products can be used like a laptop, one must however realize itself that they were not built especially for it. A job rotation is substantially simpler than with a standard PC, and they use less room on adesk. Some desknotes do not use batteries at all and are used solely for portability and not mobile use.

Popular laptops

• Acer - TravelMate and Aspire
• Alienware
• Apple Computer - iBook and PowerBook
• ASUS
• Clevo
• Compaq
• Dell Inspiron and Dell Latitude
• ECS
• Fujitsu - Lifebook
• Hewlett Packard - HP Pavilion and HP Omnibook
• IBM - ThinkPad
• NEC
• Sony VAIO
• Toshiba - Dynabook

See also

• Desknote
• PDA
• Tablet PC
• Sub-notebook