The laptop is now ingrained upon society that is evident nearly everywhere we go; for instance I am writing this article on a laptop as I speed through the English countryside on a train. But what does the future of the laptop hold? What can be considered the key features of any futuristic mobile computing device?
One of the major concerns with contemporary laptops and something that the designers are hoping to remedy is power consumption. Currently even the most advanced laptop batteries are able to provide no more than four and a half hours of use before powering down. One of the revolutionary design features that will allow the laptop of the future to stay on longer is the introduction of the OLED screen. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, but is an LED screen with a difference, unlike contemporary LCD monitors, OLED does not require a backlight, hence it uses far less power to produce an image.
It is not purely innovations such as OLED however that are revolutionising the way laptops are designed and constructed. The latest murmurings in technological circles are of power sources that rely upon methyl alcohol and natural gas, rather than electrically charged batteries. Within the industry it is termed as 'on board' power. This however is still purely a concept, although with the current concerns over power and resources raging all over the world, a more efficient, even fuel driven laptop could become the norm in the future.
The development of a fuel cell powered laptop is at this time still a pipe dream. In the more immediate future is the switch from lithium ion batteries to lithium polymer varieties. Unlike ion batteries polymer variants do not use cells to hold the lithium but instead hold the lithium in a gel. While the power longevity benefits are unclear, advocates are keen to highlight its safety features over ion batteries. Once again however polymer technology is not yet perfectly developed, it is slowly being introduced into mobile phones but as far as laptops go, the foreseeable future is ion cell shaped.
Sticking with power, the latest innovation to cause a stir amongst those in the technological fold is wireless charging. 'Witricity' has been in development for a number of years and fundamentally it allows the charging of electrical devices without the need for wires or cables. It does mean that a laptop must be placed upon a pad that has a receptor coil built into it but for those who are constantly shipping around their chargers it could be the power source of the future. On a technical level this form of charging adheres to principles of electromagnetic induction. With the need for both a coil in a pad and in the laptop however, it will still be some time before manufacturers begin to incorporate this technology as standard.
But what other innovations, aside from the power source are likely to become evident in the future. Almost certainly, touch screen is the most likely to come into fruition. In fact these double tablet laptops are already in existence; as with the touch screen phone however it is questionable whether all will want to convert from the tactile benefits of a keyboard to a digital representation of a keyboard.
Hopefully this article has gone some of the way to explain the most talked about technological advances that will revolutionise the design and manufacture of laptops. What is certain is that the laptop of the future will have less reliance on external power sources, and will have interfaces that improve the user experience immensely.
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Technology expert Thomas Pretty looks at some of the developments that are likley to be incorporated into the laptop of the future.
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