The Future of Laptop Designs

Laptops used to be bulky, slow, and just plain inconvenient. These days, the laptop is a fashionable powerhouse, which play’s a leading role in one’s lifestyle and business. Thanks to the exponential rate at which innovative technological products are being churned out, the average consumer will soon be spoiled for choice as the laptop will continue to evolve into more unusual, creative, and attractive designs.

The launch of the latest Apple MacBook Air very promptly reminded the laptop design industry that Apple is still the leading player pushing consumers to redefine their needs and wants through innovative design. Rumor has it that the Apple team is also hard at work studying the feasibility of the MacBook 0801. Designed by Isamu Sanada, the MacBook 0801 features an ultra-thin, transparent keyboard.

Similarly, Sony has also released a new Vaio Zoom notebook concept featuring a laptop that comes with a completely transparent screen. Thanks to holographic technology, the translucent screen will turn opaque when the laptop is in use. It is said that even the mouse buttons are holographic, and the laptop is encased in thin glass.

While these designs are extremely cutting-edge, the future of laptop design includes all of the practical excellence that we’re used to. The Dell Latitude Z600 exemplifies the more down-to-business approach to high-end laptops. The Z600 is the world’s thinnest and lightest 16″ laptop, making it extremely portable but also large enough to work comfortably on. But it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. With business card scanning and wireless battery charging, Dell’s new show pony can impress as well as the rest.

Transparent technology aside, a more niche-market laptop would be the Siafu concept notebook, which does not come with any display screen. The Siafu is meant to be utilized by the blind, who will read the data from applications and web sites by interpreting the 3-dimensional shapes that will appear on the surface of the laptop.

With the growing awareness of environmental issues, most laptop designers have been inspired to create more energy-efficient laptops. The e-Book by LF is an eco-friendly laptop in the sense that it utilizes fuel cell batteries and light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology.

The Compenion concept notebook designed by Felix Schmidberger is similar to a tablet and also comes with an OLED touch screen. The exciting thing about the Compenion is that a second OLED touch screen can be slid away from underneath the first touch screen, meaning that the user will be able to work on a setup with two monitors. It is one of the rare laptop designs that replaces the familiar clam shell approach with two sliding LED panels. The design makes the Compenion super thin at 0.75 inches in width.

The most futuristic laptop would have to be the Nextep Computer, which is designed to be worn as a bracelet and also features OLED touch screen. Similar to the Vaio Zoom, the Nextep Computer will feature a holographic screen, and the bracelet will also come with extra pull-out keyboard panels. The bracelet-cum-laptop is said to make its debut in 2020.