The humble laptop has been around for 40 years, but little has changed in that time. The basic form factor of a foldable device that opens to reveal a screen on the top half and a keyboard on the bottom, can be seen as far back as 1981 with the Osborne 1, considered by many to be the first laptop. Although the essential form factor of the laptop has not changed in more than four decades, this shows the quality of the initial design of the laptop, don't you think Is it time for a change? Laptop manufacturers obviously do this, as it looks like 2020 will see an influx of new foldable laptops made up of either a single screen or two screens joined by a hinge.
Little has changed in laptop design (with the exception of size, weight and power) (Image credit: CC BY 3.0) Now you probably think correctly that all laptops are foldable anyway, but this new generation of laptops will do something really different, and something we've only seen so far. present only in smartphones, since they will consist of a single folding screen. We've already seen some of them at CES 2020, which was held in Las Vegas in early January. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold was there, perhaps giving us our best glimpse of what the future of laptops could look like. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold consists of a single 13.3-inch OLED screen that can be used as a tablet or fold into a traditional laptop, half of the screen serving as the keyboard.
Could this be the future of laptop design? (Image credit: Future) Meanwhile, the Dell Concept Duet is an early prototype that was also on display at CES 2020, but takes a slightly different approach, consisting of two separate screens connected by a hinge, similar to the upcoming Surface Neo from Microsoft. With big names like Lenovo, Dell, and Microsoft working on foldable laptops, it's clear this new form factor could be a sensation. However, these companies should be careful. While the original laptop design got it right, if companies rushed into a product with a new form factor fraught with problems, it could kill the concept of a foldable laptop before it really gets started. Laptop makers were surely eyeing Samsung's move with its Galaxy Fold smartphone, an innovative foldable device that many say launched too soon, and suffered from known issues that led Samsung to postpone the launch, and combined with the huge price, it is likely to have generated disappointing sales. No one will want to go through what Samsung has done, and this caution is probably why, even if Microsoft announced the Surface Neo in October 2019, we won't see it until late 2020. As Anisha Bhatia, senior device analyst, points out from GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, "folding screens are still in the testing phase." Manufacturers and carriers are finding specific use cases for foldable displays that best fit their overall strategy, whether they are marketing a multimedia device or a two-in-one productivity tool or product."
The Samsung Galaxy Fold has demonstrated the potential - and the problems - of folding technology (Image credit: Aakash Jhaveri)
Do we really need folding laptops?
But do we really need foldable laptops with one or two screens? As I mentioned earlier, the reason laptops have changed little over the years is that they work so well. Anyone who has used a touchscreen keyboard, which these new devices will be using, will know that they simply can't compare to physical keyboards, especially when typing for long periods of time. There's also the fact that the infamous Galaxy Fold problems will have put potential customers off. And just like foldable smartphones, foldable laptops will likely cost a lot more than traditional laptops. Manufacturers will have to work hard to prove to consumers that these new laptops are worth the extra expense, rather than just expensive devices.
Microsoft sees the potential for a new laptop form factor (Image credit: Microsoft) But there's obviously potential with these new form factors, and with investments like Dell and Microsoft in foldable laptops, it's clear that the Laptop manufacturers believe that there are enough people who are bored with traditional designs and want something new, something exciting, at any price. "Most foldable screens, whether on a phone, laptop or smart speaker, are still niche concept devices, not to mention their high cost," says Bhatia. "They represent an evolving trend, especially in a mature and stagnant wireless industry that hasn't seen true hardware innovation since Apple's first iPhone in 2007." "Stuck up" may be a hard way of saying it, but it's pretty accurate. Customers can get bored of the same old devices that only add incremental upgrades, rather than revolutionary changes, and manufacturers are eager to create a bold new design that will change the game and delight customers. Can foldable laptops do this? Could be. But no matter what, 2020 could be one of the most exciting years for laptops in a long time.
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