the future of laptops

Near future- bright (though I doubt if the change will be radical), and hot. These multi-core processors and supercharged graphics cards freak me out. I'd like to think that we will see better power management, better batteries. Better materials. Dell 35% off coupons for everyone.
I love the hologram thingy though, hehe, feeds the star wars junkie in me.

Don't forget, the software needs to take advantage of the hardware.

Well Personally the New Dell XPS M2010 is a step in the direction I hope to see Notebooks going.

though Raw power is great, it looks like a long time till OLED displays are big enough to accommodate a full size notebook, so we will be stuck with Solid LCD displays, Or some form of mini projector build in and a small 2 or 3 inch LCD to see what is going on if the projector is not working.

what I would like to see out of a Notebook in 5 years time is this
*tougher Case and case lock with built in Handle, basically build in briefcase.
*removable full size keyboard with build in mouse tray out the side ( like a CD rom opening but smooth to use a mouse on )
*8 hours of DVD watching battery life,
*Wireless N Connectivity, or Better.
*option for Solid State HDD, for OS and primary app installation.

WTF, people thats a damn mobile desktop, I definetly dont want to see them going that way, all I want is better build quality, user upgradable videocards, and a standard battery life of 6+ hours.

The XPS M2010 is a POS.

I don't know how good or Bad the XPS m2010 is, but I like the removable full size keyboard.

Holy crap that is a beast. (m2010)

For that I would just build a shuttle or some other small form factor desktop and get an lcd to take with me to LAN's. I mean who is gonna want to carry that around?

the person who has a lot of money and is going to go somewhere where they need a computer for like 30 minutes in a place that has no power outlets at all, but doesn't really want to game much.

or, a person who wants a mobile desktop with no wires to plug in and such that they can pick up and go wherever they are, and then only have 1 power cord to plug in when necessary.

i agree with the shuttle and LCD. much cheaper, and for (planned) lan sort of things, it's not' so bad bringing a shuttle and lcd. you can even put a shuttle in a backpack with the wires and keyboard above it and then hold the lcd in your hand.

i mean, if that thing were maybe 1/3 the price and had better hardware, i'd get one, but for now, my two are perfectly good.

Things I want in laptops:

--User-swappable vid cards
--More efficient vid cards for low-stress usage (integrated-level power consumption when not gaming)
--Larger/dual battery options in more machines
--ATi to get off their arse and write linux drivers that don't suck

what about larger hard drives (though it's inevitablly coming) and/or solid state drives?

i'm also leading against the xps m2010. its a little too inconvenient for me. it would be nice for the rich to replace their desktop but other than that, it leaves the realm of laptop portability. other than that, on the top of my list, i want to see laptops made more rugged and sturdy for those who are less concerned about its final weight and dimensions. also, i really wish that laptop manufacturers would make minimalist laptops that don't have extra feature and shortcut buttons and keys. mxm video cards are nice too but nvidia and ati would lose sales that way and so on. batteries, for me, must be smaller take up the least space on a laptop. four cell batteries that last around one hour are fine for me. i just need the battery to have uninterrupped power connection for the case that if the power cord is yanked and so forth. keyboards must be build better like the thinkpad keyboards. soon laptop hard drives will make the the transition from 5400rpm to the mainstream 7200rpm with the typical space of 100gb per platter in sata or later. ddr3 looks very promising in the future; high latency won't be a problem like in ddr2. laptop monitors should have higher refresh rates from 60hz to 100hz. wireless will have longer range and signal strength. all cpus will have two or four cores and software will finally work side by side with it. 45nm processors will also deliver better battery times and less heat; laptops won't need larger heatsinks anymore reducing the weight and opening more space for other components. bluray seems to be the successor to dvd right now. optical drives should support this and should be like apple's slot load drives. if not, optical drives should be made more sturdy. all laptops should have integrated soundblaster and atleast bottem tier gpus, not intel integrated garbage. lastly, with all the computing power and technology coming in the future, all computers should be able to boot in under 20 seconds and shut down in less than three seconds at the push of the power button. any more that i may have missed at the moment will be posted later. this is my vision into the future of technology.

Toshiaki's post fortune: if the flyer says bring food, and people that come bring drinks, show off and bring food.

-Toshiaki

I'd love to see wireless electrical so I dont HAVE to find a @#$%!& outlet, and still not run off battery.
- modulariztion ala desktop pc's
- hardware manufacturers to release specs to the linux community for driver development.
- thinner/lighter without giving up power (I know - I dont ask for much)
- and of course faster/cooler/less power consumption.

tesla coils do that. i'm sure there are other technologies too. probably wouldnt be the best thing for the entire system though. having components that consume less power would mean more battery life and thus, less of a need for electrical outlets all the time, though i mean, you have to sacrifice something for less power consumption, and that is often screen size and power (processing and graphics).

we could make hybrid laptops that run on ethanol O_o just kidding

personally, I like it when my laptop is faster and more efficient than a desktop. I think it's the way of computer technology to advance like that - everything's getting smaller and more powerful simultaneously.

would a solar panel on the laptop be too heavy? It would be cool if your laptops has extendable wings on the sides and the back of the monitor. This would be pretty cool once solar power is more efficient.

the wireless electrical was mostly said as a joke, I know it's currently beyond reach. But he asked about the future of laptops, and I think it would be way cool to just use the laptop, and not have to futz with plugging it in - ever. Of course that direct neural link to control the gui would pretty sweet too ... just so its only one way. Dont want Microsoft peaking into my brain you know.

One thing I'm kind of surprised hasn't been done yet: replace the CCFL (backlight) with white LEDs. Muce more power efficient, I believe. Probably more compact as well.

Never mind: I did a quick google and found out that there are already some ultraportables out there with white LED backlighting...apparently none bigger than around 11 inch screens though.