Laptops

If, like me, you use a wireless mouse when working on a laptop, your trackpad probably doesn't see much action. Asus suggested double duty as a second screen back in 2018, and now E Ink is doing the same with some help from Intel.

What felt like a taste of the future for laptop design in 2016 was abandoned by Apple last year as a failed concept. But engineers from Hong Kong think the idea holds much promise, so they've created something similar that works with Mac and Windows.

The laptop is still evolving, with dual screens shown to increase productivity by 40-50%. The new AceMagic X1 has an ingenious spiral folding mechanism, that enables two screens side-by-side or back-to-back, enabling face-to-face screen sharing and enormous collaboration potential

Around this time last year, tech startup Sightful invited a thousand productivity pioneers to be the first to experience the Spacetop system, a laptop that uses AR glasses for a display. Now the updated and refined Gen 1 product has gone up for sale.

Apple has treated its most popular portable workstation to a significant performance boost thanks to building the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops around its latest silicon, the M3 chip announced last year.

Lenovo has unveiled a ThinkBook concept that boasts a futuristic transparent display and combined touch keyboard/drawing pad. The concept is part of the company's new tech offerings announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

Asus launched what it called "the world's first 14-inch dual-screen OLED laptop" at CES 2024 earlier this month, a similar but different proposition to its 17-inch folding model from 2022. Now the Zenbook Duo has gone up for sale.

That Lenovo launched a bunch of new laptops at CES 2024 is hardly surprising, but one of those new models has been transformed into a proof-of-concept that rocks an animated color E Ink outer lid.

Most laptops and Macbooks come with a webcam built in, but they can leave video-chatters somewhat wanting in terms of performance and image quality. Newcomer Opal Camera has addressed such things with a small-but-powerful model called the Tadpole.

More than a decade since the first low-powered but fuss-free, easy-to-use, inexpensive laptops running Chrome OS were launched, Google has now announced the Chromebook Plus program – a new performance-focused category with built-in AI.

The 16-inch version of the customizable, repairable and upgradeable laptop announced by California tech startup Framework back in March has now gone up for pre-order, with Ryzen silicon and Radeon graphics leading the component charge.

Seeking to free laptop users from small displays that limit functionality, Sightful has unveiled a laptop with no screen. Instead, AR glasses project a 100-inch virtual screen anywhere, transforming any space into a screen-filled portable office.

Back in early 2021, a Californian startup revealed plans to launch a 13-inch laptop that users could upgrade, repair and customize. Now the company is about to launch the Framework Laptop 16, which will allow users to upgrade discrete graphics.

As I know from painful experience, hauling a heavy brick of a laptop around on work assignments can be an energy zapping strain. Acer's Swift Edge model could help, launching as the lightest 16-inch OLED laptop in the world.

Back in early 2021, a Californian startup launched a 13.5-inch laptop designed for easy upgrade and repair by the user. The Framework Laptop has since been updated, and now the company has expanded the idea into Chromebook territory.