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Since the introduction of portable computers during late 1970s, their form has changed significantly, spawning a variety of visually and technologically differing subclasses. Except where there is a distinct legal trademark around a term (notably Ultrabook), there are rarely hard distinctions between these classes and their usage has varied over time and between different sources.

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The form of the traditional laptop computer is a clamshell, with a screen on one of its inner sides and a keyboard on the opposite, facing the screen. It can be easily folded to conserve space while traveling. The screen and keyboard are inaccessible while closed. Devices of this form are commonly called a ‘traditional laptop’ or notebook, particularly if they have a screen size of 11 to 17 inches measured diagonally and run a full-featured operating system like Windows 10, macOS, or GNU/Linux. Traditional laptops are the most common form of laptops, although Chromebooks, Ultrabooks, convertibles and 2-in-1s (described below) are becoming more common, with similar performance being achieved in their more portable or affordable forms.

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A subnotebook or an ultraportable, is a laptop designed and marketed with an emphasis on portability (small size, low weight, and often longer battery life). Subnotebooks are usually smaller and lighter than standard laptops, weighing between 0.8 and 2 kg (2-5 lb),^[23] with a battery life exceeding 10 hours.^[24] Since the introduction of netbooks and ultrabooks, the line between subnotebooks and either category has blurred. Netbooks are a more basic and cheaper type of subnotebook, and while some ultrabooks have a screen size too large to qualify as subnotebooks, certain ultrabooks fit in the subnotebook category. One notable example of a subnotebook is the Apple MacBook Air.

The netbook is an inexpensive, light-weight, energy-efficient form of laptop, especially suited for wireless communication and Internet access.^[25][26] Netbooks first became commercially available around 2008, weighing under 1 kg, with a display size of under 9″. The name netbook (with net short for Internet) is used as “the device excels in web-based computing performance”.^[27] Netbooks were initially sold with light-weight variants of the GNU operating system (with Linux kernel), although later versions often have the Windows XP or Windows 7 operating systems. The term “netbook” is largely obsolete,^[28] although machines that would have once been called netbooks—small, inexpensive, and low powered—never ceased being sold, in particular the smaller Chromebook models.

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The latest trend of technological convergence in the portable computer industry spawned a broad range of devices, which combined features of several previously separate device types. The hybrids, convertibles and 2-in-1s emerged as crossover devices, which share traits of both tablets and laptops. All such devices have a touchscreen display designed to allow users to work in a tablet mode, using either multi-touch gestures or a stylus/digital pen.

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Convertibles are devices with the ability to conceal a hardware keyboard. Keyboards on such devices can be flipped, rotated, or slid behind the back of the chassis, thus transforming from a laptop into a tablet. Hybrids have a keyboard detachment mechanism, and due to this feature, all critical components are situated in the part with the display. 2-in-1s can have a hybrid or a convertible form, often dubbed 2-in-1 detachables and 2-in-1 convertibles respectively, but are distinguished by the ability to run a desktop OS, such as Windows 10. 2-in-1s are often marketed as laptop replacement tablets.

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2-in-1s are often very thin, around 10 millimetres (0.39 in), and light devices with a long battery life. 2-in-1s are distinguished from mainstream tablets as they feature an x86-architecture CPU (typically a low- or ultra-low-voltage model), such as the Intel Core i5, run a full-featured desktop OS like Windows 10, and have a number of typical laptop I/O ports, such as USB 3 and Mini DisplayPort.

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2-in-1s are designed to be used not only as a media consumption device, but also as valid desktop or laptop replacements, due to their ability to run desktop applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is possible to connect multiple peripheral devices, such as a mouse, keyboard and a number of external displays to a modern 2-in-1.

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Microsoft Surface Pro-series devices and Surface Book are examples of modern 2-in-1 detachables, whereas Lenovo Yoga-series computers are a variant of 2-in-1 convertibles. While the older Surface RT and Surface 2 have the same chassis design as the Surface Pro, their use of ARM processors and Windows RT do not classify them as 2-in-1s, but as hybrid tablets. Similarly, a number of hybrid laptops run a mobile operating system, such as Android. These include Asus’s Transformer Pad devices, examples of hybrids with a detachable keyboard design, which do not fall in the category of 2-in-1s.

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A desktop-replacement laptop is a class of large device which is not intended primarily for mobile use. These devices are bulkier and not as portable as other laptops, and are intended for use as compact and transportable alternatives to a desktop computer.^[29] Desktop replacements are larger and typically heavier than other classes of laptops.

They are capable of containing more powerful components and have a 15-inch or larger display.^[29] Desktop replacement laptops’ operation time on batteries is typically shorter than other laptops; in rare cases they have no battery at all. In the past, some laptops in this class used a limited range of desktop components to provide better performance for the same price at the expense of battery life, although this practice has largely died out.^[30] The names Media Center Laptops and Gaming Laptops are used to describe specialized notebook computers, often overlapping with the desktop replacement form factor.^[23]

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A rugged laptop is designed to reliably operate in harsh usage conditions such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures, and wet or dusty environments. Rugged laptops are usually designed from scratch, rather than adapted from regular consumer laptop models. Rugged laptops are bulkier, heavier, and much more expensive than regular laptops,^[31] and thus are seldom seen in regular consumer use.

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The design features found in rugged laptops include a rubber sheeting under the keyboard keys, sealed port and connector covers, passive cooling, very bright displays easily readable in daylight, cases and frames made of magnesium alloys that are much stronger than plastics found in commercial laptops, and solid-state storage devices or hard disc drives that are shock mounted to withstand constant vibrations. Rugged laptops are commonly used by public safety services (police, fire, and medical emergency), military, utilities, field service technicians, construction, mining, and oil drilling personnel. Rugged laptops are usually sold to organizations rather than individuals, and are rarely marketed via retail channels.

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A business laptop is a laptop designed for those in a workplace. Typically, it is ruggedised, with consumer facing features, like high resolution sound, removed to allow the device to be used for pure productivity. It may sometimes include business oriented features like TPM, Fingerprint Scanner, Smart Card Reader and/or a Pointing stick.

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The basic components of laptops function identically to their desktop counterparts. Traditionally they were miniaturized and adapted to mobile use, although desktop systems increasingly use the same smaller, lower-power parts which were originally developed for mobile use. The design restrictions on power, size, and cooling of laptops limit the maximum performance of laptop parts compared to that of desktop components, although that difference has increasingly narrowed.^[32]

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In general, laptop components are not intended to be replaceable or upgradable, with the exception of components which can be detached, such as a battery or CD/CDR/DVD drive. This restriction is one of the major differences between laptops and desktop computers, because the large “tower” cases used in desktop computers are designed so that new motherboards, hard disks, sound cards, RAM, and other components can be added. In a very compact laptop, such as laplets, there may be no upgradeable components at all.^[33]

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Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta, and some other laptop manufacturers have created the Common Building Block standard for laptop parts to address some of the inefficiencies caused by the lack of standards and inability to upgrade components.^[34]

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The following sections summarizes the differences and distinguishing features of laptop components in comparison to desktop personal computer parts.^[35]

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Internally, a display is an LCD panel which could be TFT backlit or LED backlit which talks to the laptop using the LVDS protocol, while externally, it can be a glossy screen or a matte screen. Most modern laptops feature a 13 inches (33 cm) or larger color active matrix display based on LED lighting with resolutions of 1280×800 (16:10) or 1366×768 (16:9) pixels and above. Models with LED-based lighting offer lesser power consumption and often increased brightness.

Netbooks with a 10 inches (25 cm) or smaller screen typically use a resolution of 1024×600, while netbooks and subnotebooks with an 11.6 inches (29 cm) or 12 inches (30 cm) screen use standard notebook resolutions. Having a higher resolution display allows more items to fit onscreen at a time, improving the user’s ability to multitask, although at the higher resolutions on smaller screens, the resolution may only serve to display sharper graphics and text rather than increasing the usable area.

Since the introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina display in 2012, there has been an increase in the availability of very-high-resolution (1920×1080 and higher) displays, even in relatively small systems, and in typical 15-inch screens resolutions as high as 3200×1800 are available. External displays can be connected to most laptops, and models with a Mini DisplayPort can handle up to three.^[36]

A laptop’s central processing unit (CPU) has advanced power-saving features and produces less heat than one intended purely for desktop use. Typically, laptop CPUs have two processor cores, although 4-core models are also available. For low price and mainstream performance, there is no longer a significant performance difference between laptop and desktop CPUs, but at the high end, the fastest 4-to-8-core desktop CPUs still substantially outperform the fastest 4-core laptop processors, at the expense of massively higher power consumption and heat generation; the fastest laptop processors top out at 56 watts of heat, while the fastest desktop processors top out at 150 watts.

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There have been a wide range of CPUs designed for laptops available from both Intel, AMD, and other manufacturers. On non-x86 architectures, Motorola and IBM produced the chips for the former PowerPC-based Apple laptops (iBook and PowerBook). Many laptops have removable CPUs, although this has become less common in the past few years as the trend has been towards thinner and lighter models. In other laptops the CPU is soldered on the motherboard and is non-replaceable; this is nearly universal in ultrabooks.

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In the past, some laptops have used a desktop processor instead of the laptop version and have had high performance gains at the cost of greater weight, heat, and limited battery life, but the practice was largely extinct as of 2013. Unlike their desktop counterparts, laptop CPUs are nearly impossible to overclock. A thermal operating mode of laptops is very close to its limits and there is almost no headroom for an overclocking–related operating temperature increase. The possibility of improving a cooling system of a laptop to allow overclocking is extremely difficult to implement.

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From 1983 onward, several new input techniques were developed and included in laptops, including the touchpad (Gavilan SC, 1983), the pointing stick (IBM ThinkPad 700, 1992), and handwriting recognition (Linus Write-Top,^[22] 1987). Some CPUs, such as the 1990 Intel i386SL, were designed to use minimum power to increase battery life of portable computers and were supported by dynamic power management features such as Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow! in some designs.

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The Osborne 1, released in 1981, was a luggable computer that used the Zilog Z80 and weighed 24.5 pounds (11.1 kg).^[14] It had no battery, a 5 in (13 cm) cathode ray tube (CRT) screen, and dual 5.25 in (13.3 cm) single-density floppy drives. Both Tandy/RadioShack and Hewlett Packard (HP) also produced portable computers of varying designs during this period.

Initial laptops using the flip form factor appeared in the early 1980s. Dulmont Magnum was released in Australia in 1981–82, but was not marketed internationally until 1984–85. US$8,150 (US$21,590 today) GRiD Compass 1101, released in 1982, was used at NASA and by the military, among others.  Sharp PC-5000,^[17] Ampere^[18] and Gavilan SC released in 1983.

Gavilan SC was described as a “laptop” by its manufacturer,^[19] while the Ampere had a modern clamshell design. Toshiba T1100 won acceptance not only among PC experts but the mass market as a way to have PC portability.^[21]

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The portable micro computer Portal of the French company R2E Micral CCMC officially appeared in September 1980 at the Sicob show in Paris. It was a portable microcomputer designed and marketed by the studies and developments department of R2E Micral at the request of company CCMC specializing in payroll and accounting.

It was based on an Intel 8085 processor, 8-bit, clocked at 2 MHz. It was equipped with a central 64 KB RAM, a keyboard with 58 alpha numeric keys and 11 numeric keys ( separate blocks ), a 32-character screen, a floppy disk : capacity = 140 00 characters, of a thermal printer : speed = 28 characters / second, an asynchronous channel, a synchronous channel, a 220 V power supply. It weighed 12 kg and its dimensions were 45 x 45 x 15 cm. It provided total mobility. Its operating system was the aptly named Prologue.

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As 8-bit CPU machines became widely accepted, the number of portables increased rapidly. The first “laptop-sized notebook computer” was the Epson HX-20,^[9][10] invented (patented) by Suwa Seikosha‘s Yukio Yokozawa in July 1980,^[11] introduced at the COMDEX computer show in Las Vegas by Japanese company Seiko Epson in 1981,^[12][10] and released in July 1982.^[10][13]

It had an LCD screen, a rechargeable battery, and a calculator-size printer, in a 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) chassis, the size of an A4 notebook.^[10] It was described as a “laptop” and “notebook” computer in its patent.^[11]

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A laptop (also laptop computer), often called a notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a “clamshell” form factor, typically having a thin LCD or LED computer screen mounted on the inside of the upper lid of the clamshell and an alphanumeric keyboard on the inside of the lower lid. The clamshell is opened up to use the computer.

Laptops are folded shut for transportation, and thus are suitable for mobile use.^[1] Its name comes from lap, as it was deemed to be placed on a person’s lap when being used. Although originally there was a distinction between laptops and notebooks (the former being bigger and heavier than the latter), as of 2014, there is often no longer any difference.^[2] Today, laptops are commonly used in a variety of settings, such as at work, in education, for playing games, Internet surfing, for personal multimedia, and general home computer use.

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Laptops combine all the input/output components and capabilities of a desktop computer, including the display screen, small speakers, a keyboard, hard disk drive, optical disc drive, pointing devices (such as a touchpad or trackpad), a processor, and memory into a single unit. Most modern laptops feature integrated webcams and built-in microphones, while many also have touchscreens.

Laptops can be powered either from an internal battery or by an external power supply from an AC adapter. Hardware specifications, such as the processor speed and memory capacity, significantly vary between different types, makes, models and price points.

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Design elements, form factor and construction can also vary significantly between models depending on intended use. Examples of specialized models of laptops include rugged notebooks for use in construction or military applications, as well as low production cost laptops such as those from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, which incorporate features like solar charging and semi-flexible components not found on most laptop computers. 

Portable computers, which later developed into modern laptops, were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications, such as in the military, for accountants, or for traveling sales representatives. As the portable computers evolved into the modern laptop, they became widely used for a variety of purposes.^[3]

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The terms laptop and notebook are used interchangeably to describe a portable computer in English, although in some parts of the world one or the other may be preferred. There is some question as to the original etymology and specificity of either term—the term laptop appears to have been coined in the early 1980s to describe a mobile computer which could be used on one’s lap, and to distinguish these devices from earlier, much heavier, portable computers (informally called “luggables”).

The term “notebook” appears to have gained currency somewhat later as manufacturers started producing even smaller portable devices, further reducing their weight and size and incorporating a display roughly the size of A4 paper; these were marketed as notebooks to distinguish them from bulkier laptops.^[4] Regardless of the etymology, by the late 1990s and towards the 2000s, the terms were interchangeable.

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As the personal computer (PC) became feasible in 1971, the idea of a portable personal computer soon followed. A “personal, portable information manipulator” was imagined by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1968,^[5] and described in his 1972 paper as the “Dynabook“.^[6] The IBM Special Computer APL Machine Portable (SCAMP) was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the IBM PALM processor.^[7] 

The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype.^[8]