Technology and gadgets are upgrading everyday and our laptops are the biggest witnesses.
All laptops have their own set of features. For example, some come with 4GB RAM, which is enough for regular use—can be expanded up to 16GB for high-end applications. Hard disk size can vary from 500GB to 2TB.
Intel and AMD are the two main manufacturers for laptop processors. AMD provides processors for basic computing, starting with the A4 series, to high-end applications with the FX series.
Intel processors offer a wide range of options—including Celeron and Pentium series, or the popular Core processors, ranging from Core i3 to Core i9. You can select any of these depending on your needs, which can range from gaming to professional-level creative work.
This article will take you through the latest features being added to modern-day laptops that suit individual range of applications.
Core i9
Intel’s latest Core i9 processor has a high clock speed, which greatly improves the processing capacity of the system. With six cores and 12 threads, it has a base clock of 2.9GHz with a boost speed of 4.8GHz. Latest laptops that have this feature are Alienware I7, Asus ROG G703, Gigabyte Aorus X9 and MSI G75 Titan, among others. If you render 3D scenes, edit video or multitask, you will notice a huge performance boost by choosing a 6-core chip over a 4-core one.
USB Type-C or Thunderbolt 3 port
The port can carry data and electricity over a single wire. You can achieve maximum 40Gbps speed using this port. It allows you to copy or transfer files quickly, stream output video to external monitors and power your laptop. All USB Type-C cables are reversible.
Thunderbolt 3 can power up to two 4K monitors over a single wire. It can connect two PCs and achieve a transfer rate of 10Gbps. Many latest laptops have this feature, including Lenovo Yoga, HP Spectre 360, Apple MacBook Pro, Alienware AW15R3 and Asus Rog G752VM.
Solid-state drives
These make less noise, consume less power and are smaller than hard disk drives. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are flash based, and offer longevity, robustness, high temperature operating range, and shock and vibration tolerance. These also have faster write and read speeds, with higher program and erase cycles. SSDs let your laptops boot faster, wake from sleep almost instantly and open large applications in an instant.
Samsung 970 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD is among the fastest consumer SSDs. It provides a sequential write speed up to 2700MBps and read speed up to 3500MBps.
High-resolution screen
Earlier, laptops usually offered 1368×768 resolution screens. Now, you can easily find laptop screens with resolution higher than 1920×1080. If you are willing to shell out some cash, you can go for 4K ultra-HD displays with a resolution of 3200×1800, 3840×2160 or higher. Dell XPS, Lenovo Yoga, Acer Predator, HP Spectre x360 and MSI WS63VR 7RL are some laptops that come with this feature.
NVIDIA Pascal GeForce graphics card
If you are fond of games and/or like to try virtual reality (VR) applications, you need an NVIDIA graphics card. The range starts from GTX 1050 for low-end devices, to GTX 1080 for high-end ones.
The latest is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 TI. It allows you to play AAA games at desktop-class frame rates. Laptops that have this feature are Alienware 15, MSI GT73EVR 7RF Titan Pro, HP Omen X17, Acer Predator 17X and Asus ROG.
Bluetooth 5
This is the latest version of Bluetooth with features such as high throughput, long range, increased broadcast capacity and improved channel coexistence algorithm.
There are four possible data rates with Bluetooth 5: 125kbps, 500kbps, 1Mbps and 2Mbps. 2Mbps offers higher throughput possibilities, which can revolutionise the scope, appeal and spread of Bluetooth.
Two-in-one laptops
These new-generation laptops give you two experiences in one system—of a laptop and a tablet. These can fold up to 360 degrees, and the screens can be detached for a tablet experience. Many such laptops are available in market including HP Spectre x360, Asus Zenbook Flip, Dell Inspiron 13 and Lenovo Yoga. Some laptops are available with Wacom pens for advanced applications.
Some examples include HP Spectre x360, Lenovo Yoga 920, Dell XPS 13 and Microsoft Surface Book 2.
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
This new wireless standard gives speeds up to 10 times faster than older wireless standards (802.11n or older), at an increased distance coverage from the router. It can achieve 500Mbps speed through single-link and 1Gbps through multi-station WLAN. It features in most new laptops, like Acer Aspire, Asus Chromebook, HP Stream Laptop PC and Microsoft Surface Book.
Touchpad and display
Asus has launched Zenbook Pro, the world’s first laptop with a touchscreen trackpad, in place of the traditional trackpad. Its 14cm (5.5-inch) full-HD IPS display enables you to push the cursor around and interact with the laptop.
Laptops with touchscreens are quite convenient. Touchscreen displays allow versatile interactions with the machine. Examples are HP Spectre x360, Acer Spin 5, Microsoft Surface Book 2, Google Pixel Book and Lenovo Yoga.
