If you were born before the late 90s you probably remember a time when laptops were heavy chunky power hogs with the elegance of cinderblock.
But these days the cine quinone of laptop marketing seems to be an emphasis on how thin, light and portable everything is, and somehow this is all without compromising on the performance.
We are even seeing laptops that are light enough to pick up with just two fingers yet come up with high-end processors, crisp displays, and storage solutions.
So how did we get from there to here?
First, let’s look at the most important components of integrated circuits like CUPs. The transistors that make up a CPU are called MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor)
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They have special physical properties that allow them to be easily scaled, meaning that for a long time manufacturers were able to squeeze more and more of them onto a chip increasing processing performance and to a point, these higher performance CPUs did not need additional electrical power as long as the size of the actual package stayed about the same.
But more efficient processors are not the only reason that our laptops are so light, the small electronic components like inductors and capacitors that feed the CPU with power have also gotten smaller by gradually moving towards higher switching frequencies.
So here’s what that means for power to get to your CPU without frying it, the voltage has to be stepped down, small components like inductors do this by storing small amounts of energy stepping it down, and releasing it to the CPU at a certain number of times every second.
And it turns out the physics behind this process allows higher frequency inductors to be made smaller which saves both space and weight in a compact device like a laptop.
Even printed circuit boards, you know the green layer that everything is mounted on has changed the improvements that are harder to see with the naked eye but they make a big difference.
Modern laptops use high density interconnects meaning that copper traces go through the PCB in multiple layers, this allows manufacturers to pack more connectivity into a smaller and lighter space.
We have also seen improvements from increased manufacturing expertise both from experience and with better tools for predicting outcomes.
Nowadays manufacturers can run pretty accurate simulations on exactly what various design ideas are going to do to thermal output, this reduces the chance that bringing the components closer together is going to cause overheating in the finished product.
Of course, we would be remiss if we did not talk about improved chassis and battery technology, on one hand, shrinking connectors have made it so you don’t have to have a thick design just to accommodate that gigantic printer port.
But there is more to it than that many laptops have switched to using alternative metals like lightweight magnesium alloys that you would find in HP’s dragonfly Li book.
Metals such as these are chosen not only for their lightweight nature but also for their relative strength meaning that they are not just used for the outside but also for internal brackets that hold components in place.
Manufacturing the chassis as the components inside has also gotten more precise with advancements in techniques like CNC and molding which involves heating magnesium into a slurry and then precisely injecting it into molds to create components of different shapes and sizes.
We have also seen a whole-scale shift away from old-school nickel-cadmium and nickel hydride batteries these were reliable and hearty, but also did not hold as much energy per unit of weight.
Nowadays many laptops use lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries which don’t need to weigh nearly as much to had lots of power they have existed for many years.
But growing demand for lightweight devices has led to following prices making them more and more common now of course there are still trade-offs inherent in buying an ultra-thin laptop
They still face thermal challenges compared with that of larger devices with better airflow, do not mean that they cant be packed with the fastest hardware on the market.
That’s why gaming-focused laptops still exist and tend to be larger and heavier but for everyday use, the sleek and lightweight machines that we have today are going to satisfy the majority of users
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