Laptop Trends to Look for in 2008

It’s coming up to the end of the year (yes, you will be doing your Christmas shopping in a few weeks) and you know what that means – it’s time to look ahead to some of the things we’ll be seeing in the market come January 2008.

As always, technology is a moving target, so about this time next year I’ll be doing the same thing. I should also point out: If you are in the market for a new laptop, you may not want to read this, as most of what I’ll be talking about will either be too expensive this year or not available at all, no matter how badly you pray Santa will add it to your wish list.

Secondary Displays

We called this “Sideshow” during the Windows Vista launch and then, for the most part, stopped talking about secondary display options entirely. This second display is typically used on the outside of the laptop, and can show information with the lid closed. Initially, only Toshiba with its R400 was unique with this display mode before Dell recently brought out their stunning M1730 gaming notebook with this capability. But be that as it may, it won’t be until next year before we see a large number of systems with these options in the market. These secondary displays can show you games stats, if you have pending appointments while your laptop is in low-powered mode, and in some cases, even give you quick access to email or instant messaging depending on where they are and how they are configured.

Hybrid Hard Drives

This was something else we thought we were going to see right after Windows Vista launched, but initial products just didn’t live up to expectations, so it was back to the drawing board for another try. Happily, Seagate is now convinced they have the bugs worked out of these gizmos, and as a result they are already starting to roll them out to the market. Their biggest benefits are power savings and performance, as they work like a huge hard drive cache. But because the solid state portion of the device (they are a hybrid of solid state and magnetic drives) may actually be able to power down for extended periods, they should be vastly more reliable in use as well. Expect to see more on such devices next year.

Solid State Hard Drives

Right behind the hybrid hard drives are solid state hard drives and they too have been coming to market this year. Initially nose-bleed expensive (32GB models were going for over $500 USD), they should drop in price sharply throughout the year in 08. Initial drives used a slow IDE interface and so really didn’t produce the expected performance boost. Later drives are SATA-based and should be significantly faster, and while they will remain relatively expensive for their capacity (64GB will be the sweet spot next year) the performance and reliability will be worth it for some.

HD DVD, Blu-ray Options

There will be more and more HD-DVD and Blu-ray-optional drives in larger notebooks at increasingly attractive prices. However, given the upswing in video available over the network and an increasing number of folks who have figured out how to rip DVDs to their hard drives, I’ve actually made the prediction that this year will show declining interest in optical drives in notebooks. Still, for those that want them, these drives will provide the opportunity to hook your laptop up to a big-screen TV(with such displays increasingly found at good hotels and in friends homes) to watch HD movies that way. Keep in mind that most movies look great on a laptop screen, so you will likely not notice the difference between an HD and non-HD picture.

Wi-Max

This is the follow-up to WiFi and will cover vastly more space. For instance, rather than covering a Starbucks, these networks are expected to cover Chicago. The first major rollouts are expected next year from Sprint and they promise the ability to get high-bandwidth reception without having to go WiFi hunting. It could eventually replace your Cable, DSL, and your data link on your cell phone. But initially, it will mean being able to use a laptop wherever you are even if you don’t want to live in Starbucks.

LED Backlit Outdoor Viewable Displays

Pioneered by products like the Toshiba R500, this is one of the technologies that we’re really looking forward to, especially If you like working outside, but get upset when the sun washes out your notebook display. These new screens are usable outside, and while they aren’t that great for video (which is a shame) they do allow you to work on Office documents and get school or business work done. The first outdoor viewable displays were horrid. Based on some recent work out of UCLA, it looks like these units are going to make outdoor displaying much better, cheaper and reasonably quicker. Dell has started shipping LED backlit displays (their hot new XPS M1330 has one), with units from Asus, Sony, and others also soon either entering the market or on their way.

Security

Phoenix Technologies, the guys that make the BIOS for a lot of the desktop and laptop systems out there, just announced a product called Failsafe that should start showing up in laptops shortly. This thing is like Lojack for your laptop. Essentially, if someone swipes your box, you can track where it is, you can get it to phone home, and you can even fire up the camera and maybe even get a picture of the guy who swiped your prized box. Because this is in the BIOS, and not in software, it is a real pain to turn off without breaking the laptop. Look at this as a way to make sure the bucks you spend on your laptop aren’t lost. Oh, and you can also wipe the hard drive so all of that stuff you didn’t want anyone else to see, well… you can make sure they don’t see it.

Coupled with this product are encrypted drives using a Trusted Computing Module. Identity theft is on the rise and there are a lot of folks who would like nothing more to go shopping with your credit while destroying your credit rating. Making sure they can’t do that off your laptop, either by hacking into it or accessing it remotely, goes a long way to keeping someone else from having a great time on your cash.

Custom Colors and More Metals

Dell, HP/Voodoo and Sony have come out with lines which allow you to pick the color of your laptop. A company called Smooth Creations went one big step further this year and gave you the option of going fully customized with the coloring of your rig. This has proven to be really popular, so expect others to get on the bandwagon and crank it up. Your next laptop could be so incredibly unique and personal that you’ll wonder why you never did this to your car.

On top of personalized colors, we also saw Gateway and Asus go to using more metals in their laptop case designs. This makes the laptop look richer and more tolerant of some kinds of abuse. This appears to be an increasing trend as well and I’d expect even more notebook manufacturers, particularly at the high-end range, to start using metals as a way to differentiate their products in retail.

Backlit Keyboards

One of our favorite features on a ThinkPad is the keyboard light. What makes it fun is that not only is it really handy, most folks don’t even know it is there and so it is a kick pointing the feature out. With the brand new Dell M1730, we saw strong keyboard backlighting and this is particularly handy if you are working or (not that any of us do this) are playing a game in the dark. This is not only handy – it also shows well and we expect more laptops will incorporate this feature next year. Apple clearly saw this trend early and was one of the leaders in keyboard lighting.

Wrapping Up

It is easy to get excited about what’s coming next year, but there are also some great products in the market this year as well and some incredible buys. To give you an idea, HP just released their dv9500z which has a 17” screen for under $900 USD and the dv6500z with a 15.4” screen for under $700 USD… and you can even upgrade the smaller one with an HDMI port so you can connect it to your TV. Of course it isn’t just laptops that will be changing. There are some incredible small form-factor desktops coming too, as well as a wave of all-in-one desktops and home servers, and, as if that weren’t enough, a new bunch of stunning LCD displays like the new 30” from Gateway and the 27” from Dell (you can get those now).

The one thing that doesn’t change from year to year? That consumer electronics are constantly evolving, and when it comes to personal computing technology, there’s – per usual – one heck of a lot to look forward to soon.