The evolution of laptops and portable computersThis was the first portable computer the IBM 5100Here it's shown powered on and attached to an external monitorAlthough weighing 55 pounds, it was much lighter and portable than previous computersThe Xerox note-taker was a bit more portable and its keyboard folded out to reveal its screen it employedWhat was then highly advanced technology including?256 kilobytes of RAM and a 5 megahertz Intel CPULaunched in April 1981. The Osborne one is recognized as the first laptop computerIt was the first commercially successfulportable computer costing eighteen hundred dollars weighing 25 pounds and shipping with a large bundle of softwareLater that year Epson released a tiny battery powered portable computer that traded screen size for convenienceIt was hailed by Businessweek magazine as the fourth revolution in personal computingAnd create a few problemsUnless it's the new absent HX 20 notebook computerIt does what most computers do without the powerWith a built-in screen and printer you can do real computing and word processing anywhereThe grid compass was the first portable computer that resembled our current laptopsBecause of its high price and specialized application. It was mostly used by the US governmentNASA used it on the space shuttle during the early 1980s as it was both powerful and lightweight andThe Special Forces used them for their ruggedness and use of solid-state memoryThe trs-80 sold through RadioShack was popular with journalistsThey could type about 11 pages of text and then transmit it for editing using the built-in modemRadio Shack's revolutionary model100 computer it's a word processor phone directory and dialer it even communicates with the office computerIn 1984 the Commodore SX 64 was the first portable computer to feature a full-color display screenIt weighed about 20 pounds and sold for nine hundred and ninety five dollarsIt shipped with 64 kilobytes of RAM and a one megahertz CPUIt did not sell particularly well but became popular with user groups and software developersThey could quickly pack and unpack the machine to use for copying software or giving demonstrationsThe IBM PC convertible was the first laptop to use the three and a half inch floppy disk formatWhich went on to become the industry standard?Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteriesThe SLT286 was the first battery-powered laptop to support an internal hard disk drive and a vga compatible LCD screenIt weighed 14 pounds in1989 the NEC ultralight was considered to be the first notebook style laptop since it weighed less than five poundsIt was priced around five thousand dollars and shipped with an 8 megahertz CPUAfter the failure of their first laptop Apple reworked the concept and released the power book line in October 1991They immediately caused a stir in the industry with the dark gray cases and the positioning of the pointing deviceIt will let you run ms-dos softwareIt will let you run Macintosh softwareIt will let you run awayIn 1992 Olivetti developed and released the first laptop featuring a touchpadThe position near the base of the screen was the norm as most applications were text-based and did not require a pointing deviceThat same year Olivetti released a smaller laptop the cuadernoCapable of audio recording while the computer was off an almost instant boot upIt shipped with a 16 megahertz CPU one megabyte of RAM and 20 megabytes of hard disk spaceThe concerto was the first convertible laptopIt had a detachable keyboard pen and touch screenBut the touchscreen only worked with the special pen like today's tablets. Most of the electronics were housed with the screenThis laptop was definitely ahead of its timeIn2002 the portage 8 was the thinnest laptop to be developed at only three-quarters of an inch of the thickest partIt also featured the first 1.8 inch hard drive in a laptopThe TC 1100 had a very unique design it was a hybrid laptop which included a touchscreen stylus and tablet modeUnfortunately Windows XP was not a touch friendly OS hampering its successLike the concerto this was another laptop that was ahead of its timeAsus released the 701 in October 2007, which was the first netbook on the marketIt featured a 7-inch screen an Intel Celeron M processor and a 4 gigabyte hard diskThe yoga 13 was one of the first modern hybrid laptops taking advantage of Windows 8 touch interfaceThe name yoga is a reference to the unit's design which allows for differentconfigurationsThe Razer Blade was the first true portable gaming laptop at point nine inches thin and weighing6.5 pounds the blade Pro was the most portable 17-inch gaming laptop in its classThe yoga book hybrid laptop brought even more functionality in 2016By using a digitizer panel as the keyboard. The user was able to draw write and type on the same panelThe trade-off was the lack of haptic feel and feedback when in keyboard modeThe 2018 version of the yoga book now uses e ink for the keyboard panelEing allows for a more natural drawing surface and for custom input entry layouts depending on the application being usedAnd most importantly it allows for reading without wasting any battery or having to carry a second deviceAsus is currently working on project Precog which consists of a dual monitor laptop similar to the yoga bookbut without the limitations of e inkBoth could be used as monitors by connecting an external keyboardOr both monitors can be used for gaming or for presentationsIn laptop mode one monitor is used normally while the other is used as the keyboard or control panel