What is a laptop? Laptop models, device, characteristics. What does a laptop consist of? The principle of operation of a laptop according to the structural diagram

The IT industry is currently developing quite rapidly. Devices such as laptops are present in almost every family; we use them for different purposes - for work, games, watching movies, even reading literature. However, it is very important to know the structure of the laptop - despite the fact that the product looks quite simple in appearance, there are many nuances that will be useful for every user to study.

Appearance

Since the laptop is portable, everything in it is packed into one body that folds out into two parts. The upper part is always thinner and represents the screen. If you are wondering what the inside of the laptop consists of, there are cables inside the matrix through which the picture is displayed on the monitor. In addition, this part contains an inverter, microphone, webcam, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas.

On the bottom of the laptop there is a keyboard, a power button, LED indicators, a touchpad or trackpoint, speakers, an optical drive, a USB interface, a memory card slot, a power supply connector, a speaker and microphone connector, digital HDMI and analog VGA video outputs. Older laptop models may lack some of the interfaces (for example, HDMI). Also at the bottom of the laptop are the main components (motherboard, processor and memory).

The body is often made of plastic, but some models are made of aluminum or magnesium alloys. A metallized layer is applied to the inside of plastic cases to protect the sensitive elements of the laptop from electromagnetic interference, because they can affect the operation of the laptop and even damage it.

A look from the inside

If you want to know exactly what the laptop consists of inside, photos can always be found on the Internet - in principle, all devices are identical.

However, all components are very important, and each of the structures performs its own specific function - let's look at them in detail.

What's inside the laptop? Let's talk

This is what we see. after removing the front cover:

Now you have a rough idea of ​​what the laptop consists of inside. From all of the above, we can draw an unambiguous conclusion - all components are closely interconnected and if at least one part fails, the device will not work correctly.

You may also be interested in our troubleshooting articles. The first is about what to do if and the second is about what to do if. Go ahead and read.

A laptop is essentially a full-fledged computer. But to ensure mobility, portability and energy independence, all components have unique features.

Frame The laptop is in most cases made of high-strength plastic, less often of light metal alloys (aluminum, magnesium). Inside, it is covered with a special thin metal foil to isolate the electronic filling from the effects of external electromagnetic fields. A metal cord is sometimes inserted around the perimeter of the case, which gives additional strength to the case.

Inside the top cover of the laptop there is everything that is necessary for its full operation - the display matrix itself, its cables that transmit data, an inverter to ensure the operation of the backlight and some additional devices (for example: a webcam, speakers, microphone, antennas of wireless Wi-Fi modules). Fi and Bluetooth).

Cooling system The laptop consists of a cooler that takes air from the ventilation holes on the bottom of the laptop (this is why the laptop can only be used on a hard, flat surface, otherwise cooling is impaired) and blows it through a radiator, which is connected to the processor (and sometimes the chipset) by copper heat pipes. motherboard by blowing it out through a hole in the back or side wall.

In addition to the built-in keyboard, the laptop has a touchpad and/or pointstick. External computer manipulators such as a mouse, an additional keyboard or a monitor/TV can also be connected.

Laptops run on either a battery or an AC adapter, which charges the laptop's battery. Modern laptops use lithium-ion batteries.

The laptop matrix is ​​a full-fledged liquid crystal display (LCD) or light-emitting diodes (LED). Modern laptops use two types of display coatings - matte and glossy. The image on a screen with a glossy coating is more contrasty and bright, but inconveniences often arise due to the mirror effect: the light is not scattered across the surface of the screen and the coating produces too bright glare if there is any light source behind the user. Matte coating, on the contrary, makes the image less contrast, but does not create glare.

CPU

A laptop processor is very similar in appearance and size to a desktop processor, but it contains a large number of technologies that reduce power consumption and heat generation, such as Centrino technology.

Laptop RAM, due to its higher chip density and smaller size (SO-DIMM form factor), has characteristics comparable to desktop computer memory, but is also slightly more expensive.

Storage devices

The laptop hard drive, despite its small size (due to the use of magnetic media with a diameter of 2.5 inches), has a capacity comparable to that of a hard drive for a desktop computer. The most common connection interface is SATA, but the outdated IDE interface is also found, especially in older laptops. In subnotebooks, the so-called. solid state hard drives(SSD) developed on the basis of flash memory.

The optical drive (CD/DVD) of the laptop does not have a mechanics that pulls out the tray, so it was possible to make it so thin while maintaining all the functions of a full-fledged drive. Most modern drives have the DVD-RW standard, but in expensive multimedia laptops you can often find a Blu-ray standard drive.

I/O devices

The laptop keyboard is made using special technology and consists of several layers of thin plastic with contact pads, which allows the thickness to be reduced to several millimeters.

The so-called touchpad is a widely used pointing device in laptops - a touch panel that responds based on the touch of a finger. Rice. Laptop device diagrams

3. Causes of overheating.

WHAT IS SO SCARY ABOUT OVERHEATING A LAPTOP?

After all, all its components are designed and manufactured taking into account not only “shake resistance”, but also taking into account the fact that the normal temperature regime for them (which, moreover, are small-sized) is almost constant work in a very limited, difficult-to-cooled space and at , which is natural, at elevated temperatures.

It is difficult to talk about specific maximum operating temperatures for laptop components as a whole. Because for a specific manufacturer of a specific model, depending on its design features and technical standards, they can differ significantly (5-10 degrees Celsius is already a significant difference).

Approximate maximum permissible normal temperatures:
CPU - 75-80 degrees Celsius
video card processor - 70-90 degrees Celsius
hard drive - 50-55 degrees Celsius
chipset - 90 degrees Celsius

If this temperature limit is exceeded, the overheating protection system must be activated - a system equipped with thermal sensors located on all the main controlled components of the laptop and constantly monitoring their temperatures.

To begin with, it will lower the clock speeds and supply voltages of the central processor and video card processor. This will not only lead to a decrease in temperature, but also to a decrease in the performance of the laptop, which will result in its slowdown.

If these measures do not lead to the desired result and the temperatures remain critically high, then the system will simply turn off the laptop.

Well, if for some reason the overheating protection is triggered with a delay, and the temperature reaches 110-125 degrees Celsius, then the irreversible process of destruction of the chipset structure begins. First of all, the microcircuits that make them suffer. For this reason, the motherboard, video card and hard drive fail more often than other components.

Processors, especially video card processors, although they sometimes get hotter than all other parts, very rarely fail for this reason.

This is, in fact, what is dangerous about overheating a laptop.

Motherboard.

A device in the form of a large microcircuit (most often green or gray) is the “heart” of the computer - the basis for the entire system. It connects all other parts into a common working system and allows all components to interact with each other.

CPU.

This is the brain of your laptop - the microprocessor that sometimes makes the machine hum (hum). This is a decision-making device. Distributes all the data across millions of tiny transistors, which then process this data.

Memory.

2 main resources – RAM and ROM. There are two sources of memory in a laptop - RAM (Random Access Memory, RAM - random access memory) and read only memory (ROM).

In general, everything is like a person’s - short-term memory (tickets for an exam, which will be forgotten immediately the next day after this exam) and long-term memory (the first kiss is forever imprinted in the depths of our brain).

Data sent to RAM does not stay there forever. They are erased automatically when the laptop is turned off.

Data in ROM (read-only memory) is stored forever (or until someone accidentally erases it. Although this is very difficult to do accidentally).

Disks.

Every laptop has many different drives that can store or play data and applications (programs).

For example, a hard drive (HD, HDD) (or a more modern SSD - solid drive) makes it possible to store information or programs directly on the computer. The laptop also has media storage (media is all pictures, music, sounds, movies, etc.) on optical disks. Sometimes there are drivers (built-in devices) for turning on CD/DVD drives from outside, drives that are not built into the laptop.

Graphics/sound.

Laptops come into our hands with a built-in sound and graphics card (“all cards in hand”). This makes it possible to reproduce graphics (everything we see on the screen) and sound (everything we hear; except for the whirring of the laptop, of course).

Net.

Nowadays laptops have a built-in card for wireless connection (Wi-Fi). It allows you to communicate wirelessly with other systems or the Internet. Sometimes there is also a port (connector) for connecting a wired connection cord (Ethernet).

Ports.

VGA, HDMI, USB, SD, microphone jack...

On the side, laptops have many connectors and ports for communication with external devices. Several connectors for flash cards, connecting a TV (HDMI), digital camera or video camera card (SD) and others.

Interface.

Everything with which we can interact with a complex laptop device is a screen (which is most often measured in inches - from 11 to 17), a keyboard with buttons for entering text information and a trackpad - a surface with which you can move the cursor around the screen, controlling computer functions.

Other parts.

In order for the laptop to work, you need electricity, which is obtained by connecting the power supply. You need to make sure that the power supply is suitable for this particular laptop. The computer itself has a battery that charges and then works without being connected to the network.

Also inside laptops there are coolers - cooling systems that cool all the insides from overheating. Most often, these are heat sinks that absorb all the heat, or fans that cool all internal parts with air flow.

Today there are two types of platforms used to build laptops: PC and Mac. Theoretically, there are mobile computers on the Sun platform, but they are extremely rare, due to the specifics of the tasks performed on them.

RS platform can be based on one of four types of architectures: Intel, AMD, VIA or Transmeta.

Note

Intel was the first corporation when promoting laptops to begin to attract users' attention not so much to the processor, but to the platform as a whole. The first platform, which received its own name - Centrino, consists of a processor, a chipset for building a motherboard and integrated wireless communications.

The most common architecture today Intel(sometimes abbreviated IA - Intel Architecture). This can be explained quite simply: being the undisputed leader in the production of processors for computers, including laptops, Intel Corporation has large profits. Intel spends a significant portion of the proceeds on research activities (R&D - Research and Development, which in the Russian version is denoted by the abbreviation R&D - research and development work).

Note

All PC platform architectures are compatible with IA. This is extremely important for the user, as it allows you to use a single software without thinking about the details of the computer architecture. For example, the Microsoft Windows operating system, the ICQ Internet messenger and the Microsoft Word text editor will work on a laptop, regardless of whether it is based on Intel, AMD, VIA or Transmeta architecture.

Company AMD has significantly less turnover than Intel. Intel Corporation spends funds on R&D alone that exceed the turnover of its closest competitor, so AMD’s ability to develop and promote its solutions is much less. Of course, AMD also maintains contacts with motherboard developers. For obvious reasons, AMD's architecture cannot compete with Intel's architecture in all respects, but it is superior in one of them: AMD is the leader in price/performance ratio. This situation, known to many users from desktop systems, is also observed in mobile solutions.

With architecture VIA the situation is the same as with AMD. Only systems on VIA processors are rare. The number of models based on the VIA architecture present on the computer market can be counted on one hand. However, among them there are very interesting solutions.

Architecture Transmeta appeared relatively recently. Even before the release of the first Transmeta processor, it attracted close attention from the entire digital community. The fact is that among the founders of the company there were two iconic figures of the digital world - Linus Torvalds, who in his student years created the Linux operating system, the development of which is now being developed by hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of independent developers, and Paul Allen, who once created the company together with Bill Gates Microsoft. In addition, the “parents” of the new architecture stated that laptops built on it would become revolutionary systems: with full compatibility with IA, such laptop computers would be very light in weight and have a very long battery life.

The revolution, as usual, did not work out: Transmeta systems really work for a very long time on a single battery charge, but this is achieved not only by optimizing the power consumption of the components that perform calculations (the processor and its “piping”), but also by reducing the size of the screen. The matrix is ​​one of the most power-hungry components of a laptop, and its power consumption directly depends on its linear dimensions. By reducing the screen size, you can increase your laptop's battery life and make your laptop lighter. This little trick, first used on a large scale in the Transmeta architecture, was also used by other laptop manufacturers. In addition, developers are tasked with creating solutions to reduce the weight and size of laptops, as well as to optimize energy consumption. Intel, as you probably guessed, has moved further in this direction than others.

Platform Apple It is very popular all over the world, but is poorly distributed in the CIS. Russian designers actively use desktop Macintosh computers, but Apple laptops are extremely rare. Most users, firstly, consider Apple computers to be more expensive, and secondly, they believe that compatibility problems arise when using them. Both theses are incorrect.

Yes, initially the architectures of Apple and PC were significantly different, and computers built on these platforms ran different operating systems (Mac OS and Windows).

Today the situation has changed: Mac OS can be run on computers built on Intel architecture, and the latest modifications of Apple computers, including laptops, use Intel processors, and Windows can be installed on them.

In addition, most popular applications have long been available in versions for both PC and Apple. The above is true not only for the graphics editor Adobe Photoshop, but also for such software products as Microsoft Office, ICQ, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and dozens of other programs.

Note

We should not forget about emulator programs. Their use reduces the performance of the system, however, if the user, for example, cannot live without his favorite toy, which exists only in the version for the PC platform, they can be used to launch the game on the Apple platform.

Applications on both platforms are compatible in data file formats and supported protocols. Rest assured that on the Apple platform there is an application that allows you to view digital photos in JPEG format, the mail system will support the POP3 and SMTP protocols, and Microsoft Word and Excel will open documents created in programs of the same name on another platform.

In addition, modern peripheral devices with a USB interface can, in most cases, be equally successfully connected to computers on both the PC platform and the Apple platform. If the device is not recognized automatically, and the driver for Mac OS is not included in the standard package, then the necessary software, as a rule, can always be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. Not a single major manufacturer of peripheral devices will allow itself to lose a tenth of potential users working on Apple platform computers!

Despite the above, systems on the Apple platform, including laptops, are considered elite tools (Fig. 4.1). They are indeed made very carefully and have a stylish design, but the real reason for this perception is the image of Apple and the myth that computers built on this platform are very expensive.

Rice. 4.1. Apple-powered computers are perceived as elite tools

In fact, the price of systems on the Apple platform coincides with the price of computers on the PC platform with similar capabilities! And with an accuracy of several tens of dollars!

For example, today you can buy a “junior” model of an Apple laptop for about $800, and a laptop computer on the PC platform for $600. However, if you compare the main parameters of the systems, it turns out that Apple laptops provide up to five hours of battery life. In order for the cheapest laptop computers on the PC platform to achieve a similar figure, you will have to purchase an additional battery, the purchase of which... will “eat up” the existing difference in cost! Similar calculations are valid for other examples. As you can see, the high cost of computers on the Apple platform is a myth and nothing more.

Attention!

You can safely purchase a laptop on any platform and with any architecture. There are no bad systems on the computer market today; each one present has its own advantages and disadvantages.

When trying to compare different systems, it's common to be confused about the clock speed of the processors. The parameters of the “hearts” of computers are described in the next section.

The processors used in modern laptops differ from those installed in desktop systems. Once upon a time, to reduce the cost, mobile computers were built on the same processors as conventional ones, but now all manufacturers have abandoned this approach - the systems turned out to be bulky and had a short battery life, and the achieved price reduction could not compensate for these shortcomings. Today, laptops equipped with desktop processors can only be purchased by purchasing a laptop computer that was two or three years old.

In most cases, laptop processors are versions of chips for desktop systems optimized for mobile use, but in some cases, the “hearts” for laptop computers are developed from scratch (Fig. 4. 2).

Rice. 4.2. Special processors are produced for laptops that are smaller and lighter than chips for desktop systems and, more importantly, have lower power consumption

The main differences between mobile processors and desktop ones are that chips for laptops are made in a different form factor, allowing them to be installed in small cases, have low power consumption and additional functions that optimize energy consumption both by the processor itself and other system components. For example, Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow! allow you to select an operating mode that artificially lowers the processor clock frequency, which leads to a reduction in power consumption and, accordingly, an increase in battery life (by 20–25% depending on the tasks performed). When connected to an external power source, of course, the highest processor speed mode is used.

Processor performance depends not only on the clock frequency at which the “stone” operates, but also on the features of the chip architecture. Based on the clock frequency, you can only compare processors of the same type, drawing on this basis only conclusions about the relative performance of systems: Intel PentiumM - with Pentium, CeleronM - with Celeron, AMDAthlon XP-M - with other similar processors. However, comparing the performance of processors with different clock frequencies is a rather pointless exercise: you cannot compare systems based only on the parameters of their processors.

The processor is rightly called the “heart” of the computer. What matters to the user is not only the performance of the processor, but also the balance of the entire system, the entire “organism.”

System performance is an integral parameter. It depends, firstly, on the characteristics of the task, secondly, on the characteristics of the platform and peripheral devices, and, thirdly, on the processor parameters. Therefore, the frequency of the processor installed in the computer is not as important for the user as it seems at first glance.

For example, it is obvious that a laptop with a 3 GHz Intel Pentium M processor will be slower than a laptop of the same model with a 3.3 GHz processor. However, the actual performance gain will greatly depend on the specific actions being performed, and even in the best case, it will not be equal to the 10% by which the processor frequency has increased. Each task involves many laptop components that will not start working faster just because a new, faster processor is installed in the system.

An increase in processor performance will not have any significant impact on the speed of execution of many real-life tasks. For example, for obvious reasons, this will have almost no effect on the speed of loading web pages or receiving and sending email. The speed of loading applications also depends little on the processor, since in this case the main significant factor is the speed parameters of the hard drive. The ability to run multiple tasks on a laptop at the same time is determined not so much by the processor’s performance as by the available amount of RAM. The processor also has little effect on the speed of office applications, since in this case the bottleneck in most situations is the user himself, forcing the computer to idle for too long, waiting for data input, or other user reactions.

The performance of modern laptops is more than enough to solve any tasks relevant to the average user: working with documents, watching movies, processing images, etc. It is not economically profitable to purchase laptops built on the latest processors. However, if you are not limited in funds, then, of course, you can amuse your vanity with such a purchase.

So, as practice shows, the ease of working with a laptop, surprisingly, is influenced not so much by the clock speed of the processor, but by its completely different parameters.

It is significantly more important for the user that laptops built on the latest versions of processors and corresponding motherboards have enhanced mobile capabilities (primarily optimized power consumption and management capabilities), which has a positive effect on their battery life.

Advice

If, when choosing a computer, you still intend to focus on the processor clock frequency (we do not recommend this), then use the “N – 2” rule, that is, buy a chip whose clock frequency is two levels lower than the maximum currently available . For example, if processors with frequencies (in increasing order) A, B, C, D and E are sold, then you should choose a model with frequency C. The reason is simple: “stones” with frequencies D and E most likely only recently appeared on the market and therefore, they are unreasonably expensive, and models with frequencies A and B are already outdated.

It is RAM that has a very large impact on system performance. A computer, even with the most powerful processor, will “toss and turn” extremely slowly if its memory is crowded with applications and data. In this case, the system will unload some of the currently unused data from RAM onto the hard drive, and when the need for it arises, load it back. The speed of data exchange with the disk is much lower than with RAM, so this process greatly slows down the system.

The amount of RAM required to work effectively on any computer - both desktop and mobile - must be at least 512 MB (however, this also depends on the operating system you want to use). Until recently, it seemed that such amounts of RAM were irrelevant even for desktop systems, but believe me, they will not be superfluous in laptops. More and more users are increasingly purchasing additional modules that expand the computer's memory capacity to 1 GB or more. Moreover, some laptop manufacturers have begun to include several models containing 1 GB of memory as standard.

Attention!

A sufficient amount of memory to work in the Windows XP operating system will be 512 MB. If you plan to use Windows Vista as your operating system, and even want to enjoy its three-dimensional translucent Aero interface, then you will need at least 1 GB of RAM. Do not forget that models with a video card integrated into the chipset will “bite off” 64–256 MB of RAM.

Hard drives for laptops are practically no different from those used in desktop systems. Nevertheless, there are still some nuances. First of all, they lie in the form factor of the drive. The most common size is 2.5? (Fig. 4.3). In addition, such a hard drive is much thinner than hard drives for desktop computers. There are even miniature versions with a width of only 1.8?. They are typically found in “thin and light” and ultraportable laptops, where component size is particularly critical.

Rice. 4.3. Hard drive for a laptop size 2.5?

In addition, hard drives for mobile computers have lower performance. The fact is that their spindle speed is 4200 or 5400 rpm, while for conventional ones it reaches 7200 rpm. This is done to reduce the cost, power consumption and size of hard drives. Writing to and reading from such hard drives is slower, but once you figure it out, you're unlikely to need anything faster. This speed is often sufficient even for capturing video from a digital camera.

Mobile hard drives also have slightly lower capacity - and this is the price for reducing their size. However, the situation is changing. Mobile hard drives of relatively high capacity are increasingly appearing on the market, although in this parameter they are still somewhat behind their larger brothers.

Mobile hard drives are connected to the motherboard through the same interface as their desktop counterparts. Choosing a hard drive interface is the task of the laptop manufacturer. Only in case of replacement do you need to know which new hard drive to purchase. By the way, the difference in performance when using one or another interface is almost unnoticeable, so when choosing a laptop you should not worry too much about which hard drive is installed inside: IDE or SATA. Almost all laptops produced today use the SATA interface to connect to the hard drive.

It should also be noted that usually mobile hard drives are more resistant to shock and also have a fairly large data buffer.

Today, most laptops are equipped with universal drives that can work with both CDs and DVDs.

The drives differ slightly in cost, so the installation of obsolete models in laptops (for example, combo drives that can read data from media of different formats, but write only to CDs) is not determined by anything other than the manufacturer’s marketing considerations.

Drives differ from each other in read/write speed, but this parameter has not bothered users for a long time, since the speed of any such modern device is more than enough for listening to audio tracks (both MP3 and Audio CD) and for watching video (and MPEG4 , and DVD-Video), and for accessing data.

The vast majority of CD and DVD drives have a tray for loading a disc (Figure 4.4).

Rice. 4.4. Most laptops have drives with a tray.

The mechanism of some drives is designed for top loading of the disc, which is familiar to us from many compact audio centers.

Some laptops feature slot-loading drives, pioneered by Apple. However, such devices have one drawback - they can only work with standard-sized disks; disks of reduced diameter, as well as media of other exotic shapes (for example, those produced in the form factor of a business card), such drives cannot reproduce.

In "older" models of portable computers - in most cases these are business laptops - CD and DVD drives are installed in modular bays. If desired, the user can remove the drive and install instead a second hard drive, a second battery, a drive of a different type (for example, a universal drive instead of a combo) or, to reduce the weight of the laptop, do not install anything, but simply close the compartment with a plastic plug.

When choosing a laptop, pay attention to how conveniently the drive is located. If it is on the front panel, then when you open the tray it will rest against your stomach (if the computer is on your lap) or make it difficult for you to move your hands (if the machine is on a table). Also, make sure there are no ports near the drive, as cables from connected external devices may cause problems when opening the tray, and vice versa. Most often, the drive tray is located on the side wall of the laptop.

When choosing a laptop, pay attention to the quiet operation of the computer's cooling system. The noise it makes should not disturb you, much less those around you.

The noise level emitted by a laptop during operation depends not only on the model, but also on the specific product. You can evaluate it solely with your own ears (as well as understand whether it is acceptable to you or not).

Note

Sources of noise other than the cooling system are the hard drive and CD/DVD drive, so when assessing the noise level of a laptop, you should consider all drives. Agree, noticeable rustling of the drive can spoil the impression of musical compositions or the soundtrack of a film.

By the way, cooling fans in most laptops do not turn on immediately, but as the processor (or other cooled component) heats up. Therefore, the laptop may seem completely silent when turned on. For the fans to turn on, you need to load the laptop with some task, for example, start playing a movie from a DVD.

Laptops may have an IrDA port, a Bluetooth adapter, and a Wi-Fi interface.

IrDA port common, but not very convenient to use. When using it, you need to place the “eyes” of the infrared ports located on both connected devices in the line of sight and at a short distance from each other (no more than 10 cm, no matter what the manufacturers say), and also ensure that they are almost completely immobile during the entire communication session. Even a slight misalignment of the ports will usually result in a broken connection. Therefore, it is practically impossible to use an IrDA connection, for example, in transport. Additionally, even when both connected devices are stationary relative to each other, a capricious infrared connection can break without any apparent reason.

Until recently, IrDA was the most common wireless interface. This port was found in most laptops, all stand-alone handhelds, printers, and most mobile phones. The latter is most important, since a cell phone is the most common means of accessing the Internet from a laptop. The data transfer speed through the infrared port reaches up to 115.2 Kbps.

A laptop may have two infrared ports: one for establishing communication with other digital devices, and the other for a remote control (Fig. 4.5). The “eye” of the port intended for the remote control is usually located on the front end of the laptop, but it can also have an external design (in this case it is “fastened” to the USB port). The remote control (in common parlance – “sloth”) is relevant when using a laptop as a player for audio and video files. The IrDA port for the remote control cannot be used for other purposes: it will not provide communication with digital devices.

Rice. 4.5. You can connect a remote control to your laptop, making presentations easier

Bluetooth– a device that transmits data at speeds of up to 722 Kbps, without a doubt, is a serious competitor to IrDA.

Using a radio channel to provide a wireless connection does not require placing the connected devices in line of sight. For example, you can connect to a phone without taking the device out of the case, print on a printer located in the far corner of the room, etc. Moreover, the connection via a radio channel is more stable than that established via an infrared port. In addition, Bluetooth has been successfully used to create personal access points. Models in which the modem - cable or ADSL - uses a Bluetooth connection to communicate with the laptop are becoming increasingly popular. At first glance, this solution looks overly sophisticated, but upon closer examination it turns out to be very convenient. Agree, it’s stupid to have a laptop whose mobility, even in your apartment, is limited by wired connections.

Wireless interface WiFi, also known as IEEE 802.11, RadioEthernet or, in Apple terminology, AirPort Extreme, is used for wireless access to a local network. There are many IEEE 802.11 standards. The data transfer speed through the most common of them – IEEE 802.11a – is 54 Mbit/s. The corresponding solutions appeared quite a long time ago, but were used mainly in corporate networks and only relatively recently became available to the mass user.

Today the word hotspot is probably known to everyone. This is the name for a public area with Wi-Fi coverage, that is, a place where you can come with your laptop and connect to local network resources (usually the Internet, but other options are possible). Access may be free, paid, or subject to certain conditions (for example, restaurant patrons ordering food and drinks). Today in the West, such points exist in all large hotels, train stations, airports and other places where mobile users are concentrated: in many cafes, restaurants, Internet cafes, libraries, business centers (see sites www.jiwire.com, www. wifinder.com, www.totalhotspots.com, etc.). Zones with Wi-Fi coverage (both paid and free) are becoming increasingly widespread in Russia. Sites with data on the location of such points in different cities (for example, www.freewifi.ru, http://wifi.yandex.ru or http://wifi.ru/) are becoming one of the most popular categories of Internet resources. One glance at their list is enough to understand: connecting via Wi-Fi is not a European or metropolitan “thing,” since an access point can be found in a more or less large city in any country. This means that having an appropriate adapter in a laptop with which you plan to move not only within your own apartment or office is an urgent necessity.

Note

The rise in popularity of Wi-Fi was largely due to the policies pursued by Intel. The corporation is actively popularizing this method of wireless access to Internet resources and promoting Centrino technology, an integral part of which is the Wi-Fi adapter. As a result, Wi-Fi adapters are found in laptops much more often than Bluetooth modules.

Most laptops produced today have built-in Wi-Fi adapters. However, if your laptop doesn’t have one, don’t worry: for almost any laptop you can purchase an external Wi-Fi adapter that connects to a USB port or is made in the form of a PC card.

All modern laptops are equipped USB ports, to which you can connect almost all modern peripheral devices. The USB 2.0 interface provides data transfer at speeds of up to 60 Mbit/s and is backward compatible with USB 1.1. This tricky term means that devices that support USB 1.1 can be connected to USB 2.0 ports, and these devices will work correctly, although the data exchange speed will not exceed 12 Mbit/s (that is, it will be the same as that provided by the “younger” version of the standard ).

It is good practice to equip your laptop FireWire ports(the official name of the interface is IEEE 1394, it is also known as i.Link). This interface is not necessary, but may be convenient when connecting peripheral devices with which intensive data exchange is carried out: digital video cameras, memory card readers (Card-Readers), external storage devices (both CD and DVD drives, and those based on hard drive), digital cameras with large sensors, etc. Data transfer speed via FireWire – up to 400 Mbit/s.

From ports of old formats - LPT,COM And PS/2(they are called legacy - inherited) - laptop manufacturers are gradually abandoning. This is correct, since fewer and fewer people work, for example, with printers connected via LPT and with mice using a COM interface. Thus, these ports are practically not used anymore, and the user has to carry additional cargo with him. Even if it is only a few tens of grams, and yet...

The exception is the PS/2 port. Its presence in a laptop is still relevant. Firstly, USB keyboards are slightly more expensive than PS/2 keyboards. Secondly, a large number of mice connected via this interface are still in use, and any user will prefer to work with a familiar manipulator.

All laptops are equipped VGA connector, allowing you to connect an external monitor or projector to computers (Fig. 4.6).

Rice. 4.6. Some laptops (usually models designed for professional use) allow you to connect two external monitors at once

Some manufacturers equip their laptops proprietary interfaces. For example, some ThinkPad systems (previously manufactured by IBM, and now by Lenovo) have a proprietary UltraPort connector, through which you can connect an infrared communication module, a Bluetooth module, a PC camera and some other devices to the system. Other companies also have their own interface standards. For example, ASUS laptops were equipped with a proprietary Ai-Box interface, allowing you to connect disk drives. However, the range of peripheral devices connected to proprietary interfaces is small, they are not widespread and are quite expensive, and therefore are used extremely rarely.

When choosing a laptop, pay attention to the relative position of the ports (Fig. 4.7). If their connectors are located close to each other, then it will be inconvenient to work: connecting one external device can practically block access to adjacent ports. As practice shows, there is no benefit from interfaces whose connectors are located one above the other: when a device is connected to one of them, the second one turns out to be inaccessible.

Rice. 4.7. The relative position of the ports significantly affects the usability

Advice

The laptop must have more USB ports; Legacy ports are redundant, FireWire is used infrequently (however, if you have a DV video camera, you need such an interface), and proprietary ports are generally irrelevant.

Modems for telephone lines are built into all modern laptops. We were unable to find any models on the market that lacked an integrated 56 Kbps modem.

Laptop modems are no different from each other; the achieved data transfer speed when using Russian telephone networks is approximately the same.

Of course, modems installed in laptops can send and receive faxes, but today this form of communication is considered obsolete and is rapidly being replaced by email. However, faxes continue to be used to transmit documents, images, greetings, etc., so the fax component of the laptop communications subsystem seems to be relevant for quite a long time.

It should also be noted that the usual modem communication is beginning to be actively replaced by ADSL and satellite technologies. Many users may not need a modem built into their laptop.

An adapter for connecting to a local network is present in any laptop. In most cases, this is 10/100 Ethernet, but today there are laptops equipped with Ethernet cards that support 1 Gbps connection speeds. There are no significant differences for the user between different laptop network adapters.

A comfortable keyboard is extremely important for comfortable work on a laptop! However, users often forget about this, paying attention to everything but the keyboard when choosing a laptop computer.

It is impossible to assess the convenience of an input-output system by eye, so before purchasing a laptop you should type at least a short text on its keyboard to understand whether it is convenient for you to work. Don’t expect any particular comfort when you first get acquainted with an unusual keyboard, but you shouldn’t experience any significant irritation from your fingers touching the keys. If the keyboard of the laptop you are planning to buy annoys you, it is better to try to find another model - the keyboard in a mobile computer is built-in and cannot be replaced!

Attention!

The laptop keyboard should not bend under your fingers when you hit the keys! A laptop computer with this feature should be discarded.

Additional tricks that improve the ergonomics of the keyboard are almost never used in laptops. Except that Acer sometimes places the keys on its models in slightly curved rows, but this does not change the situation much.

A laptop keyboard usually has additional keys (Fig. 4.8). They often perform strictly fixed functions, limited to launching certain applications - a browser, an email system, a program for establishing communication with a provider, etc. In some laptops, additional keys can be programmed for actions that differ from the default ones.

Rice. 4.8. A laptop keyboard usually has additional keys that can be configured to launch the most frequently used applications

There are two types of pointing devices found in modern laptops: the Touchpad and the Trackpoint mini-joystick. Some manufacturers install both of these devices in laptops, giving the user the opportunity to work with the one with which he is more comfortable at a certain moment. This is what Lenovo does, for example, which even gave the combination of these two devices its own name - UltraNav. Similar solutions are offered by Hewlett-Packard, as well as some other manufacturers.

In most cases, touch panels are installed in laptops. It should be noted that, in an effort to make the Touchpad as convenient to use as possible, manufacturers have made a lot of progress in the development of touch panels. Companies are experimenting with the shape of the panel, making it either round or oval, or curved, but these variations, although they give the laptop some individuality, are not so important for the user. Much more interesting is the increase in the size of the keys located next to the panel, which act as the left and right mouse buttons. Sometimes the left button, which is used noticeably more often, is made larger than the right one, and such a simple action has a much greater impact on the ergonomics of the device than changing the shape and size of the touchpad itself.

Some manufacturers add additional controls to the two existing mouse buttons (Fig. 4.9).

Rice. 4.9. The most common touchpad used in laptops is Touchpad, sometimes manufacturers add additional buttons to them

An interesting solution was proposed by Samsung, which built a scroll wheel into some models of its laptops between the mouse buttons.

Sony uses a navigation wheel on many of its digital devices, calling it the JogDial, but on laptops this additional pointing aid may be located far away from the touchpad.

Other companies install a rocker key in the same place, by pressing the edges of which you can also control scrolling. This key is less familiar to the user, but more efficient - the wheel gets dirty quite quickly and is not easy to clean.

Some manufacturers install a four-way joystick instead of a rocker, which allows you to move the mouse pointer not only up and down, but also left and right.

In addition, there are solutions for scrolling control that are not key-based, but Touchpad-based. Some manufacturers allocate one or two areas on the touchpad, located along the right and bottom edges, over which you can move your finger to control vertical and horizontal scrolling (the principle of operation is similar to how scroll bars work in Windows applications).

There are other solutions that take advantage of the touchpad, but don't deal with pointer control or scrolling. Toshiba, by combining a touch panel with an LCD screen, has created a miniature graphics tablet with which you can, for example, add a handwritten signature or other handwritten notes to a document.

The touch panel can only compete with the touch screen, which today is used only in convertible laptops and in some models of ultraportable systems. Most computers produced today do not have a touch screen or the ability to install one.

Despite the most interesting technical solutions used to improve the ergonomics of a laptop’s built-in point-and-shoot devices, most users consider a regular mouse to be the best choice, connecting it to the laptop whenever possible, that is, if there is at least a small area of ​​more or less flat surface in the workplace.

Advice

After purchasing a laptop, experiment with the settings of its pointing device. Sometimes this can make working on a laptop much more convenient.

Need I say that comfort when working at a computer is largely determined by the quality of its display? In a stationary system, you can always replace a monitor that does not suit you according to its parameters. With a laptop, the situation is different: the display of a mobile system can only be replaced by purchasing a new laptop computer.

There are different types of TFT matrices, but usually the user has no way of knowing which technology is used to produce his laptop display. However, this is not necessary: ​​the image quality can also be assessed by organoleptic methods (by eye).

What should you pay attention to?

First of all, the uniformity of screen brightness. On almost all displays, the image in the middle is darker, and at the edges (where the backlights are located) it is brighter, which is especially noticeable in low ambient light. The smaller the brightness gradient, the better. If the difference in brightness in the middle and at the edges of the screen is noticeable even in daylight, do not buy such a laptop.

On most matrices, screen brightness depends on the viewing angle. Here it is better to look at the screen a little from the side and from above. If the difference in brightness when changing the viewing angle does not suit you, look for a more suitable model. However, first consider how often you will be looking at the side of your laptop screen.

For most users, what matters is the display response time, that is, the speed at which a pixel transitions from one state to another. This parameter will also have to be assessed by eye. Quickly move the mouse pointer across the screen. If there is no noticeable trail behind it, then proceed to evaluation under more stringent conditions. Launch a movie (or game) on your laptop and notice whether a trail occurs when dark objects quickly move across a light background and vice versa. Modern laptop models have a fairly low response time, so most likely you will not see any cable.

Note

Parameters such as brightness distribution, viewing angle and response time are described by objective technical characteristics, but, firstly, manufacturers rarely indicate them, secondly, the data provided do not always correspond to reality, and thirdly, such characteristics are not easy to understand (for example, response time can be expressed in three different quantities).

In addition to the matrix characteristics discussed above, the aspect ratio of the monitor is of great importance. Until recently, the proportion 4:3 was considered traditional, which was once defined as optimal, but not taking into account the peculiarities of human perception, but because of the specifics of the production technology of cathode ray tubes for televisions. As soon as laptops began to be actively used as mobile cinemas, they began to be equipped with screens with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 or slightly less wide, for example 16: 10 (Fig. 4.10). Then it turned out that elongated screens are much more convenient when working in office applications. For example, they are well suited for viewing and editing tables with a large number of columns, they allow you to place an ICQ window next to the word processor window, etc.

Rice. 4.10. Larger format screens (even if not 16:9, but 16:10) are already found even in small laptops

By the way, if you are not entirely satisfied with the screen of the selected laptop, take a closer look at other models from the same manufacturer: different systems are often equipped with different matrices, and the parameters of one of them will most likely suit you. However, let us emphasize this once again, whether you are satisfied with the characteristics of the display or not, only you can understand by carefully examining the image on the screen.

Note

In our opinion, the optimal option for a general-purpose laptop is an elongated screen with a resolution of 1280? 1768 or 1280? 800 and a diagonal of 15?.

The video card of a laptop computer, like a desktop system, can be integrated (being an integral part of the chipset) or discrete (in a laptop it is still mounted on the same board with the rest of the computer’s hardware, but, in fact, it is a separate computer focused on drawing graphics).

The capabilities of the integrated video card are enough to work in any office applications and watch videos. By the way, modern chipsets can contain a relatively powerful video card that will even allow you to play many modern 3D games. Using a discrete card is only justified if you are going to run modern games on your laptop or work with 3D graphics.

For laptop computers, discrete graphics solutions are produced by the same companies that create video cards for desktop systems - ATI and NVIDIA. However, in a desktop computer, the user can easily replace the video card, but in a laptop, this is not the case. A powerful graphics card (as a rule, the larger the number in its official name, the higher the performance of the graphics subsystem, the more memory it has on board, the more realistic the image on the screen will be) expands the entertainment capabilities of the mobile system, but at the same time significantly affects the cost, size, weight and battery life (in fact, the battery has to provide power to two computers enclosed in one case) of the laptop.

The battery plays an important role in a laptop both during mobile use of the system and during stationary work. In the second case, the battery acts as an uninterruptible power supply.

The battery life of a laptop from a fully charged battery depends on several factors: the nameplate capacity of the battery, its condition (with aging, the battery capacity decreases) and the characteristics of the tasks being solved (high load on the processor and frequent access to storage drives lead to increased battery consumption). Laptop manufacturers have increased the battery life of their systems to almost eight hours: the user can work almost the entire day without connecting the laptop to an outlet or other power source. However, so far this feature has only been implemented in very expensive laptop models aimed at business users. In addition, even such portable computers can only operate for the stated number of hours when using a high-capacity battery.

You can increase the battery life of your laptop by activating power saving modes. In some models of laptop computers they are implemented at the operating system level, in others - thanks to software and hardware. However, energy saving modes are enabled in any case programmatically: through the driver and operating system settings menu. Sometimes it’s quite difficult to figure out how to control the modes on your own, so carefully read the user manual that comes with each mobile computer, and if it doesn’t contain the necessary information or there’s something you don’t understand, then contact the manufacturer’s service center consultants.

However, even in this way you can “stretch” the battery life of a laptop by no more than 25–30%. If this is clearly not enough, then there is only one way out - to purchase an additional battery. It can be standard or increased capacity. However, laptop batteries are quite expensive – usually about $100.

The least attention is paid to the laptop body when purchasing. By the way, absolutely fair. If a desktop computer can be placed in a different case that differs from the standard one in design, size, power supply, ventilation features, number of seats for drives and other parameters, then each specific laptop can have a case of one single form factor with strictly fixed geometric dimensions .

Two laptops in identical cases (maximum made of plastic of different colors) most likely have exactly the same hardware, and differ only in the manufacturer’s logo.

Until recently, case manufacturers used a variety of simple solutions to personalize laptops. For example, Apple released a laptop with a hole in the shape of the company logo (a bitten apple) cut into the opaque plastic of the back panel, which was covered with translucent plastic. The display backlight shone through this plastic, making it impossible to confuse the laptops of this company with their counterparts on the Intel platform in the semi-darkness.

Sometimes manufacturers in marketing materials focus on the increased strength of the outer cover of the laptop. For example, Lenovo talks about a high-strength titanium composite, and iRu talks about stiffening ribs in the lid, calling them a special rigid insert. Other manufacturers emphasize the presence of metal cases (usually magnesium alloy) on their laptops. However, in our opinion, this feature is completely unimportant for the user. Judge for yourself: the total weight of the system is of fundamental importance, and the weight of any individual component, including the housing, is completely indifferent. A metal case, of course, is stronger than a plastic one, but if the laptop is exposed to impacts that can split the plastic, then the insides of the system will not be harmed, no matter what material the case is made of. You should not place heavy objects on a closed laptop, regardless of whether its lid has a special hard insert or not.

For laptops built on PC platform, usually pre-installed one of three operating systems: DOS, Linux or Microsoft Windows. All three options (of course, we are talking only about licensed computers and operating systems!) have their advantages and disadvantages.

Preinstalled DOS(not the MS-DOS system, which has long been discontinued and is not supplied or supported by Microsoft, but one of its many clones) allows you to minimize the cost of the laptop. The license price for such a preinstallation costs a penny, and any user can install Windows on top of it. As a matter of fact, the only purpose of pre-installed DOS is to ensure the subsequent installation of another operating system or simply to demonstrate to the buyer that the laptop boots. You won't be able to perform modern tasks in a DOS environment, so you'll most likely install a more modern operating system on your laptop.

Distributions Linux, installed on laptops, are not the designer that most users imagine this operating system to be. Moreover, they are not free. These are commercial products, localized, prepared and maintained not by individual programmers, but by fairly large software manufacturing companies.

Such Linux distributions are distinguished by a rich set of application applications that come with this operating system. This includes an office suite, multimedia players, browsers, email clients, screen savers, and programs for viewing and editing graphics and videos... For example, the package that comes pre-installed on some laptops includes about 600 programs! The user receives a fully packaged computer, which contains everything: from a functional analogue of Microsoft Office to Adobe Photoshop.

Linux programs have a graphical interface that is similar to that used by Windows and Mac OS applications (Figure 4.11). Of course, Linux applications support the same file formats and communication protocols that competitors' applications use. The only problem for a user working with Linux may be connecting peripheral devices. However, if the operating system does not automatically recognize the connected device, then you can always contact technical support, whose specialists will either select a driver for this device from a set of available ones, or write a new one.

Rice. 4.11. The interfaces of modern operating systems are very similar: the same windows, icons, menus

For all versions of Linux installed on laptops by Russian manufacturers, there are local technical support services. They employ Russian specialists, and when communicating with them, the user, of course, will not have a language barrier.

Official preset Windows has undeniable advantages, the main of which is faster application performance. The increase in speed can reach 10%. In this case, the joint efforts of specialists from a laptop manufacturing company and Microsoft technical specialists are used to fine-tune the operating system, taking into account the specific configuration of the laptop. In some cases, you don’t even have to activate Windows: the operating system is already “tied” to the laptop hardware and activated. Not every user can optimize the operation of a computer so well on their own, so when buying a laptop you should spend an additional few tens of dollars and purchase a system with pre-installed Windows. However, this is only relevant when purchasing a laptop whose manufacturer is an official OEM partner of Microsoft. In another case, there is a possibility that for the same money you will get a laptop computer with a pirated version of the operating system, moreover, installed from a “crooked” distribution kit in a not the best way... Nowadays, such cases are happening less and less often. Most large trading companies prefer not to have problems associated with the sale and installation of counterfeit software.

Laptops that come pre-installed with the Windows operating system also come with a lot of useful software. Computers come with multimedia players, antivirus packages, CD and DVD burning programs, etc.

For laptops Apple must be established MacOS, which also comes with a fairly rich set of software: less than in the case of Linux, but noticeably more than for pre-installed Windows. The proprietary pre-installation of the operating system on Apple computers is one of the components that ensures the high stability of the operation of these computers.

LED keyboard backlight integrated into the display frame, allowing you to work comfortably in low light. Not all models have such a convenient function.

Apple equips the top models of its PowerBook laptops backlit keyboard, and each key is highlighted separately. The symbols on the keys are made of translucent plastic, and LEDs are located under them. This makes it easy to work in the dark. Such laptops have built-in ambient light sensors, depending on which the backlight intensity is automatically adjusted.

The solution is stylish, but quite complex to implement and not always convenient. Sometimes this backlight creates problems: at some light levels, the glow of the keys is comparable in intensity to the light reflected from the surrounding light-colored plastic, making it very difficult to read the characters on the keyboard.

By the way, you can always illuminate the keyboard by purchasing a USB light bulb.

TV tuner usually built into laptops positioned as home multimedia centers. Thus, along with the laptop, the user receives a mobile LCD TV. However, when purchasing a laptop with a tuner, check whether it receives programs in the SECAM D/K format, accepted for television broadcasting in Russia. This problem is solved in officially supplied laptops, but if you buy a “gray” system, then it is quite possible that its TV tuner will only accept signals in the NTSC format. As a result, you will only be able to watch broadcast programs abroad, and in other regions the only option for using the tuner will be connecting it to a VCR (the laptop can handle DVD playback itself). The TV tuner can also be purchased separately.

An interesting function is "player mode"– the ability to watch DVDs and play Audio CDs without loading the operating system. In this case, the laptop usually uses a specialized operating system (usually based on Linux) of limited functionality, which controls a single application - a multimedia player. This alternative operating system is very compact, so even if it is not “flashed” into the laptop’s memory, it loads almost instantly. This function does not have a generally accepted name, so each manufacturer calls it differently.

Some laptop models (usually in the cover above the screen) are installed PC cameras, (Fig. 4.12). A camera with VGA resolution (640 × 480) can be effectively used for the sole purpose of video conferencing. Of course, not everyone needs this component; in addition, a PC camera is easy to purchase separately.

Rice. 4.12. Some laptops are equipped with a PC camera

Every laptop has built-in microphone, although it is used extremely rarely; many users do not even know where exactly it is located and how it is activated. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the quality of the built-in microphone leaves much to be desired, secondly, voice communication via the Internet is not very popular here, and thirdly, voice comments on documents, which is what the microphone was originally intended for, have also not caught on here. Fourthly, the microphone built into the laptop case will also record well the noise of the fan, the rustling of the hard drive and the tapping of the keys.

Biometric security installed on some laptop models intended for corporate use. A fingerprint scanner is usually built into such systems (Fig. 4.13). Such a device costs a penny, but when installed in a laptop, it must be integrated with other equipment that provides secret functions - with a BIOS, a chip that encodes data on the fly on the hard drive, etc.

Rice. 4.13. Biometric security devices can be either built-in or external

In some cases, biometric protection is very relevant. This automatically solves the main problem with traditional password protection: the user can forget the password, but certainly not the finger.

As a means of protecting data, laptops are sometimes built into laptop computers. smart card scanner. The chip card is the key to access the laptop (Fig. 4. 14).

Rice. 4.14. The key to the laptop can be a smart card

However, if a smart card is lost, it can easily be used by an unauthorized person, so such protection is less reliable than using biometrics.