Laptop formfactors: A complete guide to every shape, use case, and special feature

Till about 15 years back, the term “laptop computer” suggested something: a portable PC that unfolds to expose a screen on one half and a keyboard on the other.

With the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, PC suppliers’ subsequent push into touchscreen styles, and the continued maturation of the PC market, the meaning of “laptop computer” has actually widened. Picking a laptop computer isn’t practically tech specifications and develop quality. It’s now about the essential shape of the important things.

Let’s attempt to break all of it down with a taxonomy for each sort of laptop computer you can purchase today.

Additional reading: PCWorld’s leading laptop suggestions

Clamshell laptop computers

The most standard classification of them all, clamshells do not turn, flex, or change. They simply concentrate on letting you deal with a keyboard and trackpad (or mouse) with the most effective styles possible.

Even here, however, we can specify a handful of subcategories:

• Touchscreen laptop computers: These permit you to control the screen straight while still looking like a routine laptop computer. Some routine laptop computers provide a touchscreen as an optional upgrade.
• Ultraportable laptop computers: High-end customer laptop computers with premium styles concentrated on mobility. These might be informally called “Ultrabooks”– coming from Intel’s early-2010s marketing push versus the MacBook Air– or simply “thin-and-light” laptop computers. HP’s Dragonfly G4 is our existing leading choice in this subcategory.
• Video gaming laptop computers: Clamshells with devoted graphics cards and other gaming-centric functions, such as adjustable keyboard lighting, special cooling options, and fancy styles. You understand them when you see them. Alienware’s m16 R2 is our leading choice today for a video gaming laptop computer.
• Desktop replacements: Much heavier laptop computers with bigger screens and effective CPUs, with battery life and mobility as afterthoughts. These tend to have some overlap with video gaming laptop computers, as seen in our best laptop computers for video modifying

2-in-1 laptop computers

Beyond the fundamental clamshell, lots of PC makers use laptop computers that can change into tablets for drawing, bearing in mind, checking out ebooks, and playing touchscreen video games. While there are lots of type of 2-in-1 laptop computers, they primarily fall under 2 camps: convertibles and detachables.

Convertibles

With convertible laptop computers, the keyboard area is completely linked to the screen, however it folds out of the method so you can lay the screen flat in your lap or on a table. While convertibles are much heavier and bulkier than removable laptop computers, they feel more like standard clamshells when utilized in laptop computer mode. (They do, nevertheless, tend to be bulkier than non-convertible laptop computers.)

Within the convertible subgenre, there are a number of subtypes:

• 360-degree hinge convertibles have screens that fold all the method around below the keyboard– a type made popular by Lenovo’s Yoga line
• Easel-style convertibles have rotating screens that set on top of the keyboard. These are rarer, however Microsoft’s Surface Area Laptop Studio and HP’s Elite Folio are noteworthy examples.

Detachables

With removable laptop computers, the screen part pulls apart from the keyboard and ends up being a standalone tablet. This provides you an uncompromised tablet experience, however with some compromises on the laptop computer front: Because all the computing parts need to sit behind the screen, it can be top-heavy and might require its own kickstand, so it’s more troublesome to continue your lap. Detachables might likewise be less performant than basic clamshells, whose elements can utilize all the area under the keyboard to dissipate heat.

Detachables themselves fall under a couple of subcategories:

• Detachables with kickstandssuch the Microsoft Surface Pro and Dell’s Latitude 7320 Detachablehave light-weight keyboard covers that snap magnetically to the tablet part.
• Detachables with hingessuch as Microsoft’s Surface area Book and Lenovo’s upcoming ThinkPad Plus Gen 5 Hybridlook more like standard laptop computers when docked. (The latter in fact has a Windows PC in the keyboard base and Android in the screen part.)

Exotics

Want something a little bit more uncommon? Laptop computer makers have actually begun try out brand-new type of laptop computers that include numerous screens or collapsible screen tech.

These gadgets tend to be much more expensive than standard laptop computers, and they can in some cases seem like options looking for an issue. It’s not uncommon for laptop computer makers to desert or upgrade their concepts after a generation or more, so these speculative laptop computers are best-suited for folks who do not mind residing on the bleeding edge.

Let’s break down the various types:

• Collapsible laptop computers include a single, versatile screen, whose 2 halves use a laptop-like surface area when partly folded or a bigger, freestanding display screen when unfolded. A different keyboard and trackpad deck permits interaction without counting on the touchscreen. HP’s Spectre Foldable and Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold are current examples.
• Dual-screen laptop computers change the typical keyboard area with a 2nd screen, maybe with an attachable keyboard and trackpad deck for input. Standing the screens up and utilizing the keyboard individually estimates the feel of having 2 displays. Asus did an excellent task on this principle with the 2024 ZenBook Duo
• Laptop computers with additional screens can supplement the primary screen with additional info, as seen with Asus’ ROG Zephyrus Duo 16
• Twistable laptop computers have a screen that turns around to supply additional performance on the other side. An example is the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 4which has an OLED screen on one side and E-ink on the other, with the latter targeted at notetaking, reading, and focused writing.

Author: Jared Newman