Buy A Laptop That Lasts:
Consumers typically buy a laptop, netbook, or notebook with a few considerations in mind like:
- Pricetag $$$
- Performance
- Size
- Battery Life
You will notice that our list does not include upgradability, its typically not an aspect of a laptop that anyone thinks about. Consumers have it in their mind that what you buy is what you are stuck with. Upgrading is usually something that people think about after their notebook becomes slow, can no longer run their applications, or something breaks. To make matters worse laptop and notebook upgrades are usually limited to ram, hard drive, and with a big stretch the CPU. That’s all about to change . . . .
Shuttle is introducing a standard that will allow laptops, netbooks, and notebooks to be modular. . . down to the very last component. A simple swap of the motherboard now becomes possible and will completely upgrade your laptop extending its life indefinitely.
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This will change the focus that consumers take when buying a laptop from the list above to a new focus on buying a chassis that will travel with them for a while. Selecting a form factor, interface, screen qualities, keyboard, and look and feel will become all important. You can now concentrate on being happy with working on your laptop knowing you can upgrade easily at a later date.
How many times have you found a laptop you liked the look and feel of but didn’t like the performance after a year or two?
Here is what we are talking about:
So what about the future?
What this means to you the consumer is lower prices, ease of upgrading, and a platform that stays with you as long as you like. It also has the effect of making your laptop actually worth something to someone else should you want to sell it. We wouldn’t be surprised to see other vendors adopt similar platforms in their lineups and watch as consumers enjoy a whole new flexibility with their devices. A truely standardized platform would also carry over to components such as batteries, wireless, screens, and more. This could potentially mean upgrading your platform brings all new functionality as well as performance.
Stay tuned to TechwareLabs as we hope to bring you reviews of this platform in house soon, and again in a year with how an upgrade to this platform works.
About time somebody started pushing this. Mutually incompatible, proprietary layouts have been the norm for laptops for about 10 years too long. With few exceptions, this has no real benefit for the user, and often several detriments (hate the new keyboard, touchpad feels like crap, &c.).