The Latest Trends in Notebooks

In technology it seems that most products’ lifespan follow the same pattern. Products evolve by becoming smaller, more advanced in capability, and/or cheaper. All three of these characteristics can be seen in the evolution of the notebook. Over the years advancements in the hardware and software have made it possible for smaller, lighter, more advance notebooks. Additionally, as technologies become more prominent, prices seem to drop even lower. All of this is good for both manufacturers, who gain economies of scale, and for consumers, who can buy more for their money.

Accordingly, one of the latest trends seen in portable notebooks is to be extremely light weight and thin with a high degree of capabilities. This past month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV, microprocessor company AMD announced that its Athlon Neo platform will make its first appearance in HP Pavilion Dv2 12.1 Notebook. The advanced Athlon Neo processor carries enough power to support Windows Vista and MediaSmart software on the notebook. In addition, the Pavilion Dv2’s CPU runs at 1.6GHz and is paired with ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics. All of this matched with the Pavilion Dv2’s ability to support external Blu-Ray Disc, will soon make HP Pavilion the best notebook for delivering high quality entertainment to its user.

HP Pavilion Dv2’s pricing starts at about $699. Though this price doesn’t follow the trend of becoming cheaper in the greater scheme of all notebooks (most midlevel notebooks are priced at about $500), it is important to remember that the Pavilion Dv2 is one of the first of its kind and its price will probably drop over the next few years. And if not, another company is sure take advantage of a like technology and come out with an equal computer at a lesser value. Furthermore, HP is not the only company currently producing light weight notebooks, Sony, Panasonic, and Apple are also name brand companies working to produce smaller laptops with bigger functionality. So if you are in the market for a new laptop, stay up to date with all of the newest technologies hitting the market and you will be sure to find great deals for your money.