Trends in laptops - Newest trends in Hong Kong laptops grow smaller and bigger both at the same time.

My newest backup model now is a 17" TravelMate 7520G ... the trend in Hong Kong on my just finished hardware shopping trip to Hong Kong showed 2 opposite trends in the laptop industry reflected on the dynamic middle range laptop market in Hong Kong.

We have a huge selection of ever shrinking laptops. Fully featured laptops with monitors far below the 10 Inch size, full mini-keyboard with all the keys and a regular key layout - except made for smaller hands - may be for cute Asian girls or kids ? Even small mini-laptops are more and more equipped with touch screen, wireless and many other features. Prices too shrink and most of these mini laptops are in the range of 500 US$ or even below.

The other side of the laptop development trend is a growing number of 17" and even 19" monitors for upper middle range laptops by many major global computer manufacturers. The selection criteria for my new Acer TravelMate 7520G was simple. I had my Samsonite dual laptop suitcase with me. If the 17" laptop fits perfectly into that second laptop compartment without stretching or tweaking, then I would opt for the TravelMate 7520G as a temporary substitute for the missing new Ferrari 5000.

Lucky I am and the Acer TravelMate 7520G fit exactly into my Samsonite dual laptop carrying bag. Perfectly without stretching. The 17 inch monitor definitely is a PLUS - a huge plus for all those who work many hours per day. Human eyes are made for full view angle and never for small computer monitors. To avoid eye and thus vision damage a working environment needs to be as close to the natural vision angle as possible. Thus the wider the monitor the more pleasant and the less tiring the working for your eyes. That fact makes the smaller shrinking mini-laptops questionable. The minis found on Hong Kong market appear rather to be expensive toys than professional tools.

The world is getting ready to be enjoyed. To enjoy life you need freedom. Mobility in computer work is thus part of freedom to work where you love to work and when you love to work. Hence the trend may continue in building better laptops, better monitors, higher resolutions, more brilliant colors and faster multiple processors. Laptops definitely are more energy efficient than desktops. Hence to reduce your power consumption and be greener a laptop will help you to support our planet's wellbeing as well as much as a laptop helps you to live more healthy by working at places you love and enjoy to be - amidst your family in nature.

Hong Kong's huge middle class laptop range certainly may serve as a representation of the global trend - to grow mobile for all types of uses, from traveler to professional, from small flash storage built in 8GB laptop to 160+GB full size professional wide screen unites - the range from smaller to larger grows. The choice is becoming affordable for all who think to need a computer for their work.

Another trend in Hong Kong and other Asian countries as well: More and more brand name laptops come with Linux preinstalled. Fine laptops need finest Operating systems with lots of affordable software and professional tools. Since fine Linux distributions such as openSUSE Linux some with a full set of free and professionally maintained open source software from complete office applications to development and graphical applications, the reason for that combination is obvious. Any other OS from silicon valley may result in the surprise that a full package of software easily may double or even multiply the original cost for your laptop or desktop computer. Buying a quality laptop / computer desktop for 500 to 1000 US$ is a fine choice. But having to add 500 to 1500 or more US dollars for a full set of professional office, graphical or development application takes all fun away from green affordable shopping.

My Acer TravelMate 7520G came with Vista uninstalled on the HDD waiting for the first boot. I left Vista where is rests best - on my hard drive uninstalled where it rests in piece, just as on my workhorse Ferrari 5000. The full installation of an openSUSE 11 Linux on TravelMate 7520G was fully automated with a few language choices to be made and all else was working out of the box. All hardware auto detected and auto configured correctly by the openSUSE configuration tool YAST.

God bless

hans