Laptop life expectancy. How long is it? With the speed things are changing, CD for DVD, HDD for SSD, ABC for XYZ, how often do you want your laptop to be replaced? Our conservative guess is 1.5 years, at most. 18 months before you throw your laptop away, replacing it by a newer, faster, better one.

Portable devices and, in particular, laptops are not easy on the environment — they produce toxins when they end up in landfills. But the industry, while encouraging to spend more, is at the same time trying to show that it cares. Computer giant Dell continues its ascent up the green path. Manufacturer’s latest goal is to become the first major computer company to become carbon neutral. Then Lenovo’s new ultra-efficient “Blue Sky” A61e PC can actually be powered with a portable solar pane. And regardless of the solar panel possibility, it is made of as much as 90% recyclable materials. With Green Plug’s intelligent power supplies, the charger facilitates communications with your gadgets, allocating the proper amount of juice and no more. Plus, you won’t need a zillion different chargers for all your gizmos, since you should be able to power pretty much anything. Z-Power has developed a battery technology that it hopes will replace the lithium-ion laptop batteries. Its silver-zinc batteries are said to provide less risk of damage or contamination than lithium-ions.

Yes, they care not just about terabytes, megapixels and inches - but about smart laptop power adapters that don’t waste as much electricity, batteries that are easier to recycle, and components made from plants. Asus brings us the latest in eco-friendly notebook design. The Asus Eco Book, as it’s dubbed, is encased in natural bamboo. Building computers out of wood is not new. Apple’s first computer was nothing more than a homemade motherboard inside a wooden box. But Asus had a much harder task, since the components of a laptop are so close together and heat insulation is an issue when something as flammable as wood is used. Apart from a bunch of homeless, anorexic pandas that rely on bamboo as their habitat and food, Asus will please everybody if the concept works.

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