Do Laptops Need to be a Pain in the Neck?

Image: source

Irrespective of where we place a laptop when we use them, they’re usually well aligned with our arms and hands. This helps make typing relatively effortless. However, have you noticed how the screen is almost never aligned with our head and neck? Depending on the time you spend on the laptop, this causes a sustained strain on the neck, eyes an back.

We already have flexible and “yoga” laptops with touchscreens available today. So what if laptops had height adjustable screens too? With the technology already available, making this small design improvement should not be a challenge.

What is needed, is a laptop with an adjustable screen height and tilt (by letting it rotate across its horizontal axis). This could help enable an effortless working position for the user, irrespective of where the laptop is placed.

An area of concern to address:

• As the screen is raised, the centre of gravity is considerably raised, which might cause frequent toppling over. Perhaps 1-2 small, retractable legs (like those on tripod stand) would help prevent any tipping over. Slight raising of the rear base of the laptop too might help.

Just a crude depiction of what it might look like. A single, central stem might make sense for smaller/ lighter screens.
After this intermediary idea comes the obvious – separate screens and keyboards. And while there are several tablets and Bluetooth keyboards in the market, you don’t often see people using them, at least outdoors.