What if you could use your laptop’s battery without ever needing to plug in, relying totally on the sun’s rays instead of a bulky, tangling power cord? Solar laptops existed in the past, but they didn’t catch on. So what happened?
Praise the Sun
Laptops are using less and less power with each generation; at the same time, solar panels are becoming more efficient. At some point, those two trends were bound to intercept, and for Samsung, that happened in 2011 when they launched the NC215S solar-powered netbook.
Netbooks are a bit of a footnote now. Still, at the time, these “good enough” computers offered basic computing functionality for a tiny price, making them perfect for students and other users on a tight budget. The Samsung Netbook integrated solar panels directly into the lid. According to Samsung, it could get one hour’s worth of charge from two hours of the bright midday sun.
The Problem With Solar-Powered Laptops
Samsung’s solar-powered netbook was a great device for a student who lived in…
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