Smart Tech Tips

A trend that I’ve observed which seems harmless on the surface is really becoming a problem on laptops. Screens that get crushed due to accidental closure with something in the way. May it be a pencil or a stack of sticky notes, a few mini-seconds and you’ve got a broken screen and a costly repair. This seem to occur more and more lately due to laptop design that is ‘hip’ instead of practical. In the old days, YOU control when and how much the screen closes. There was also a latch to keep it closed when it’s shut. These days on most laptops if you close it 2/3 of the way, a spring or magnet helps you the rest of the way. This mechanism won’t know if a pencil or any other object is on your keyboard that could potentially harm your screen. In addition, since the laptops doesn’t have latches anymore, objects can get embedded in between screen and keyboard during transit, just waiting for a little force to turn your bright new screen into a ink blot with pieces of glass when you open it. One jolt on a bumpy road can send your laptop screen to go flying a few inches from the base and slam back down with dire consequences.

Luckily my favorite brand of laptop still does it right, the IBM Thinkpad X series.

For those of you unfortunate to have a latch-less venus flytrap clamshell notebook, all I can recommend is be extra vigilant when you close it and make sure you put it in something that keep both screen side and keyboard side firmly shut during transit.