Notebook design: ten things we love

Ambient light sensors
The screen consumes the most power of any notebook component, so the bigger and brighter the screen, the quicker the battery runs down. Although you can use power management software to set a lower screen brightness level when running on battery power, we like an idea seen most recently in Dell's Latitude E6500 (pictured), which borrows a trick from the mobile phone world: an ambient light sensor automatically sets the screen brightness to an appropriate level for your surroundings.

Another idea from the Latitude E6500 we like, which is also found in some Apple MacBooks, is keyboard backlighting. On the Latitude E6500 this can be turned on and off manually or set to automatically adjust as ambient lighting conditions change. A backlit keyboard makes it much easier to work in duller conditions.