by Abby Way

Created on: June 14, 2009   Last Updated: May 22, 2010

When considering which type of computer to purchase, one of the biggest - and hardest - decisions you will make is whether you should go for a desktop computer or a laptop. Each have their advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of the reasons you might decide to opt for a laptop.

1. Mobility
The idea of a computer has historically been that you go to it, rather than it coming to you. This might be changing now with the influx of well-built laptops on the market today. It just makes sense to have a computer that is portable, rather than difficult and unwieldy to move. You can sit wherever you're comfortable, and if you have wireless internet, you can shop, pay bills, and communicate with friends from bed.

Students and businesspeople are also particularly enamored with these notebooks. Their portability makes them ideal for taking notes in class and communicating with business clients while traveling.

2. Lightweight
Laptops can be carried around without much extra weight. Some laptops weigh as little as a pound and a half. In fact, some laptops are even lighter than a bag of schoolbooks! Their increasingly small size and weight make them ultra-portable.

3. Battery life
While early laptops had a very limited battery life and tendencies towards overheating and conking out unexpectedly, batteries in today's laptops are much more stable and long-lasting. You can get hours of use out of your laptop these days without having to stop and recharge it.

4. Fully-featured
Computer desktops and laptops have very similar and high-quality displays these days. Laptops have screens as large as seventeen inches or more, and the actual technology is similar for laptops and desktops, with very little noticeable quality difference in the two.

Computer components have been growing smaller every year as computer companies find new ways to manufacture increasingly small processors and other components without sacrificing performance. This leaves more space for features like DVD players, CD/DVD-write drives, built-in webcams, microphones and wireless cards, USB and Firewire ports, external monitor ports, and more. All these features are packed into small, streamlined laptops, when they can be clunky and often require manual installation, if they're available at all, on desktops.

Laptop notebooks have rapidly improved and overcome their disadvantages, and they continue to become increasingly appealing machines for many reasons. Already, students and other groups are considering a laptop as standard equipment, and they will probably continue to become even more popular as time goes on.

Learn more about this author, Abby Way.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.