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I'm firmly in the laptop 'camp' and have been for the past four years. However, I recognize that the answer to the laptop vs. desktop question will vary from person to person, depending upon their computing needs.

As a Web designer/programmer for the past eight years, I've spent many a long night staring into a computer screen. Since becoming an active member of the 'telecommute workforce' five years ago, my only connection to my places of employment has been through a computer and a phone line. That meant reliability and power were the two elements that were absolutely crucial for me when considering what kind of computer to purchase.

This was once an easy question to answer, as a yawning gap in performance existed between desktops and laptops. With a much smaller area for internal components, laptops have always had a distinct size disadvantage compared to their much more voluminous counterparts. For example, laptop processors - which to a great extent determine a machine's computing power - were much smaller and less powerful than those typically found in a desktop.

In short, up until recent times laptops were considered little more than expensive toys that conferred exalted 'geek' status on individuals like traveling businessmen, but when serious work had to be done, a desktop was the only option.

The turning point, in my mind, came about with the advent of the paradigm-changing Intel Pentium M processors, which debuted in 2003 and were specifically tailored to the smaller working environment within a laptop. The Pentium M was a different kind of product for leading chipmaker Intel, as it was not simply a low-power, smaller version of the desktop-oriented Pentium 4. The processor was optimized for power efficiency, which is vital for extending laptop computer battery life.

The Pentium M was replaced by the Core brand, which burst upon the scene in 2006 in both Solo and Duo formats. The design of this processor allowed parallel computations utilizing both cores, giving the immensely popular Core Duo (and Core 2 Duo) a much higher peak speed compared to the single-core chips previously available for laptops.

With more powerful processors, although even the fastest 'desktop replacement' laptops cannot perform on the same level as cutting-edge desktops, the gap has been sufficiently narrowed to the point where many professionals are eschewing desktops and doing their work exclusively on laptops.

The advantages to choosing a smaller machine

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