Laptop vs Desktop

Laptop vs desktop computers, desktop vs laptop, the first decision a computer buyer needs to make is whether to get a laptop computer or a desk top. I'll explore some pros and cons of laptop computers compared to desktops here. There are a lot of people saying that laptops are as inexpensive and as fast as desktop computers. These people are either uninformed, or lying. Once you get beyond net books as compared to Intel Atom powered desktops, you are paying more for less computer when you buy a laptop computer compared to a desk top. Even with the Atom processors you are getting a bigger display, a full size keyboard and an optical drive (DVD burner) for the extra money.

When you compare a desktop vs. laptop at the bottom end at the Compusa website, the bottom end reasonable desktop with a 19 inch monitor cost about $430. You hit the first laptop that I would call low entry at $350. It is way slower than my 8 year old desktop, let alone the new one, barely faster than the net book. At $400 you get into the top low entry laptops. They a still quite a bit slower. At $580 you see the first laptop that is about as fast as the $430 desktop. At $600 you start seeing them regularly.

This is about as close as you ever get to getting as good performance for the price in a laptop vs desktop. As you get faster processors and video cards the price for laptops increases much faster than for desktops. At the HP Home and Home officer website you can purchase a desktop computer with a processor and a graphics card faster than any mobile processor and any single mobile video card available for a laptop for about $1050. Upgrading the processor that comes in the $600 laptops we mentioned above to the fastest notebook processor is $1000. Upgrading the video card would be another $500. The memory and hard drive would need upgrades too. Bottom line is for about $2500 you can get the fastest laptop available at the HP site and still not have as fast a computer as a $1000 desk top.

Okay, so you pay more for a slower computer when you buy a laptop vs desktop computer. That doesn't mean that there aren't reasons to buy laptops, though. There are pros and cons to laptop computers. We've mentioned the biggest con -- price/performance lag. The price increase as compared to performance is even greater when we look at the more popular smaller (less than 15 inch) laptops. Another con is battery life. This is another place where better performance costs you. The better (faster) laptops use more power. You can't believe the battery life numbers you see from the manufacturers. They don't use real life settings to get them. The third major drawback to laptop computers is one you don't hear that often. They break, literaly -- Not in the stopped working sense but in the dropped and in pieces sense. I've seen things that say as many as 40% of laptops suffer physical damage in the first year that costs, or would cost if the repairs were done, 30% or more of the laptop's purchase price. I have not seen really definitive numbers about this though, and I don't think the number is that high.

One of the biggest pros of laptop computers is the flip side and cause of this con. Laptops are more easily transported to where you want to us them than desktops. This is the entire reason for laptops to exist and the reason the smaller versions have become more and more popular.

The other big positive about laptop vs desktop computers is that they are yours in a sense that you really can't match with a desktop. Maybe its because you can just pick it up and take it with you if you want, but even if you password protect both a laptop and a desktop so that no one else can easily use them, the laptop feels like it is yours in a more visceral way. I've become convinced that this is the real reason for the popularity of laptops. Most people who buy them don't need to take them anywhere. Right now I'm working on a laptop that has never been turned on outside of my house.

Most people do not play new, top end games on their computers. Most people do not do extensive editing of video on their computers. Most people surf the net, down load music, e-mail and run a few Microsoft Office or equivalent applications on their computers and do little else. For these people, a $400 low entry level laptop will provide plenty of power and speed for their needs. While laptops are not as cheap and as fast as desktops, they are fast enough and cheap. The new push in laptops isn't in performance. You will soon have the opportunity to pay more for slower, smaller laptops with longer battery life. The laptop vs desktop debate has left performance out of the equation now.

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