Hi, my primary computers are both laptops, I run a black 13.3in Macbook and an older IBM T30 thinkpad with Windows xp pro. Both laptops are purely for pleasure, I favour the mac over windows and my choice
of laptops is for portability. I have never owned a desktop so I dont miss any advantages it may have over a laptop. Regards Keith
Believe it or not I'm a 45 year old first-time college student in my sophmore year. I bought a laptop for mobility and the fact I will not have to rely on someone elses when I get a teaching job after graduation. I have seen the uses of laptops by my professors, and can see the benifits of maximum mobility!!!! those who have all the extras like external hard drives ect... may enjoy both worlds
I swear by laptops now. I like the portability and space savings. With my wireless router I can use it anywhere in the house and wifi hot-spots allow me to connect to the internet all over the world. However, there is a price for this convenience and that is higher cost. I find that I go through laptops every 2 to 4 years. Because desktops are cheaper and more powerful and probably more durable because they mostly just sit there and are not subject to the same wear and tear as a laptop, you don't need to repair or replace them as often. But even so I find the convenience and portability of a laptop to be worth the higher cost.
I truly don't understand why anyone, except possibly hardcore gamers, would prefer a desktop to a laptop anymore. My husband and I both have laptops and love them. Our desks (we're both returning adult university students) are set up so that we can leave the laptops hooked up to all the peripherals we love, but then when it's time to go to class we can easily unplug the cords and take just the laptops with us. When we return, plugging them in again takes less than a minute - and I have a LOT of peripherals to plug in! Our printer is a community item, and when one of us is ready to print we just carry the laptop over and plug in the USB. I have an extensive digital photo collection on my laptop, along with Vongo's downloaded movies and over a dozen casual games, and have only recently begun to run out of room. I plan to deal with this by storing my photos on an external drive, since I don't really need to be able to take them all with me everywhere, anyway. On the other hand, laptops have become so much smaller, cheaper and now have larger memories, that we're planning an upgrade this year which we expect will take us through graduation and at least halfway through graduate school. I can't imagine going back to being tied to a stationary desktop again. Taking our computers to class, and to the coffee shop and the library for homework, watching movies at Starbucks...all of these things make having a laptop more of a lifestyle accessory for us than anything except our cell phones.
I probably should've mentioned above that my husband and I got our laptops about a year and a half ago - they're both Compaq Presario V2000s. I got mine first and loved it so much he got one, too.
Also, my husband was just reading over my shoulder and remarked that he'd far rather give up his cell phone as a "lifestyle" device than give up his laptop.
I think he's right. So would I, now that he mentions it. There's no contest. I love my cellphone - but I'm married to my laptop.
laptop on the road and desktop at home and vol.work. I am on the road for two weeks at a time. I have the usual gear at home, photo printers,scanner and such. a all-in-one travels with my laptop. The desktop is easyer for me to repair/upgrade. The laptop gets used at home when the power is out, western New York
My laptop is my primary computer. However the desktop serves as a print server on the home network so i can other family users can print through the wireless network. Additionally if the desktop hard drive is shared, it is a good place to store pictures and other large space consuming files. Another benefit is when working from home, i have a KVM switch so that the desktop keyboard and mouse can be used for the laptop, and the monitor can be used as a DUAL display which comes in very handy to have a source document or e-mail on one screen and the reply or working document on the other screen. So my recommendation is to not throw away the older desktop at home, integrate it into the network and use it's capabilities
I would likely pick desktop. I can count on my desktop to carry any heavy load that I throw at it, be it multiple USB devices, multiple optical drives, burning, encoding, gaming, etc. The temperature in a desktop if it was hot would not bother me as much as it would if the notebook was hot. Just like everyone mentioned here, I can switch out all the components easily where as some of the components in a notebook I can't even get to. Way easier to expand on a desktop than it is on a notebook. It is definitely a luxury to own a notebook and nice to have one, but for my job and my entertainment habits I can absolutely live without a notebook. The other benefit of owning a notebook would be to save space, that's the only two advantage I can see a notebook having over a desktop (the other is obvious as it is more portable than a desktop).
I'm a system builder and my two desktop computers are constantly changing as I exell to the next level. However it looks so that my laptop (DELL XPS M1710) is my "work horse" most of the time and my Blackberry Pearl is my "road warrior" device, can't do whitout it.
Cheers.
K.S.
A computer whether a desktop, tower, laptop, Etc. depends on a person's need. Some use various pieces of computer equipment both at home and at work. I like a full tower setup that I put together myself. I like various games, multi-media and to be able to do complex business projects.
i treated myself to a laptop for the first time recently (after having used a pc for 11 years.) It is convenient but old habits die hard, and I am not sure yet whether I prefer the laptop to the pc. I am not a computer expert either, so I will continue to study all the advice i can get.
I have a lenovo thinkpad and a "brown box" PC
I use the PC to create my web pages and the laptop (if you can call it that, heavy bugger LOL) to view them.
I am thinking of getting a new laptop, but the new ones available from almost all the companies that make them seem to be geard for the kids that have nothing better to do than to watch DVD's and videogames. Not that I won't do either from time to time, I don't use a laptop for games and dvd's.
It is too bad that the laptop manufacturers seem to have forgotten that many of us still do actual work with our protables. I have a dvd player for dvd's and a ps2 for games (maybe a ps3 if they bring the price down).
add WiFi? ok, thanks. Add a huge hard drive and tons of RAM? uh, ok, sure. Add a DVD-RW? Uh, no thanks. Uses too much battery reserve. Add a wide screen? why? don't need it. Add an awesome video subsystem? why? don't need it.
Want my attention to your laptops? Add a EVDO card to it.
Maybe I am just getting old, I also don't see a need for a built in camera and mp3 player in my cell phone. . . ![]()
I will stay with a desktop as long as possible. Why? Because I find it better. Yes I may own a laptop, but that is for my on the go things such as audio recording and a PowerBook G3 500MHz is just fine. Plus you get a bigger screen sizing. And if the screen dies its not as huge of a deal to replace
I got my laptop just prior to having extensive neck surgery last summer because I knew I would be tied to the couch or bed for 2-3 months. For the last several years I had really come to rely on my computer to keep me in touch with the outside world as I am disabled with spine problems. I would have gone stir crazy if I couldn't get online! So I would have to say that I initially got a laptop out of necessity since I would not have been able to sit at my desk AT ALL for several months. HOWEVER....I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could do almost everything on my laptop that I did on my desktop! I use a wireless router to connect to the internet. The laptop came with a free basic printer (that does a surprisingly nice job for a freebie), so whenever I want to print something I just connect the USB cord and I'm all set! Although it only came with 512 mgs of RAM, it can be bumped up to 2 gigs, so it should do OK for quite awhile. That was important to me. The good thing is that I can now avoid sitting at a desk altogether, which was always hard on my lower spine anyway; So I can actually enjoy even MORE time online now than ever before! I have my little TableMate table right here at the couch and I use a small optical mouse so that I don't have to sit up straight for as long as I would need to if I was using just the keyboard or TouchPad. I use the AC power most of the time because it runs almost all day, every day; but it's nice to be able to unplug it and run on battery power whenever I want to use it in the kitchen, bedroom, or outside for a few hours! So, considering how little I have used my desktop computer since last summer, I guess I would have to say that I now use my laptop by choice rather than necessity. I love it and would be absolutely lost now without it!!.......Gina
Just purchased a Toshiba Satellite P100 core-duo centrino 2G
Changed eveything to a wireless router. Way more efficient, way more convenient!
Regards,
b.e.r.t.
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