Laptop or Tower?

[Shadow]

I need a new PC, as this one is about to expire. Am considering a laptop. Advantages are obvious - mostly portability.
What are the disadvantages of a laptop? All other things being equal i.e. inside spec techy stuff, RAM etc.
I am far from techy, no gaming, no streaming, mostly email, traversing the web and some work spreadsheet stuff.
What thinks the CC PC experts?

 

[Cycleops]

I'd say you don't need either. Looking at your needs a good tablet, or even a Chromebook would be perfect for you, unless you need to do intensive tasks like photo or movie editing.
I have a iPad air and it's just a joy to use, the OS is simple and intuitive to use. I recently bought a 15" MacBook here because I wanted to try one, it's old but works fine but I can't wait to get to my iPad as it's much faster and less fussy to use. I think most are enabled for mouse and you can connect a keyboard if you wish.
You could of course buy an android tablet but the OS is not so easy to use. It's not made for tablet use, rather for phones.
The base iPad now has very good specs and a reasonable price point. I'd recommend the 10".
I bought one of our teenagers a Chromebook recently and that is great to use if you don't mind being wedded to Google and you must be on line. It's dual purpose with a keyboard and a touch screen so you can use as a laptop or tablet. Very inexpensive.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I brought one of these recently.

https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/product/small-form-factor-i3-desktop/

 

[Cycleops]

@dave r and.....

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I can't tell you the differences between a tower and a laptop (and presume they can change from unit to unit) but if

mostly email, traversing the web and some work spreadsheet stuff.

is all you want then a Chromebook is a cheap and versatile way to do it. Of course, it needs to be online to use it properly - but easily tethered to a mobile and if you're Google averse then it's not for you

I'd suggest you log everything you do on your current machine for a while just to be sure of what you use it for and any particular programs you may use.
Maybe talk to the IT folks at work and ask for their input.

I could never do "proper" work on a tablet. I need a proper keyboard.


Good luck!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Disadvantage of laptop is the price to spec will be inferior to a tower. Less powerful cpu, less memory, less disc space per £ etc.

What wrong with the current PC, that makes you think it’s about to expire?

 

[Dolorous Edd]

Spreadsheets are a lot easier on a big monitor. Mind you, you can buy one that plugs into a laptop for little more than £100.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

@dave r and.....

Its very good, a big improvement on my eight year old tower, used for internet, E-mail, a little bit of office, films and catch up TV, I've got a 27" monitor hooked up to it.

 

[marzjennings]

Get the laptop where keyboard, screen and mouse are already included. Yes if you need the horsepower and want the best bang for the buck then a desktop will be better value. But you'll still have to buy all the peripherals and you can't carry it anywhere.

 

[Seevio]

Do you do whatever it is you do in one place or do you need to do it in many places?
One place: get desktop.
Many places: get laptop.

If portability isn't an issue, a desktop solution will always be cheaper and easier to use than a laptop. Bear in mind that a desktop solution does not necessarily mean x86. If a chromebook would meet your needs, you could get the same thing with a bigger screen and a proper keyboard/mouse by using a raspberry pi.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

Intuitively it is obvious that a laptop should be more expensive than a desktop, but if you don't care much about spec in practice laptops seem to be cheaper! More in sales, on special offer etc.

I switched to a laptop with external keyboard, mouse and monitor for main day to day use in the late 1990s, altough I still bought desktops for server use and see why power users would still do so.

Given that you don't seem to need anything powerful, the only warnings are be cautious of very cheap laptops as;

If your current machine is pre Win 10 you may be shocked how poor Win 10/11 are with a spinning hard disc. SSDs are now essential, just how we got this position is another topic !​

​

Really cheap laptops may come with tiny 128GB SSDs which are very easy to fill up.​

​

Everything is memory hungry and even your modest needs would be 8GB​

​

CPUs are expensive and the really cheap laptops may be have skimped a bit too much in this area,they won't be a disaster but they may be irritating.​

Argos have this for https://www.argos.co.uk/product/5250233?clickSR=slp:term:laptops:1:243:1 HP 15s-fq0123na 15.6in Celeron 4GB 128GB Laptop - Silver, £250 but I wouldn't buy it.

Also lookup Windows S mode, it is designed for non enthusiasts but comes with issues or not depending on who you are.

Bye

Ian

 

[raleighnut]

Desktops are easily repaired, Laptops/tablets not so easy

 

[cougie uk]

I love my Chromebook. Very cheap. Good battery life. SSD so silent.
Does everything I want it to.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I tried a Chromebook a few years back and it was ok but had random issues that ended up with me wiping it and giving it away. I remember reading about people finding their models were no longer supported although they had not had them for many years.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebook-6-years-expiration

 

[chris667]

Chromebooks are OK if you don't mind doing everything on the cloud (or to put it in a less generous way, someone else's computer). If you don't like their T&Cs, you can't use it. If you don't want to use it beyond the end of its update cycle, you can't use it. If the providers of the cloud service decide to not provide it, you're out of luck.

Google has a history of removing support for things arbitrarily. There were organisations that spent millions on Google Cloud Print, for example, then it just went away.

Desktop for me if you can avoid a laptop. You can get an ex-corporate one from eBay for about £100 which will do everything you want. When it breaks, buy another. You could pay a bit more and buy a similar laptop, but they are not as nice to use and as they aren't modular if something goes wrong - I can buy a monitor if my screen packs up, for example.