Laptops and notebooks offer many advantages over traditional desktops. The most obvious is their portability, letting you work anywhere even when there's no power. Other factors include easy setup, compact size, and straightforward connection of peripherals. Although notebooks were once considered smaller and lighter than laptops, the differences between them are now minimal.

Operating Systems for Laptops and Notebooks

There are three common laptop operating systems: Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS. A Windows notebook with the Microsoft operating system remains one of the most common choices, well suited for general overall use. The Apple MacBook uses macOS. This user-friendly software is popular with the creative community and is very capable when it comes to graphics design and similar uses. Google's Chrome OS, used on Chromebooks, is a web-based system and suitable for browsing and social networking. This lightweight solution runs well on 4GB RAM laptops, and is compatible with Android applications.

Screens for Laptops and Notebooks

Screens vary from 10 to 18 inches. A small screen is light, easy to carry, and excellent for browsing, while large screens are more suitable for games, spreadsheets, and editing photos. Screen resolution varies between 1024 x 768 dpi and 3840 x 2160 dpi. A low-resolution screen is fine for browsing, word processing, and reading documents, while a higher resolution is optimal for viewing games, photos, movies, and highly detailed spreadsheets and documents. LED backlit screens produce bright colors and are easy on batteries, while IPS screens provide true colors and wide viewing angles. Windows 10 supports touchscreens commonly found on 2-in-1 convertible notebooks.

Laptop Portability

The size and weight of a laptop affects its portability. While a thin notebook is light and simple to carry, it often dispenses with bulky items such as a CD drive, large battery, and other peripherals. Many 2-in-1 laptops use this concept and have small screens, energy-saving SSD drives, and detachable keyboards. As performance and specifications increase, weight and size increase, and this affects laptop portability.

Laptop and Notebook Performance

It's important to match notebook performance to your intended use. For light-duty applications, such as browsing and document editing, a budget or mid-range notebook is more than adequate. On the other hand, if you need a machine for editing photos and videos and performing 3D design, or you prefer a gaming notebook, then higher performance is essential.

Factors that affect the performance of laptops and notebooks include:

Processor speed
Processor cooling
RAM
Hard drive or SSD access time

Mid-range multi-touch laptops typically use lower specification processors, around 8GB of RAM, and conventional spinning hard drives, while gaming laptops need fast processors, excellent cooling, and at least 16GB of RAM, and they perform best with SSD drives.

Whether you're in the market for a work laptop to perform daily business duties or a notebook for entertainment use while at home, you can find what you're looking for in the wide selection of laptops and notebooks at B&H Photo Video.