Laptop Vs. Desktop: Portability or Upgradability?

With choices comes questions. Since the creation of laptops and desktops and them being available to a wide variety of people, a simple question has plagued our mind. A laptop or a desktop, which one should you get?

Think about it, the first time you were going to buy your computer, more than likely you were definitely confused on which one to get. You weigh out the pros and cons, its portability or upgradability and many other things.

Well to put a nail in the coffin for this question, we will be going through all the nitty gritties once and for all to find out which is the right answer. So sit back and relax as you will be going on a journey to find your answer.

What Makes Them Different

Now before we go onto the benefits and cons, let’s take a look at the key differences between the two. Laptops and desktops can have the same specs most of the time. The key differences lie between its form factor. Laptops are very portable and compact in size whereas desktops tend to be quite big and can take up a lot of your desk space.

Desktops however have much customizability. You can get a specific monitor you like, your own keyboard and mouse and much more. You have more freedom with a desktop but you will not be able to carry it anywhere.

But wait, do not make your decision by just reading their difference, below we will go into much more details on the advantages and disadvantages of them.

Benefits and Disadvantages

Alright, the section you have been waiting for, the benefits and disadvantages. Here we will take a look at the benefits and cons of laptops and desktops separately so that you can make your decision accordingly.

Benefits of Laptops

So starting off with the benefits of laptops, as mentioned above the key difference is its portability. Laptops are very compact and can be run without direct power thanks to their built-in batteries. They are in general a complete package and you can take your laptop to classes, your workplace or to even a cafe and work/do your assignments there. 

This is the perk that a laptop offers which a desktop cannot. They are also fun to watch movies on. With screen quality increasing by leaps and bounds it is no wonder people use a laptop to watch movies or series from their bed. Recently there has been an increase in rugged laptops as well. They generally tend to be a bit heavy but can easily take a fall or two without breaking up.

As mentioned above they are fantastic partners for travelling and working on the go. If you are looking for a computer which you can take with you anywhere a laptop is no brainer.

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Disadvantages of laptops

With great portability comes slight cutbacks. Laptops are not at all upgradable. Sure you can upgrade the RAM or storage at max but you cannot change its processor or GPU. This is a huge drawback as technology keeps improving every year and you will be locked in with the same tech for a long time.

What’s even worse for laptops is its repairability. Let’s say for desktops, if your GPU gets damaged, you can easily swap it out for a new one by watching just one youtube video. But for laptops, get ready to send your laptop to a repair shop and wait for a few days to get it fixed. As unless you know what you are doing, there is a good chance you might just kill the laptop.

And there is also the power to performance as well. As laptops tend to use less power they also provide less performance in general. Although this is not the case most of the time, running your processor to its max will lead to increased heat generation which is not always good.

Benefits of Desktop

Now with the benefits of desktops. With a desktop you get the best bang for the buck but without the portability. You can customize it as much as you want according to your needs. You want to build a cheap desktop just for your kids to browse the internet or just view emails, go with entry level processors and no GPU.

Also with a desktop you can get more performance out of your components, you can push your processors and GPUs to its limits with proper cooling or even better with liquid cooling. You can also pair bigger monitors with desktops to watch movies or contents with maximum pleasure.

In general you get the max performance, more customizability and better thermals without the portability with a desktop. A desktop is perfect for you if you do not need to move anywhere with your work and need solid performance for your tasks with great reliability.

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Disadvantages of Desktop

A major disadvantage of a desktop is that it is not at all portable. Let’s say you need your computer for a demo in your class or you have a presentation in your office. Carrying a full fledged desktop will be very difficult.

Desktops also tend to become very expensive at that point as there is literally no end to its customization. One other disadvantage you can think of will be that you need to buy a monitor and other peripherals separately. With a laptop you do not need to buy those as they are already built-in.

Which one should you get?

All in all there is no one true winner, both have their own distinctive qualities. Each one of them solves problems which the other cannot. Which is why there is no one true answer to this question. 

As you can see from the benefits and disadvantages explained above, if you need a computer that is portable, lightweight and can be carried around anywhere go for a laptop. But if you want raw power, absolute performance, max customizability go for a desktop.

Conclusion

Now that we are at the end of this blog hopefully we were able to clear up any confusions you had in regard to this topic. It really can be difficult at times to decide which one to get as each one of them have their own perks. While students may prefer the portability of a laptop whereas a gamer might prefer a desktop more as they require consistent raw power and more reliability.

At the end of the day the answer to this question will completely be with you depending on your use case. That was it for today, we hope that this blog was informative enough to help you get to a conclusion, we will see you again on another blog.