Desktop or Laptop? This has been an age-old question that still comes up for debate in a lot of conversations. Whether you’re a student or working professional, gamer or developer, data scientist or video editor, the question comes to the mind of just about every buyer even today.

One thing’s clear that laptops still haven’t reached a stage where they could completely replace desktops. Even though they’re getting increasingly powerful and have the benefit of being portable and having a battery backup, desktop PCs continue to have their own use cases that simply can’t be handled by laptops. Let’s understand this in more detail.

Desktops Have a Cost Advantage

If we were to compare similar configurations, then desktops turn out to cost lower than laptops. So if price is your main criteria over other factors like portability, battery, etc. then going for a desktop makes more sense.

Portability

This is the distinct advantage of owning a laptop. You can carry a laptop around with you anywhere you go. So, if you need to show your work to others, like software developers needing to show the functioning of their code, then it’s best to show it on their laptop where everything has already been configured. However, portability isn’t always required by everyone. If you don’t need to travel a lot and most of your work is done sitting in one place, then it makes more sense to go for a desktop.

Compute Capability

This is where desktops clearly have an edge over laptops. Their compute capability is much more than laptops. A high-end graphics workstation, like the one from HP Z Series for instance, is much more powerful than a high-end laptop.

Moreover, regular tower based desktops have more space for upgrades as compared to laptops. You could for instance, add a more powerful graphics card in a desktop, which is just not possible in laptops. Similarly, you could add multiple components inside a desktop, like multiple hard drives, an optical drive, etc.

Display Size

This is clearly an area where desktops are more preferable over laptops. Desktops have a much larger screen by default as compared to laptops. Moreover, you can replace it with a larger screen or even connect multiple displays depending upon your work.

So, if you’re into video editing, animation, or running other professional engineering applications, then you clearly need a desktop. Gamers also looking to enjoy their game play to the fullest would prefer a desktop with a large screen.

Keyboard

Desktops have a variety of keyboard types according to the user’s requirements. Desktops can have standard keyboards, which include a number pad or maybe without it. The standard keyboard keys have a 15.5mm x 15mm size and have the space key (or key travel) around 3.3mm to 3.8mm.

Whereas, laptop keyboard only depends on the size of its screen. Smaller laptop screens have smaller keyboards and don’t have a number pad. Standard laptops often don’t consist of keys that desktop has. Larger laptops have larger keyboards, similar to a desktop keyboard, and may include a number pad, but with a larger keyboard comes the limitation of bulkier and heavier laptops.

Power Usage

Desktop computers consume more power than laptops as they have more power hungry components inside. That’s why, you must buy a UPS for a desktop PC to keep it safe from power outages and fluctuations. A laptop on the other hand is safe from all that because of its battery backup.

Warranty, After Sales Service, and Repair

Here, it doesn’t really matter whether you choose a desktop or laptop if you purchase from a reputed brand, like HP for instance. Just read the warranty information more closely to see what all is covered under it. HP for instance, offers 3 years warranty on its business laptops.

Similarly, you should check the ease of accessibility of the vendor’s service and support network near your area. Here again, HP has one of the largest service and support networks in the country.

There can be many other factors to consider when deciding between a laptop of a desktop PC. They will differ based on the specific use case, like graphics and animation, education, gaming, software development, etc. We shall cover those in our upcoming blogs.

Check out https://store.hp.com/in-en/default/hp-business-offers for more details.