What's the difference between a laptop and a notebook?

Question

What make and model would you recommend for wireless connectivity and playing DVD's? Where should i start? Many thanks good people.

Answer 1

basicly the name altho notebooks are generly thinner

Answer 2

There is no essential difference, although in general a laptop is bigger than a notebook.

From a marketing point of view, a laptop does the same sort of things as a desktop PC but is more portable. Laptops used to be less powerful, but now the major issue is that thay are more difficult to make and therefore more expensive (they also tend to be harder to upgrade). A notebook, however, is smaller and, at any rate as originally intended, was designed to be orientated towards functions such as word processing, spreadsheet, address book and email that a business person on the move would want.

In terms of what you want, either a notebook or a laptop can give you the wireless connectivity. However, if playing DVDs is an important consideration you want a machine with good speakers and a high quality screen. This suggests laptop rather than notebook. The quality of both speakers and screens is one of te thngs that improves as you pay more, so what to reommmend would depend upon your budget.

My first suggestion would be that you go to a newsagent and buy a computer magazine. You will find that this has adverts for all the major manufacturers that you can look through and from which you can find the website details to browse (and order online should you wish).

Answer 3

I wondered that too. It appears some manufacturers call them laptop and some call the note books! I bought a HP Pavilion DV5157eu with 1 gig of memory, 100 gig HDD, DVD re-writer drive and built in wireless. I was offered a router with it but it was DSL and I needed ADSL. DSL is cable, ADSL is if you connect via a phone line through a micro filter. I paid around £700 and I added a DVB stick to plug in the USB port to watch TV in bed! Bad points: All the software is pre-installed no CD's. 10% of your HDD is partitioned as a back up. It does have a card reader for SD cards etc and a remote control for when you play music and watch DVD. MS Works 8 came with it - rubbish after using Office! I went through Mypoints for the points and found Comet was best price.

Answer 4

Two main differences - size and performance

Laptops are generally designed with maximum portability and a compact design as the highest priority

Notebooks are more commonly being targeted to the "power" users who are after a decent compromise btwn portability and power. More than ever before, many notebooks are giving even some of the high-end PCs a run for their money; both in their speed and over-all capabilities.

As to preferences - HP is pretty average (or at least their customer service is). I wouldn't touch Dell or Acer with a ten-foot pole. Toshiba or IBM are the two most reliable and best -value in my boat, although Sony in all fairness is getting better as well.

Just be careful if looking to play DVD's to do your homework on Blu-ray V's HD DVD, to avoid getting stung in the long run, as most do not support BOTH formats

Never been a fan of Macs (more to do with the superiority complex of the community itself admittedly) but that's always a matter of personal preference.

Answer 5

Notebooks tend to to refer to smaller, thinner laptops. The majority are wireless, have DVD's etc, it really is largely semantics. If this is a desktop replacement then probalby go for a larger laptop with a decent sized screen and keyboard. If portability is key go for a small Notebook... Operationally wise, they all do much the same.

Answer 6

I recommend HP...but I've heard great things about Dell as well. There is no difference between laptop and notebook...same thing. When buying just make sure it has a DVD player and nowadays all have wireless conneciton.

Answer 7

Nothing really. Any model from Apple, Dell, HP or Sony would work, however if you are going to watch alot of DVDs get the biggest sceren you can afford, which will make the laptop heavier.

Answer 8

A notebook is basically the same as a laptop, only it can be available with a thing on the back and a special pen that you can write with on it.

Answer 9

The difference is product liability.

Portable computer manufacturers stopped calling them "laptops" because they were getting sued for injuries caused to people's laps from the heat.

I'd go with a Dell. My last 3 computers were Dells.

Answer 10

No hard rule but notebooks tend to be smaller and lighter than laptops - but those names haven't really been meaningful for 5 years or so.

Buy a MacBook or if you can afford it a MacBook Pro.

Answer 11

A notebook is a little slimmer in size then a laptop.