Notebook v/s Desktop

How important is the portability to you? Do you really need to take the machine with you? For many businesspeople, the answer is a resounding "YES!" However, some folks (including myself once, many years ago) talk themselves into buying notebooks by greatly overestimating how much traveling they will do, or based upon romantic notions of writing the Great American Novel on the beach in the moonlight. Unfortunately, that's not how things usually work out in the real world. :^) So be sure to be honest with yourself about your portability needs.

To be fair, there's one other important and usually overlooked advantage of notebooks that should be discussed: they come with LCD screens. Many people find LCD screens "night and day" superior to conventional PC CRTs, including this author. These screens are expensive, and their presence on a notebook PC is one of the reasons for the increased cost of notebooks. Now that LCD monitors are available for desktop PCs, and people are seeing their very hefty price tags, buyers are starting to better understand part of the reason why notebooks are so expensive. At any rate, if you are an LCD screen lover like me, be sure to add in the cost of a desktop LCD monitor into your comparison of desktops and notebooks; it will greatly narrow the cost gap (though the other limitations of notebooks will remain). If you haven't used an LCD screen before, compare one to a CRT sometime--you may find yourself hooked! :^)

Of course, the LCD screen on notebooks is also part of the reason why they use so much less power than desktops.

But Desktop is no less than Notebook,, With rare exceptions, new technologies show up in desktop PCs at least six to twelve months before they make their way to notebooks. Notebook users are always "behind the technology curve" relative to desktop users.
When ordering a new notebook you will have fewer options for customizing your configuration than you will for a desktop. Most notebook manufacturers have a number of different standard configurations from which you can choose, but limited options beyond that point
Most desktop PCs provide better performance than notebook PCs in addition to being cheaper. For example, you can't get at any costa standard hard disk for a notebook that is as large as the ones shipping in better desktop setups. You can't get a 10,000 RPM hard disk for a notebook. You can't get a 21" monitor; etc.
Many people use a notebook as their only PC today, and for some they offer advantages that make them very worthwhile. However, notebooks also represent a trap that far too many people fall into.