What is the difference between laptop and PC?

Answer 1

Nothing, well a tablet needs a touch sensitive screen, because you do usually not have a keyboard and mouse.

A laptop has a keyboard and a pointing device, but can have a touch sensitive screen, and this screen may also be made so that it flips over and cover the keyboard and the pointing device - as on a tablet.

I led a company that discovered it was cheaper to make prototypes of tablets using laptops, so we bought spare parts for a laptop, fitted a touch sensitive screen to this, with a driver that made it look as if it was the good old screen, coded a keyboard for the screen, and had a demonstration unit that we did not have to design and prototype in China, could make one in the laboratory and fit in our own casing, power supply and batteries. Showing it to prospective buyers worked fine, they did not demand to see the internals.

I see that Android tablets can easily be equipped with both keyboard and mouse, and also the iPad. some of these keyboards are in the cover, so attached to the tablet while this is protected. So maybe the difference is that a tablet can a laptop, while most laptops cannot be a tablet?

Answer 2

Most people use the terms notebook and laptop computer interchangably. Once it's not sitting on top of your desk every portable computer instantly becomes a notebook or laptop regardless of its configuration. There are, however, some very big differences between notebook and laptop computers.

This article is being written on a laptop computer as a matter of coincidence.

Let's look at the notebook computer first. A standard notebook has the following features:

1. Ultralight. Less weight is better.

2. 4 hours+ battery life.

3. No internal floppy drive.

4. Minimal graphics subsystem.

5. No internal DVD or CD system.

6. 12" - 14" TFT screen.

7. Low profile (thin).

8. Integrated modem and network connection.

9. Smallest possible keyboard that retains functionality.

10. Low power consumption Celeron or Centrino style processor.

In essence a notebook computer is designed to provide mobile computing that won't break your back yet still offer all the power the mobile users requires for work and some leisure pursuits. This portability normally comes at a price. The level of minituarization involved comes at a cost and high end notebooks can prove to be quite expensive.

Now for the laptop computer. Again look at the name. A laptop is designed to sit on your lap and you can therefore expect it to be quite large and loaded down with features and power.

The standard laptop computer would have some ,if not all, of the following features:

1. 14" - 17" (widescreen) TFT screen.

2. Nvidia GeForce or ATI Radeon graphics subsystem.

3. Internal DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drive

4. Large full featured keyboard.

5. 2 hour+ battery life.

6. Upgradeable.

7. Integrated modem, network and Wi-Fi capabilities.

8. High quality integrate audio and speaker system.

9. Low power consumption, high performance Intel Centrino style processor.

From reading the above information you'll see that the notebook is the exact opposite of the laptop. Notebooks offer reasonable power and extreme portability. Laptops are designed to be capable of replacing an entire desktop PC if necessary whilst still offering desktop performance in a mobile platform.

Answer 3

In just about every other way, laptops are the same as desktops. They all have a CPU and a GPU, some RAM and a motherboard, and except for differences in performance, they are essentially identical.