Notebook v laptop

You will have to search far and wide if you actually want to buy a laptop. All such machines are sold as "notebooks". Why? Because the word laptop would imply you can use it on your lap and continue to use it if it feels uncomfortably hot, until you get second-degree burns and then sue the manufacturer for damages.

That's what I heard anyway...

edit:
A 50-year old scientist, previously healthy, burned his penis after placing his laptop on his, err lap, for an hour. Oh, he was fully dressed in trousers and underpants, according to this letter printed in the Lancet, the UK's best-known medical journal. - Nov 2002
I woke up about fifteen minutes later with a burning sensation in my leg. I looked down and there was a long burn-gash on my thigh. The laptop vents for its internal fan were just above where it rested against my leg. - Aug 2007
 
Last edited:
SecretCode said:
- Nov 2002
Click to expand...

That penis burn must have been caused by one of those DTR notebooks
from the age of Netburst technology, ie it was a Pentium 4 machine.

Current ultraportables running on 1.06 Ghz processors are so power efficient
they don't generate so much heat.
 
There is no technological difference between the two. You can describe the "difference" as the two general sizes (ultra portable ie Asus EEE/ <12" vs mobile ie 14"+) as a laptop or notebook but if it's a mobile computer with a battery and a flip-up screen, it's a laptop/notebook. Don't sweat about it.
 
froot said:
There is no technological difference between the two. You can describe the "difference" as the two general sizes (ultra portable ie Asus EEE/ <12" vs mobile ie 14"+) as a laptop or notebook but if it's a mobile computer with a battery and a flip-up screen, it's a laptop/notebook. Don't sweat about it.
Click to expand...

The first portable PCs that came out with LCD screens - as against CRTs - were called laptops, i had an HP with a 20m HDD in the late 80s. It weighed about 20kg and was huge - that was a laptop.
 
I vaguely remember seeing those things. Lucky for us we now have micro-technology on our side.
 
Lay people tend to call any small (semi)portable PC a laptop. You basically get desktops, laptops/notebooks and pda's (your handhelds).
 
sn3rd said:
"Lay" people... lol
Click to expand...

Well any person who's new to computers anyway. I know I call laptops = notebooks, although as explained by someone above there may be technical differences, but for casual daily use these are quite irrelevant.
 
I work off two laptops - an ultraportable Fujitsu and a 'larger' heap of junk laptop from HP - AMD Turion 64bit etc

I think the word 'notebook' is just some corporate-PR-speak, to make the 'laptop' computer sound grander (and thus justify its high cost) - I tend to call both my pc's 'laptops' rather than the US word 'notebook'..
 
I reiterate my point above! Notebooks are exactly the same as laptops, just no one sells "laptops" because of the (minute, historical) fear of litigation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X