A laptop was once an expensive luxury that didn’t have the cooling or innovative hardware to perform well as a computer, but things have been slowly changing and the cutting edge laptops of today can rival the most powerful home desktop computers.

Laptops currently dominate the home computer market, outnumbering desktops two-to-one, but can they really do everything that you would use a desktop for?

Can a Laptop Do Everything a Desktop Can?

A laptop can do everything that a desktop can do. You can access files, folders, software, and websites on a laptop in the same way that you can on a desktop PC.

One of the biggest differences between newer laptops and desktop PCs is that desktops come with more ports to connect peripherals and still usually come with DVD/CD drives while newer laptops don’t.

That just means that you won’t be able to stick a DVD in your laptop to watch a movie.

But nowadays, with so many streaming sites for movies, shows, and music, there’s not much of a need to buy DVDs or music CDs.

And if you really wanted to play DVDs or CDs on your laptop, you could always hook it up via USB to an external drive.

While at their core, laptops are little different from desktops, their small size brings with it many limitations, and for this reason, they are not as feature-rich as desktop computers.

It’s true that electronics have been getting smaller with each passing year, but this doesn’t mean that their small size itself has made them better.

Not only is there a physical limit to how small circuits can be, which we are fast approaching, but these circuits being too dense brings with it a whole new set of problems, especially when it comes to heat generation, which can have catastrophic effects if not properly counteracted.

Because of this, laptop components usually don’t perform as well or live as long as desktop ones.

But for the vast majority of day-to-day computing tasks, you’ll be able to do everything on a laptop that you can on a desktop and vice versa.

What Can a Desktop Do That a Laptop Cannot?

Desktop computers simply allow for more cooling and more electronics, which means they can offer greater performance and a higher number of additional components such as storage, memory, and disk drives.

Their larger size also makes it easier to get at internal components for repair and upgrades, and more space for cooling makes them less prone to overheating.

At similar price points to laptops, desktop computers often have more power, memory, and features, offering better value overall.

Desktops Offer More Computing Power

The processors in desktop computers are usually more powerful than ones of the same type in laptop computers.

An Intel Core i5 processor in a desktop will have more cores and run at a higher clock speed than a Core i5 in a laptop.

A desktop computer is also a lot larger with much better ventilation and room for cooling fans.

In a laptop, everything is crammed into a tiny space, with limited ventilation and room for fans, and this can lead to significant internal heat when you are doing a lot of multitasking or running demanding programs.

Once the CPU or GPU temperatures reach around 203 degrees F, your laptop will start to throttle performance in an attempt to reduce internal temperatures.

And overheating can be an ongoing problem if you’re not paying the big bucks for the latest in laptop ingenuity.

They Offer Better Value

With all things being equal, you’ll pay more for components in laptops than you will for ones in desktops.

If you’ve been shopping for a new computer recently, and you’ve looked at both desktops and laptops, you might have noticed that for the same specifications, laptops tend to be more expensive.

And if you were especially looking for a gaming computer, that price difference would be even more noticeable.

It costs more to develop compact hardware that can still perform well in the cramped, hot body of a laptop.

And because the insides of laptops are so much harder on components, laptops almost always live shorter lives than desktop computers.

Related Article: 9 Reasons Why Chromebooks Are Great For Travel

They Can Be More Easily Upgraded and Repaired

Upgrading a part of your desktop computer is easy and largely intuitive. Take that side panel off your tower, and you have a clear view of everything.

You’ll rarely need more than a simple screwdriver to take parts in and out.

In laptops, you’re far more likely to encounter the scenario were to replace one thing, you have to replace the whole lot.

Desktops Stay Cooler

Extensive overheating is a death sentence for computers, and with a laptop, that extra heat simply has nowhere to go.

Even budget desktops will tend to have significantly more extensive cooling systems than most laptops, leaving them less prone to damaging heat.

Most people who hold on to desktops and laptops for years will almost always attest to desktops living longer.

Desktops Come With More Internal Storage

With the advent of SSDs, the issue of storage is on its way to being phased out for the main drive at least, but we’re not quite there yet.

Laptops generally only have one HDD and no space to add more.

With a desktop computer, you can add as many internal drives as you have interfaces and room in the chassis for.

They Usually Offer Better Gaming Performance

If you take your gaming very seriously, a desktop is a must.

With our current technology, even if you did stuff all the highest performance parts from a powerful gaming desktop into a laptop, the massive amounts of heat that would be generated would not allow it to function at its best.

The space in desktop towers allows for better cooling systems and more powerful hardware.

You Can Choose From a Wide Array of Display Types and Sizes

The display that comes with your laptop is the one you’re going to be stuck with until you buy a new laptop.

Even if you choose a laptop with a 4K display, you might be wishing you got one with an OLED display a year from now.

While there’s nothing stopping you from hooking your laptop up to a separate display, you would essentially be paying for two displays at that point.

With desktop computers, you don’t have to worry about that because you’re not bound to any display in the first place, and upgrading is easy and not always that expensive.

Desktops Come With More Ports for Connecting Peripherals

PCI Express, SATA, HDMI, USB – whether internal or external, a desktop gives you the opportunity to connect way more additional hardware.

If you’ve ever used a laptop with only one USB port, you know exactly what a huge difference this can make.

What Can a Laptop Do That a Desktop Can’t?

The small size of a laptop brings with it many benefits, from direct ones like taking up less space to indirect ones like using less electricity.

Their ability to be quickly and easily packed into a bag or just carried around outright is a massive advantage when working on the go.

Portability

The biggest benefit of laptops is portability. If you have to take a computer to school or love using it in cafes, libraries, on public transport, or just enjoy working on your computer in front of the TV, then a laptop is a must.

If you’re above a certain age, you’ve almost certainly had to move a desktop computer from one location to another.

Whether this was relocating a machine for work or taking your rig over to a gathering of friends to play multiplayer over LAN, you no doubt remember the dread leading up to it.

A 15-minute pack or unpack gets cut down to mere seconds with a laptop.

This may not be that helpful for gaming tournaments, but if you need your computer for work that’s very mobile, the portability is an absolute godsend.

A Laptop Consumes Less Power

Laptops use a lot less energy than desktops.

Not having incredible specs doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

If you don’t need them and never will, then it’s arguably better to not have them.

Less powerful hardware requires less electricity, which is terrific for both the environment and your wallet.

Access to Your Files When There’s No Power

Speaking of electricity, laptops don’t even need it to run! OK, that’s an exaggeration.

Your laptop can’t function without electricity, but it can do so without being plugged into a power socket.

Laptops come with batteries as standard, and the lifespans of these batteries only increase as technology improves.

Lost your data due to a power outage?

Want to watch a movie during a blackout? 

Itching for a game of minesweeper in a car (preferably not while driving)?

A desktop computer can’t help you with any of that, but for a laptop, it’s all part of the package.

Fewer Cables and Less Space Taken Up

Matted jungles of cables are a source of interpersonal discord everywhere from homes to offices.

Laptops can run perfectly with one cable or even no cables at all, as long as you recharge them when they need it.

They’re also not a source of clutter because of their small size and flat shape.

When Should I Opt For A Laptop Over A Desktop?

If portability is really important to you you should choose a laptop over a desktop computer.

If you like to do some work or web browsing while sitting in front of the TV or if you like to use a computer in coffee shops, on public transport or anywhere else outside the home where you can pass time or catch up on work, then a laptop is for one for you.

But you also have to consider how powerful a computer you need and how much you have to spend.

The high-end laptops coming on the market nowadays are insanely powerful and can rival even high-end gaming desktops.

But these laptops come with price tags that would make your eyes water.

One such laptop is the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3. 

It has dual screens, a thin-and-lightweight design, unbelievable power with a 12th generation Intel Core H-Series CPU, and up to a 1 TB SSD and a massive 32 GB of RAM.

A laptop like this will blow the doors off the vast majority of desktop PCs.

But when you’re on a budget, laptops have disadvantages compared to desktops.

You could pick yourself up a desktop for under $500 that could easily handle most tasks you’d throw at it and even a little casual gaming.

For similar qualities in a laptop, your budget would have to be $600 plus.

So, can a laptop do everything that a desktop can?

I don’t think you’re ever going to have a scenario where you are not going to be able to get a computing task done because you are using a laptop and not a desktop.

With external drives and other accessories, you’ll get things done on a laptop.

A more important question is do you need that portability?

If the answer is yes, you should go with the laptop.