The term laptop is used to refer to several types of computers that have become popular recently. These include desktop computers, notebooks, netbooks, workstations, and other hand-held devices. Basically, a laptop or notebook computer is simply a mini, lightweight personal computer with a cashew shaped, usually flat, screen, usually having either an LED or LCD computer screen installed in the top half of the cashew shell and an external keyboard on the lower half of the cashew shell. Often, the cashew shape is based on that of a laptop.
Laptops are generally much smaller than notebooks, sometimes being only about the size of a book, though there are some exceptions. Most modern day laptops are roughly the same size as that of an average paperback. Laptops generally use the same operating system as desktop computers, as well as the same standard graphics card and hard drive storage. Notebooks, while larger, generally do not use the same operating systems as laptops.
The biggest difference between laptop computers and notebook computers is the amount of processing power and memory available in the laptop. Notebooks use mainframe-based computers to process instructions and to run applications. When using a laptop, the operating system and applications are accessed directly from the laptop. This means that more processing power is available, but it also means that more memory will be used, and that the laptop is slower than notebook computers. In recent years, the amount of memory that is used by laptop computers has been increasing. Notebooks are now often referred to as “notebook laptops,” even though they are not really any different from traditional notebook computers in terms of processing power and memory.