Laptop or Notebook

Laptop or Notebook

Over the years the laptop has eveolved into a notebook. However in India we still tend to use the word "Laptop" to describe a notebook computer.

So what is the difference??

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, when portable PC's became more available, they were all called laptops and they were heavy, compared to what we have now. Even those heavier laptops were an improvement over the 'suitcase' style portable computers which came before them. Some time in the 1990's, as smaller 'laptops' came on the market, the name 'notebook' computers began to be applied.

These days, it is rare to see a portable computer manufacturer call their product a 'laptop'. Notebook has come to replace the term 'laptop' partially because the heavier 'laptops' are no longer being sold. The terms don't really mean the same thing, because of the weight and size differences, but are kind of related in an evolutionary sort of way.

Therefore they are both the same thing. 'Laptop' is just a different term for a notebook, although 'notebook' is the proper term.

From what I have heard...

The portable computers were called the “laptop” first. But one of the customers had a problem when the laptop burst on her lap due to some fault and she ended up suing DELL for this.

DELL made a resolution and changed the name of laptops to “notebooks” ever since, the portable computers are being sold as notebooks rather than laptops.

There is no difference as such.