Also known as: Laptop, Notebook, Notebook computer
A laptop is a complete, portable personal computer with screen, keyboard, and battery built into one folding shell.1
Overview
A laptop runs the same full operating system and the same CPU, RAM, and storage building blocks as a desktop, just packed into a thin, battery-powered case. The packaging costs something: less room to expand, and in thin models the cooling can’t keep up, so the CPU slows itself down under load — thermal throttling — capping sustained performance.
Trade-offs
Against the desktop’s power and upgrade path, the laptop offers one decisive thing: it goes where you go. For most developers that mobility outweighs the lost headroom, which is why the laptop is the default development machine. SDR capture work still runs fine on one; phones and tablets, by contrast, are screens to view the data on rather than machines to capture it.