It is light to hold and responsive on many surfaces. But be wary of notebooks that sport a multitude of removable covers. These will inevitably fall off and become lost. For the record, Toshiba keyboards are generally regarded to be the best for fast typing. Make sure the notebook you choose supports at least a color VGA output.
Some notebooks nowadays offer a color screen.
It is just another option about which you need to make a personal choice. The time taken by the average desktop computer to go through its startup routine, while not great, is a delay you will often not want when you wish to quickly look up, for example, a phone number, while travelling. But functions and quality offered vary so dramatically with different units that you should always try out the machine before you buy it, and, if possible, read the manual as well.