I have used laptops for the last 10 years and they are ok but there is just something about having that keyboard mouse and big screen in front of you that makes computing so much more fun. This desktop is a small frame but comes with everything you need to get started sans the monitor which you can pickup super cheap online. The added ram and the ssd drive along with the 4th gen i5 cpu makes this computer super fast when it comes to normal computing and surfing the net. Videos load fast and play smooth. I do video editing with shotcut and I can export my edited 10 minute movies in about 8 minutes. For the price you can't go wrong. Hope this helps