We have a Dell mini that Lin got to run her sewing machine. It has Win7 something on it, and is probably capable (with the USB Optical drive) of doing about anything most people would want to, but the usable display area is about the same size as her Nook and is too small to do much text work with.

The moderately priced laptops have nearly the same features as moderately priced desktops, with the exception of slightly less RAM (2 or 3 GB vs 3 to 6 GB) and generally a little smaller HDs.

Although you can "get used to them" - sort of - there are NO LAPTOP KEYBOARDS that are close to a $19 USB plugin if you like to coast along in the ether at 50 wpm or so, and I haven't met anyone who can prove their bragging about even 90 wpm on a laptop. I like being able to sprint at around 130 occasionally but at my age I have to get pretty excited and I can't stay mad enough to be that excited for long enough to produce that kind of smoke for more than a paragraph or so.

A caution about external (USB especially) plug-ins: The USB ports on laptops often don't have the power capacity you expect if you've been running similar externals on a desktop. They're probably close to the "spec" capacity, but don't have the kind of reserve capacity as the ones usually in desktops. I'd recommend running nearly all USB devices you hook to most laptops through an external USB port that has its own wall wart plugged in to provide the milliamps. I may be a little over-cautious, but lots of holes to plug into doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea to stuff them all at the same time.

Also - if you intend to use the laptop's USB ports to charge your phone (or camera - if they're separate), most laptops turn off the power to nearly all USB ports when the machine goes dormant. Some, but not all, laptops have a single "powered USB" hole that doesn't shut down (but even the ones that have one of these may not tell you which one it is).

John