Akmeena777/Shutterstock

Computers have shrunk by a considerable amount ever since their inception. Originally, computers were so big that their hard drives were the size of modern-day washing machines , but now you can slip computers into backpacks. While these machines are colloquially known as laptops, some go by another name that causes no shortage of confusion: notebooks. This is no mere synonym.

The term laptop is used to describe a computer you can take on the go and rest on your lap (hence the name), whereas the label notebook is generally reserved for ultra-thin laptops. They are even more compact and weigh about as much as a paper notebook. This difference in size should be your first hint that a notebook has smaller, fewer, and generally weaker components. Critical pieces of hardware, such as RAM, CPUs, and storage drives in notebooks, typically can't measure up to those you find in laptops.…