I actually find the LCD screen image sharper on my laptop than the CRT my PC has Looks much better for games, but then also shows artifacts when watching videos more clearly because of it Since the screen is physically smaller though (unless you get a large laptop), you'd generally expect lower resolutions hence less desktop space, but that doesn't stop the image from being clearer I've never seen "smudging" on an LCD screen, perhaps there's different quality screens out there (or perhaps you had ClearType enabled in WinXP causing the text to go weird?). You can always plug it into a CRT temporarily anyway if there's a spare one around.

Battery life isn't too much of a problem on my laptop either, I can get a good 5-7 hrs off it if I'm doing stuff like word processing, or still a good 2-3 hrs with CPU intensive stuff like videos or games Plus mine charges to full in around 1-2 hrs from flat.

The model you get also depends on how easy it is to upgrade. RAM tends to be the easiest to upgrade, just remove the cover, swap/add the RAM stick, then put the cover back. HD isn't as easy to change for a laptop, but you can always get an external drive if you need more space.

As for the keyboard pointer, that depends - I type about 50 cps faster on my laptop keyboard than PC keyboard If you're gonna have a table or hard flat surface with you most of the time you'll be using the laptop, you might as well get an optical mouse as well so you don't have to use the touchpad/trackpoint as much if that's what you prefer.

And laptops tend to have better support for TV-out ports than PCs do, and since they're portable, you can take them to the TV more easily and watch videos off the laptop on the TV