Quote Originally Posted by Dr Unne
You pay more for laptops and get slower / older hardware, you'll get a smaller monitor size than you would if you bought a desktop at the same price, etc. You can't easily upgrade the hardware in laptops. If you drop it, bye bye $2000. I know a lot of people whose laptops have broken as well; sometimes they're pretty fragile, for example the hinges that open/shut them. There's also the fun of not having a mouse and having a non-standard keyboard layout, depending on which one you get. And the whole constantly-charging-the-battery thing would annoy me to death. I wouldn't get a laptop unless you're positive that taking your computer with you out in public is necessary. That's the only point of having a laptop.
I use a laptop as my primary PC, and I can say this is all pretty accurate. Dells do have pretty good warranties, as far as laptops go (my friend has a Dell laptop), but honestly, unless you need something you can tote around, a desktop is a better idea. I love my laptop, but that's because I can take it to libraries and use my wireless internet stuff, pretty much whenever I want.

EDIT: Dingo brings up an excellent point, too. I don't remember the name of the HD, but we use them at work. As far as I understand it's all the componets of a laptop (as far as size goes) but with the reliability of a desktop. Then again, three of the six computers I trained on were out of commission for no apparent reason.