Which is best, a laptop or a notebook?

a laptop is a notebook unless its compact enough to use a tablet or netbook.

specs wise:

if you are into gaming:

1. get a decent i5 processor
2. get either nVidia or Radeon Graphic card powered laptop
3. get windows operating system

if you are into graphic intensive works:

1. get a decent processor, it could be ci3 or ci5 or even ci7, amd a6, a8 or a10
2. most important is the graphic card, get a 2GB graphic card with at least 800MHz clock.
3. ram- the more the ram the faster the work 8 GB is ideal for doing it .
4. HDD - 5400rpm - 700GB ~ 2tb (personal preference)
5. get windows 7/8.1 as i still dont recommend the 10 as it has many bugs issue.

if you are going to get into office works:

1. any processor of 1.8ghz or more at dual or quad will be great. for intel, look for hyperthreading or get a 5th gen or 6th gen one.
2. graphic - on board graphics will do it.
3. ram - 4gb (strictly) not lesser than that
4. HDD - 500 GB ~ to anything
5. get windows 7/8.1 as i still dont recommend the 10 as it has many bugs issue.

if you are into programming :

1. get a ci5 (latest) or a ci7 (2014 q4 upto now)
2. graphics will be personal preference
3. ram - 4-8 GB
4. HDD - 500 GB - 1 TB (better ones)
5. OS - windows 7 or mac OS X , i dont know about 8.1 as it might have compatibility issue.

thanks for A2A