The different types of computer tools

Note : This page has been translated into English from French by a machine translation tool

Are you looking for a device for your personal use to work or play ? You wish to acquire a computer for your company or to renew your computer park ? You will find here a brief overview of the different types of devices available on the market with their main characteristics and the public they are intended for.

The Chromebook

We start with the Chromebook, a small, ultra-portable computer whose main characteristic is, as its name suggests, to be equipped with the Chrome OS operating system. These computers are dedicated to relatively basic tasks related to the ease of use of the operating system. The system being free of charge in addition to being lightweight, it allows to keep a good level of performance and responsiveness on modest configurations and therefore lends itself well to integration on entry-level computers. It is designed on the basis of a tablet operating system like Android or iOS and allows today to configure the Play Store in order to benefit from the richness of applications developed for Android.

The 2 in 1 laptop

The 2 in 1 laptop is a combination of an Ultrabook, a very light and small ultraportable computer, and a tablet. Thus, you benefit from a keyboard for your office tasks, requiring a large amount of input, from which you can separate to save space whenever you want to use your device for design, web browsing or entertainment whether listening to music or watching videos for example. These devices are generally suitable for users who need a complete computing tool wherever they are and who don’t want to be burdened with a heavy device with a large screen. Nowadays, these small computers do not necessarily rhyme with small configuration and it is now possible to have a device that is both very powerful and very easily transportable.

The laptop

We will not dwell on this category, which is one of the two most well-known in this article. However, let’s specify that a laptop is equipped with a Windows or macOS (formerly OSX) operating system depending on whether it is a PC or a Mac. It can be adapted, unlike a Chromebook, for more advanced use that can go as far as CAD (see our article CAD for more information) or for video games that require large resources. There are some equipped with all types of configuration, from the most basic dedicated to office use to the most powerful essential for the uses mentioned above. We invite you to refer to our article Technical characteristics of computers and tablets to help you choose the hardware configuration that best suits your use.

The all-in-one

The all-in-one desktop computer is a computer that at first glance looks like a simple screen but is nevertheless equipped with all the computer components needed to make up a computer. It thus makes it possible to dispense with a central unit whose components are already included in the screen, thus improving the ergonomics and design of the device. The most popular model of this type of computer is probably Apple’s iMac, but it should be noted that the majority of the biggest brands that supply computer hardware have this type of device in their range. It should be noted that in most cases, this type of model is, with equivalent hardware configuration, more expensive than a classic desktop version equipped with a central processing unit and a screen of equivalent size and quality.

The desktop computer

We are here on the second most well-known category of device for the general public. It is the first type of computer in history. It is composed of a screen and a central unit, also called a tower, which brings together all the components needed to operate the computer, the screen only displays the information. It is an optimal configuration for performance thanks to the space that the central unit provides to the components as well as for maintenance because it is on this type of device that it is easiest to replace a defective or obsolete component to repair or improve its configuration. It is also generally the least expensive type of computer among those we have discussed here.

On the basis of this information and a small reflection on your constraints and your uses, you should already have a fairly precise idea on the type of device that will best suit you. Don’t forget that a device that combines performance, compactness and design often implies what can be a disadvantage for some, namely a higher price.