Notebooks are considerably smaller and lighter than a laptop, so they are much more portable. They are much less expensive and you can get a very good one for $300 and under - new. They are not as powerful as laptops, but a notebook has enough power for most users. One drawback is they do not have built-in DVD. The options are: getting an external DVD; sharing the DVD from the main computer with the notebook over your LAN; transferring from your main computer to the notebook over your LAN; or I recommend using a flash drive.