To answer the question of why are laptops more expensive than desktops, a few basics need to be understood. That’s the exact purpose of this article.
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Although both types of computers rely on semiconductors to work, the number of similarities start diminishing as you look closer at their internal construction.
The main reason why laptops are more expensive than desktops is in the development costs to create hardware that is compact enough and at the same time meeting an expected level of performance.
And it’s not just performance that is a big challenge. It is also keeping the system cool enough that stability is maintained under most common usage conditions.
Differences of each component that affect the price
Here is a basic list of the major components that make a difference in how much they cost with an explanation of why that may be.
If you are curious, I have written another article about various parts of a computer and their function for computers in general if you’d like to learn more.
The motherboard





Modern laptops have changed to using an M.2 SSD as a primary drive. This is good, seeing an SSD doesn’t suffer from the shortcomings of mechanical drives and delivers outstanding levels of performance.
We talk more about SSD’s and if they’re worth it if you are interested to know more.
Laptop hard drives smaller and more compact (2.5 Inch vs 3.5 Inch for desktops). They also have a lower storage capacity, less performance, and are slightly more expensive than a desktop hard drive of the same size and comparative specifications.
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Battery
This is a component that isn’t present in a desktop computer. The closes thing that could resemble one for a desktop machine, would be a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply).
A UPS is basically a unit with a battery inside it that connects up separately from the mains power and keeps your computer running long enough to save all your work and shut it down safely.
For a laptop however, the battery can do more that just that. You can run the entire laptop with extra peripherals plugged into it for several hours at a time without plugging it into the power charger.
This is something that adds an additional cost to manufacture a laptop. Although it isn’t something extremely pricey, it still contributes to the end price.
A laptop needs to be designed in such a way to keep the battery safe from physical damage to a certain degree and as cool as possible.
So an extra bit of the laptop’s design is dedicated to do just that for the battery. There are other things to also consider when incorporating a battery into a product like a reasonable amount of amp hours so the laptop can run for a desirable length of time before being depleted.
Here are some extra tips if you are interested in keeping a laptop’s battery healthier for longer in an article I wrote about the subject.
Conclusion
And there you have it, all of the major individual components and why they cost more in a laptop.
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So the next time you are looking at laptops in your favorite store, keep in mind all of the extra development and production costs when it comes to delivering all that performance in a small package.