How The Coronavirus Pandemic Gave A New Lease Of Life To The Desktop PC

The laptop has been the dominant form factor in PC sales for a few years now - the need to work in a mobile way being the biggest driver to the adoption of something thin, light and portable by businesses, consumers and students.

My first laptop (thirty years ago, unbelievably), was barely portable, managed just sixty minutes of battery life and had a tiny 6" screen. And it made me significantly more productive than my fellow students who were tied to the University's desktop computer rooms. 

Since then laptops have become more portable and it's a reasonable expectation that you can get a full working day out of something impossibly thin and lightweight; with a screen to rival anything on the desktop for quality (if not size).

The arrival of the iPad suggested that tablets were going to take over the world - which they haven't; and in fact iPad sales endured a multi-year collapse in sales which was only arrested when Apple started to turn the iPad into a proper laptop by adding a keyboard, mouse support and more laptop like expansion capabilities. 

However the events of 2020 gave rise to the question, does a desktop PC make more sense than a laptop when you're forced to work remotely? It isn't a completely crazy idea, in future you're more likely to be working from home and less likely to be travelling. Even if it doesn't become a permanent state of affairs, for a portion of your working week you'll almost certainly work from home. 

In that case, a desktop PC has many advantages to offer. Size, performance, price and expansion.

A powerful desktop paired with a more lightweight, lower spec laptop for occasional travel becomes a cheaper, more accessible solution; whilst still costing less than that high end laptop you may otherwise have considered. Let's be honest, even a basic iPad and keyboard cover will probably be sufficient to meet most people's mobile needs when paired with something like a Mac mini to serve as a desktop.

Most companies are going to be looking at how people who worked from home performed during the pandemic lockdowns and decide that it makes sense to encourage the practice for more than the short-term. That's certainly been the case in New Zealand, where lockdowns have been followed by people working between 60 and 100% of their week from home.

That's without considering the impact of another pandemic, which could arise at any time and could be more widespread, more virulent or more aggressive than Covid-19. Which means that although we may soon be mobile once more, we'll never be as mobile as we were. 

A switch to a desktop may not feel like an intuitive thing to do, but the next time you think about replacing  your laptop, it's an option you should look at seriously.