Before you buy a computer
Laptop, desktop, or both? Carry or stay, decided before you shop.
Answer eleven plain questions about how you will really use it. Carry or Stay scores the five kinds of computer for you, shows every reason, and writes a one-page shopping brief to take to the store.
The chooser and the brief are free. Brief Pass: $1.95 a month or $19.50 a year · Free during preview.
It goes where you go: the couch, class, the office, a trip. A battery and a built-in screen do the work.
It lives at one desk: a bigger screen, a full keyboard and more computer for the money.
How it works
Eleven questions. Five answers. One page to take shopping.
Tell it how you live
How often it leaves the house, how long you are away from an outlet, what you do on it, what you already own and how much desk you have.
See the scores, and why
Every form gets points from published rules. Open any score to see each rule that moved it, up or down. Nothing is hidden and no store paid for a place.
Shop with a brief
Memory, storage, graphics, screen, battery, weight, ports, what to add, the operating-system minimums, and the questions to ask before you pay.
The lineup
Not just laptop or desktop: five forms.
Most people compare two. There are five ways to own a computer, and the right one is often in the middle.
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Carry
Laptop
One machine that goes everywhere, battery included.
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Carry
Laptop + desk setup
A laptop that plugs into a monitor, keyboard and mouse at the desk.
-
Stay
All-in-one
Screen and computer in one body: one cable, small footprint, no battery.
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Stay
Mini PC
A small box behind the monitor you already own (or buy).
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Stay
Desktop tower
The full-size case: most cooling, most room to upgrade and repair.
A sample result
A hybrid worker: two desks, one weekly commute, video calls.
They already own a monitor, want one big screen and are away from an outlet up to three hours. Their answers sit in the middle, so the verdict is Both, and the best fit is a laptop that plugs into a desk setup at each desk.
- Laptop + desk setup +9
- Laptop +5
- Mini PC -1
- Desktop tower -4
- All-in-one -5
Plain promises
A chooser with nothing to sell you.
- No store linksNo affiliate links, no commissions, no brands or models pushed. The brief describes what to look for, not where to buy it.
- Every point explainedThe rules are published on How it scores, the same list the chooser runs.
- No account, no emailResults live in the page address. Saving makes a private folder link; nothing asks who you are.
- No AI guessworkThe scores come from fixed rules a person can check by hand.
Pricing
Free to choose. $1.95 a month to keep a household's briefs.
Free
$0
- The whole chooser and every score
- The shopping brief, printable
- A private folder for 2 briefs
Brief Pass
$1.95 a month, or $19.50 a year
- Room for 12 briefs: one per person, or several "what if" versions
- Side-by-side compare of every brief
- CSV download