In the past, working from home meant plonking your laptop on the dining table and putting it away again once you'd finished. These days, more and more people are taking the matter seriously, setting up a permanent workspace in a spare room, a corner of the living room, or even a converted cupboard.
Once the space is sorted, the next question arises: what sort of computer should you get?
Desktop PCs, mini PCs and laptops each have their own strengths. The right choice often comes down to how permanent your workspace is, how demanding your work is, and whether you value flexibility or sheer performance more.
If your work is demanding, a proper desktop PC remains a reliable choice. Video editing, 3D modelling, big data analysis, running several virtual machines at once, or keeping dozens of browser tabs open alongside a pile of applications: a desktop tends to handle these tasks with far greater ease. For the same budget, it delivers stronger performance and noticeably better cooling than a laptop.
Another major advantage of a desktop is that it can be upgraded. If, after a year or two, you feel it is no longer fast enough, the CPU, graphics card, memory and storage can mostly be replaced individually, without having to scrap the whole machine. Connecting two or three monitors is straightforward too.
The downsides are just as clear: it takes up space, it cannot be moved at all, and it consumes more power. If your "home office" is simply a dining table that has to be cleared away every evening, a desktop is obviously not suitable.
But if you already have a permanent desk, a desktop PC is still hard to beat when it comes to performance and value for money.
If you find a desktop too bulky but a laptop not quite up to the job, a mini PC is well worth considering. It has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, and a mainstream mini PC today can comfortably handle everyday office work, programming, and light photo and video editing, with no trouble driving multiple monitors. It is compact, energy efficient and virtually silent, and it does not look out of place on a desk.
For most remote workers, that is to say those whose work mainly involves documents, communication and data processing, a mini PC paired with a good external monitor, keyboard and mouse offers an experience much like a desktop, while taking up far less space. Cables are easier to manage, and the machine is easy to move or put away when needed.
It does, of course, have its limitations. Later upgrades are basically restricted to memory and storage. High-performance dedicated graphics cards are rare in products of this size, and where they do exist, they are not cheap. Cooling is also under greater strain than in a desktop when running at full load for long periods.
That said, in a typical home working scenario, most people will rarely push it to its limits.
If your place of work is inherently changeable, a laptop is pretty much the only sensible choice. Moving from the desk to the sofa, or from the study to a quiet spare room, is simply a matter of picking it up and going. The battery brings an extra benefit too: a brief power cut will not interrupt your work, and when the weather is fine you can even take it outside.
A laptop also fits in well when you are back at a fixed workstation. Through a docking station or a USB-C hub, with a monitor and peripherals connected, it immediately takes on the role of a desktop.
But it still has its shortcomings. Even a high-end laptop generally cannot match a similarly priced desktop for sustained performance. And if you spend long hours hunched over a small screen typing away, it does your neck and back no favours. So if you plan to use it for extended periods, it is advisable to connect an external monitor, together with a separate keyboard and mouse.
For those who travel frequently, or whose living arrangements do not allow for permanent equipment, a laptop remains the practical choice, especially when paired with a docking station and an external monitor.
If you have a permanent desk and heavy workloads, go for a desktop. Performance and expandability are both better assured.
If your tasks are not particularly demanding and you want a tidy, quiet desk, go for a mini PC. The experience is close to that of a desktop, yet it is far smaller.
If where you work changes often and you cannot have a fixed workstation, go for a laptop. Add a docking station and an external monitor, and you can still enjoy something close to the desktop experience.
The right choice is not the most powerful machine, but the one that fits the way you actually work. Before you place an order, think carefully about your real constraints: how much space you have, whether you need to move around regularly, and how heavy your everyday workload is.