A friend of mine and I were discussing the terms laptop and notebook. As a person working in IT I felt laptop was an old term and notebook is the current term.
However I decided to check further. I checked a few computer hardware sites and noticed something very interesting.
On the toshiba.com.au site the menus shows notebooks, but on the toshiba.com site it shows laptops.
The HP site for America uses laptop and uses notebook for Australia. It is also interesting to note the UK also uses laptop.
This appears to be an example of where two different words are used to describe the same product.
The Macquarie dictionary describes both words as a portable computer. The Oxford describes laptop as a portable computer but for notebook, the definition is "a portable computer smaller than a laptop".
At this stage both words are in the Kelvin dictionary. They are different words, not spelling variations of the same word. If indeed notebook is the preferred Australian English word for a small portable computer, it may mean that laptop is redundant and could be removed.
When editing the Kelvin dictionary I don't use my own understanding of words as I've found I like others, have preconceived ideas. I prefer to use the authoritative references to provide the information to include or exclude words.
For the time being both words will remain in the Kelvin dictionary and thus Word Check, since I have no conclusive reason to rule one word out of the dictionary.
Kelvin Eldridge
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