For over a decade, I have split my computer use into two discrete categories: highly mobile and highly powered. It’s traditionally been a two-device equation, at least with budgetary considerations in mind.

That use case hasn’t really changed, but my path to it has. Case in point: I can write and edit articles on my telephone now. That development alone required a marriage of power (CPU, RAM), efficiency (a lovely keyboard app), and stability (an in-browser editor that doesn’t crash, even when switching apps and tabs). That’s just the tip of the mobile productivity iceberg, in terms of keyboard-attached tablets, functional laptops, and so on.

I imagine I’m not the only person in that kind of professional boat, with productivity boosted by an office-minded app here, a convenient telnet app there, and so on. As you ponder your next major computer purchase, you may look at those facts—and at the size- and heat-reduction happening with major computer components—and feel a little freer about what you might buy next. Maybe, for example, you don’t want or need a super-slim profile on your computing device, but you still want something to lug around on occasion, as opposed to being trapped in an office.