system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What is the difference between a notebook and a laptop?

My Mom wants to get my siblings either a notebook or laptop for Christmas. She is asking me what the difference is between "a notebook with a keyboard" and a "laptop" and personally I'm not that tech savvy either so I don't know, and Google is confusing me.
gpt
There is no difference, they are functionally the same.

Manufacturers tend to call lower end models notebooks, but there's no set definition.  Both terms came from people's words for a portable computer.

Useful distinctions:

tablet: a computer that is able to be used as a screen only with typically a touch screen or stylus  depending on who you talk to, this includes laptops with a tablet mode, while others would make a further distinction of "tablet PC"

netbook: a low power laptop that was developed to be more portable than a laptop but only really powerful enough for basic web browsing. (this term is less useful now because most manufacturers have been able to push netbook power up to be comparable with low end regular sized laptops, and these have mostly been supplanted by straight tablets like the iPad)