kingrollo
Guru
Laptops do have their place, very much so. If you need to carry it around more than once a year then they are a very practical solution. or if you have absolutely no space in your house for a monitor and/or must use it on your lap (which is not even recommended) then fine. But if it's going to be staying in a house, on a desk then you will be paying more for the convenience of a laptop and as others above have said, they are more prone to hardware issues and damage.
Mini PCs (or small form factor PCs as they are often known) are a very good compromise between performance, price and space saving. They do have some drawbacks i.e. due to the lack of physical space inside, they are not always upgradable to the same extent. But with 8 or 16GB RAM offered, and a decent processor, there is really no need to think about this if all the person is doing is web browsing, Youtube etc.
My Dad kept saying he wanted a laptop, but he does all his work on his desk so he got a desktop. He has had it upgraded 2 or 3 times over the years. He also has an ipad which for him is a bit of an expensive luxury; I don't even know why he needs a PC, an iPad and a smart phone, but he's not on a budget so can please himself. A lot of older people are scared of PCs because they are big and they can't use one in the lounge or on their lap, but IMHO that's what phones are for!
Aren't desktops now more expensive than equivalent laptops - as hardly anybody buys towers/desktops.