While there are quite a few unique laptop accessories available on the market, it makes no sense to buy the accessories before you buy the laptop. It doesn't matter which laptop brand or what version, whether it's a netbook or a notebook or something in between.

Laptop Bags

Have you ever heard the phrase, "putting the cart before the horse"? It means putting something into place as an add-on or accessory to an item that you don't yet have. As in the case of laptop bags, I've seen it happen more than once.

I've seen people buy laptop bags that were designed to barely contain certain size notebooks (regular as opposed to wide screen models) and then buy larger notebooks. The end result is taking the laptop bags back to be exchanged or get a refund if a like item doesn't exist. On the other hand, almost any laptop bag will work with a netbook due to netbooks being the smallest laptop computers on the market.

It's best to buy any laptop accessories after the laptop computer is actually in your possession and that includes the laptop bag (if you want or need one). The questions that then come into play are whether you want one of the cheap laptop bags you can find almost anywhere or one of the more expensive laptop bags (like a laptop workstation bag) as well as what materials it's made of. Some laptop bags are made of cheap plastic or vinyl while some are more expensive leather laptop bags. It all depends on how much you're willing to invest in accessories like these. In my opinion, if the accessories add up to more than the computer you buy, then something's wrong.

Mice, Trackballs and Other Pointing Devices

The touch pads and click buttons, as well as the miniature joystick pointers on some of the best laptop computers, can take quite a bit of time to get used to. I could never get used to using any of them instead of a mouse because I've always switched between desktop and laptop computers on a day to day basis (except for the last few months).

I know many people who buy mice as accessories for their laptops — I'm one of them. Some people buy the wired-type that require nothing but being plugged in to the USB port, while others buy wireless models that require a transmitter/receiver pair (the transmitter portion plugs in while the mouse is the actual receiver). Wireless, optical mice are what I use with both desktop and laptop computers.

The built-in pointer options, in my opinion, are there to use when I have absolutely no other choice in the matter at the time. Some people I know swear that it's easy for them, but I could never get used to it.

Keyboards and Headsets

This is one accessory-type I haven't quite figured out. Why would you buy a laptop computer with a keyboard that you can't or don't want to use? Nevertheless, people buy specialized keyboards that can be plugged into their laptop computers, treating their laptops as nothing more than docking stations when you consider the other peripherals such as mice, keyboards (wireless and otherwise) and headsets.

I have fat fingers. Not literally, of course. I have difficulty with keyboards that are smaller than the keyboards used for desktop computers. I've only found a couple of wide screen notebooks with keyboards that are large enough to type comfortably at my average speed of 60 words per minute. In my particular case, I would like to own a netbook with a wide enough keyboard or actually buy an external keyboard for a smaller one. Perhaps that's why other people buy the external keyboards, but I'm only guessing.

How about headsets? Some people treat their laptop computers as personal audio stations as well as computing devices. When a notebook computer has the power and is used to replace a desktop computer, I can see it as being reasonable. What about the people trying to do it with laptop computers they're using portably? I've seen everything from mini-stereo speakers to expensive headsets. Why not just ear buds, earphones (like Bose earphones), or small headsets? The big, stupid headsets don't make any sense at all to me.

Regardless of what accessories you "add" to your laptop computer, you need something to carry it all in and that's where the laptop bags come into play. It doesn't make sense to have a portable computer of any kind when you end up lugging the accessories around separately.

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