Intuos small or medium?

Saving up money for a new tablet. But What is really troubling me is what size to get. I mostly use a laptop and draw wherever I can. But I really want to have a bigger workspace for drawing. I cannot find a comparison for the size of the medium intuos with a normal laptop. That can really clear things up for me.

I just quickly Googled the Intuos dimensions...This should be helpful.

So a medium's active area is just a tad longer than a half sheet of printer paper. The actual size of the tablet is larger, though, due to the border around the drawing area.

If portability is an important factor, just go for the small. Unless you are very accustomed to making big strokes when drawing or have especially large hands, it shouldn't be an issue for you.

while i dont have an intuos4...i do have an intuos small, and i gotta say, nice, small, perhaps a little troublesome when trying to do the tiny details. its better to get a size that is closer to your monitor's, as it lessons the...distortion? i guess?

however, a small might be fine with a laptop. generally speaking, when i hear anyone with a lot of experience with tablets talk, they favor the medium above all other sizes.

I might use a Mac laptop for my artwork these days (even though SAI doesn't work for Macs), but I use my medium Intuos for it anytime I'm painting on Photoshop, and I think that tablet's close to perfect with it.