I found myself in a similar position, so here is what I've learned from experience...
Capture card pros:
- You can capture your gameplay from any console. (If you're into recording videos of your gaming)
- It's entirely portable. (That is, as portable as your console and laptop)
- Can be a lot cheaper than a TV. (Depending on your quality requirements)
Capture card cons:
- Smaller screen size than any reasonable monitor
- Worse quality
- Sometimes there are lag issues
- If you plan on using a Wiimote, the top or bottom of a laptop monitor is not a good placement for a sensor bar like with a TV.
Right now I'm in Japan for a few months, so I couldn't bring a TV with me... I did however manage to stuff in my Wii U. Under my circumstances my only option to make use of games that require the main screen was to get a capture card. I'm trying to save money so an HDMI capture device was out of budget. I just went with
EasyCap. (Very cheap, ~$10 on Amazon). I already had composite cables for my Wii U so I just plugged it straight in. The software that comes with it is a piece of crap, but I found that
xsplit is very useful for playing from a capture device. (It's designed for streaming to sites like twitch, but you can still play offline and even record offline no problem.) I've noticed that the video quality is pretty poor (as I expected), but it's still playable. And there is no significant lag so that is a really good sign!
Just something to keep in mind. If quality is important to you and you're doing this long term, it's probably better to get a TV or an HD capture device. However, if you're looking more short term on a small budget, there are some really cheap ones that can tide you over.