C # HttpClient or HttpWebRequest class

I am currently using the HttpWebRequest class in my projects to call any REST APIs.

like this

    public string Post(string postData)
    {
        string resultString = string.Empty;

        WebRequest req = WebRequest.Create(_serviceEndoint);

        HttpWebRequest httpWebReq = (HttpWebRequest)req;
        httpWebReq.CookieContainer = _cookieContainer;

        req.ContentType = "application/xml";
        req.Method = "POST";
        req.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("Administrator", "Password");
        try
        {
            Stream requestStream = req.GetRequestStream();

            UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();

            byte[] bytes = encoding.GetBytes(postData);
            requestStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);

            HttpWebResponse resp = req.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

            if (resp.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
            {
                using (Stream respStream = resp.GetResponseStream())
                {
                    StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(respStream, Encoding.UTF8);

                    resultString = reader.ReadToEnd();
                }
            }

        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            resultString = ex.ToString();
        }

        return resultString;
    }

      

        
        
        
      

    

It works :) But I'm curious how to do this. Does the HttpClient class have any disadvantages (your experience, opinions)?

Is using this class currently as the best way to invoke rest services (get, post, put, delete) instead of doing everything manually?