Tablets have become popular as all leading mobile manufacturers are following Apple in the mobile computing race. Most of you know that a tablet is nothing but a small-sized computer that has almost all key features of a laptop.
Is a tablet better than a laptop?
The answer depends on what you intend to do with it.
Design wise, tablets are simple and easy to carry in a pocket. If you frequently travel, then tablets may be easy to carry, as they are much lighter in weight when compared to laptops. A tablet also has greater battery life than a laptop. You can stay online for much longer time as it has Bluetooth and wireless connectivity options. You can watch HD movies online without worrying about battery life.
A laptop has all these features, but it does not have good battery life unless you carry an additional high-life battery with you. If you plan to watch movies on the go, then tablets can give 11 hours of battery life approximately. It may not be possible to compare such a range of battery life with regular laptops. A laptop battery drains off quickly while watching movies or while playing any multimedia files.
From the usability point of view, tablets do not have a keyboard. If you are used to keyboards, then you may find it hard to get past this habit. A tablet comes with a rotatable touch screen and a digital pen. This feature may be handy for designers as they can draw images with the digital pen. It is more like writing on a notepad. This feature is great for business meetings too, as you can easily scribble notes.
However, if you have huge project management files, then you may not feel convenient with a tablet. Moreover, you cannot use commonly used applications in a tablet unless the tablet has supporting software installed in it. Even though tablets can be connected to a projector, it may not be very efficient in collaborative team meetings. A laptop can easily fit in such scenarios.
Tablets are good for kids and people who want to learn basic features of a computing device. Plus, if you buy tablets at wholesale prices, you don’t have to worry about the kids breaking
something so expensive. Things like cut and paste, emailing, resizing are easier to learn in tablets. Moreover, some people find writing notes with tablets as less obtrusive than typing the text. The touch screen in tablets provides a more natural interaction than laptops. Some of the tablets can convert hand-written notes to editable text. If you are in teaching profession, then you may find tablets more convenient to prepare notes and share them with students by connecting the tablet to a projector.
Tablets are great if you want to watch movies on the go. As tablets are handy with good battery life, you can easily carry them with you. On the other hand, if you plan to do some serious work, then you may find laptops much easier to use. The processor of tablets is powerful but the actual performance of the processor while running memory-intensive programmes may vary from one tablet to another.
[Image via Stephenie Smith, Travis Isaacs & JaredEarle]
Alia Haley
Alia Haley is an avid blogger who has a keen interest in technology and automobiles. She is very fond of cars and her dream machine is Lamborghini Gallardo.
I could honestly hang up my laptop if I didn’t design websites on the side. If I were to stop that, no need for a laptop minus my music.
I am with you. The design and code is too hard on an iPad. I wish I could just use an iPad but unless my job changes…
Have you had any success with using an ipad2 connected to a projector? I have an iMac @ home to do all the heavy work, but I’m also a teacher, and I was either looking at an air or iPad 2 to present my keynotes.