What Should You Choose: Laptop or a Tablet?
Tablets are useful computing tools in homes and by business people when they’re on the go and they can be used for both work and play purposes but should you really consider replacing your old laptop with a tablet and will they be adequate? They are certainly light in weight, slim and compact, nice to look at and easy to use but how would they hold in professional use? Quite interestingly when we go through 2014 and 2015 sales figures, tablet sales worldwide seem to have surpassed the total sales for desktops and laptops and the increase in tablet sales is clearly causing a decline in computer sales. It can often be fast, easy and convenient to use a tablet than a laptop if you just want to browse the net, check your emails, watch a movie or listen to music but what about using it for work purposes: Typing up your documents, working on spreadsheets or preparing your presentations and would it be possible to get a tablet with the same amount of flexibility and functionality?
The most obvious advantage of a tablet is its compact portability that lets you put it in your bag or even a large pocket of your coat if you were to go for a smaller display tablet, like a half way between a smart phone and a laptop but a larger screen than a phone so you have more space to work on. If you’re out and about or traveling, tablet will be easier and quicker than a typical computer and if you’re in a meeting you will be able to see your data quickly in a business meeting and unless you want to carry around a machine that weighs several pounds, tablet may be the easy way to go. Many people find its touch navigation, simple and quick access to apps and being able to start instantly so with the generally longer battery life you won’t find yourself looking for power outlet or wait for the Windows or OS X to load and if you’re presenting something to a client you can simply give the tablet to their hands- multimedia presentation, photo of a product or whatever it may be. Tablet is a low maintenance machine and you will not need to do much to it like you would on a Windows laptop- updates are limited and nothing like disk defragmentation but it may be a good idea to use a screen protector of some sort.
Although they are not like using the Office tools on a laptop you have a degree of these tools, like Google Quick Office, Docs To Go or the Numbers, Pages and Keynote on iOS. And don’t think you will not be able to use a keyboard as you can easily connect a Bluetooth keyboard to a tablet and use it just like a laptop and this will make your job easier when you’re typing a document or emails. Pretty much all tablets include a webcam and you can use live video chat tools like Skype, Google Hangouts or Apple FaceTime comfortably. On the other hand storage capacity of tablets usually aren’t great if you will be dealing with large files and lots of data and you will need a tablet that allows the use of an external memory card or you will most likely be relying on Cloud based storage like Google Drive or Dropbox. You will also not find a great range of connectivity options on tablets as you will mostly be limited to a micro USB, a mini audio jack, WiFi, Bluetooth and perhaps an HDMI output. So it will come down to weighing advantages and disadvantages for you and what you’ll be using a tablet or laptop for but generally speaking casual business users on the go will certainly benefit from the small form factor, apps and tools of a tablet.