Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
No Android tablet is a 'real computer' by my standards. None could replace any 'real computer' for various 'real computer work' like development, video editing, controlling various hardware devices, design, even 'real' word processing and other office work.
If you need a 'real computer', get a 'real computer.'
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It depends on your use cases.
I concur that Android tablets aren't "real computers" by those standards. Things like video editing and software development require toolchains that probably don't exist and more power than an Android tablet will have. Even if it can be done on a tablet, it will probably simply take too long to be feasible.
But for many folks, an Android tablet
is a "real computer."
One of the things that has been happening for years is a steady migration of functions away from "all-in-one" PCs to other devices, with a consequent stagnation of the PC market. PC vendors are struggling because the market is saturated. There's still a largee market for upgrades and replacements, but new sales are largely non-existent, because pretty much everyone who can use a PC has one.
The question is what the users actually need to
do on their device. There are a fair number of people who use smartphones instead of PCs, and an increasing number who use tablets, because those devices perform the functions the users need in a fashion acceptable to the user, in a device that can be carried in a pocket or slipped into a bag and go where the user goes, without the bulk and weight of a laptop or notebook. For
them, such things
are real computers.
I'm not interested in a smartphone, because the sorts of things I do really need a larger screen than a practical phone will have. My cell phone is deliberately the smallest, cheapest feature phone Samsung makes. All it does is calls and SMS, and that's all I want it to do. The rest is something else's job.
The Android tablet I'm playing with now might just be able to replace a laptop or notebook when I'm traveling, with a lighter, easier to transport device. My primary need when traveling is communication: I need to access the web, handle email, read books, view pictures and videos, listen to music, and view/edit documents and spreadsheets. All of those the tablet can do, though a larger and more powerful model would be better suited. (Screen size again.) The addition of an external keyboard was the missing piece of the puzzle.
I make increasing use of Google Docs and Sheets, stored on Google Drive, and I have an Android office suite that can create and edit locally stored files, and open docs and spreadsheets from my Google Drive and saved changed versions back to it. It's not as powerful and fully featured as MS Office or Libre/Open Office, but I don't use most of the features in those in any case.
No, it can't do development, design, video editing, and the like, but it doesn't need to. Those are the job of other devices, and not done when I'm traveling.
It's a real enough computer for the purposes it serves.
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Dennis