Pondering Replacing laptop and reader with Tablet???

[screwballl]

Each device has its specific purpose.
A desktop for power processing not seen in smaller portable devices...
A laptop for light to medium processing, usually portable...
A tablet for light processing, many new tablets are close to the same power and features as low powered laptops, equal to or surpassing netbooks.
Netbooks for extremely light processing, typically web browsing and email only.

Anything else has a VERY specific purpose. I don't expect or desire my Kindle to handle web browsing well so I use it as it was designed, as an e-reader. I use my cell phone for calls and occasional texts, not as a web browser, camera or gaming device. I use my digital camera for higher quality photos and cannot text or call anyone on it.

I prefer specific uses that do their job well, rather than combined devices that do more but do it poorly. A jack of all trades is a master of none.

[VicLavigne]

I have a netbook and two tablets at home, and the netbook is superior to the tablet for actually doing any significant work. If you're an Apple/Mac user, you might find (and I have no idea) that the iPad is a good substitute for a laptop, but for me, netbook with Win7 beats by a very large margin a tablet with an Android OS. My netbook has all the useful programs that I need on a daily basis, including Office 2010, Quicken, 7-zip, picture editing, virus protection, and Chrome for webviewing. My tablet has rudimentary versions of a few office apps and just can't compete. And if budgets are an issue, consider this: a budget laptop can be bought at Walmart for under $300, a netbook is about the same price, an ereader is around $130, and a tablet with any significant storage can be $400 or more. And the storage capability on a tablet is a small fraction of what you find on a netbook or laptop. For the price of a really good tablet, you can buy a netbook and ereader and have good portability with either. Or a budget laptop and a Nook Color (which is just about equivalent to a tablet anyway).

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Having said that, I just don't "get" the tablet craze. They are bigger and heavier than a dedicated eReader. Their CPUs are slower than a desktop or laptop. Their screens are much smaller than a laptop. They lack a 'functional' keyboard. Usually when something tries to be everything, it accomplishes nothing very well.

And a tablet may not be appropriate for you. And I don't think that they are good replacements for a primary computer for most people.

But for browsing at the coffeeshop, or checking e-mails while out, or using to watch videos or read, tablets are brilliant. They weigh much less than laptops, have more battery life, and are easier to slip into a bag and take along than even a netbook. Of course you can always bring a bluetooth keyboard of you want.

Most people don't need any significant CPU power on their second computer; most people just use home computers for internet and e-mail and don't even own a copy of Word or Office.

A tablet hasn't replaced my main computer, and won't...but it has replaced my netbook, which is cumbersome by comparison. (And my netbook replaced my 15" laptop, which was even more cumbersome).

[Pinecone]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Having said that, I just don't "get" the tablet craze. They are bigger and heavier than a dedicated eReader. Their CPUs are slower than a desktop or laptop. Their screens are much smaller than a laptop. They lack a 'functional' keyboard. Usually when something tries to be everything, it accomplishes nothing very well.

The one I liked was on a plane. Another passenger puled out their iPad. OK

Then a stand for it.

Then a BT keyboard.

Hmm, this is better than a laptop HOW?

[mldavis2]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

The one I liked was on a plane. Another passenger puled out their iPad. OK

Then a stand for it.

Then a BT keyboard.

Hmm, this is better than a laptop HOW?

Don't ask me. For reading, the eInk screens are the only way to go unless you have an outlet handy every day to recharge. For e-mail, I either take my laptop and/or use a computer at my destination - both have real keyboards, although I don't like the flat laptop keys at all. They are, however, light years better for answering e-mails than the smaller-than-your-fat-finger-tip virtual keys on a tablet screen or "smart" phone. I just returned from 2 weeks vacation and survived quite well without e-mail - by choice. Hell, I grew up without television, I can handle it.

[sminarovich]

Hey I thought I'd let everyone know that I purchased a new laptop with a lot more power than my old one and it has been great, I just have to get used to a more compact keyboard. I still like the look of the IPad but I think I'll give it some more time I really love my ereader and I don't really need it to do anything really fancy except I wish the grey scale was higher, the colour screens appear to have a more black on white which is appealling but I am sad that sony is going plastic, one on the things I prefered was the weight of the metal the kobo which is the only other reader I have physically held seemed a little light as well I have the leather cover which adds to the heft of the reader making it feel like a book not a screen, which was something that I was not keen on with the tablet.

[HappyMartin]

Remember those odd scruffy diary things from the 80's, think they were called filofaxes. Well that's how I see tablets. Filofaxes on steroids.

I prefer to read on e ink so the kindle remains a necessity and a tablet is less than useless for my 80 MP camera so in the field a decent laptop does the job. Wish I could use one device but so far it isn't happening

[Penforhire]

I like the Transformer concept. Just needs more computing power and less than a Lenovo X220T's price. Otherwise the X220T is the cat's meow right now. Maybe in a year or two.

There are plenty of times I wish I had a lightweight direct-write screen to take notes with or have on the couch. OneNote will do digital pen-stroke conversion, which is what might make it amazingly productive for me in meetings (able to file, search, and copy/paste from handwriting).

Then there are plenty of times I'd want to whip out a keyboard/mouse (at which point the touch-type OS needs to switch to a kb/mouse OS).

[stonetools]

It's horses for courses, really. My wife has a laptop, but is lusting after my iPad. She has no need to do more than light typing, email, and web browsing. She finds the laptop too heavy, cumbersome and complex for what she does at home. At work she has a desktop.

I have a laptop at home, that I used to use a lot more before I got my iPad.

[mldavis2]

I've admitted elsewhere, I'm a Luddite. I grew up learning to TYPE (not "keyboard") on a manual typewriter, then an electric, then in the military on an IBM Selectric (ball writer - remember them?) and finally a REAL sloped computer keyboard where the keys still lined up with my anatomical finger spacing. I am not a "hunt and pecker" nor can I use the flat laptop keyboards effectively, though I somehow manage.

I own a laptop. It's great for accessing e-mail in a motel room away from home if I don't have to do a lot of typing. When I do, I've nearly worn out the Backspace key to correct errors from the marginally adequate keyboard. I've tried any number of smaller devices from Blackberrys to smart phones to iPads and I don't like the keyboards and the inadequate screen real estate. I hate using tablets and their smaller screens for internet web page browsing because web pages are usually not made for miniature screens, and those that are, are pathetic, squeezed versions of what they were intended to be, with an abundance of popup ads substituting for what used to be innocuous border frames on a real monitor.

So, yes, they are a bit lighter but my gosh, what's 3 pounds of real 15" LCD screen and anatomically-sized keyboard worth? To me, it's a game breaker and you can give me all the free tablets on earth and you won't pry the 15" laptop from my cold dead fingers. Sometimes it is not better to do something because you can instead of because you should.

I own two worthless Apple devices, an iPod Nano and an iPod shuffle, both with weak, inadequate, irreplaceable batteries that won't last long enough to listen to a few MP3 tunes during a 45 minute workout. Planned obsolescence. Steve Jobs and the rest of the tablet manufacturers, Apple or otherwise, will see none of my money.

But, like what you buy and buy what you think you like. I did and I'm sorry.

And, no, I don't own a "smart phone" either. I have an old Nokia that came over on the Mayflower that grabs a 4-5 bar signal when the fancy-fones are dropping calls.

Just my opinion. Obviously ... I'm a Luddite.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Just my opinion. Obviously ... I'm a Luddite.

...no one is calling names over the preference or lack thereof for a tablet. Indeed, while no one is calling you "a Luddite" for not liking your iPad, you have inferred multiple times that those of us who enjoy and have use for tablets have merely succumbed to PR brainwashing. There's no tablet evangelizing going on here. If most of your mobile computing does not involve alpha-numerical input beyond a Google search, then the absence of a keyboard and consequent portability is very much a pro, particularly if, like many of us, you're already proficient with a variety of small keyboards from texting. The screen size (7" in my case) is not merely adequate but optimal for many activities, not least of all reading. I routinely send any online article longer than a few paragraphs to my tablet rather than read it on my 22" monitor.

My use for a tablet, however, by no mean negates or belittles your preference for a laptop. Different strokes, as they say. Why go on the defensive?

[mldavis2]

Originally Posted by taosaur

My use for a tablet, however, by no mean negates or belittles your preference for a laptop. Different strokes, as they say. Why go on the defensive?

Sorry, didn't intend to be "defensive." The original poster was apparently "Pondering replacing laptop and reader with Tablet," to which I offered my personal reasons for not going there. I repeat from above, buy what you like and like what you buy. No defense there.

[FatDog]

I think a tablet/ereader is like a television - very valuable but mainly to see the work of others with 'better' equipment who create the content. (And I want to be one of those guys who can create things or type well-phrased replies to discussions.)

I have surfed MobileReads on my tablet - but I waited until I got home to reply to any of the posts because a full keyboard is faster and more natural to me.

I walk around my office with Oracle Enterprise Manager (a job scheduling system) bookmarked on my tablet. I can see jobs run and start/stop them at other desks or in meetings but I go to my desktop to do any editing or changing of things.

[taosaur]

My tablet serves as a couch companion on occasion, too--browsing the web while half-watching TV. I'll fire off short comments and replies--if you have a tablet, I highly recommend a split keyboard for typing with two thumbs, unless you prefer something like Swype. I do tend to avoid the more thoughtful topics, though, partly due to the limitations of the interface and partly because if I'm browsing on the tab, I'm not that engaged, anyway.

[NickyWithNook]

I use an iPad as my primary "computer", but there are times when I have to use my daughter's computer or my husband's computer, because the iPad doesn't do everything, even for the limited ways I (a middle aged woman) use it. For instance, I need it to get library ebooks for my Nook, and I'd need it to get library ebooks for the iPad too I imagine. I do have a bluetooth keyboard though, so you don't have to type with two fingers or anything.