Tablets in today's world.

[Rydian]

So I've been doing some thinking, and I'd like to post my thoughts on tablets. This comes partially from realizing a need for portability (and this is coming from the guy without a cell phone), and also from having spent some time with an ipad, and seeing how other people integrate tablets and various other portable devices (smartphones, macbook pro/air, gaming laptops) into their lives.

I need something portable, so it's a tossup between a laptop, netbook, and tablet.

I consider electronic devices to be in two broad categories. Those that can create well, and those that mostly digest.

As far as creation, a desktop is the best, with laptops/netbooks second place to varying degrees depending on their size, config, and if controlling a mouse with a touch pad is acceptable for what you do. A tablet however, is not very good at creation. Typing up essays, making presentations, writing long forum posts, compiling information... tablets are second-rate at many things.

However as far as digesting information... tablets and desktops seem tied. Digesting often needs way less power than creating so none of the three are crippled there, but it also involves the ability to interact with the data fluidly. To swap around between projects and pull up standard media with no hassle. Desktops have the full-keyboard and mouse combo, while tablets have touch screens and interfaces specially designed to use them properly... while the keyboard/mouse combo wins out, desktops aren't an option for portability.

So it's between laptops/netbooks and tablets. Well, while a laptop and a mouse (or a nice touchpad) could well be better, a laptop with the kind of specs I'd like would be out of my price range, since I'd also want it to be able to video edit and play games and such. A desktop replacement to my specifications would likely be out of my price range.

Netbooks are smaller and such, but even trying to use a 10.1 netbook for a while is aggravating, and the restriction on touchpad sizes would mean carrying a mouse around for a lot of things... not my cup of tea.

Taking those things into consideration (as well as all the things a tablet brings such as startup time from sleep and lack of micro-management compared to windows), I think a tablet's right for me.

There's other things that are more personal choices... such as the fact that I'm fine with flash-site-quality-games to kill some time with if it comes to that and I don't have my DS/PSP with me, and that I can use a tablet to share pictures and videos with my family without having them walk upstairs to my computer, but I wanna' see what people think about how tablets are starting to fit into the world, sort of the way cell phones once started.

EDIT: Added in some other tablet benefits that are swaying me.

 

[chris888222]

To be honest, I wanted to replace my laptop with a tablet. But I can't as it doesn't support USB printing.

 

[triassic911]

Laptop > Tablet.

 

[iggloovortex]

if you've got the money to shell out, get a tablet, but unless you're SURE its possible, dont expect to be able to do all the flips you can do on a notebook/netbook (ie easy word processing, typing, MOUSE)
I know for myself a tablet is mostly useless, as i have both a recent (enough) android phone and an itouch 4g. with both i can do pretty much everything both the ipad and android tablets can do

 

[Originality]

I've been able to adapt to the restrictions of typing on the virtual keyboard of an iPad. Sure, it won't let me type as fast as on a tactile keyboard, but at least I've become productive. That said, the touch screen interface for apps mostly does not match up to the functionality a mouse can provide on a desktop. I would still say a tablet is far superior to net books though.

There is the option of taking the middle ground with the ASUS Transformer (and, in a couple months, the 5-cored ASUS Transformer Prime). A tablet that can dock with a keyboard that adds ports, a battery, and a keyboard. It's limited by the Android OS, but the Android Market has come a long way and can now stand on roughly equal footing with iOS and it's app market. Plus ICS will be out very soon for both of them that adds many more features including compatibility with the smartphone app Market.

The way I see it, desktops are the most versatile and powerful, trading off portability. Laptops are best used as a portable computer which doesn't need to do as much as desktops (e.g. Light gaming or office work). Net books are only functional as a note taking and Internet browsing device and nothing more. Tablets use touch screen to provide the best experience when browsing the web (holding it in your hand, walking along with it, and being easy to navigate... With the exception of iPad and their lack of flash) and also feature a huge app Market that is full of lots of crap, but also some very good apps too (just like the console gaming Market... I'm looking at you, Nintendo!).

 

[Majorami]

I'm personally leaning towards a faster+small/lighter laptop over a tablet for sheer versatility and how applicable it can be for almost any file/file type. Plus regarding to what is portable and what is not, I say laptops and tablets are tied because neither of which can fit in your pocket. You'll still be lugging around a bag of sorts for either one if you plan on taking it somewhere. I say if you're going to carry around anything with a screen larger than 6 or 7 inches, go with a full featured laptop so you can easily access and view all the things that are important such as anime and pr0n.

And just a reminder, the upcomming windows 8 is said to be a single OS that acts as both a Tablet OS and a Desktop/computer OS, so I'd recommend you look for a touch screen laptop featuring multi-input support so that you may have the best of both worlds in the future.