What Are Tablets Good For?

[jyl]

Okay, I am wondering if I'm so blinded by my bigotry and bias that I am missing something here.

So, open my mind. The question is:

What are tablets good for?

For what sort of uses do you prefer a tablet, and for what do you prefer a laptop? When would you buy a tablet instead of a laptop? If you had to rely on only one as your only computer (not counting your phone), which would you choose?

[Arizona_928]

Wi-Fi and offline applications.
Reading books, Netflix, YouTube, music.
I personally don't see the advantage. I have seen some professor's use them for power point for lectures.

[Don Plumley]

It's a great surfing device - so much more natural to hold a flat device and use your finger to point, move, explore. When you are watching TV and see something you want to look up (fact/more details) it's so much more natural to grab the tablet and surf than flip open a laptop and sit it on your lap.

[red911sc]

Our high school uses them for EVERYTHING. My son doesn't have any text books. Everything is loaded onto his school supplied Ipad. He does all of his assignments on it and then submits the assignments to his teachers all on the Ipad.

I personally believe tablets will be the PC's of the future for the workplace (and home). I foresee people taking their tablets home with them to work from home. When we return to the office, I believe we will be plugging our tablet into a docking station that will connect it to a larger screen, keyboard and mouse. All of which will be accessories required for us old farts. The youngsters will not need these and just work directly on the tablet.

Or all of this will be done with cell phones rather than tablets.

[rattlsnak]

Its primarily the speed and ease of use and mobility access. Just as Don pointed out, when something pops up that you want to know... (directions, making dinner reservations, movies, or basically any info that you would google like who played Napoleon Dynamite, etc. ) it's much easier and much quicker to simply grab the iPad and get the info.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by AZ_porschekid

Wi-Fi and offline applications.
Reading books, Netflix, YouTube, music.
I personally don't see the advantage. I have seen some professor's use them for power point for lectures.

Originally Posted by Don Plumley

It's a great surfing device - so much more natural to hold a flat device and use your finger to point, move, explore. When you are watching TV and see something you want to look up (fact/more details) it's so much more natural to grab the tablet and surf than flip open a laptop and sit it on your lap.

This^^.

It's not a binary choice, "Which would you choose?", as stated in the OP. The only reason I have an ipad is because my daughter bought me one for Christmas several years ago. Had no need for it, but it has become my standby device for much of what's stated above. Use it a lot for research while watching TV, checking email, and also taking photos around the house. It's a total PITA to type on so any lengthy communication is done on the laptop. I could easily live without it, but it has become a convenient resource--a supplement to my laptop.

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by red911sc

Our high school uses them for EVERYTHING. My son doesn't have any text books. Everything is loaded onto his school supplied Ipad. He does all of his assignments on it and then submits the assignments to his teachers all on the Ipad.

I personally believe tablets will be the PC's of the future for the workplace (and home). I foresee people taking their tablets home with them to work from home. When we return to the office, I believe we will be plugging our tablet into a docking station that will connect it to a larger screen, keyboard and mouse. All of which will be accessories required for us old farts. The youngsters will not need these and just work directly on the tablet.
.

ummm, that's been going on for years already!

[red911sc]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

ummm, that's been going on for years already!

Our school only does it at the high school level and son is a freshman. For an old fart like me it was a little shocking. However I assumed it was nothing new.

[id10t]

Tablets are great for consuming content - reading, watching video, etc. To actually create content - write letters (or code or whatever), edit/create images, etc. then you need the full input capabilities of a laptop or desktop.

[wildthing]

Originally Posted by id10t

Tablets are great for consuming content - reading, watching video, etc. To actually create content - write letters (or code or whatever), edit/create images, etc. then you need the full input capabilities of a laptop or desktop.

This.

Need full keyboard to type. Although I do have a Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad, there are certain things I can't do:

Complex Excel (the Surface Pro might be able to do this)
Coding
Writing more than basic documents, Word to PDF
Full features of Outlook (again Surface Pro might work)

[Eric Hahl]

One reason. The torque app combined with a bluetooth obd2 adapter. Mounted my tablet on the dash, now I can read all my engines vitals supplied through the obd2 port. Real time temps, pressures and more. Perfect for track days.

[LakeCleElum]

Always have books loaded on my tablet. I take it everywhere. If I have to wait, I have a book to read. If WiFi available, check email, Pelican, web or whatever. Bigger screen than my phone. Laptop usually only leaves the house when on vacation.

[stomachmonkey]

Tablets are really all that the average individual needs.

Online reading and research.

Bill pay / account management.

Email.

Social and entertainment content.

When you think about it even a low end PC is overkill since it's capabilities are far in excess of what that consumer needs or will ever take advantage of.

In a nutshell, tablet users only need to consume content, not create it.

Edit: yeah, what the id10t said.

[nota]

Originally Posted by id10t

Tablets are great for consuming content - reading, watching video, etc. To actually create content - write letters (or code or whatever), edit/create images, etc. then you need the full input capabilities of a laptop or desktop.

my tablet has a detachable keyboard [nextbook with w10]

[jyl]

The reason I ask is, when my daughter returns to college next year I'm going to buy her a new computer.

She has a MacBook Air 2014 13", I figure it can be her Netflix Spotify Youtube entertainment machine, probably will live on a side table connected to a monitor/TV.

So I'm thinking her next computer might be a MBP 13", a Surface Pro 4, or an iPad Pro.

She does a lot of writing, photography, photo editing and organizing, increasingly getting into digital art (vector drawing etc). Which machine sayeth you?

[Arizona_928]

Go with the Mac book pro. Retina display and a full frame dslr is pretty nice combo.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

She does a lot of writing, photography, photo editing and organizing, increasingly getting into digital art (vector drawing etc). Which machine sayeth you?

Really depends on the software she is currently or will be using.

For drawing hard to beat a digitizer so surface or iPad pro if she likes the software offerings.

Vector, writing = laptop

Photo editing and organizing, for me that's still laptop territory.

Generally as a creation tool the nod goes to the laptop.

Depending on how involved her art / photo editing is you'll still want a laptop with lots of ram, a better GPU, and drive space.

I've been hoping Apple would make a convertible digitized laptop.

They keep disappointing me.

[Ayles]

I keep an old ipad II in the garage for tunes and googling. Comes in handy during car projects.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by id10t

Tablets are great for consuming content - reading, watching video, etc. To actually create content - write letters (or code or whatever), edit/create images, etc. then you need the full input capabilities of a laptop or desktop.

+1
Lots of times I'll be reading emails on my iPad and get up to answer them on my laptop.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

+1
Lots of times I'll be reading emails on my iPad and get up to answer them on my laptop.

+1 Something to be said for the lazy ease of a mouse and a keyboard.