Open Forum: Tablet or laptop for computing on the go?

[Teko03]

I don't think their markets are fully converged yet. Laptops still remain a powerhouse for portable computing at any sort of affordable price, I just picked up an Asus K501UB laptop for £580, I wouldn't say it's slim enough to be compared with a Macbook Air but is much slimmer than other laptops I've compared to, it's got a GTX 940M so is alright for gaming - when I'm home I can use Steam streaming to play games on ultra from my gaming PC if I don't feel like leaving my bed.

I also have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, it is extremely portable, I use it for watching TV and Netflix most of the time - I'll grab the latest TV show episode I'm following in the morning before work and watch it in my lunch time, and I normally watch Netflix in the evening. It's good enough to handle eBooks and PDFs and light-medium Microsoft documentation but nothing more. It can android game but I wouldn't dream of trying to run any complex games on it, and most bluetooth keyboards are pretty flaky so it's not suitable for full time working.

I've not really tried my hand at the official 'hybrid' market, but things like the Surface Pro are a really good effort at the convergence and I respect that a lot on Microsoft's behalf, but I notice that most are half baked attempts; a laptop that can rotate 359 degrees into a tablet or a tablet with an attachable keyboard. It's normally one with some features of the other thrown in.

Thing about the Surface Pro is although you can have a tablet with laptop specs there, it costs so god damn much, so half the interested consumers can't afford it - I couldn't really justify getting a Surface Pro as it'd be £1079, which is £500 more than a laptop with the equivalent specs (and no GTX 940 I might add), you have to buy the keyboard seperately (another £100?) and portable computing isn't worth paying £500-600 more.

Nailed it on the head there!

HP offers an affordable Surface Pro alternative, I believe VAIO does as well. The Surface line isn't intended to be affordable, they can't when they have OEM partners selling similar products.

 

[darkzelda]

Laptop all the way.

 

[Arris]

Used to maintain a gaming desktop and have a gaming laptop but recently sold the laptop and picked up a Surface Pro 3. Can still play a few older/less demanding games and much more portable than my old laptop when I'm travelling. Can just put it in the "tablet" section in the back of my camera bag. Really appreciating the form factor of it as getting a laptop bag and a camera bag onto planes is a hassle/extra cost.

 

[Tanstar]

I take my gaming laptop on trips, as I can access Office, play movies in 1080P or play games. My tablet (Unbranded 10.1 with detachable keyboard and upgraded to W10) is great for watching 720P videos streamed over WiFi when I'm running on my treadmill. My LG G4 handles things most of the time on the go and my Desktop is my normal choice at home. At work I have a sweet set-up with a docking station for my work laptop, wireless keyboard/mouse and extra monitor.

 

[The Kingsman]

Well Tim,I guess that I'm one of the first tablet users to respond to your article. I'm no Johnny-come-lately to the world of computing. Beginning with a TRS 100, I progressed through a lot of Atari computers which were often well ahead of their time till 1993 after Atari committed financial suicide and I switched to a PC. This worked out fairly well till, trying to use my laptop (a little over 3 lbs) with my musical keyboard resulted in serious damage to the music stand for my Yamaha Synthesizer(It was made of plastic and could not support the weight of the laptop. It did serious damage to my synthesizer). It was at that time that I began considering a tablet, finally settling on a Motorola Xoom. At first the apps available were limited, often not optimized for 10 inch tablets, and drivers for external hardware were often not available. Eventually I switched over to the tablet completely.I used that Xoom till six months ago. It is still quite capable, running so many apps fairly swiftly, and running under a version of Android 4.4.4 by CWM. Last fall though,I began to look for something swifter, and far more capable. I finally settled on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1(2014). This tablet is just incredible, and capable of the most demanding tasks. To start with, it has the S-Pen which is incredible in it's own right. It has full multi-tasking/multi-windowing, has 3GB Rom, 32GB Ram internal, and a 128SDCard. It has a USB port and handles the most demanding tasks without a slowdown or even a stutter. It's infinitely more capable as a touch tablet than the Microsoft Surface Pro, and thoroughly outclasses the original Apple IPad Pro (I've not had opportunity to use the IPad Pro 9.7, so can't tell you much about it.). There is very little that my tablet will not do, and do well. For one thing, the software that I use is vastly less expensive than it is for a Win machine as well.The only thing that Ican think of that is better than my tablet is the 64 gig Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2. I'm really looking forward to the next iteration of these wonderful tablets. They're still at the bleeding edge of the technology.