Tablet PCs are a very funny thing, they have been around for so long and no one has seen a point in them but suddenly when the Apple iPad was released that everyone suddenly finds a use for it honestly is it any good?
Well being one to always hoard new technical stuff when it first came out “mainstream”, I got myself a cheap Android tablet and while it was fine for a couple of things it sucked. While that put me off tablet PCs for ages, within the last few months I got myself a more “high-end” Android tablet which is what this article is based on.
While I own a desktop (PC & Mac), I am a massive laptop user unless I have a reason to use my desktop (such as video editing) I always tend to use my laptop. So after a few months of using a tablet am I able to say that I have completely stopped using my laptop?
Well no, I am writing this article on my laptop which shows you what I think about tablets and doing anything. While I do use the tablet for browsing the World Wide Web and checking email and IM at times, I simply default back to my laptop when I need to get something done. While a tablet can have a keyboard added to it (when I first got my tablet, I right away added a 7″ keyboard case but do be careful, the design of that case is flawed (as it will NOT stop it from sliding out) it just does not feel as natural as typing on my laptop.
Now I use my tablet which is ultimately a second screen for when I am using either my laptop or PC. By second screen what I mean is when I use my laptop on my desk, I have my tablet on a table stand which clams to the desk which allows me to easily all my emails and IM messages on my tablet and if there is anything important, either reply to them on my laptop or use the tablet which is connected to my keyboard via a USB KVM switch.
So overall what do I think about a tablet?
Well, a tablet is great for replacing common things you do in the house such as browsing a website, checking emails and replying to the odd one but beyond that – it just ends up being a place I can check all my emails on while I am using my laptop to do things and oh, the battery life on a tablet is very good – hell even the Chinese cheap ones are. Now hybrid laptops, that is a different ball game which I am not getting into in this article.
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Tablets can make good laptop replacements (or even desktop replacements depending on use case) if you go for the ones with well-designed keyboard accessories. I own an Eee Pad Transformer (TF101 – http://uk.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/) which basically replaced my laptop. It comes with a keyboard dock that is well made, nice to use, flawlessly integrated with the tablet and quite sturdy.
When the keyboard is attached, it’s basically a touchscreen enabled, Android-based netbook. These “upper class” tablets are becoming better and better in the processor department too – this one has an nVidia Tegra 2 chipset, which is enough to run games like GTA 3, but there’s a much more powerful Tegra 3 chipset which came out early this year.
The only thing I would say is that there appears to be no OSes fully optimised for tablets yet. The current major Android and iOS versions arguably carry some smartphone-specific baggage, but they’re certainly getting better. This might be where Windows 8 will shine (even if it’s not worth upgrading to on a PC).
Do agree with you on being a laptop replacement if it comes with a good keyboard – much like the one you linked. You are also correct able the operating system.
As I can see tablets becoming more and more like laptops in terms of having keyboard as well (even my next laptop I am getting can “transform” into a tablet), a new operating system that works like how you would expect it is needed and I am guessing this is where Windows 8 will really take off.
I am also going to guess we will soon either see things like GNOME being released with Android so you can switch to that for “laptop mode” and then switch to the traditional Android OS for “tablet” mode but time will tell yet.
That said, mine still a fancy email checker 😀