Tablet or Laptop?

With the landscape of personal compute fast changing, some of you may wonder the relevance of a laptop when a tablet can do almost what a laptop can do. Afterall, tablets are getting more powerful, more portable and most of all, it comes with ready internet connectivity.

However, before you throw away that laptop, there are still reasons why some people prefer a laptop over a tablet. It very much depends on what you are using the tablet for. If your personal computing is just web-browsing, personal entertainment, personal communications/organizer and light computing, then a tablet will be suffice. But if you have some serious work that you need to do, then a tablet is not ideal. And here’s why…

1) The Keyboard
The most obvious reason why a tablet is never good enough to replace a laptop is in its keyboard. Somehow typing on a touch screen and on a keyboard is of significant difference. Well, you may say that you can always buy an external keyboard but the hassle of carrying a load of external devices around defeat the purpose of having a portable tablet, right?

2) Storage.
The biggest drawback of a tablet is storage. With apps, movies, music, photos, etc… the 32GB or 64 GB storage space is not going to be sufficient and you have to be selective on what you keep on your tablet. External storage is also lacking and limited to mostly SD cards or flash sticks only.

The best way for a tablet to work is via cloud-computing where files are stored on a server instead of on the device. Like a double-edged sword, the cloud can be a life-saver or disaster for you.

The good thing about it is that you need not worry if your files gets corrupted or lost when your tablet crashes or gets lost. The data will always be on the server.

However, there are 3 things that would make people shy away from cloud-computing. They are security, responsiveness of data transfers (connectivity) and reliability/robustness of the infrastructure.

3) The Missing DVD Read/Write Drive
While many tablet users don’t see this as an issue, an ardent laptop user would. Especially if he/she needs to use a laptop to preview DVD/CD materials or reproduce auto-run DVD/CD materials for work.

Also, for those that need to install work-related software from time to time, a tablet will be a no-no because of this. Which will bring me to my next point – Software vs Apps..

4) Software vs Apps
While there are many cool personal computing apps that can replace your MS Office, Photoshop, etc.. many serious work-related and professional software cannot run off a tablet and have to run off a PC or laptop with a Windows, Linux or Mac OS.

5) Connectivity
Though the 3G or 4G mobile broadband and Wi-Fi technology are maturing, there will always be serious work that needs an almost guaranteed cabled connection. Wireless connections are too erratic and disruptive for serious work.

6) Screen Too Small
I cannot imagine working on a tablet for 5-6 hrs everyday. I’d go blind and crazy. Though you can blow up the screen to a HDTV, the hassle of connecting it up to one everyday can be a real chore.

7) Loads External Device Options
To bring a tablet comparable to a laptop, you will need a load of external devices. The load will be enough to discourage any laptop user to switch to tablet. Imagine if one has to carry a bag full of external devices like HDMI cables, adapters, keyboard, DVD drive, etc… you’re better of carrying a laptop


Hence, to conclude, I will not throw away my laptop if I get a tablet. A tablet will be a good to have for me and not a necessity. But I certainly won’t mind having one as a personal companion when I’m on the go… especially on the bus, on the train, on a plane or in between pockets of time to stay productive as I will likely only use it for email, organizer, web-browsing, music, movies, games and some basic drafting of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc on the fly… The laptop is what serious work will be done on….