Tablet Vs Laptop
The most pressing question on everyone's lips is will the tablet replace the laptop? Well maybe not the most pressing question at the moment, and probably not on anyone's lips, except mine. But still a worthy question to ponder. Recently I came across an article Tablet Industry Continues Steady Decline that claimed the tablet is in decline. While I might be inclined to agree that sales of tablets have slowed down, I wouldn't write off the tablet just yet.
Don't get me wrong, I love my laptop and would not get rid of it. But I decided a while back to see if I could use a tablet to replace my laptop. That and my laptop, if you could call it mine since it was a hand-me-down from my wife, really couldn't go more than five seconds unplugged. So when I got the tablet, another hand-me-down from my wife, I gave it a hard test drive.
A few years ago my wife was offered an iPad. Seeing how neither of us own any Apple products, and my firm belief that Apple is the Betamax of the computer industry, she opted for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 inch screen. I was able to get her synced with her Android phone and she was off and running.
As it turned out, it wasn't much running. Shortly after she realized that while tablets are great, they are not a laptop. Although the bluetooth keyboard and the leather case was a great add on, she decided to get a new laptop. She got a small laptop that was more of an ultra book with touch screen technology, which meant I got another hand-me-down of her old laptop and the tablet.
First I started to use it at work during meetings. I'm a simple man when it comes to software, proudly I've made my career by not going above layer 3 (an inside joke for those who know OSI), so a basic text document app worked perfectly. And I didn't want to remove my wife's email account, so I found another freeware program. In fact the amount of freeware products for Android are vast and many of them are good. Of course you get what you pay for, but I have a lot of patience when it comes to apps. Or at least that's what I tell myself.
I avoided putting any games on the device since I know my obsessive nature would have me playing them non stop. So I started to download programs that work better on a tablet than ones for your phone such as watching old movies which is one of my hobbies. And watching a ten inch screen is not much different than the thirteen inch screen I grew up watching as a kid.
I even found an app that works like Office and had a text and spreadsheet program that could save in Windows Office format. Since I had the wireless keyboard I decided to use it to write my first novel Taste the Purple. It was a bit difficult since the keys had a tendency to spit out multiple letters or strange foreign characters often. And there really isn't a good spell check, or at least one that works with the freeware apps I was using. I just keep telling myself that I am frugal, not cheap, frugal, not cheap, frugal......
I believe I reached the full effect when I was at my brother's wedding on the other side of the county and got a repair phone call at midnight because a T1 was down. Using the table I was able to VPN into my work computer and on the tiny screen, was able to pull up information and the software I needed. Wasn't easy and was much slower than if I had a laptop, but it still worked.
Can the tablet replace the laptop? No it cannot. But I don't see them disappearing any time soon. They are good as a download device, just not so much as an input device. Either way I am glad that I tried this experiment and know for sure that I do work much better using a laptop.
Adam Mayer is a telecommunications manager and aspiring author who lives in Oregon
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