Before Apple released the iPad in 2010, this question was not really one which troubled most people. Tablet computers were not widely available and lacked mainstream popularity. Now it can be tough to work out whether a traditional laptop or a new tablet is suitable to meet your needs. To get to the bottom of this it is necessary to establish the main differences between the devices and determine whether or not each one’s features will fit your requirements.
Laptops have remained fundamentally unchanged for the past couple of decades. You still get a clamshell-style body which houses a screen on the top half and a full QWERTY keyboard on the bottom, with all sorts of inputs and outputs arrayed around the side. Dual- or quad-core processors and between 2GB and 4GB of RAM are common on even the more affordable laptops, while the actual size of a typical machine depends largely on its screen, with 10.1-inch netbooks sitting alongside 17-inch media powerhouses.
You can choose between laptops running Windows 7 or Apple’s OSX, the latter making up the famous MacBook range. These platforms are compatible with vast libraries of software, from games to word processors and video editing suites and control typically comes from a trackpad system that controls an onscreen cursor in the same way that a mouse would for a desktop PC.
Tablets are defined by their reliance on touchscreen interfaces rather than physical keys and screen sizes range between 7 inches and 10.1 inches. They are typically lighter than laptops, with the iPad 2 weighing in at around 600 grams while a typical laptop can be up to 2Kg or more, depending on the model. Single- and dual-core processors are usually the driving force behind tablets, while storage space can range from 8GB to 64GB, a lot less than the 250GB plus hard drives you will find on laptops.
There are two main tablet operating systems. iOS is the platform developed by Apple and made available only on the iPad range, while Android 3.0/4.0 is Google’s software package and can be found on tablets from manufacturers including Samsung, HTC, Motorola and many others. There are hundreds of thousands of applications available from the iPad’s App Store and the Android Market. An app can range in complexity from simple and free to very powerful and available only at a price. However, in general, tablet software is still cheaper than programs designed for laptops when you look at the paid-for end of the market.
Whether you choose a laptop or a tablet largely depends on what you think you will be using your portable computing device to achieve. For those who want to edit documents, run processor-intensive programs, store entire music collections and enjoy the best of the internet, a laptop computer might be the answer. This is because the lack of physical keyboards makes tablets suitable only for entering small amounts of text at a slower pace.
In addition, tablet operating systems and web browsers are not able to handle some online content that is encoded in Flash. Updates are dictated by the manufacturers, not by the individual developers, so a laptop is more immediately flexible when it comes to changes and improvements.
On the other hand, a tablet will let you enjoy media files, movies, games, text-based websites and eBooks in a far more natural way than a laptop while you are out and about or just slouched on your sofa. Additionally, the growing creative capabilities of apps such as GarageBand show that tablets have room to grow. The choice you make will depend on your own particular requirements.
About the Author:
The above article is composed and edited by Shannan D. She is associated with many SEO and Technologies communities as their freelance writer and adviser. In her free time she writes articles related to seo, social media, comcast related articles etc.