Tablet or not tablet ?

[Ridemonkey]

I think tablets work really well for certain uses. Casual web browsing from the sofa, for example, is far better on a tablet than a laptop. I tend to prefer a 7" tablet because it's lighter and easier to manage.

I recently bought a 10" Windows 8.1 tablet with a keyboard dock for work. It's a full blown Windows install that runs normal desktop apps, but it's got 10 hours of battery life. I find that a very useful travel companion - smaller, lighter with better battery life than most laptops, and very inexpensive. It's not for full-blown, all-day productivity but it's much easier to deal with for movies on the plane, some emails while on the road, some documents here and there, showing presentations, etc.

 

[Sheratan]

After using Lumia 625, I'm never use my laptop anymore.

And I don't have any tablet.

So Lumia 625 is my "tablet"

 

[FredC]

Tablets make the coolest TV guides and remote controls ever!!!

 

[TPerry]

Tell me about it. Tablets are for people who just surf the net, if you're going to be just a little bit productive the laptop is lightyears ahead and will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

I like my Surface Pro 2 w/512GB SSD with it's Type Cover 2 just fine. Works well as a tablet without using the TC and as a laptop replacement with the TC.

 

[dangonay]

I use an iPad extensively at work. I have several hundred PDF's with some 20,000 pages of electrical and technical drawings stored on it. Carrying around a tablet is infinitely better than lugging around several large & heavy printed manuals (and hoping you brought all the ones you needed). I have a case with a hook/mount on the back so I can just hang it where I'm working and easily flip through pages. Try that with a laptop/ultrabook. If my iPad was only good for storing my PDF's then it'd still be worth the money I spent.

All the rest is just icing on the cake (like getting text messages/real time answers to technical queries from other staff or last-minute things to check, connecting to our corporate servers to access an online knowledge base through VPN, and all the other little things people take for granted).

At home I spend most of my time on my iPad. The only time I use a desktop is when I have work to do or for gaming. I still hate typing anything more than a short e-mail on a tablet and I have software that just simply isn't available on a tablet. That said, if I actually compared the number of hours on my iPad vs my PC I'd say that more than half is done on my iPad. I just don't need to walk over to my desk if I want to check e-mail, read the news, shop online or all the other stuff most people do on a PC. There's something about the instant-on, always available nature of a tablet that just makes it more compelling for me to use for most tasks.

 

[Sheratan]

I like my Surface Pro 2 w/512GB SSD with it's Type Cover 2 just fine. Works well as a tablet without using the TC and as a laptop replacement with the TC.

I envy you. MSFT doesn't release Surface in my country. The only way to get it is from Amazon or Ebay. Considering how my country Customs Dept. work... the amount of money I need to spend is "to the infinity and beyond"

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

We got an iPad a few years ago and it's used almost constantly, battery has to get charged literally 2x daily. 4 kids 6-18, we have now 2 desktop PCs, 1 laptop, 1 iPad, 3 iPods, 5 iPhones, 1 Nook, and Minecraft on all of them I think. Let's not forgot Wii and Xbox and AppleTV.

 

[Allan]

We got an iPad a few years ago and it's used almost constantly, battery has to get charged literally 2x daily. 4 kids 6-18, we have now 2 desktop PCs, 1 laptop, 1 iPad, 3 iPods, 5 iPhones, 1 Nook, and Minecraft on all of them I think. Let's not forgot Wii and Xbox and AppleTV.

Amazing !

 

[raytrails]

Tablets make the coolest TV guides and remote controls ever!!!

HAHA you made my day! That's maybe the best use of them.

 

[OSS 117]

Don't forget coasters.

 

[shawn]

I'm typing this on an iPad mini retina with a zagg bluetooth keyboard. It's a tiny little laptop that fits in my pocket, takes pictures, takes notes in meetings (MS Note), scans documents (DocScan HD) carries around several thousand pages worth of PDF files and lets me mark them up with comments (Bluebeam Revu), lets me attend GoToMeetings, accesses my exchange email, sharefile, etc, etc. It will even run a ssh shell if I need to log into my webserver for any reason.

And it gets about three days on a battery. I usually have to charge it once near the middle of the week and once over the weekend. Currently sitting at 76% charged after being in standby for 36 hours and active for six.

It's also great with the kids.

About the only thing it can't do is compose an email that has two or more different file types as attachments. I can send one email with a PDF attached and a second email with a JPG attached, but not both at the same time. Stupid AAPL.

 

[shawn]

Oh, and the tablet acts as a remote control for my home theatre. And if I happen to be in the kitchen listening to some music on the tablet, I can hit the Airplay button to automatically turn on the AVR, select the appropriate input, and start playing that music through the house's speakers.

 

[DRE]

I hear they're good for reading books if you don't want a kindle type device.

 

[dangonay]

Another reason I like my iPad at work. Insane battery life. I literally charge it once every 7-10 days.

 

[BoostN]

I have the first iPad which as become almost obsolete for the newest apps and info and Apple will not let me upgrade to the latest iOS... anyways. Looking at the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S, seems to be a very nice tablet coming at the end of this month.

I still prefer a laptop though..

 

[Marcus]

I got an iPad 3 and used it mostly for the game Swampy. I sold it some months later. Now I am thinking about buying another iPad again, - this time for keeping up with my community - but having new releases around the corner maybe I should wait.

 

[Allan]

Nobody has a Galaxy Tab pro ?