A laptop or a tablet?
The price
Modern tablets are available from £125, but the most expensive iPads or Samsung devices cost £650 or more. Laptops start from £325, but for a more powerful device, expect to pay £825 or more. The most expensive MacBook Pro currently costs more than £2,400.
Mobility
Size. Tablets are smaller, slimmer and lighter than laptops. This makes them more portable.
Battery. Tablet batteries generally remain charged longer.
Connection. Tablets are equipped with a SIM card, which gives you Internet access even when no Wi-Fi signal is available. On a laptop, this is more problematic. Conversely, when your tablet has no SIM card, you’re completely dependent on a Wi-Fi connection. If this connection is broken all of a sudden, you’re completely stuck, while laptops can always be connected to the network through a network cable.
Power
Today’s range of laptops is much broader than that of tablets: there’s a wide variety in screen sizes, processor power and storage capacity, and this also increases their possibilities. For example, there are laptops with a much higher screen resolution or a much larger internal memory than tablets. Moreover, tablets are, in principle, equipped with a mobile operating system, which is by definition less powerful than a fully-fledged laptop operating system.
Fingers
The tablet touchscreen is obviously less handy than a real laptop keyboard. This makes typing on a laptop faster and more accurate. But then, most modern tablets can now also be equipped with an external keyboard through a click system or a wireless connection. Plus, the touchscreen also offers extra facilities, such as swiping or zooming in using your fingers.
Ease of use
Transferring files from one device to another is a lot more difficult via a tablet, as it has no default USB port. This means that everything has to be done via the cloud, and this will take longer than with a laptop.
Apps or programs
Laptops allow you to run powerful programs, while a major asset of tablets are the countless handy apps. Applications for iOS and Android tablets are gradually becoming a match for each other, but Windows devices currently have to make do with a more limited range.
The aim
Tablets are particularly useful for “consuming” media - looking up information via Google, reading e-mails, watching films, etc. However, for “producing” things, e.g., typing text, drawing up reports, producing music or editing photos - a laptop offers a better solution. Especially when it comes to office applications, laptops remain more useful and convenient than tablets. The decision is yours.
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