Laptops vs Tablets

I am in the market for a computering internet machine.

Basic info.

It will be for school, I anticipate graduating Aug 2015 and I want it to last until then.

My classes won't require tons of papers but will require me to be connected to my professors and online study materials.

I have a home PC that I can connect to the printer or run a CD-rom with if necessary.

I would prefer an 8 to 10" tablet for studying I think. I'm just afraid that I'll get that then want a laptop later.

In the 300-500 range, what would you do?

that's a good question, i am kind of in the same boat. i would like a tablet that has a USB port, can run xcel, etc.

if you told me a year ago i would be looking for a tablet i would probably just punch you. i have always thought of them as being an inferior laptop that can't make phone calls.

these days i do a decent amount of work on my commute, which is rough on the eyes using a phone, and bulky using a laptop.

If I had to choose one I would get a laptop. You may not be writing papers, but it would be more useful for things like taking notes in class. For your price range another option would be to look at something like the Asus Transformer, which is a tablet with a detachable keyboard.

fossana wrote:If I had to choose one I would get a laptop. You may not be writing papers, but it would be more useful for things like taking notes in class.

More useful? How so, seems opposite that to me.

I did just find out that one of my online classes will have a load of threaded discussions, I don't think I want to type 3/4 page answers to each threaded question posed (per the syllabus) on a touchscreen.

I think I might have just fallen for that transformer. Why does it offer so much more than other tablets for so much less? Should I be skeptical or just whip out my card?

Anyone have any experience with a Google Chromebook? They are super cheap. Is it just cause they suck?

I'm weary of getting an iPad or Android based tablet for "work", because both are really glorified entertainment devices and do not run a general purpose operating system. Unless you absolutely know what you need to do on them & they are adequate for those purposes, you may encounter something that won't work.

Which really means, for tablets, the only option is a Windows 8.1 based tablet, since OS X doesn't have a touch interface needed for tablets.

As for Chromebook, if everything you ever want to do is inside the Chrome browser (and you use only google services/apps), then it may just be the device for you.

If you're just using it to read, a tablet is great. If you plan to do any real work with it though, I'd get a laptop. I've been using my 13" Lenovo Yoga for about a year and I really like it. I don't use it in tablet mode very often, but the few times I do I'm glad it has the option.

reboot wrote:I'm weary of getting an iPad or Android based tablet for "work", because both are really glorified entertainment devices and do not run a general purpose operating system. Unless you absolutely know what you need to do on them & they are adequate for those purposes, you may encounter something that won't work. Which really means, for tablets, the only option is a Windows 8.1 based tablet, since OS X doesn't have a touch interface needed for tablets. As for Chromebook, if everything you ever want to do is inside the Chrome browser (and you use only google services/apps), then it may just be the device for you.

that's kind of what i was thinking - do you have any good recommendations?

Maybe you should post this question on a tech website/forum. You will probably get better results from people who are more qualified to answer. Just saying; I wouldn't ask the mountain project community something that is not at all climbing related. There are much better places to look for advice (not that I don't value the opinions of people here)

nicelegs wrote: More useful? How so, seems opposite that to me...

Why did you bother to ask if you have already decided that you want a tablet?

Once you need to write any substantial amount of anything a tablet sucks. So basically what you're saying is that you're going to take classes and only link to other people's discussions instead of synthesizing and documenting your own thoughts on the class material. That's not learning.

re: Chromebook
I would have thought you can't access Google apps offline, but that's not true: support.google.com/chromebo… One downside is that their spreadsheet/word processing apps aren't as fully featured as other fat client software.

Aaron L. wrote:Maybe you should post this question on a tech website/forum...

Is this thread hurting you?

"Why did you bother to ask if you have already decided that you want a tablet? "

I want a tablet, however, I am open to getting what I need. That was a real question, the last time I went to college you had to come to campus to get on a computer that went online and laptops were black and orange and useless. It stands to reason that things have changed.

I have seen phones and tablets that can essentially be turned into index cards for studying. I've also seen apps to record lectures.

"Once you need to write any substantial amount of anything a tablet sucks."

Based on my little ipod, I would agree. Hence my question as to what you're compromising with that Transformer you mentioned.

"So basically what you're saying is that you're going to take classes and only link to other people's discussions instead of synthesizing and documenting your own thoughts on the class material. That's not learning."

I never said anything of the sort. You're just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. I won't be writing papers or lines of code though.

I still would like to know what the Asus Transformer is lacking. At the price, most other tablets don't seem to have nearly the functionality.

Get a Chromebook. I had a Transformer tablet before, and it just never felt all that practical. I only ever really used it to watch movies and occasionally play games. I replaced it with an HP Chromebook 14 and it's infinitely more useful, especially since you can sideload Linux on it via Chrubuntu or Crouton. You can also upgrade to a 128GB hard drive for ~$100. Even if you don't use Ubuntu, Google Docs hardly seems limiting; I'm writing my thesis mainly on my Chromebook with the intent to just go back to my desktop to reformat/do citations before I finish it. The fact that your documents are always automatically backed up makes it so nice for academic work.

nicelegs wrote: Is this thread hurting you?

Really? Of course it's not hurting us. It's just an absurd place to ask this question.

Why not try an automotive forum? Or a cooking forum?

nicelegs wrote:In the 300-500 range, what would you do?

Buy one of each. A cheap tablet and a cheap/used laptop. Sell one or both at end of schooling.

Tablets are best for consuming content, while a laptop is much more useful if you need to actually produce anything (i.e. type more than 4 sentences). A tablet may be quite useful in a class/notetaking setting, but that has a significant component of personal preference. The tablet also might be a worthwhile option since you already have a desktop, and the tablet provides is quite different from what the desktop provides, whereas a laptop is essentially just a portable desktop. If you are fine with using your desktop at home for any substantial amount of typing, etc, then the tablet may be worthwhile. If you want to go somewhere away from home (school, coffee shop, etc) to work on things, a laptop is a vastly more versatile device.

My recommendation? Wait. Buy now only if buying ahead of time will allow you to save a bunch of money, like if something goes on major sale. Otherwise, wait and see. Go to class for a few weeks, and use your desktop at home for the things you need to do. Take notes with a pen and paper (yes, this technology still works) See what everyone else is using. After a few weeks of school you'll have a much better idea of what you need. Also, you will find out if there are any specialized programs that you might need to use for your field, which may require a proper PC operating system.

slim wrote: that's kind of what i was thinking - do you have any good recommendations?

I really wish Apple would make an OS X version of iPad, probably won't happen any time soon, & I probably don't want to pay the price. That really leaves only the current crop of Windows 8.1 tablets. & as these things go, they all seem a bit rushed to market.

If you need one now, for the 8" (~$300) there are the Dell Venue 8 Pro, Lenovo MIIX 2 8 & a couple others w/ the new Intel "Bay Trail" atom processor. For the 10-11", there are the Asus Transformer T100 (cheapest but the most rushed to market), Dell Venue 11 Pro, HP Omni 10 that tops out @ $500, again, with the "Bay Trail" processors (comparable to the retina iPad in speed, but runs x86 instructions) You can certainly spend more & buy one of the "Haswell" processor based tablet (starts in $700-800 range), but that's becoming more of a laptop w/o a keyboard.

Personally, 8" is a bit small for viewing a document, certainly too small to edit one (besides, my phone's display is already close to 5"), but since I just bought a 15" rMBP (best Unix laptop (coming from someone fed up running linux distributions on laptops) & immensely popular amongst techies), I'm not about to spend another $500 for a tablet.

In the past few years I've suggested most friends that are still in school (as well as my co-workers) to go with a tablet as opposed to a laptop, unless your needs are beyond simple internet access and word processing.

Tablets have come a long way as well as the cloud. Most support Google Drive which gives you free access to a word processor, spreadsheets, and presentations; all stored in the cloud; accessible from any device; and have options to export/download to MS Office formats as well as a variety of others.

Laptops are really only needed when you have classes that require software beyond basic "office apps" such as CAD or CSE studies. If you feel like you're missing a keyboard, there are many cases with bluetooth keyboards attached.

These days you can get a tablet or a laptop for about the same price. As long as you take care of either you should be fine until 2015, although the laptop (i assume windows) will more than likely suffer from malware and/or hardware upgrades or repairs. (tablets have far fewer moving parts)

I work in IT and for the most part only have a laptop for sysadmin and networking needs, otherwise I can get a majority of my work done remotely with my ipad/iphone/android. In the end though it comes down to what you want to carry around and sit down in front of. Some people in my office can't stand to work off of a tablet, while others love that they don't have to lug around a laptop and massive charger.

Hope that helps some!

slim wrote:that's a good question, i am kind of in the same boat. i would like a tablet that has a USB port, can run xcel, etc. if you told me a year ago i would be looking for a tablet i would probably just punch you. i have always thought of them as being an inferior laptop that can't make phone calls. these days i do a decent amount of work on my commute, which is rough on the eyes using a phone, and bulky using a laptop.

For a USB port and Excel, you are basically looking at the Microsoft Surface 2 or Surface 2 Pro. They are awesome. USB 3 which is superfast, HD video out. And the Windows office RT works great for excel and all other office applications.

Windows seems to have the niche of "between tablet and laptop" which in my opinion is a good thing. They have way more ports in/out and are more versatile in that respect.

Pete Spri wrote: For a USB port and Excel, you are basically looking at the Microsoft Surface 2 or Surface 2 Pro. They are awesome. USB 3 which is superfast, HD video out. And the Windows office RT works great for excel and all other office applications. Windows seems to have the niche of "between tablet and laptop" which in my opinion is a good thing. They have way more ports in/out and are more versatile in that respect.

there's no reason for excel when free open-source products like libreoffice and openoffice.org exist. no reason to feel obligated to subscribe to a microsoft product when free software is compatible with M$. imho.

Sys Ex wrote: there's no reason for excel when free open-source products like libreoffice and openoffice.org exist. no reason to feel obligated to subscribe to a microsoft product when free software is compatible with M$. imho.

Except it sucks royally and has worse compatibility to MS Office than Google's browser-based productivity suites? It's one thing to tinker stuff on your own, it's quite another when companies are paying good money to the employees to get stuff done.