TO begin with let me point out what the tablet cannot do , and so why and for whom it will not act as the lone computing device.
1) USB support : Most of the tablets available in the market today do not support USB. What that means is that you cannot plug in a pen drive or a portable hard disk, or for that matter a USB keyboard etc. It also means if some of you have devices that charge from the USB port of your computer that would not be possible on a tablet.
2) Memory limitations : With memory prices going down most of us are spoilt with 500GB or higher capacity hard disks in our laptops filled with hundreds of movies, pictures etc. Remember that many tablet devices today do not support expandable memory like the ipad. Others that do, let you plug in a microSD card. That would still limit you to something like 64GB unless you are willing to carry multiple microSD cards and keep juggling with them.
3) Documents : Having gone through various applications available for android as well as iOS devices, we can safely say that document viewing is not a problem in any of the tablets. The problem is with the Document editing and creating capabilities of the software. Most of the applications for document creation are very basic and do not give you capabilities anywhere near what you get in your laptops. Only if you are ok with the basic viewing and minimal editing of the documents you can live with the tablet as your soul device. All these tablets support google documents so that is another basic option to view and edit documents in the browser itself.
4) Video/Audio Playback : Most of the tablets do not support all the audio/video formats that the laptops support so many a times you will require a laptop to convert those audio/video files to be able to play them on your tablet. This is inspite of the fact that many apps are available in the Android market (for e.g.) that try to give you a wider audio/video format support.
5) Developers/Specialised software : If you use any kind of specialised software related to your field of work, you are definitely going to miss that.
Now, let’s get to the more interesting part. What tablets do best, and where they outshine compared to the traditional laptops. So, for whom is it a worth buy, and a value for money product.. So if you already have a desktop at home and you need portability and a device that fulfills all your basic computing needs, or if you own a laptop but are looking for another device, then tablet is what you should buy.
1) Basic computing needs: For a fact, 90% of us need a laptop for browsing, watching videos and photos, listening to songs, and checking emails period. For all these tasks, tablet is an IDEAL device. It works like a charm with a touchscreen.
2) Portability : Tablets are generally 1/3rd to 1/5th the weight and size of a regular laptop making it ultra portable. Its much easier to work on a tablet sitting on a couch, the bed or in the garden and fits into the smallest of bags you might have.
3) Battery life : A normal laptop would have a battery life of around 3-4 hours whereas a normal tablet has a battery life of anywhere between 7-10 hours. So working on the couch, the bed , the nearest coffee shop or sitting in the garden is actually possible without worrying about the power plug.
4) General Ease of Use : A normal laptop would take anywhere between 2-4 mins just to switch on, whereas the tablet is just like your phone. It’s off in a second and on in another. So you won’t feel lazy doing any tasks on a tablet whereas switching on a laptop is a chore in itself for most of us. Another point of consideration is that since it is a touchscreen device, it is much easier for elders at our home to use these devices since whatever they see and want, they are just have to touch it, which comes naturally. So, from that perspective also, it scores well..
5) Other use cases: Tablet, owing to its small light weight form factor, can be used for many new uses that you might know but would not have used till now. For example, it can act as an occasional ebook reader. It may not enjoy the e-ink on the kindle reader but can definitely be useful for an hour a day kind of reading. With a tablet and a wifi/3g connection around, you can talk to a lot of people via skype or any other VOIP software even if the other person has a 2G mobile phone. Plus video calls become much more practical with a bigger screen and the ease of a small form factor device ending in better connectivity and call savings. Another interesting use case that I came across is that these days DIGITAL PHOTO FRAMES are being appreciated by a lot of people and they cost anywhere between 3k to 15k depending on the screen size and different configurations. Tablets having very long battery life can be used as very effective digital photo frames when not being used otherwise.
