Laptop vs. Tablet

[mu03eng]

I can without a doubt that in 5 years, I will still need a laptop to perform my job. As will many engineers, graphic designers, CAD techs, etc.

As someone that works for a major engineering company and does a ton of technical and finance work(at least I don't work with AutoCAD and Pro-E anymore), I disagree with your statement.  As applications move to the cloud and database servers the need for raw computing power in one place is rapidly disappearing.  We already have Pro-E licenses as a shared capability within our company its not too long before it's a cloud based program you could access from a desk station that your Surface plugs into.

[Murphysguy]

Certainly, tablets will have the processing and storage power of laptops someday soon.

It's all about the keyboard.   

Of course, you can add an external keyboard.  Then you have a 2-piece laptop.  Super.  That already exists.

Well a lot of tablet cases now feature built in wireless keyboards. Technically you are right still 2 pieces, but much more portable than current laptops.

[Coleman]

As someone that works for a major engineering company and does a ton of technical and finance work(at least I don't work with AutoCAD and Pro-E anymore), I disagree with your statement.  As applications move to the cloud and database servers the need for raw computing power in one place is rapidly disappearing.  We already have Pro-E licenses as a shared capability within our company its not too long before it's a cloud based program you could access from a desk station that your Surface plugs into.

This sums it up perfectly. Everything is going to the cloud.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I wonder if all this helped the OP any 

[Jay Bee]

Well a lot of tablet cases now feature built in wireless keyboards. Technically you are right still 2 pieces, but much more portable than current laptops.

Little itty bitty keyboards for dudes with small d-beaters. Awful.

Unless you're Moses, no man should be using a tablet 100% of the time instead of a laptop or desktop.

It all gets down to needs & preference.

If you need to do real work or real things and you're a man, get a laptop.

If you need only to play crazy birds or whatever, pintrist baking recipes, and you're a female or a sequential hermaphrodite, go with the tablet.

[Murphysguy]

Little itty bitty keyboards for dudes with small d-beaters. Awful.

Unless you're Moses, no man should be using a tablet 100% of the time instead of a laptop or desktop.

It all gets down to needs & preference.

If you need to do real work or real things and you're a man, get a laptop.

If you need only to play crazy birds or whatever, pintrist baking recipes, and you're a female or a sequential hermaphrodite, go with the tablet.

Haha keyboards on netbooks are equally as small.... I agree that at this point a tablet is not enough on its own, but as someone who is constantly on the go and does A LOT of air travel, a tablet is extremely convenient. You can throw one in your carry on/briefcase and it takes up as much space as a small book. It allows me to do about 95% of the work I need to get done. To write them off as toys is rather foolish. If you dont travel often I would say a laptop is all you need at this point.

[MUBillsTil2017]

I have a separate work laptop.    I wasn't sure if the laptop was becoming obsolete with these tablets expanding, they seem pretty enticing for surfing and the like. 

I also have a work laptop and a tablet for everything else.  Tablet has much better battery life since the power demands are less, for instance no disk drive to spin as all storage is flash memory.  No CD drive to spin either.   Tablet can be made to act like a laptop with a blue tooth keyboard but laptops can't be made to act like tablets, too heavy and the screens aren't touch controlled as tablets are.  My tablet is an Ipad and it has two  major deficiencies over any laptop.  One is the lack of Adobe Flash support, but that is an iOS feature; second is much less permanent storage on the tablet.  For instance my Ipad has 16GB of permanent storage and even the cheapest laptop will have at least 250GB.    This is less of a problem than you'd think since Apple, Google, Amazon  and others offer cloud storage for those huge media files. 

Short of flash, I've yet to hit a webpage or e-commerce site that goes stupid on an Ipad.   For home, I've found the tablet a much better alternative to the laptop. 

[augoman]

I have 'em all, and recently added a detachable keyboard for my ipad.  Tend to agree, the tablet (at least for me) is used less and less (I take a notebook on trips) and the laptop is used second only to the desktop.  FWIW.

[Chicos' Buzz Scandal Countdown]

Tablets are good if you wear a skirt and don't need to do work on a computer.

I just thought I'd report my experience. Using the iPad 4 and find it a useful for the plane, casual internet browsing and a few pretty helpful apps that are more accessible than on my laptop.

Also just checked and my penis is still intact and have yet to wear a skirt.

For the record I don't think it's a device I "couldn't live without".... just a more convenient form factor for certain tasks... maybe not worth the $900 to some. I also am a heavy user of Excel/PPT for work on my laptop.