Tablet Vs Laptop: Which Should You Get Your Hands On?

Tablets and laptops are both portable devices with the exception of a keyboard. While the former has touchscreen the latter entails a keyboard. Plus tablets can be easily fitted into the palm of your hands and are more suited for on-the-go deal. Laptops entail traditional computing style but offer far greater multitasking ease.

These two can be compared on the basis of their RAM and storage, display size, battery and connectivity but there is no better option only the best option. Normally it will come down to what you intend to do with your portable computer; whether watch Netflix and chill or multitask.

Compared to a laptop, tablet has a considerable small screen and weigh under 2lbs. Laptops are heavier and bigger. It is said that even the ultra-light Apple MacBook Air 11 weighs over 2lbs. Hence larger than most of the tablets and the reason; due to its keyboard/trackpad which calls for it to be big in size (laptop).

As mentioned in the opening paragraph that the difference between a tablet and a laptop is that of a keyboard or its input method. Tablets touchscreen controls are designed and intended for pointing, dragging, or tapping in order to navigate around different programs.

The real problem arises when you have to send an email or an important document because then you will have to resort to tablet’s virtual keyboard and not everyone is well-versed in its use and not many people can type fast or in a more accurate manner with it.

Without further ado, let’s do comparative analysis of these two technology gadgets:

Peripherals

Peripherals such as a detachable keyboard or external Bluetooth keyboard can work here but that’s additional cost. With a laptop, you don’t have to worry about any of this in the first place. Type in with convenience and usually for those who do a lot of writing, laptop is the way to go!

Battery

Next,comes their battery life. A tablet’s efficacy depends on its battery as its hardware constituents require low power. In totality, the interior of the tablet is comprised of mainly its battery. Hence, tablets operate for greater lengths of time as compared to laptops. A laptop battery forms a smaller part of its hardware and even those with high capacity batteries fail to run for long and demands to charge.

Storage

Storage wise tablets are built on solid state storage which allows for 16 to 128 GB of storage. Although your programs and data will be stored but the capacity is limited as opposed to a laptop which on average comes with a hard drive of up to 500GB. Furthermore, with USB ports, a laptop adds to, even more, space by allowing external storage devices to connect. Tablets can also provide additional space via their microSD card slots.

Performance

If we talk about performance, tablets have awfully low powered processors and can’t be counted on for doing actual computing ‘stuff’ which is challenging. For tasks like email, surfing the Web, playing audio or video files, both tablet and laptop will work pretty much the same but when it comes down to say, video editing, a laptop will generally be your best friend as it requires higher graphics performance and only a laptop can deliver that.

Operating System

In the software department laptops usually, has Windows as their OS. Major OS for tablets are namely Android and iOS. Windows is more tuned to desktop computing and if it were to run on a tablet, you are bound to experience some lags or its performance will be slow.

Price

Cost wise tablets will range from $100 to $400. More premium ones will cost you between $500 to even $1000. You can afford a laptop at similar prices (the latter part of pricing of course). So if you’re on a budget, I say opt for a tablet but if you’re willing to pay the premium price, go for a laptop instead of a tablet. Cost-benefit analysis (simple)!

The points have been presented. Over to you!

Author Bio:

Rebecca Katharine is a Computer Scientist by profession and has been associated with a leading IT firm for almost a decade. His knowledge in hardware design and information systems enables him to share his insights into the subject through blogging. You can also contact him for dissertation writing online.