7 Ways Tablets are Better than Laptops or Smartphones

Imagine a situation of preparing for a short weekend trip to a smaller village or a countryside with beautiful nature, fresh air and breathtaking scenery, where your cousins are eagerly expecting you for their twentieth marriage anniversary; you seem to be almost ready, but one thing is missing!  A considerable amount of work is still ahead of you, and you also want to stay in touch with your friends, which makes it a bit difficult to decide whether it would be more suitable to take your laptop with you, or solely rely on your cell phone… or… simply pack your tablet and kill two birds with one stone.

Out of numerous and evergrowing options that technology is providing us with nowadays, we find ourselves struggling between choices, as a result of failing to satiate all our needs and wants by using only one device, the one that would be perfect for the occasion.

Over the past few or more years, tablets have come to the widespread use, a great deal of which can be assigned to the balance that they represent, as they classify ‘somewhere between’ laptops and smartphones. A tablet is basically a portable notebook operating on a mobile system platform, differing to a certain extent from smartphones in looks and benefits, yet being practically their upgraded version, as well as a minor variant of laptops, capable of delivering almost all tasks interchangeably. In case technology keeps progressing with this speed, there is a good chance that tablets marginalize laptops, putting them aside from the privileged spotlight of mobile computing.

The choice between a smartphone and a tablet, and correspondingly a tablet and a laptop, has been a burning issue on many discussion forums and a subject of Internet debates for quite some time now. So stay tuned, as this article will present a bunch of reasons why precisely tablets are a better option than smartphones or laptops. To begin with, tablets are…

1.… More flexible:

Placed middleway between smartphones and laptops, tablets can perform the roles of both, covering almost every single function. Apart from being able to replace laptops in various fields of work and job-related areas, you can use a tablet to take photos, make videos, facilitate conferencing or video chats. In addition, they are adequate as e-readers; moreover, some e-readers actually evolved into tablets.

2. … More portable:

Tablets are elegantly thin and light, which makes them suitable for casual carrying around in a lady-like purse, a backpack, smaller or bigger bags, etc. They can literally accompany you anywhere, just like smartphones, yet with a wider choice of functions. Laptops, on the other hand, require their own luggage for transportation; though, if you possess a MacBook Air or an ultrabook, the difference from tablets would not be that striking when it comes to carrying them.

3. … More functional:

Although the functions of a tablet may be a bit more modest than those of a laptop, they certainly outreach the functions of a smartphone. However, tablets have larger displays, which gives them the potential to complete various tasks and get real work done. In fact, larger tablets can easily compete with smaller laptops, though the virtual keyboard practically takes up half the screen when you are working on it. Still, tablets definitely overtop smartphones when it comes to being productive.

4. … Less cumbersome:

We all have experienced at least once the awkwardness and discomfort of having to reply to an e-mail immediately, make some changes to a slide of a PowerPoint presentation at the very last moment, or any other similar emergency, while being in a subway, riding in a cab or during a flight. Laptops need a relatively stable and flat surface; plus, they have to be flipped open in order for you to see the screen and use the keyboard. Most smartphones are not equipped well enough for any more complicated and demanding tasks. So, tablets seem to be the best solution for situations alike, since you can use them anywhere to finish the job while on the move.

5. … More enduring:

Tablets appear to have better battery life than both laptops and smartphones. The latter often face the heat when delivering on the battery front, while tablets seem to last infinitely, even when pushed beyond their limits. For example, if you use several hogging apps on your smartphone, the battery will be empty within a few hours at most; however, this is less probable in case of tablets. Even though laptops have seen some improvement in their battery longevity in the recent years, the majority still finds it difficult to last throughout a full working day, with a few just running up to four hours on battery. Thus, in spite of their size, they cannot be compared to tablets in terms of battery life.

6. … Better in display:

As already mentioned, many large tablets do not fall short behind smaller laptops in terms of display size and quality. For entertainment and gaming purposes, for instance, a bigger screen is always an advantage. But also, when it comes to editing or even properly viewing documents, spreadsheets or presentations, a larger screen is an essential requirement. Regardless of the availability of apps such as Google Sheets, Google Docs and Microsoft Office for smartphones exclusively, it is still hard to manage editing on a smaller display; whereas on a tablet you can edit nothing less than on a laptop.

7. … Better for entertainment purposes:

Apart from gaming, tablets are also a great requisite for other kinds of recreation and hobbies, they are a  leisure-time companion one can only wish for.Remember those lazy Sunday afternoons when you were desperately trying to find a peferct position for chilling with a cup of tea, some snacks and fun videos, so as to recover strength for the upcoming week ? Tablets are your best choice when resting on a couch or a sofa and making use of apps such as YouTube or Vimeo for accessing your favorite online video channels, thanks to their huge display size.

As we have said, tablets are also very suitable for reading all sorts of materials, from e-books and novels to news and fashion articles. They give us an opportunity to immmerse ourselves into reading anytime and anywhere in a comfortable and relaxed manner. There is an abundance of news apps available for smartphones, but we still encounter other issues, such as the screen size and shorter battery life.

Moreover, they are a good choice for composing, writing and reading sheet music. You can easily get the feel of a proper DAW or audio editing interface with apps like Cadenza Pro in iOS, which allow for both writing and reading sheet music. You can even edit, save or transfer files to your laptop, while on a smartphone you can only listen to songs previously created by someone. 

In conclusion:

Tablets seem to be an ideal solution in various cases and for delivering different tasks, suitable for many others, and equally good as laptops or smartphones for the rest. They are indeed an imperfect balance between the remaining two, since they have some properties of both, but are also missing some other characteristics that either of them possess. Tablets can be considered as an upgraded version of phones, which are also interchangeable with laptops in many respects, though not in all.

However, there is not a way of determining which mobile computing device is the best choice in general, for every situation or for everyone. So, the only thing we can do when deciding which one to buy or take with us somewhere is to estimate for what aim we will need it, to establish our priorities, make a list of pros and cons and pick the best tool for the job!

Author Bio:

Nicholas Garret is a writer, developer and digital marketer. He is a tech enthusiastic person and like to write on latest topics about technology, gadgets, Mobiles and Tablets, etc. . You can visit his website Audio Reputation and find a lot of information.