Are Tablets Replacing Notebook Computers? (Video)

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the application and the user. We're seeing tablets advertised like crazy these days, and a trip to any busy coffee shop with free wi-fi will make it obvious that while there may not be as many tablets in use as notebooks, you see a lot more of them than you did five years ago, when it seemed like Bill Gates was the only person who had one, which he tried to show off as often as he could. In 2010, Apple debuted the iPad, and before long tablets were all over the place. So, on behalf of people we know -- and there are more than a few -- who either sneer at tablet computers or aren't sure they need one, we turned to David Needle, editor of TabTimes.com, for advice on what kind of tablet to buy -- assuming we need to buy one at all.

Comments

Maybe not replaced, but ruined the market

[dalias]

Ever since tablets got popular, it's been almost impossible to find a decent notebook. Everybody's playing conservative and going for bottom-level pricing, ugly oversided junk models, and/or the gamer market. What happened to the 10" models with 8-12 hour batteries? Or anything with a screen resolution over 1366x768? I'm waiting for a notebook (real keyboard, usb ports, etc.) with DPI and battery life that come anywhere near what tablets have nowadays, and it looks like I'm going to keep waiting... P.S. Please refrain from replies referring to any sort of fruit...

Re:Actually, Yes and No.

[TheRaven64]

I have an ASUS TransformerPad which has the advantage of a dockable keyboard with an extra battery in it, which is great for when I'm going to be spending a long time on trains / at airports / on planes, because the keyboard also works well as a stand and fits on the tray table in most places. It can play back films for 7 hours and can show PDFs and run vim. There's actually a nice LaTeX app for Android that will load the packages you use on demand (a feature I'd love to have on the desktop, to avoid the 2GB TeXLive download for the few MBs of LaTeX that I actually use, without having to manually work out what they and their dependencies are).

It doesn't replace a laptop, but it does augment it nicely.