It’s a common confusion that happens in people that whether laptop or tablet is better to use, whenever they make a plan to purchase any of them. The first answer is nothing but that the usefulness depends upon your requirements. Tablets are portable, internet-capable and easy to use. But, not all tablets give the same functionality. So, a laptop may be more useful in some situations. Therefore, make a clear idea about your requirements and the method of using before purchase a laptop or tablet, as it will help you reach in a correct decision. Here is discussing some functional differences between tablets and laptops as well as the pros and cons of these two devices.
Differences between tablet and laptops in various aspects
This is an attempt to compare laptops and tablets by finding out what are the differences between two devices and which out of the two is better in different aspects.
Size:
Tablets have roughly weight of less than two pounds and size of a small pad of paper, while laptops are larger and heavier. As the laptops have keyboards and trackpad, even the smallest ultraportable, the Apple MacBook Air 11 has weight over than two pounds. Therefore, you are advised to buy a tablet, if you happen to be travelling frequently and you need a PC with you during your journey.
Input method:
Tablets has no keyboard, the mostly used input device by people and the device depends only on a touch interface on the screen for all input. But people feel it as difficult, when they have to type text into a program such as an email or document. Many people are not expert in using virtual keyboard with varying designs and layouts. Even though tablets provide an option of adding an external keyboard, it is quite expensive.
Storage capacity:
As a part of reducing the size and cost, tablets depend on new solid state storage memory to store programs and data. Though it allows fast access and low power usage, less number of files that can be stored in the device is a main disadvantage of tablet. At the same time, laptops use traditional hard drives that can hold much more data. Even the storage capacity of an extremely affordable laptop, which is 160 gigabytes is ten times more than that of a tablet. However, some laptops now usesolid state drives that have as little as 64GB of space.
Software:
There are many differences in terms of capabilities between the software that runs on a laptop or tablet. Now, the tablet that runs Windows 7 such as the HP Slate or ASUS Eee Slate can theoretically run the same software as a laptop, even though it will likely be slower. Android and iOS are the other major tablet platforms, though both of them need applications specific to their operating system. Even though there are tons of programs that will do most of the basic tasks that a laptop can perform, tablets have to drop many of the features due to hardware performance limitations.
Performances
As far as computing tasks are concerned, tablets fall behind laptops, as most tablets are based on extremely low powered. Therefore, the decision of whether laptop or tablet is better in terms of performances depends on our requirements. Both devices works just for tasks like email, playing video or audio, web browsing etc. But, for the more demanding tasks such as multitasking or graphics performance, laptops are more preferred option.
Battery life:
Tablets require low power for their hardware components. Moreover, the majority of the interior of a tablet is taken up by the battery. At the same time, laptops have more powerful hardware and it’s battery component is a far smaller percentage of the laptops internal components. Therefore, the laptops that even have higher capacity battery do not run as long as tablets. Most of the tablets run up to ten hours of web usage in a single charging, while laptop runs only for three to four hours. In short many tablets achieve all day usage and as a result, people prefer tablets during their traveling.
Cost:
Tablets charge a fairly high price for the new technologies that are installed in them, as they are relatively new to the market. The starting price of a tablet is around $499. Even though least expensive laptops are available at around $300 to $ 400, people generally do not prefer them. The average price of a laptop is around $650. It is a little more expensive than tablets. Laptops have advantages over tablets, if you compare the performances and features. Moreover, there are notebooks that start below $300 and can generally handle all the same tasks as a tablet.
Expanding and upgrading:
There are many options to upgrade laptop hardware such as installing a larger capacity hard drive or more RAM. USB ports, HDMI ports and slots for SD cards that are standard on laptops provide plenty of functional expansion through peripherals. At the same time, tablets do not offer expandable internal storage or upgradable memory. Most of the tablets lack USB ports or slots for SD cards.
Before deciding whether you need a tablet or laptop, you should think about your requirements and purposes with the device.
Buy a tablet in the following conditions
- If you already have a laptop and you want a companion device
- If you have very basic needs like checking mails and posting to social networks
- If you have purely entertainment purposes like enjoying music, TV and eBooks
- If you want a simple, portable and easy to use device
Buy a laptop in the following conditions
- If you are shopping a primary computer and you need a portable device
- If you have high performance requirements like designing, creating content or computing works etc.
Pros and cons of laptops in a quick view
Pros
- Laptops have physical keyboards that make typing easier.
- Laptops have more storage capacity comparing to tablets.
- Laptops are better for using some websites like personal banking, online shopping, as they make heavy use of Java script.
Cons
- Laptops are big in size and heavy in weight
- Laptops are not easily portable
- Battery life is comparatively low
Pros and cons of tablets in a quick view
Pros
- The biggest advantage of tablet is that it is highly portable
- The weight and size of tablet are very low compared to laptop and so easy to use
- Tablets offer appreciable battery life than laptops
Cons
- The main disadvantage of tablet is that it lacks built-in keyboard that makes many people difficult to use it for typing purposes.
- Even though the tablets possess external keyboards, they are quite expensive
- Tablets do not provide much storage capacity.
- It is not suitable for heavy tasks and performances
Ultimately, as tablets and laptops are complementary devices, nobody can say that one is better than other. Even though both of them have their own strengths and weaknesses, we can replace one on the other, because they are suitable for different tasks. So, the preferences will be dependent on your requirements. If you already have a desktop computer, then tablets may be the option. If you are going to buy your primary computer, then the preference should go to laptop.