In order to satisfy seasonal gifting desires, I need to know what a tablet can do that a laptop cannot and vice versa. Also, what are the areas of overlap?
What are considered to be the best values in each?
A tablet is good for web browsing and as an E-reader, some simple games…consuming content basically, and in a very light and compact form factor.
The keyboard on a laptop makes it fairly usable for creating content. Writing, spreadsheets, programming…and it still has a screen and a pointing device, so it can do most of what a tablet can. But it is a lot heavier and bulkier, and may require more frequent charging. Laptop performance covers a wide range, from Atom netbooks to fairly high performance.
Of course you can add a keyboard to a tablet, but then you have two things to manage that may not be much handier than the laptop.
ETA: Keyboard is pretty nice to have for email also. Very common function that many find painful on a tablet.
One key advantage of a tablet is the absence of boot time. You open a tablet, stuff’s just there, with almost no messing around. The price for this is that some programs lose some of their functionality. Of course, browsing time can be delayed as a result of connectivity issues, but that is not the tablet’s fault.
The other is weight - tablets are much more convenient to lug around.
The downside is the absence of a native keyboard. Typing on a tablet is a PITA.
YMMV.
It’s not just entering text that is cumbersome through a touch interface; any kind of text manipulation is awkward. For example, I often need to highlight text, perhaps to copy it, or to do a right-click + Google search. A piece of cake on a laptop, but on a tablet you have to do a kludgy long-press, or maybe double-press, then move those fiddly cursors around despite not being able to see them because your finger is in the way… gah.
I don’t think it’s just me either - quite often, I see people post things like “I would post the link, but I’m on a tablet”, meaning “it’s too much hassle”.
'course, this is IMHO 
If you’re frequently booting a laptop (newer than 2001 or so), you’re doing something wrong. There should be no difference between waking a laptop and waking a tablet, time-wise-- the only thing you need to wait for is the Wifi to handshake and connect.
Tablets are for consuming content - almost exclusively. You can kind of, sorta do some minimal creation/editing tasks - but why on earth would you?
I think most people are best served by a small form factor desktop PC/All in one + a tablet and/or smartphone.
A powerful, inexpensive, flexible, upgreadable main computing platform for editing pictures, video, etc, writing emails, reports, etc and to serve as the nexus for all of the home’s data. Plus a truly mobile platform for doing the things that you’ll want to/need to do outside the home, or lying back on your couch.
Outside of people who actually need powerful mobile platforms (road warriors, possibly students, etc), that’s the best way to go.
But people are laptop crazy. They’ll buy one over even a small form factor desktop/all in one because it’s what their friends are doing. They end up either buying a tiny, underpowered, crappy, non-upgreadable PC like a netbook or low-powered laptop and then suffer through slow, unresponsive programs/tasks - while almost never taking the damn thing off their desks anyway, or spending a ton of money on a laptop that is either bulky, has a low battery life (and therefore isn’t really all that mobile!), or is HUGELY more expensive than the equivalent desktop.
So, Laptop for the student/road warrior (prepare to spend decent cash though), and tablet for those times you want to read the NYtimes or surf youtube on your couch/bed.
Desktops or all-in ones for those in need of a main family computing nexus, or the need for a modern refresh of the same.
I just got a chromebook. I think its the perfect compromise between laptop & tablet. Very light and portable, but with a keyboard.
I agree with this. I don’t have a tablet, and see no need for one.
I don’t agree with this. I’m not a road warrior, taking only maybe five trips a year. But I’d be dead if I couldn’t carry my environment with me when I do go, and sometimes I need my laptop at work. With my laptop I can ssh into my work environment and edit code from my hotel room.
People who are pretty much always at home or have no need of a computer for work or external activities are good candidates for a desktop. My 96 year old father-in-law has no need for a laptop. But for me it is vital.
My laptop is heavy - but this is because I like a big screen. I’ll probably go smaller my next upgrade.
A tablet with an external keyboard and mouse can be useful for real work. In fact, I got an iPad when they first came out with the idea of getting real work done on the road and at home through remote access (LogMeIn/Remote Desktop are the two that I’ve used). Remote access eliminated issues with synchronizing files or finding compatible applications - the tablet was just a super-portable terminal for work purposes, with apps mostly for entertainment or quick reference.
The tablet was awesome when I was really mobile - you can pull it out and use it while walking around. It was equivalent to a laptop when I pulled out the keyboard and mouse, but that meant sitting down and having some space to work. Ultimately, the small screen size on the iPad turned out to be the biggest limiting factor, and the iPad 1 doesn’t cooperate very well with external monitors. I understand this is improved in the later models, but external monitors are even less portable than a keyboard.
I wound up going back to a laptop with a 15.6" screen and am much more productive that way. I still do much of my computing by remote access, so the specs (and cost) for that laptop are pretty modest.
(For what it’s worth: given a choice between a netbook with an 11" or 13" screen and the iPad at 10", I’d stick with the iPad.)
I’m a programmer. I live and die by my PC. I have 0 need for a laptop. But my suggestion is just that a suggestion, everyone is different.
For the few times I’ve been on say, vacation, and I needed to work on something, I’d use my tablet + blue-tooth keyboard and a few code editing apps or a VPN connection to my PC at home.
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this over to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
In absolute terms there’s not a whole lot in either direction. You could probably do photo editing on a tablet, and you can certainly take you’re laptop on an an outing to a park. For couch and bed surfing I actually like having a keyboard to the extent I got a laptop that had a number keypad too.
As to what a laptop does significantly better than a tablet or vise versa that’s a whole nother story.
There is actually a category that falls between the tablet and laptop/notebook, although some consider it a type of notebook- the Ultrabook.
Ultrabooks are thinner and lighter than laptops with similarly sized displays. They exclusively use an Intel ULV (ultra-low-voltage) processor which reduces power consumption by 50% or more. As a result, they have longer battery life and generate less heat. The tradeoff is that they can’t perform at the same level as regular laptop processors on most processor-intensive tasks. But for internet surfing, email, productivity apps (MS Office, etc) and other routine tasks, they have more than enough power.
The newest and coolest type of Ultrabook is the ‘Convertible Ultrabook’ (sometimes called a 'Hybrid Ultrabook). They can be used like a conventional laptop OR they can be closed with the display facing outward to be used as a tablet. The Dell XPS 12 is a good example of a Convertible Ultrabook- it is also the most highly-rated model in that category, at least for the moment.
I have to disagree. The ultrabook is just a lightweight laptop. A tablet is a completely different type of device with a very different user interface, resulting in a very different experience. A laptop/notebook/ultrabook is something you set down on a desk (or lap) and control with a keyboard and trackpad. A tablet is a device you hold in your hand (or hands) like a book or magazine, and interact directly with the screen. An ultrabook isn’t very convenient for reading e-magazines on the couch, let alone while standing in a subway.
I agree the convertible tablets do bridge the gap. But the traditional convertible tablet designs (screen twists or flips) aren’t very good in tablet mode because they are so heavy. My old ThinkPad X203 tablet weighed close to 4 lb. Even the XPS-12 weighs 3.5 pounds, which is more than twice the weight of an iPad. In my experience, the “convertible” tablets with detachable keyboards are much more practical - like the ASUS Transformer series or the new Samsung ATIV Smart PC series. I just got a Samsung 700T at work and it is a fantastic tablet; unfortunately my keyboard dock hasn’t arrived yet so I don’t know if it’s also a good laptop.
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I agree with you that tablets and Ultrabooks are very different. But they are similar in a few ways- light weight and thin enough to be easily portable, long battery life, limited processing power. But as you mentioned, the tablet is a touch interface, easy to hold in your hand and use on the go, very light weight.
To be totally honest, I was really drowsy when I posted earlier. The convertible or hybrid ultrabook should have been my primary focus! Because it is literally trying to be the best of both worlds!
Unfortunately, there is one significant drawback to convertibles such as the Dell XPS 12- weight vs. weight of a tablet. The XPS is 3.4lbs which is double the average weight of a tablet. That doesn’t strike me as something you’d want to hold for long periods of time with one hand and use the other hand to interace with the touch screen. Great idea, very good first effort, but hopefully they’ll perfect it within a few years.
What I can’t believe is that we haven’t passed the time of the laptop/tablet discussion. Touch screen technology is cheaper than ever; I’m surprised anybody would buy something other than a convertible style computer. The Lenovo Yoga is just one of many choices on my list.
A thousand dollars for an i3 processor and 4GB memory may be why we’re having this conversation (I’m assuming that “Starting at $999” means minimum specs).
Just to grab the first thing off the list, here’s an Asus ultrabook with the same processor, 4GB memory, same graphics (plus larger screen, more HD storage, etc) for half the price.
A touch screen interface is more portable and holdable than a mouse-and-cursor interface, but aside from that, I’m having trouble seeing any advantage to it, and I think part of its popularity is due to the novelty and gee-whiz factor of being able to touch the screen directly and have it do stuff. In fact, I’m having a hard time thinking of any advatage of a tablet over a laptop beyond its holdability and portability, which admittedly is a big plus for some people in some situations. But one sometimes gets the impression, from all the hype, that a tablet gives you the ability to do a bunch of things you never used to be able to do before, which (correct me if I’m wrong) doesn’t seem to be true.
There is a subset of the American population that will never fully embrace touchscreen technology- those of us with OCD, or a large percentage of us at least. The smudges and fingerprints that are inevitable when using a touchscreen completely negate any benefits of the touch interface!
I just bought a new Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring SUV/Crossover last Friday. The only options available on that vehicle are-
Bose Audio & Moonroof Package w/ Power Liftgate
(or you choose a DVD Entertainment Packge w/ Bose & Power Liftgate but no Moonroor)
Navigation System with touch interace
The salesman and sales manager couldn’t get it through their heads that I would NOT get one with the NAV system no matter how good the deal was!!! They were offering me the identical model with NAV (which stickers for $1665) for $250 more than one without it…and I bought the one without it!
They thought I was crazy, but it wasn’t just that the NAV system was a touch interface, but most of the audio system and some of the climate controls were also integrated into the display! I would end up mowing down a family in a crosswalk or plowing thru a school bus as I’m using a microfiber cloth to buff the display each time I had to touch it!!!
I had a 2013 Ford Taurus Limited for a rental car a few months ago. It was a beautiful car and drove like a dream (as good or better than my best friend’s Lexus IS250)…they really should have given it a better name, IMO. It was brand new, I was the first to rent it, and it was my first hands-on exposure to the “My Ford Touch” system….a system to counter-intuitive and non-responsive that Consumer Reports refuses to recommend any Ford or Lincoln with the system, no matter how well it performs otherwise!
Not only did it have a touchscreen that was filthy in a matter of minutes, but the physical buttons on the center control stack also picked up fingerprints immediately. After two days, it looked like a baby had sneezed **Fudgesicle juice **all over the dash!!! Not pretty and ***I finally had to stop at Target for a fix (a few hits of Windex Wipes are like heroin for me)! =)
The ASUS Transformer tablet is only 1.31 lb, and converts to a laptop by connecting to a keyboard dock. Of course the keyboard dock adds weight but you don’t have to carry it all the time.
And the Samsung 700T is just under 2 lb, which is amazingly light for a full-fledged Windows tablet with a Core-i5 processor.