# So what happened to tablets (electronic devices)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 28, 2017, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925 "2017-11-28T03:34:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925/101 "2017-12-23T09:26:26Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I don’t get the appeal. Computers have to balance power with portability. Tablets have neither. They are too big to carry in your pocket so you have to keep them at home or carry them in a case, but if you are going to carry a case why not just take a laptop. Also if you are at home, just use a laptop instead. Basically, they are inferior to both laptops and smartphones. Not for my mother (aged 77) or my nephews (aged 3 to 12). In my case, the tablet mainly gets used when traveling or in waiting rooms. It fits nicely in a smallish handbag, weighs a lot less than the bigger computers and has a battery which actually lasts a decent amount of hours. For most users they’re a digital-consumption tool, not a digital-creation tool. I’ve also had several customers already who used them as truly-portable computers for work. The users are low-level(ish) operators mainly: warehouse, production, maintenance… and the tasks done on the tablet are the kind of stuff where you only need to click whatever or read a barcode; work requiring actual typing gets done on PCs and is rarely done by the guys in blue coveralls (maintenance are the ones more likely to have to add a note to a work report, they do it from the PC or at least a docking point). ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925/102 "2017-12-23T09:29:17Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Surprised nobody has mentioned that their kids use school-issued tablets every day at school. My local school district is far from the most rich but also not poor, and I know that entire grades are issued tablets (not iPads, some sort of Android-based tablet) and they keep them for several years. It might just be 5-8th grades, or all the way through high school. I don’t have a kid myself so I don’t know. > > I ran into a neighbor yesterday who is a young (20s) artist. He was carrying around his Surface Pro. Yep. My youngest son is 12, my oldest is 16. The 12 year old has a Chromebook, owned by the school, that he does almost all of his work on. The 16 year old never had that option. Jacob’s (the 12 year old) crestfallen look as he’s packing up his backpack in the morning before riding the bus and realizing he forgot to charge his Chromebook is hilarious. I have to stifle a laugh every time this happens, and assure him that the 60% battery power will make it through his day. And maaaaaaan…I have and still use a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. It’s like, from 2011 dude! Yeah, battery life isn’t great anymore, but what a lot of people forget is to keep them clean. And by that I mean from excess bloatware and such. My tablet still immediately boots up, ready to go at a touch, and is reasonably fast, even by today’s standards. Like others, I tend to prefer a tactile keyboard for longer messages (like this one), so while at home I still use my PC. Plus, my PC has a 26" monitor. I don’t think we’ll ever see a tablet with a screen that large! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925/103 "2017-12-23T09:37:28Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I don’t think we’ll ever see a tablet with a screen that large! Get a Chromecast and your TV is your tablet’s screen. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925/104 "2017-12-23T14:49:16Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Plus, my PC has a 26" monitor. I don’t think we’ll ever see a tablet with a screen that large! They already have them, usually targeting artists, but there of Windows and Android tablets over 20" that will do everything the smaller models do. Heck, the Samsung Galaxy line has an 18" model, which should be plenty for sitting on the couch watching Netflix. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925/105 "2017-12-23T19:00:22Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > For most users they’re a digital-consumption tool, not a digital-creation tool. This. I use our iPad for meetings - can access all the documents we need to review, without printing them out. (I rarely look back at the meeting docs after the meeting ends: they just went into the shredder.) As **Nava** said, the pad is way easier to carry than even a light laptop. ---
**Author:** ![bb49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bb49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bb49)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925/106 "2017-12-23T22:24:49Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > My iPad goes around the house with me. It’s in the kitchen displaying a recipe, it’s next to my bed storing my books, it’s next to my desktop computer acting as a second screen, it’s on my indoor cycling trainer recording my training session, and it’s on the couch ready for games, light reading, searching the internet for something that piques my interest from a TV show or for tips on a PS4 game I’m playing. When I’m away from home it replaces my desktop. I can watch Netflix, surf the net, play games, FaceTime family, study, etc etc. The cover has an inbuilt keyboard so moderate typing is not an issue. When I am at work (aviation), my iPad has my reference manuals that would normally weigh several kilos and require a big bag to carry, it has maps of my flight route, it connects to the weather service and provides me with up to date weather information between flights. If I need to write a safety report, the forms are on the iPad and I can type it up, sign it, and email it to the safety department within minutes. > > For me a normal size phone is too small for comfortable reading and typing. A big phone is too big for phoning. A laptop doesn’t do anything my iPad can’t do and is bigger and more cumbersome. > > The iPad doesn’t need to fit in a pocket, if I’m doing anything and need it then I invariably have a bag with me. > > Is the iPad still exciting? No, but I don’t need it to stir up a media frenzy, I just need it to meet my needs. It does it very well and it would be a big loss for me if I didn’t have one. This. My thoughts too with my tablet. I have an 8" Samsung Tab A and love it. My cell phone is a small “smart” phone, but don’t have data on it. Way too expensive up here in Canada and I see what my friends pay for their phones. Ridiculous. I don’t NEED data. The phone I have is used primarily for texting, some phone calls and the occasional picture. And the phones now are just too big to fit in my pocket. I simply have no need for a smart phone. I’m a guy and I don’t carry a purse or a murse, so that leaves the usual cell phone and tablet out. My computing is done at home on my PC. I use the tablet around the house, in my back yard in the summer. I take it on vacation and also take SnapChats with it and send them when I have access to wifi. I also have a cheap flip phone when traveling with pay as you go. It’s my second tablet and it serves it’s purpose very well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-tablets-electronic-devices/802925.md?page=5)