The apparent advantage over phones is that iPad has a bigger screen, so you can easily use it for work and play. You can read information from websites as if reading from a newspaper or book. It’s great to read on a large screen.
Besides, the iPad tends to beat the iPhone in terms of battery life and go longer between charges while performing the same activities.
iPads are especially suited for novice computer users and reluctant users since they’re limited to two modes: in-app and Home screen. So, they are suitable for any age from kids, adults, and the elderly.
My wife uses her ipad constantly but mostly for entertainment purposes such as facebooking. My preference is a lap top or desktop. MUCH better for keyboarding. I’ll use my cell phone for checking bank balances, phone calls, texting or surfing the net while waiting in the car while my wife is shopping but I don’t use the phone for much “serious” stuff.
Even typing on this web site is predominately with the desktop or more frequently my laptop. Other than the portability I don’t see an ipad as an advantage over a laptop, IMHO of course.
I use a tablet only for travel. For phoning to America, there is Google-phone outbound, and I can’t imagine needing inbound phone. For everything else it has ten times the portability of a laptop, and costs only $50, no recurring…
I originally bought a Nexus 10 tablet in 2013 for the purpose of reading e-books during flights, but I soon found another useful and unexpected application for it - I play the piano, and it was very helpful to use the tablet for showing the sheet music while I was playing. An added bonus is that I don’t have to print out tons of pages anymore, saving some trees.
A laptop is too big to put on the stand that is built into the piano, and if I tried to read sheet music off a smartphone display, I’d go blind fairly quickly.
I almost always write, at the very least take notes, when I’m on a device, so a (good) keyboard is a must. I also need portability. My solution for the past 10+ years has been to buy and use Ultrabook-type laptops that are small and light enough to take almost anywhere, but also have the real keyboard I need. Tablets would be useless to me, and I don’t even own a smartphone. No need for one.
I ditched my desktop & now my Surface Pro is my device. Here at my desk it’s connected to a docking station with a 24" monitor and I’m typing on a full-sized Bluetooth keyboard. Slip it out of the docking station, snap the typecover onto it and it’s perfect for yakking on the Dope on the couch in front of the TV. Or on a plane. Pop the typecover off, pull out the kickstand and watch movies on it.
A very versatile box that weighs almost nothing. I travel a lot and the Surface comes with me everywhere.
My employer issued us all iPads. Essentially as a document repository and internet terminal with a few mission specific apps on it. As long as all you want to to is tap and drag and read it’s very effective at that mission. You can peck out a few characters using the on-screen keyboard but IMO any more keystroking than that is a total PITA. We mostly use the thing while seated and they’ve provided a convenient holder for it. I don’t much like holding the thing in my hands while reading or watching. The lack of a built-in stand or cover is a shortcoming. Sure, those accessories are available, but they’re clunky and render the whole assembly anti-sleek.
I do carry a stand and a folding mini Bluetooth keyboard for it. Dragging that crap out is a PITA, but sometimes we need to write up a report that can’t wait until later at a desk.
For our narrowly defined mission the iPad is OK. But I’d sure never buy one when fully functional computers are available in about the same form factor with a keyboard, peripheral ports, etc.
Late edit: the external monitor gives me an over-under dual screen setup with the Surface’s own screen. The thing can even drive a 3rrd monitor if I wanted.
When I’m staring at a half-disassembled clothes dryer on the laundry room floor, and trying to read schematics, watch youtube repair tutorials, and browse amazon for replacement parts, an ipad is about the perfect tool for the job.
Well, I use it when I want a device that’s too big to fit into my pocket but also small enough to not be a hassle. I don’t want a full laptop when lying on the couch, in bed or in the bathroom. In those situations, I just need the screen. But, if I wanted, it’s trivial to connect a full-sized Bluetooth keyboard (although the only time I bother is when traveling where my tablet will be my “computer” in the hotel room for a few days).
Now, out of my phone, desktop and tablet, the tablet is easily the most disposable of the three. The phone is portable and the desktop is leagues more powerful. But the tablet does comfortably fill its niche even if I could get by without it and the diminished physicality by not having a keyboard is a feature in my opinion. I suppose you could go with one of the folding/converting types of laptops but that’s still thicker and more expensive than my tablet (just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 10.4" this morning for $200 as it turns out) and, in many ways, I need a laptop even less than a tablet since I’m now paying more money for a device closer to what my desktop already does – but the laptop does it less well.
And instant on. No waiting for the laptop to boot up.
I used mine a lot on flights to check emails or read the SDMB. (it’s been almost a year since I’ve been on a plane, however)
At my age (59) seeing anything on my phone is a challenge. I have reading glasses at my desk, but I don’t carry them with me.
I use mine as a good second screen. It’s a bigger than my phone and the extra screen space is nice to browse Facebook and Twitter and SDMB while watching TV. And can connect a bluetooth keyboard if I need to write something a bit larger. It’s also good for media consumption when we used to fly on planes .
It is also my iOS device (well iPadOS technically) because I exclusively use Android phones as iOS has too many little annoyances to be my daily driver, but is great as a second screen!
I’ve often thought of the smartphone vs. laptop vs. tablet debate as being framed as “lean back” vs. “lean in” i.e. categorize them according to their primary role: content consumption vs. content creation.
(Exceptions abound. Does anyone really want to compose a large body of text using their phone? Well, my wife did, but I recently got her a laptop to spare her from the tiny screen. Meanwhile my mom uses her iPhone for everything, despite having just bought a Macbook…sigh.)
As an avid tablet user (Android), I see a tablet as a “lean back” device. Further, a tablet represents “the biggest possible screen you can comfortably hold in front of you for hours.” To a large extent, tablets behave like blown-up smartphones, usually without the telephony capability, but of course phablets do exist.
Now, I recently I upgraded to an 8" tablet from a 7". The main issue I have with the new one is that it’s a little harder to hold and weighs a little bit more, rendering it less portable. But it delivers me a GREAT platform for YouTube, Netflix and Disney+ so I am not complaining. Having been largely bed-bound for the last several months thanks to back injury / surgery, my tablet has been my #1 entertainment device. I think I would have gone nuts without it.
Tablets are a pretty poor product productivity-wise but it’s not only about that. Sometimes a large touch screen is actually the best tool for the job.
My iPad gets used way more than my personal phone and desktop. It’s my jukebox, bedroom tv, etc. I even use it to make phone calls while my phone is charging.
For the most part, a keyboard would just get in the way, but I do have a keyboard if I need one.
Plus, I get several hours of battery life while watching videos, listening to music, etc.
I’m a bad person to ask, because I have an iPad that I never use, and spend my life looking at either my phone or a laptop. But the iPad was terrific for Netflix and for ebooks.
But I hated the iPad, because a lot of what I use gadgets for involves typing, and the iPad has a uniquely horrible keyboard. The laptop has a nice keyboard that I can use with both hands. And the phone has a good-enough keyboard that I can swype with one hand. But the iPad has a keyboard that’s too small to touch type, too large for one hand, and you have to actually hit each key – no swyping. (that might have changed with newer ones) Every time I wanted to type something, I cursed the thing, and it irritated me enough that I stopped using it.
I don’t find typing with two hands on a phone to be hard–you use both thumbs. I’ve gotten to where I type about about 2/3 my touch typing speed that way. I find it easy enough I never bothered figuring out how to swipe quickly or keep it from putting out a completely different word that I wanted.
Two hand typing works on smaller tablets, as long as you can hold them with the other fingers, but it becomes harder the bigger the device. Hence getting a Bluetooth keyboard/case combo for sufficiently large tablets. They’re still lighter and less cumbersome than any laptop I’ve ever used.
See, I find the add-on keyboard to be more cumbersome that a laptop. The laptop keyboard is always there, and it doubles as a stand to hold the screen at a comfy angle, so I don’t need to hold it up. With the iPad, I always had to hold it, and it was kind of heavy to always need it in my hand. Whereas the laptop just rests on my lap, where the couple of pounds are hardly noticeable.
This is why it’s nice to have a variety of products – different people like different things.
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