Laptop vs Tablet

I had a laptop, it was one of those small business portable laptops with an 11" screen. Although the laptop served me well, after a while I found myself only using it for two things. Surfing the web and showing my lecture presentation. Hmmm what if I could use another device that was even more portable but could still do both? and the answer was...an iPad 2 with the VGA output cable!!

My Thinkpad E120

So I took the plunge, sold my laptop and bought an iPad2 32GB WiFi and VGA cable and even had a surplus of about 100 bucks :)

Time to live without a laptop.

Why I made the change :

- I dont do any heavy report or presentation slide editing on my laptop. I use a desktop for that.
- I wanted something lite
- Using a tablet for presentations rawks!!! and I can also scribble or add annotations during a slideshow..cool.

iPad2 with VGA cable

Here is a break down on the advantages and disadvantages of a Laptop Vs Tablet

Laptop

The good
- You can do many things, from report writing to photo editing
- A keyboard
- Input options, USB, DVD-Drive, HDMI out etc etc

The bad
- You still need to put it on a table to do work properly
- Short battery life (2-5 hours) and the need to find a power outlet
- Heavy, can't fit in a document bag

The iPad Tablet

The good
- Lite and very portable
- 10 hour battery life
- Faster for web browsing with the touch screen
- You can hold it close to you, dont need a table
- Abundant applications making its usefulness wide

The bad
- No Media input options, usb drive, DVD-Drive
- No hardware keyboard. (accessories are available)
- Limted functionality (if its not jeilbroken ;) )


Well what else can I say, having been without a laptop for about three months now, I must say that I really dont miss it that much. I am perfectly happy editing my presentation slides using keynote and the touchscreen interface and surfing the web is simply a breeze. Using the tablet when presenting my lectures is also nice :)

Example of a Keynote presentation

Dare to live without a laptop? the choice is yours...