I have come across a lot of people that have purchased a tablet. For the few that I know personally, I have asked them the benefits of a tablet, whether it's a Surface or an iPad. A lot of them couldn't really give me an answer other than it's light and convenient. I personally prefer laptop for my computer activities and a surface just seems like another waste of money. I usually see people playing games on it. Thoughts?
I'm planning on getting a tablet myself. I have a laptop and a netbook and I love both of them. However, I find them really bulky and it's hard to use them when I'm traveling. The main advantage of the tablets over laptops are their mobility. It's easier to carry around a tablet than a laptop. You can use a tablet when walking around, while lying on your back, etc. It's much harder to use a laptop when you are always on the move.
I think the benefit lies in a persons workflow. While I find it shocking, some people type a lot faster/better using the onscreen keyboard. Crazy to me but hey, nothing surprises me. I don't think there's anything insane that makes a tablet stands out, it's just an alternative way of going about typical computer things and the portability is obviously better than a laptop. Different strokes for different folks.
I don't know much about the tablet but I have thought about getting one for my girls, does it do everything the same as a netbook or laptop?
I think it's intended for people that want something similar to a cellphone, but with a bigger screen, yet not as big or as expensive as a laptop. I know, quite a limited group of people! I've always thought tablets are a waste of money, 'til I got mine. I use a netbook to for all my PC-related activities, and since it doesn't the required amount of RAM or graphics card to run HD videos, I actually never got to see a movie in 720p until I got it. I only use mine for that - videos. Whether it's movies or TV series, I always download whatever I want to watch using my netbook, and then move it to my tablet's SD card. I rarely use it to play games or try out new apps, because I use my phone for that. I didn't have enough money to buy a laptop with the required specs and I didn't want to get rid of my netbook either (its size makes it perfect to carry around). So a tablet was, although not the brightest, my solution to my problem
The only benefit that a tablet has is that it is light and very easy to carry around as compared to a laptop or netbook. I personally prefer the laptop among the three though because the laptop can accomplish almost everything that a pc can do, while the other 2 just give you very basic services. You can't even use cd's or dvd's in some netbook models.
Well if the question is the benefits of a tablet, you are looking at mobility, and quick access to information, (email, weather, internet, etc...). To me though, it seems that you are asking the difference, benefit wise, between a Surface and an Ipad. If so, then I would suggest going with an Ipad. The notion that a tablet with a keyboard is essentially the Microsoft Surfaces main selling point is pretentious and defeats the purpose of owning a tablet. Also, IOS 6 is more user friendly than the Windows Metro UI.
I use my tablet due to its ease of access. I find scrolling through emails and browsing web pages is a lot easier on a tablet than on a computer, but that is just me. In addition, I use it as an ebook reader, which is great especially if you like to read classics. This is because many older books are public domain now, so you can download them all for free rather than pay for one at a store. Add to this the fact that you don't have to store all the books in a physical form anymore, and you also help save the environment by cutting down on paper usage. Finally, I also use my tablet for entertainment while traveling. The battery on it is far superior to that on my laptop, so I can watch a few movies before it runs out rather than just one on my laptop.
Tablets are great for light work and entertainment plus they are easy to carry around. However if you want to do serious work that involves a lot of typing and multitasking then buying a tablet won't be a good idea. I have a table but I use my laptop for all my work since I have to type a lot and I am not comfortable typing on my tablet's touchscreen.
I think the biggest advantage to tablets is being able to do away with keyboard shortcuts. They are hard to memorize for each program, and tablets actually are the solution for doing away with all of this. A lot of programs I use on a laptop have designated apps on tablets that make it a lot easier to move around and click on with simplified buttons and multi-touch features. Even the simplest task like zooming in is a lot easier on a tablet than click ctrl + on my Windows laptop.
Portability is what I would consider as the most obvious and evident benefit of having a tablet. You could bring it anywhere and it's very lightweight. It's really very convenient.
