Tablet or Laptop?

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Ryou-kun

Limp Gawd
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Sep 13, 2011
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Hello guys, I am having a bit of a problem deciding if I should get a Tablet or Laptop?
I need your opinions which one I should get?

Before you answer, let me give you a back story in my current situation.
You see, I want a laptop ever since my high-school started an iPad 1.1 Program where the students can rent an iPad from the school which is neat, but I don't like using touchscreen because I can't type.

Anyway, on 1 day, coincidentally my little bro told my dad he wanted a tablet I think, so he can take anywhere to go and play games and my mom sort of agrees to it.
My dad know that I need a laptop, but my mom and my little bro doesn't know I am going to get a laptop.

Do you think I should get a laptop where I can let my mom and my little bro play games while on the go at the same time using that laptop for school use during school?
Or I should get a Tablet with a keyboard?

(FYI, My little bro and I have a gaming PC. I am just using that new laptop for school/college/watching movies and light gaming. By light gaming, I mean my parent games (Mahjong, Solitaire, Bejewel and etc)
 
not a chance I would go with a tablet. the laptop is far more practical in your situation
 
If it will be used for school work get a laptop 100%. The productivity software on a laptop is much better than any tablet you are ever going to get, unless you wait for a true windows 8 tablet later this year.
 
With Windows 8 on the way you really can have both. There's going to be a LOT of Windows 8 tablet devices, from pure slates to convertibles to hybrids that will all function as a laptop and even the low end ones using the new Atom CPUs should do well what you're describing.

As Erasmus suggested I'd wait a couple of months, in the coming weeks we're going to see OEMs start announcing pricing and availability on a lot of Windows 8 tablets.
 
heatlesssun said:
With Windows 8 on the way you really can have both. There's going to be a LOT of Windows 8 tablet devices, from pure slates to convertibles to hybrids that will all function as a laptop and even the low end ones using the new Atom CPUs should do well what you're describing.

As Erasmus suggested I'd wait a couple of months, in the coming weeks we're going to see OEMs start announcing pricing and availability on a lot of Windows 8 tablets.
Click to expand...

I saw the Windows 8, and I don't like it. I guess I'll wait for more people opinions.
 
You can make a tablet and keyboard work, but that takes effort and research, and you likely don't have time for that if you are in school.

I'd recommend a laptop. School is school. It's important. Games are secondary.

I'm not sure I like the recommendations to wait on Win8 tablets. First, Win8 is kinda sucking, IME so far, then I'm dubious as MS will deliver on its promises to make an affordable tablet-like laptop (what they promised in Surface) that is powerful enough to actually use in school. It make take a couple of iterations for them to get it right. And the first gen devices might suck too. You need a solution with a proven track record. There are plenty of laptops that can do the job today, with no risk and no waiting.
 
AQ_OC said:
I'm not sure I like the recommendations to wait on Win8 tablets. First, Win8 is kinda sucking, IME so far, then I'm dubious as MS will deliver on its promises to make an affordable tablet-like laptop (what they promised in Surface) that is powerful enough to actually use in school. It make take a couple of iterations for them to get it right. And the first gen devices might suck too. You need a solution with a proven track record. There are plenty of laptops that can do the job today, with no risk and no waiting.
Click to expand...

I am only speaking in the context of Windows 8 devices, not Windows RT. I think there's going to be a number very nice and fast Core i5 ultrabook tablets, hybrids and convertibles in the same price range of ultrabooks as x86 tablet aren't exactly new things. Samsung even has a device of this class in the Samsung Series 7 slate, it runs better with Windows 8 than Windows 7 on it from my experience. Enough speed and power for most students and professionals though the battery life it's great at about 4 to 5 hours. Battery life will be the weakness in these devices. Sub-2lb Core i5 devices are never going to win battery life competitions but they'll blow away ARM tablets in performance.

The lower cost battery sipping next gen Atom devices though are the bigger question mark to me. They should get very good battery life but of course everyone remembers netbooks and there less than stellar performance. But the new Atoms are a lot faster especially on the GPU side and so is Windows 8. If decent and well performing Atom based Windows 8 tablets can hit the $400 to $500 mark with 10 hour level battery life, that could be an interesting and popular option.
 
I have not seen any x86 tablets (with touch screens) in the range of $800, but there lots of ultrabooks in that range. And I think a student deserves better than an Atom. Maybe this time next year this option will be a safer bet. For people with lots of disposable income, I think waiting on the Win8 option is a good move. But for students, I say go with proven.
 
We're far from seeing all of the new devices. Sure you can get cheaper ultrabooks but I haven't seen any under 2lbs Core i5 ones for $800. I'm sure like most things the prices will start out higher and then come down.

And we just don't know how the new Atom devices are going to perform. Lenovo is claiming up to 10 hours of battery life in the Atom based ThinkPad Tablet 2. A 1.3 lbs x86 device with that kind of battery life could be the ticket. It doesn't have to be the fastest thing on the planet, just perform well at the right price.

And this a lot of the devices do have digital pens, that could be very valuable for a lot of students when combined with OneNote. While the whole Windows 8 platform and many of the devices are new, many pieces of it are fairly old, certainly OneNote and ink have been around for a while.
 
That's why I said that this time next year this might be a safer bet. There are a lot of missing pieces and student's can't afford to risk limited funds on those missing pieces. The OS and the devices are pretty major.
 
Time is always a friend when buying any technology and there's little doubt that there's going to be better and faster machines as time marches on. As you say these first devices are probably going to be pricy but there's a LOT of pressure to make good and well priced machines. But sure for the early adopters who will be this stuff at any price, yeah those guys will see the higher launch prices.
 
I think a laptop is by far the best choice for you as well. Do you need help picking one out? What's your budget?
 
OrangeWolf said:
I think a laptop is by far the best choice for you as well. Do you need help picking one out? What's your budget?
Click to expand...

Well I already have a laptop picked out or sort of.
The laptop is from Dell.
The reason I picked Dell out of other brand is because of they allow you to pay 20-30 dollar a month or something like that which is really neat for my dad to pay easier.
 
I used a Lenovo x120e for about 6 mos., I'd put it between a netbook and a subnotebook. It wasn't a very fast machine (AMD E350 dual core/2GB RAM/320GB 5400RPM HD/Win7) but the keyboard was just plain awesome, I could type on that thing all day, something to consider especially in a classroom setting. And there's some pretty crappy keyboards out there. I think an updated model was released recently running an Intel i3, might be worth checking out.

I've since replaced it with a Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1, it's a niche Windows tablet with an integrated hardware keyboard, I personally can't stand touchscreen keyboards. It has similiar specs (Atom Z530/2GB RAM/64GB SSD/Win7) but a cool aspect I find that it has over a notebook is how much easier it is to just grab, go and throwdown. And like the Lenovo I find the keyboard pretty decent too, I could see myself using this for school as well.
 
I'd say get the laptop now. And later get the tablet. Laptop is more a necessity, tablets are more a luxury.

Or compromise and get both. A low end laptop and a $200 Nexus 7.
 
I think Laptop is better options than tablet. In Laptop more functions as comparatively Tablet.So I Suggest you take Laptop
 
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