Is a tablet a replacement for laptop yet?

londonman81

Can tablets run Office etc well enough to be considered replacements for laptops, or are they not quite there yet?

Thanks

Johnmcl7

It depends on your usage, for some people yes but personally no. I find the current tablets too basic to replace a laptop as they're little more than phones with a big screen rather than a proper bridge in functionality between a phone and a tablet.

Ivybridge powered tablets with Windows 8 such as Microsoft's own Surface which has an optional keyboard that cleverly integrates with the tablet looks they could offer an alternative to ultralight laptops though.

John

jayme1

only windows tablets can natively run office, iPad and android tablets have to use use something like Onlive for Office although there are other alternatives like Documents to Go which allow editing of documents, or you could use something like Google Drive/Documents.

When Windows 8 tablets come out later this year the ARM based ones running Windows 8 RT will include Office for free.

I would say at this point a tablet is not a computer yet, Android gets the closest but Windows 8 esp the x86-64 tablet versions will literally be a proper computer in a tablet format. (but expect those to be more expensive than the iPad/android or Windows 8 ARM tablets)

rogerbarton

Microsoft have embraced the idea that we are in a post-PC age with Windows 8. 'Surface' will include Office and the superior iPad already includes Apple's equivalent - iWork - which is very similar to Office and you can use to save documents in Windows format if need be. You can buy a keyboard for the iPad, which I would suggest would be necessary for word processing etc. and Surface comes with a very fiddly keyboard. For me, however, I will still be using my MacBook as my main 'computer'.

Humphrey10

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

It depends on your usage

QFT.

Personally since getting an iPad (a week or so after launch) I've not used my laptop much at all, I've only used it to sync the iPad with iTunes. But I wouldn't like to use a tablet computer for word processing or spreadsheet work, a proper computer with a keyboard, mouse, and large monitor is much better for things like that.

Notmyrealname

Humphrey, how do you find it for typing posts on a forum such as this?

mark_rush

surface.com looks like it could become viable... i envisage the screens needing to be a hell of a lot bigger if theyre to become true desktop devices.

boxst

I can happily use my iPad to "consume": editing spreadsheets, looking at presentations, answering email and posting on forums like this.

I dislike using it for creating anything from scratch as it is fiddly and annoying.