Do I need a tablet?

I have a laptop, desktop, and smartphone. There are a couple of tablets in my house (used by my sons). I really have no need to use them, at all.

To me a tablet is a possible alternative to a laptop. But a laptop is a lot more practical and useful for the things I need to do while on the go, so I would pretty much always choose a laptop over a tablet.

A smartphone is sort of necessary and separate to the above, because, well, I also need a phone. And this device gives me my on the go internet access. A tablet could maybe be the on the go internet device, but a tablet isn't a phone - so it can't replace the smartphone.

So, for me laptop and phone are needed. Tablets are an unessential novelty device.

 

I have a phone and a laptop, and I can envision only one use for a tablet. I like to lie in bed and read, usually paper books from the library. I discovered that the laptop was nice for reading too, until I'm ready to goto sleep, then there is no good place to put it down without it being a trip hazard. Especially since I did not have Wi-Fi at the time, but simply made an extra-long patch cable from some scrap at work they were going to toss.

My phone can be used for this, but the screen seems a bit small. My eyesight isn't as good as it used to be so I need a larger font. I've often wished I went for the model with the bigger screen, but the one I desire would not fit in my pocket so easily and I'm not allowed to clip it to my belt at work. The one I have is the perfect size for my pocket. Good for then, not so good for lying in bed trying to read without glasses.

A tablet or e-reader (one that can display .doc, .htm, .txt, .rtf, and hopefully .odt) would be far better than the phone or laptop, but I can't justify buying one for this purpose.

Then again, these days with my current job, I don't have much use for a laptop except sitting on the porch watching DVDs or reading on nice days. The laptop is old and out dated. Let me put it this way, the laptop runs Windows XP and I haven't seen the need to buy a new one as I don't really have much use for it and the XP one works fine. It technically came with Vista, but performed so badly that I upgraded it to XP and it was an upgrade not a downgrade.

 

No.

There, conundrum solved. You can move on with your life now.

 

Tablets have a niche. It is browsing the internet on the sofa. That's it. Doesn't work all that well for some sites, but then having a laptop on your lap is not that great, either.

 

A laptop fills that "niche" for me just fine. I have come to prefer slim-line laptops for an easy form factor and manageable weight, but otherwise control and options on a laptop are far better than those of a tablet. That said, in a pinch a tablet is perfectly acceptable in that role as well.

As a bit of an aside, many years back I purchased a "mobile desktop" from Alienware -- before they were purchased by Dell -- and I thought I could use it like a laptop. As I recall it weighed more than 12 pounds, and generated a ton of heat. After my first hour with it on my lap, I realized I would never use it like that again. And I think that started me down the path of preferring light, low-power laptops while on the go, and heavy-duty, powerful desktops for gaming and other more intensive activities.

 

If I want more screen space, I'd need a desktop anyway, or dock a laptop, which would be pretty much the same. For traveling, I got a small and light laptop.