The very first digital commuter was large as 2 football grounds, but after couple of decades they are sitting on our lap. With this trend Laptop computers have already dominated the place of desktop computers and we discussed about that recently. So the answer to the question “Can your Laptop replace your desktop?” is YES!
This trend continues and most of the modern Smartphone and Tablets are also having powerful hardware configuration as Laptops. The next question, “Can your Tablet replace your Laptop?”. Providing an answer to this question won’t be easy as the previous one.
Let’s try to put together all the factors which need to be considered and find an answer for this big question.
Factors to Be Considered
Processor, RAM and Storage
If you consider about the processing power, general configuration in a Laptop would be 2.2 GHz quad core processor. You might say “Look I have core i7”. Yes, but core i5 and i7 also actually having 4 cores except few high end processor.
Now take a look at the configuration in Tablets. With the latest improvement of Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset tablets are having 1.5 GHz quad core processors with additional core for background tasks. Those processors and chipsets are carefully design for web browsing and gaming. Therefore you will experience better web and gaming experience in tablets than in laptops.
Average RAM in Laptop these days is 4GB and you can easily upgrade it to 8GB or 16GB depending on your requirement. Tablets are far behind and having only 1GB and no way to upgrade.
When it comes to storage laptops are having 500GB hard disk drives and you can upgrade it to 1TB or 2TB. When you take a look at the tablet which is having the biggest storage, still it’s 64GB, again nowhere near.
Display
Average resolution in Laptop screen is 1600 x 900 and sometimes you can find full HD screens as well. Depending on the size of laptop screen size vary from 14” to 19”. Most common display technology is LCD and latest laptops coming with LED display with improved viewing angle.
World’s most popular tablet, Apple iPad recently came out with 2048 x 1536 resolution display which go beyond even a high end laptop. And its screen size is 9.7”. However, average tablet screen is still 1280 x 800 and 10”. Going beyond LCD tablets are having advanced LED display technologies such as AMOLED with improved contrast ratio and viewing angle.
Input Devices
Laptops are mostly using conventional input devices such as keyboard and mouse. In addition they come with built in webcam and microphone.
When it comes to tablets they are using touch sensitive displays. This is lot more attractive to use than keyboard and mouse, but still conventional methods are way more efficient especially when it comes to handling multiple tasks in the same screen.
Understanding the problem with touch screen, recently tablet manufactures have introduces physical QWERTY keyboards. Asus transformer prime is the one to make this trend popular. In addition you can attach a pointing device to make it efficient as Laptop.
Connectivity
Laptops generally support only LAN and WLAN. However some of the latest laptops come with built in HSDPA units which let you connect to 3G data services.
Most of the tablets are also support same connectivity as laptops and few comes with 3G connectivity. In addition most of the tablets come with GPS receiver, so you can use it as a navigator.
Battery Life
A laptop with most advance batter would hold it power for maximum 5 hours practically. In the case you need more battery life you can always go for bigger battery which will make the device bigger and heavier at the same time.
In tablets, generally its battery can hold it for more than 8 hours. The most important thing tablets are not having start up lag since they are always on. If you need longer battery life for a tablet, you don’t have a direct solution. But if you go for Asus transformer prime with the aid of keyboard dock battery it can hold it for more than 18 hours.
Conclusion
When you take a careful look in to factors which I compared here, you will figure out that Tablets still far behind compared to Laptops especially when it comes to Storage and RAM. In addition they lack efficient input devices such as full size keyboard and mouse.
But in most of other factors such as processing power, display resolution and connectivity technologies are almost equal in both tablets and Laptops.
In the previous question “Can your Laptop replace your Desktop?” I offer the conclusion that yes Laptops are ready to jump away from your lap and sit on your desk replacing conventional desktop computer.
If you ask me the final answer for the question “Can your tablet replace your Laptop?” you are putting me in a difficult position. However after considering portability, connectivity and bitterly life I would say, since laptops are sitting on your desk replacing your conventional desktop computer, Tablet can travel with you wherever you go, playing the previous role of laptop catering your mobile computing needs.
Tags: #Notebook #Tablet