I occasionally travel for business. I go to conferences across the country (anyone going to Affiliate Summit this year?) and sometimes my presence is required at the Wealth Authority headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Traveling for work can be fun, but dragging my laptop around brings down the whole experience.
Laptops and notebooks have gotten a lot less bulky and lighter over the years, but they are still a pain to lug around. Laptops require a large bag with shoulder straps to carry it and its cumbersome battery around. Not to mention what a pain in the ass they are to go through airport security with. Taking it out of the case, putting it back in, zipping all the compartments back up, all while putting back on your shoes, grabbing your change and wallet and trying not to hold up the line behind you.
If you base your decision on whether or not to replace your laptop with a tablet based on portability alone, the tablet will win every time. Tablets are as light as a magazine. You can carry it under your arm or slip it into your purse and the power cord can fit in my front pocket.
Alas, portability is not the only thing to consider when deciding if a tablet will suit you better than a laptop. Perhaps the most important point to consider is usability. Will a tablet allow you to do your work as easily as a laptop will?
A major hang up of the tablet is its touchscreen. Laptops require the use of a mouse to select items and open programs. With a tablet you do everything with your finger. A computer’s mouse can more easily select text, click on small buttons, use drop down menu’s, and drag and drop things than your finger can. More often than not, I find myself frustrated with my tablet’s touchscreen capabilities-or lack thereof.
Plus most tablets don’t have USB ports or card readers. So getting information to or from your tablet requires using wireless networks or the Internet. Not a great solution, especially if the network or internet is down for any length of time. Even if your tablet has a USB, it can’t be used to connect to a printer. Printing from tablets requires you to have a printer with built in Wi-Fi and downloading an app or two. Again not the best solution, although it can be done.
My biggest pet peeve with tablets is the lack of compatibility with the software programs I use. I have trouble using all the functionality my CRM software provides on my laptop. I am able to check my accounts and run some reports but downloading and storing information on my tablet is next to impossible. This area leaves a lot of room for improvement in the tablet market.
So far the score is 1-1. Tablets win in the portability category, but laptops even things up with a win in the usability category. So let’s look at cost. Despite lots of competition, tablet prices remain high. The iPad 3 and the Samsung Galaxy tablets start at $499. Both come with built in cameras and Wi-Fi capabilities.
In comparison laptops can be had for a bit cheaper. I got my Toshiba on special from Best Buy two years ago for $300. It doesn’t have a camera and I had to buy a USB modem to connect to the internet when traveling though. But even with those add-ons the price is still cheaper than the iPad3 and Samsung Galaxy tablets. There are cheaper e-readers out there. Amazon’s Kindle Fire currently retails for $199 (although there are reports Amazon will lower the price to $169 very soon). Most of these smaller tablets are no comparison to the capabilities of the other two more expensive tablets. Alas, tablets can be more expensive than most laptops, but they are not that far behind. The margin is slim.
Despite not wanting this comparison to end in a tie, I can’t leave out the convenience factor tablets provide. Discussing a competitor’s commercial in a sales meeting? Pull it up on YouTube in seconds. Want to show a client a video on how a product works? A few quick taps is all it takes to run it. You’d probably be halfway through the video before you can even boot up your laptop. Not to mention how much sharper the display is on tablets than laptops. I could go on, but really it’s pretty obvious that tablets win this category hands down.
Every next generation of tablet that comes out is better than the previous version. A few years ago laptops would have won this argument hands down. Now the debate is a much closer race. In this experiment, laptops and tablets tie with 2 points apiece. It may be very soon that we all leave our laptops at home and take our tablets to the office. I’m going to keep my laptop for now, but I am going to re-evaluate the next time I’m in the market for a new computer.
Cheers,
Ethan Warrick
P.S. There is one other thing I left out… Writing this newsletter is a lot easier on my laptop. So let’s score an extra point for laptops ☺
