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Is it Time to Take that Tablet?
Rohan Naravane, Sep 02, 2010 1723 hrs ISTWe wonder if the world is really ready for these semi-computers
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So, what is the current solution? A wireless keyboard accessory dock. But that beats the purpose (I'm referring to the excellent portability of a tablet) when you have to lug a keyboard wherever you go. Also, in dock mode I'm expected to lift my hands up to touch the screen to do any action other than typing. Doesn't that kinda feel like a concept that we've seen fail miserably now?
Next is interoperability; the ability for a device to work with peripheral devices that we regularly use. A simple example would be copying data from a flash drive. How many of those announced tablets have proper USB ports and a file manager? Let's say you want to touch-up and send your photos taken by a digital camera to someone. On an iPad you need to have an SD card accessory always handy. Cheap 300 dollar netbooks have a proper SD card slot built-in. Also, office productivity is an important factor for the working class. The iPad has an iWork suite that lets you make presentations and spreadsheets. But don't you ultimately have to copy it to a PC to project it on a white screen in a conference room. Netbooks have this little invention back from the year 1987 called a VGA port, that lets you connect to a majority of projectors directly.
Talking of multimedia playback, we can say that this is one task both Tablets and netbooks have shown to accomplish well. We've got NVIDIA ION-based netbooks, and tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, both of which can play 1080p HD videos. But you need to buy a case to make most tablets stand upright. Netbook screens, however, stand erect without any supplements.
Gaming is possibly one area where I feel tablets will get the better of netbooks, with their motion-sensing accelerometer and virtually thousands of points for user input (the entire screen, that is).
Battery life is another area where tablets will do well. It is marvelous to see the iPad work for 10 hours straight, where netbooks manage to hit just 4 to 7 hour on an average. But hey, 5 hours isn't so bad now when you compare the paltry 2 to 3 hour run of a typical laptop.
Now that you've been patient enough to read through, you'll see how tablets are supporting devices rather than independently functioning computers. However, they cost as much as many proper PCs. This really makes me wonder why I should really bother buying a somewhat crippled device?
We're in the age of convergence, an age where our phones are already our internet devices, multimedia players, cameras, GPS navigators and so many more things. Then why wouldn't I just stick to my existing smartphone + netbook/laptop/PC which gets all my work done? Why the need for a third device? I wouldn't mind sacrificing portability for better functionality from a netbook computer. And netbooks are fairly portable too, you know.
They call tablets consumption devices, but I don't just want to consume, I want to create too. If I wanted an electronic reading device, I'd rather pay less than a third to buy a Kindle instead.
I end this by saying that while an iPad or a Galaxy Tab may be tempting, it's not quite there as yet. Do you agree?
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