Is the poor reliability of many laptops a reason for some people to switch to tablets?

froggyboy604

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Manager
Full GL Member
29,680
2007
799
Credits
19,321
Mature Board Viewing
Unlock full profile styling
It is possible that more people are switching to tablets like the iPad, Microsoft Surface tablet, and Nvidia Shield tablet because of their poor experience with laptops which sometimes break after a few years of regular use.

There are still many people who still use the iPad 2, and Amazon Kindle Fire 1st generation and similar Android tablets like the Google Nexus 7. But, most laptops from 2011 maybe already broken, or not working well after 6 years of constant use. Laptop batteries, and other parts like the RAM, hard drive, motherboard, keyboard, etc are not very durable and can fail after a few years.

A tablet with a wireless keyboard can sometimes last longer than a laptop if you are careful to not drop the tablet on the floor or spill water on the device. The battery in tablets also don't seem to break after many years of use in my experience. I have tablets from 2010 where the battery have many hours of battery life even when I use them daily for the last 7 years.
 
I've been selling laptops for a few months now, seems everyone who comes in just wants something to browse the internet and do their emails/banking. Really, a tablet is more than enough for that if you don't mind a digital keyboard.

I know samsungs make a really nice tablet, the galaxy tab A 10.1.
 
I've been selling laptops for a few months now, seems everyone who comes in just wants something to browse the internet and do their emails/banking. Really, a tablet is more than enough for that if you don't mind a digital keyboard.

I know samsungs make a really nice tablet, the galaxy tab A 10.1.

I know there are a few tablets which have a USB port, so plugging in a cheap USB keyboard is simple for most users.

There are also Micro-USB to Full size USB Type A Female port converter OTG cablers which you can buy for a few dollars which let you convert your Micro-USB port to work with regular USB keyboards, mouse, and game controllers.

A lot of people are also buying wireless bluetooth keybaords which work for tablets, smartphones, and other devices like game consoles and PC. Some wireless keyboards are cheap, and only cost a few dollars more than a wired keyboard, so a lot of people will spend the extra few dollars on a wireless Bluetooth keyboard.
 
From what I've seen, people switched from laptops to tablets in masses since the iPad got introduced, but then Microsoft introduced the Surface tablet line, and other manufacturers started to create machines that were laptops and tablets at the same time.

But from what I can see now, this market is now more divided than ever.
Engineers and gamers would usually get a desktop, designers would usually get an Apple computer, folks that have been adults for some time would usually get a laptop with or without a touch screen, the older generation would usually get a tablet, and the younger generation would usually get a phone.

It keeps surprising me how the latter group would prefer a tiny, limited device over a full computer.
I can't blame the older generation, an iPad is really all they need, and is much less likely to not work for whatever reason.
But I often see younger folks depend themselves to apps that are only available for Windows desktop operating systems, and yet some tell me all the have is a smartphone, because 'no money for a desktop'.
I find this kind of bullshit, a reasonable smartphone nowadays isn't any more expensive than a reasonable laptop.

Phones come 'free' with most mobile contracts, but in reality it's not free at all.
In reality, you overpay to such a degree, that it's really cheaper to get a contract-less phone, and then get a SIM-only contract.
 
A Windows tablet with a keyboard works okay for most users who mainly use their computer for basic computer tasks like online banking, and most banks, and websites now have Apple iOS apps, so using an iPad as a person's main computing device could work out for many users.

It is kind of strange that younger folks don't have money for a desktop computer when they can build or buy a decent computer for under $500 which is cheaper than a few months of cellular phone service, or internet service.
 
Honestly, tablets can't replace laptops. I agree that they are good with large screens and all...but I prefer my laptop over my tablet and I don't think laptops are not that unreliable to be honest.
 
Tablets can be nice for emails or watching something, but not for heavy duty work.
Depends on the type of tablet.
Surface tablets are really good laptop replacements, since they come with a Core i5/i7/i3, and can do everything a regular laptop can do.
But Android tablets are generally indeed just toys for emails and watching something.
 
Tablets can be nice for emails or watching something, but not for heavy duty work.

I know some people use remote desktop apps on their tablet to login to their desktop at home, so it is possible to do heavy work on a tablet, and even play PC games on a tablet if your internet connection is fast enough to smoothly run a remote desktop app which you use to login to your powerful desktop at home.
 
But don't you think email watching will be good at smart watches?

I feel smartwatches can be good for e-mail notifications, and replying to short e-mails where one sentence, or words are good enough instead of writing a formal business e-mail for work.
 
I find replying in smartwatches a bit hard. :p

I wish it was possible to attach a USB keyboard to a smartwatch. I think reading text and short e-mail on some smartwatches is not a huge problem. I saw some people read texts, and Twitter messages on a small flip phone which screen is sometimes smaller than a smartwatch screen. But, typing on a small screen can be hard.
 
Back
Top