Why I will never buy another tablet

My brother was showing off his new iPad 2 the other day. He was most impressed with his latest purchase, and it is easy to see why. It was the first time I had been given an opportunity to play with the latest version of Apple's revolutionary device, and I give Apple full credit for transforming computers from dorky, esoteric devices into something cool and fashionable.

And then 5 minutes later I was over it.

I have to admit at this point that I own a Motorola Xoom - one of the first true Android tablets. I have had it for a good 9 months now, and in that time I have struggled to justify its existence, or the existence of any tablet for that matter.

For me tablets sit in the murky middle ground between a laptop/netbook/ultrabook (or whatever the kids are calling them these days) and a good quality mobile phone. Tablets do have advantages over these traditional form factors, but there is one glaring oversight that makes tablets almost useless in every situation: when do you make the effort to carry one around?

I carry my mobile phone everywhere. The morning check list that I run through before leaving the house is: mobile phone, pants, keys, wallet. And my mobile phone is a fairly high end one, with a generously sized screen and enough processing power to run everything that I can run on my tablet.

If I want or need to catch up on my email, play a game, watch a video, view a web site or consume my news feeds, my mobile phone is right there in my pocket ready to go.

Sure, I can do all these things on my tablet, but ironically I need to set up my phone as a wireless hotspot to get connectivity through my tablet on the go, so there is almost never a situation where I can make use of my tablet outside of the office or home without also having my mobile phone. So why would I make the effort to carry around a backpack, or have to physically hold the tablet, when I can do everything I would use a tablet for on the go with my mobile phone?

So lets assume that I do make the effort to carry a computing device around that I can't put in my pocket. Why would I choose to carry a tablet instead of a laptop?

Everything I can to on a tablet I can also do on a laptop. I mean that quite literally - Bluestacks can be used to run Android applications on a Windows PC. And then there are all the things that you can't do on a tablet, like any kind of real work. Yes, you may have a 10 inch screen on your tablet, but half of that is taken up by the keyboard if your are trying to do real work. Yes, you might be able to edit a word document on your tablet, but throw in a few macros and your tablet is useless.

Therein lies my dilemma. If I need to make the effort to carry a computing device around, the combination of mobile phone and laptop is much more powerful and flexible than a mobile phone and tablet. So unless I am watching movies in bed or idly surfing the web while watching TV (and both can be done with a laptop anyway), there really is no place for a tablet in my life.

Comments

Gene said…
well said,
but sadly working as a web developer i have to own one to test my work on it before publishing the site.
Simply because they are so many people like your brother, oh .. and my wife.
6:03 am
Gary said…
I have to agree with you 100%. People are stuck between what is useful and what is cool. Unfortunately the "murky middle" needs some work.

Apple has also realised how well 'cool' sells.

Great article.
6:50 am
producerism said…
I certainly agree with you for most tablets, but I feel it's more of an issue with larger tablets.

For example, I purchased a Nook Color, which is only 7" instead of the larger 10" format, and it makes a world of difference. I can fit my Nook Color into a back pocket and I use it so much more than my phone for most things. Reading ebooks on a phone is dreadful to me, so a 7" tablet fills the void.

Personally, I can't see a reason to get a larger format tablet because they really are awkward to carry. Don't hold it against all tablets thought!
7:40 am
Anonymous said…
People arent logical, millions of these tablet things have been sold, even though they are kinda useless.
3:23 am
Wilford said…
Matthew,

Thank you for article. I have been saying that I don't what I would use a tablet for if i got one around my colleagues and they look at me funny because of that. I work for an IT firm so everyone is always rushing for the latest piece of technology. I do too.... but on tablets...I'll pass.
1:03 am
Jay Jennings said…
I carry an iPad almost everywhere I go. Before gadgets I almost always had at least a notepad and/or book with me, so it's not a "cool" thing -- it's a "taking advantage of otherwise wasted time" thing.

There are about a billion (small amount of hyperbole) places where my iPad is handy that a laptop wouldn't be. Do I like the giant monitor on my desk? Oh yeah. But I've updated web sites, written full-length articles, spec'd games, etc., all on the go with my iPad. In places and during times where I wouldn't have taken a laptop -- even a small one.
3:09 pm
Ye Olde Wielder O' Projects said…
Until you show how a larger screen phone can't do what you just explained an iPad can do you haven't said anything that adds to the discussion.
12:34 am
Edward Donovan said…
I think his point was that an iPad, with it's larger screen, makes many tasks, such as updating sites or spec'ing games, much easier and more enjoyable than with a phone which has a much smaller screen.

I have yet to see a phone with a 10" screen; imagine how silly you'd look with that up to your ear.

On the other hand, I don't see how a netbook or small laptop is any less convenient, if not more so.
6:31 pm
bigbrowser said…
I use both a phone and a tablet, and as the author points out, I hardly ever take the tablet out. Yet the tablet is perfect for stuff that does not fit on a phone screeen, e.g. movies, complex PDFs or news feeds (Google Currents is so much better on a tablet). For most other tasks the two are pretty interchangeable. They are both content-consuming devices (apart from emails, photos and videos), while the notebook is becoming more and more a content-creation device only (i.e. coding, other types of work, etc). Before I had the tablet I would often have moments like 'this is cool but I would like exactly the same thing on a bigger screen than the phone'. The sheer display size is what matters and that was the only reason for me.
12:54 am
Anonymous said…
For me I would say the smart phone is useless. I can't imagine using one to do anything that I do on a tablet for the simple reason that the small screen is very anoying to me. So, it's personal preferance, but as a gaming device, media consumption, browsing e-mail the tablet is the best at what it does. Of course the laptop is the best for working, writing, so I would say you should carry all of the devices plus a kindle for reading.
1:09 am
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