tablets to replace PCs?

paradisiac said:
with endless amounts of SD cards with all your different games and programs on? and what about your films/music? you will then need external drives to cater for those too.
Click to expand...

Why? Most people don't need that many programs, they will stream them over the air.

Personally I'd probably keep either a desktop or a laptop to go with a tablet as I need one to view films/videos as I browse the net for example.

I currently have a Desktop, 13" "ultrabook" and a touchpad. I haven't used the touchpad in months as the screen resolution is so poor and I rarely use the desktop except for watching films and storage. When windows 8 comes out I may have a big shuffle round. Get a tablet and a cheap external server/nas so I can stream video to my monitor when I need to and use the tablet when the laptop is in use or when it is too big.
 
Glaucus said:
becuase on the go you need 100s of GB of storage? you simply dont need that.
Click to expand...

not 100s of GB no, but my laptop has 400GB of stuff on it (admittedly I don't need all of it), and that goes everywhere with me pretty much. so I would need to plan out what I might need on that given day to take with me. which is a pain. im not saying everyone would be in this situation, but its something that would put some people off. and until there are wifi hotspots pretty much everywhere it rules out cloud style storage for me too.
im not arguing tablets don't have their uses, but becoming the only form of PC you need is a long way off in this country.

Amp34 said:
Why? Most people don't need that many programs, they will stream them over the air.
Click to expand...

because the UK is not covered in wifi hotspots, so streaming over the air (unless you also pay for 3G too) is not an option, and I cant see it being for the foreseeable future.
 
Yes i would be worried. 3 middle age people i know who had laptops and desktops have now ditched them for ipads. They were sick of all the problems they had and all they used them for was the web, email etc.
 
you really don't, i've owned a tablet for a while now and you simply don't need much storage at all. and winx86 tablets will have massive of on board storage anyway.
 
paradisiac said:
but how cheap is a docking station, monitor, keyboard/mouse though? yes old people want to get on the net. but most want to used things like Skype to talk to relatives. I cannot see this being ideal on a tablet (although never used it for this, but have found typing a pain) so and for reading things like emails etc on a 7" screen for an elderly person cant be easy either.
Click to expand...

£100 for a docking station, keyboard and mouse probably, then a monitor for another £100. Will be just as good as the stuff the big shops sell with cheap desktops.

Tablet for £300-400 and you're off. For Skype they sit around on their sofa with their tablet like many others, can browse the internet without fear of downloading dodgy software and can stick it in the dock on the rare occasion they need the desktop.

My parents currently have a desktop and tablet. Since getting the tablet they rarely use the desktop, only for writing long emails and sorting out digital photos. I upgraded their base system to something reasonable a couple of years ago for around £300 (base level Core 2 and 4GB of RAM) but the screen and keyboard were old ones.

You're generally looking at around £500 for a desktop with externals and mouse. For the same price you can buy a laptop (3 hours battery life and big and bulky) or you can buy a mid range tablet for £300-400 (small, light, 7-10 hours battery life and instant on). The costs aren't the different, the biggest issue at the moment is iOS and Android don't give you the flexibility to use it as your main machine when you want to organise your photos and type out longer documents at your desk.
 
paradisiac said:
because the whole point is to be portable :confused: and as most tablets will take an SD card without anything sticking out from the device, it would be the preferred method of storage. I don't know about where you live, but in cornwall we don't have hotspots everywhere, so skydrive is useless without a wifi connection is it not? so if I wanted to do work on the go, I would need some form of storage.
Click to expand...

How many people need more than 128GB of storage? You can get that in a 9mm thick 10 inch device if it has an SD card... The other option is a laptop which will be significantly bigger than a 10" tablet with a 1TB 2.5" portable hard drive.

So basically you have a choice between three systems. A 10+kg desktop with 1TB of storage, a 3kg laptop with (in reality) 500GB or storage or a 600-700g Tablet with a 300g 1TB HDD (1kg combined). Which setup is heaviest? Which setup is the smallest?

That's also questioning how many people need more than 64GB or storage anyway. That's easily enough to hold few tens of films, several thousand songs and plenty of apps to play with. All without the need of skydrive...
 
They will and have replaced PCs for many people, it really depends on what you do on your PC.

Proper gaming and important work for example, will remain on PCs. General internet use, emailing, sofa and unimportant browsing (which is probably more popular than anything) is nicer on a tablet for a lot of people.
 
ok, so what are computers used for :

1. Browsing Net
2. Instant Messaging/Skype
3. Email
4. Homework
5. Photos (editing/printing)
6. Games (not just flash style games)
7. TV Catchup/On Demand
8. Playing Music
9. Watching Films

probs stuff I have missed out too. how much of that can be done as easily on a tablet as it can on a laptop/desktop. I am genuinely interested.
 
paradisiac said:
ok, so what are computers used for :

1. Browsing Net
2. Instant Messaging/Skype
3. Email
4. Homework
5. Photos (editing/printing)
6. Games (not just flash style games)
7. TV Catchup/On Demand
8. Playing Music
9. Watching Films

probs stuff I have missed out too. how much of that can be done as easily on a tablet as it can on a laptop/desktop. I am genuinely interested.
Click to expand...

These are all fine on a tablet:

1. Browsing Net
2. Instant Messaging/Skype
3. Email
7. TV Catchup/On Demand
8. Playing Music
9. Watching Films

Homework is a situational one (as are they all really, it depends on a lot of other things).
 
paradisiac said:
ok, so what are computers used for :

1. Browsing Net
2. Instant Messaging/Skype
3. Email
4. Homework
5. Photos (editing/printing)
6. Games (not just flash style games)
7. TV Catchup/On Demand
8. Playing Music
9. Watching Films

probs stuff I have missed out too. how much of that can be done as easily on a tablet as it can on a laptop/desktop. I am genuinely interested.
Click to expand...

Red - Arguably at least as good on a tablet, if not better. A lot of tablets have the ability to stream straight to a nearby (compatible) TV as well so number 9 has a lot of potential (streaming your film (which is saved to your device) while browsing the net on the same device. Obviously you can view films on the tablet as well, especially useful when travelling due to their size.

My parents only use Skype on their tablet now and Apple have the rather annoying FaceTime ability (annoying because it is proprietary so rather limited, although it can stream to Apple computers too).

Many of my friends use their tablets as their main email device.

Green - Fairly poor but depends what you want to do with them. Many people love their tablets for editing photos, but then just adjust contrast/saturation and add filters. At the moment my idea of photo editing just isn't possible, but with the release of Windows 8 and the ability to use proper photoshop (with a pen (NOT a stylus) on the device or tethered to a screen) it may soon be my preferred method.

Yellow Another major use by my parents and many others. My boss streams sports to his iPad while at work so he can view that and work at the same time. See also the streaming to TV post earlier.

Homework and non flash style games are the two main issues at the moment, although games are becoming more and more complex. The release of Windows 8 may change that though as you will hopefully be able to dock your tablet and maybe be able to attack a dedicated GPU when at the desk...
 
Robbo said:
These are all fine on a tablet:

1. Browsing Net
2. Instant Messaging/Skype
3. Email
7. TV Catchup/On Demand
8. Playing Music
9. Watching Films

Homework is a situational one (as are they all really, it depends on a lot of other things).
Click to expand...

again, I am genuinely interested and not trying to be awkward but can you :

2. have multiple windows/chat sessions going and can swap easily back and forth
3. type out long emails without the need of purchasing a keyboard.
 
Desktop PC
-
Notebook
Netbook
Tablet
-
Mobile Phone

So this is the spectrum, if the tablet is really going to be so dominant it will knock the notebook and netbook the most. Desktops are essential to many people (gaming, graphics design, cad, the list goes on) and a tablet simply cannot replace this. Also a mobile phone will not be replaced by a tablet for obvious reasons.
 
paradisiac said:
again, I am genuinely interested and not trying to be awkward but can you :

2. have multiple windows/chat sessions going and can swap easily back and forth
3. type out long emails without the need of purchasing a keyboard.
Click to expand...

Yes to both.

Typing is a situational one really, but I can type pretty fast on the iPad. Not as fast as keyboard of course, but fast enough.
 
paradisiac said:
again, I am genuinely interested and not trying to be awkward but can you :

2. have multiple windows/chat sessions going and can swap easily back and forth
3. type out long emails without the need of purchasing a keyboard.
Click to expand...

2. Yes.
3. Not so much, however how often do you really type out long emails? I know both the personal and work emails I send and receive are normally no more than a few sentences. If you needed to type out long emails you could always just buy a dock but then you would know you needed to type it out anyway and a dock isn't very expensive (read, still cheaper than most half decent laptops and desktops).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom