The fact that the tablet market is booming is nothing new. Above all, Apple and Samsung sell tablets like hot cakes. But do you need a tablet if you already have a smartphone and notebook? The selection seems to be exorbitantly large, as well as the individual equipment features and display sizes. The inside-digital.de editorial team gives tips on when you need a tablet and what it should be able to do once you have decided to buy it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 (When) do I need a tablet and what can it do for me?
2 What should a tablet have?
3 Other equipment
4th Conclusion
(When) do I need a tablet and what can it do for me?
First of all, you should think about what and when you
would use a tablet . 7 reasons that speak for a tablet are:
You travel a lot, watch films on the train or on the plane or like to read newspapers and magazines without wanting to buy them on paper. A smartphone display is often too small for such use in the long run, a notebook is usually too heavy and unwieldy: the tablet is a perfect solution.
If you only use your laptop to surf a few pages on the Internet, tweet a bit or watch a YouTube video, the tablet can be a very good alternative. It is lighter, more manageable and the on-screen keyboard is perfectly adequate for such purposes.
As a second screen for television: Of course, the smartphone or the program guide may be enough to see what else is on while watching television. However, due to its size, a tablet is much more comfortable than a smartphone and numerous program apps can definitely replace a magazine. Additional information about a feature film can also be obtained quickly and a trailer for an advertised cinema hit can be viewed on YouTube. But if you already have a notebook at home, you can do all of this with it.
A cookbook in the kitchen no longer has to be made of paper. A tablet, especially if it is waterproof like the Xperia Tablet Z, can be left next to the stove to help you cook .
Playing entertaining games on the mobile phone has been one of the most popular features since “Snake”. The app stores hold thousands of games for smartphones and tablets. These include some that are simply more convenient to play on a large tablet display .
Making video calls via Skype, for example, works not only with a PC, laptop or smartphone, but also with a tablet. A prerequisite for this, however, is an integrated front camera. Advantage over the smartphone: the person opposite can be seen larger thanks to the large display. Advantage over a PC: The tablet is more portable – similar to a notebook.
If you just want to check your emails and answer a few of them, a tablet is the perfect device. Compared to a smartphone, it is more convenient and the stationary computer or notebook does not have to be started up straight away. But if the answers are particularly long or if the flood of e-mails is too large, you will miss a keyboard with a hub in the long run.
Tablets: application examples
Of course, a tablet offers many other possibilities and uses such as listening to music and taking photos or it serves as a navigation aid. However, other devices, primarily smartphones, are much better suited for these applications.
One advantage that a tablet has over a smartphone is the use of office programs, as the screen is much larger. You can connect a keyboard and / or mouse to the tablet and use it instead of a notebook.
However, a tablet is not a full replacement for a laptop. Not only the physical keys with hub are sorely missed when writing longer texts, the fast downloading, installation and execution of large programs, playing complex 3D shooters or using many programs at the same time do not put the tablet on the same level the notebook.
What should a tablet have?
If you have decided to buy a tablet, you shouldn’t choose the cheapest, but it doesn’t have to be a device for 800 euros either. What is currently important for a tablet is the display size and resolution, as well as the processor and memory in connection with the software, and the battery life.
Display
Most tablets have a screen size of 7 or 10.1 inches. In between and beyond, there are many other sizes. For users who travel a lot and are looking for a tablet with a low weight, a smaller one is more recommendable. If the device serves as a second screen and is only on the coffee table, it can also be 10 inches. But it’s a matter of taste, just like with smartphones. What, on the other hand, has nothing to do with taste is the display resolution. If possible, this should not fall below WXGA quality (1,280 x 800 pixels). Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) is even better. For smaller displays of around 7 inches, WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels) might be sufficient for one or the other. Tablets with such sizes are usually cheaper,
processor
It is similar in the case of the processor and its main memory: If these are too weak to be able to cope with several tasks at the same time and if they are also held up by user interfaces on the software side, you get annoyed about the speed and you lose your appetite for the tablet. A dual-core processor is a must, or even better, 4 cores – especially with Android tablets. A clock frequency of 1 – 1.5 GHz is okay, the RAM should have at least 1 GB.
Storage
Apps require storage space that is rare on many devices. According to this, it should be 16, even better 32 GB, which can possibly be expanded using a micro SD card . Many a complex game can be over 1 GB in size.
battery pack
The higher the charge on the battery, the better. It is annoying when the battery is empty after 2 hours of train travel and watching movies and you still have 2 hours of travel ahead of you. Here you should orientate yourself on the highest possible mAh specification and a long battery life. Anything in the 5,000 mAh range is good, over 7,000 mAh is very good.
Other equipment
All tablets have a WLAN interface. In addition, users always have the choice between one and the same tablet with or without a 3G module. If you only use the device at home, the WLAN interface is completely sufficient. If, on the other hand, you travel a lot and don’t want to do without mobile internet, you can opt for a tablet with a 3G module.
However, a SIM card with a corresponding tariff is also required for this. If you want to save money at this point, the WLAN version may also be sufficient, with which you can access the cellular network via the smartphone via tethering. There is no need to buy a second SIM card.
A good camera in their smartphone is important to many. Manufacturers also equip tablets with cameras – front and rear. But do you really take photos with a tablet, or rather with your smartphone or camera? If you do without a rear camera in a tablet, you can also save money at this point. A front camera for video calls makes a lot more sense.
If you notice a high weight on the first impression, it will likely happen that you will notice this again and again after prolonged use. It can also go so far that you lose interest in the tablet. A weight of 500 – 600 grams with a 10-inch diagonal is optimal. However, this criterion is also a question of taste – just like design, choice of materials and the operating system.
With the latter, you are often asked to choose between Android and iOS. Windows has recently been adapted as a tablet OS, which is an alternative to the two operating systems mentioned above. All systems have advantages and disadvantages: Android can be tailored very individually to your own taste, iOS, on the other hand, runs much more smoothly because hardware and software come from a single source and Windows 8 also allows desktop access as you know it from a stationary computer.
Conclusion
Is it worth buying a tablet? This question is relatively easy to answer. The tablet is not a workhorse that can process as many requests in parallel as a laptop or PC; a tablet is more for entertainment. If you already have a (large) smartphone and own a notebook, the tablet will certainly have a hard time asserting itself against the other two devices. However, if you only have a desktop PC at home instead of a laptop, the tablet with its quickly available Internet will be a lot of fun. In addition, a 7 or 8 inch tablet can be a good addition to a smartphone with a 3.5 inch display for on the go.
An interesting combo is the Asus Padfone . The smartphone is the central device and is plugged into a tablet, which only has a display and an additional battery. This eliminates the need to switch off the “tablet”, to equip two devices with apps, music and other files in parallel, and to use an additional SIM card to use the Internet on the tablet.
