The question haunts every smartphone buyer, “should i instead buy a tablet?”. In the past few weeks we have got over a hundred emails asking us this question.
Tablet season is here and its going to stay. When tablets were launched globally starting with the 1st iPad in the United Stated, analysts speculated that the market in India would not adapt to a tablet lifestyle. Today more than 25% of India’s mobile internet traffic is from iPads alone, another 10% from other tablets. Analyst have been proven wrong yet again, but the question still remains a Tablet or a souped up Smartphone?
We shall try and resolve this predicament for you.
A smartphone today has come a long way from what it was when the term was invented. Smart phones started off as basic day to day mobile phones that did a little bit more. A color screen, an mp3 player and customizable ringtones, a WAP browser and VGA cameras with infrared photo sharing. People were happy with these features and were shelling out Rs. 25-35 thousand for devices that were just smart.
Today you can’t be happy with what you pay for, A dual core phone, WiFi – N, Bluetooth 3.0, GBs of Ram, Multiple GBs of storage, touchscreens, slim designs, gorilla glass, unibody constructions and a whole host of Apps that do everything else. But its still not enough, we need higher spec’d displays LCD, SLCD, Amoled, Super Amoled, Super Amoled Plus and now Super Amoled Plus HD. Why is there a constant need for upgraded technology? Socially a man buying a phone always has the need to be on top of technology (This is directly proportional to the size of his, since this is a public page lets say “car”) The newer and more expensive the tech, the more a man feels like a man. Why shouldn’t we? we have a right to everything that makes us happy, and a right to get what we pay for and sometimes more than what we pay for.
A Smartphone today is the ultimate tool for a man ( student through Business men) from lectures, to calculations , wind speeds, weather info, document editing, printing , presentations, video editing, photo editing, emails, messaging everything can be achieved on a smartphone. So why should we not get one.
Tablets in the market today are essentially blown up versions of the devices we carry in our pockets, the iPad 1 matched the specs of the iPhone 4 , (infact the phone had more ram) and the iPad 2 will be dwarfed by the iPhone 5s specs. Similarly Android phones dwarf the tablets, Galaxy S2 and Sensation are far more powerful than any Android tablet in the market today.
So is a larger screen a better option?
No one can really answer that question for you, it all comes down to what you do with the device you buy. I personally hate carrying my tablet and only like to carry my phone. A tablet is useful while traveling its a multimedia powerhouse- gaming , movies, videos even basic editing work can be done easily on a tablet. I also have met and often bump into folks who like carrying a tablet everywhere even to the GYM ( seriously what are they thinking?). Upon a little investigation you find out that they spent their budget on a tablet with phone call abilities and don’t own a phone anymore.
In an ideal world a product like the Asus Padfone would be perfect. A smartphone which converts into a tablet when you need it to be one, what else could one ask for? Devices like the Padfone are going to be the ultimate tool of a technology lover, but they still have time to arrive.
Till then our recommendation is:
If you really want to, then get a tablet and fulfill your dreams. But keep in mind that a tablet will never replace a phone and you should always have a phone handy, whether a Smartphone or a standard phone is what your budget will answer (even your day to day requirements). Carrying a tablet around as a phone will not only make you look, well how should we put it, like a “doofus”. Unless you are totally business oriented and your work calls for it. But then if you are a business man then you probably already own a smartphone, right?
According to us, tablets today are not yet there, not ready to beat a good phone. Invest in a good phone, you will get more done. A tablet is only eye candy, a large touchscreen that has been a part of Sci-Fi movies for a long time and today when the opportunity is here, everyone wants to grab it. Get one only as a secondary device, something between your phone and your notebook, as a notebook replacement even, if you don’t have much work except document editing than a tablet will fulfill your notebook requirements and look good doing it. Plus there is always the benefit of Angry Birds on a large screen.
[polldaddy poll=5187177]
