4 Reasons Why Tablets are Here to Stay

Today, the tablet has solidified its position as a great content consumption device that’s poised to be an alternative content creation device as well. It still sits right between the smartphone that has become a must to almost everyone and the laptop that’s relegated for task-heavy usage.

Yet, there’s a huge gap between the two that tablets aim to address. The smartphone, despite being the go-to device, still has its own share shortcomings. So does the laptop. Don’t get us wrong – they’re really good at what they do. It’s just that there are times when one or the other might not really accomplish the intended task very well.

Here are 4 reasons why we think tablets still carve a significant portion of our daily digital needs.

Bigger screens: There’s a tablet in every size imaginable.

The tablet sits at a very wide gap between a smartphone and a tablet. It caters to people who want a much bigger screen than the typical smartphone yet not as big and bulky as the office laptop.

Generally, you can go from as small and pocketable as a 7-incher or to as big as a 12-incher like the Galaxy Tab Pro or the iPad Pro . There’s even a much bigger one – the 18.4-inch Galaxy View.

The smaller tablets provide a bit more screen real estate compared to a smartphone for activities such as web browsing, casual gaming and watching videos yet are not bulky to carry along every day.

The larger form factor tablets offer the same screen real estate as your typical laptop. They can practically do most of the tasks yet remain portable and easier to carry around.

Tablets have become more powerful devices.

Modern day tablets have improved a lot in terms of performance are they are able to match the capabilities of entry-level laptops these days.

One of the reasons tablets are gaining grounds with more people is that they are much more capable now with handling more serious tasks due to better hardware and multi-tasking capabilities.

There’s the shift to an IPS or AMOLED display with resolutions that go up to quad HD (2K), bigger RAM and larger internal storage. Even the processing power has greatly improved in the last years with the Samsung Exynos 8890 leading the way with the latter able to maximize its performance with all 8 cores running at the same time.

Come to think of it, there was a lot more improvements in the tablet category compared to laptops in the last five years.

Longer (much longer) battery life

Because of the power efficiency of tablets and their relative size, they produce the great battery performance. It has higher battery capacity than a smartphone and more efficient energy consumption than laptops givens its more light usage.

If smartphones can go 5 to 8 hours, the more efficient laptops can do 8 or 9 hours at best. Tablets can provide way more than that in terms of battery life where 10 hours would be the typical performance and stretches to about 15 hours with some of them.

This makes the tablet the go-to device for people who want longer screen on time.

The magic of the Stylus pen. This is perhaps the single biggest feature that tablets have perfected. While the pen stylus originally came as a smartphone accessory (first used with the original Galaxy Note), it was later on adapted on the tablet and made better use.

Having used the very first Galaxy Note, the S Pen from Samsung has greatly improved thru the years. The accuracy and the natural feeling of writing or sketching on the screen is undeniably great. This single feature has put the tablet in a great position unmatched by any other device.

And then some more.

Perhaps one of the more unique positioning points of the tablet is its versatility. It looks and feels like an over-sized smartphone and can do pretty much anything that a typical smartphone does but it can also transform itself into a casual work tool when the situation calls for it.

There are so many 3rd-party accessories like keyboard cases, bluetooth mice, stylus pen and as well as storage expansion slots and display ports that will expand the features, usability and comfort in using a tablet. The tablet takes the best of both devices across a wide spectrum of case-uses and delivers just as easy.

The first Android tablet was introduced by Dell in June 2010 though it’s still small at 5 inches while Samsung announced their first Galaxy Tab in September 2010. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was still the proper tablet between the two due to its larger display size.

When the Galaxy Tab arrived in the Philippines, it was very expensive and costs upwards of Php35,000USD 596INR 50,561EUR 568CNY 4,344. That was beyond the reach of many consumers; hence it did not get a lot of traction.

It was only in recent years that prices of tablets have significantly gone done. There are tablets priced at under Php10k although the more capable ones are still in the Php30k range.

Tablets are so affordable that a number schools and universities have already adopted them as learning tools to replace voluminous textbooks.

There are also a lot of features found in tablets that make it better than other device categories. Connectivity options such as NFC and LTE has become common with most tablets, a feature also common with smartphones but rarely found on laptops.

Then, there’s also the dual camera setup – a comparable rear camera and very capable front-facing camera. Their performance is as close to the ones found in smartphones but definitely much better than the ones in laptops, which is why it’s the preferred device for video calls.

And, just like smartphones, tablets can be easily charged using your typical powerbank.

The tablet has its own share of weaknesses. It’s a great content consumption device and it can also do quite well in terms of content creation. It’s good for typical productivity work like Word documents or presentations, great for artists who draw or sketches a lot and versatile for people who makes business presentations all day long. But, for the much heavier and complicated tasks, the laptop is still king.

We don’t think the tablet even wants to go that path. What the tablet offers is portability and flexibility for 90% of the typical work load of a regular user. That’s the sweet spot there.