A recent comment by a member of the SammyNebook.com forum got me thinking, if I own a netbook – do I need a Tablet?
In this post I discuss some pros and cons of netbooks vs tablets as I see them currently.
Note this is written before purchase of a tablet so there is a possability my opinions will change in time.
Netbook vs Tablet
Here are the pros and cons as I see them:
Netbooks offer greater flexibility
A netbook running Windows can do anything a normal PC can. Well almost anything. But as I’ve said many times on SammyNetbook, these portable PCs aren’t toys. I run Apache, PHP and MySQL on mine and regularly work on WordPress plugin development on my daily commute. I can’t do that on a tablet?
Tablets are more Portable
A tablet is smaller and lighter. Netbooks are light and portable, but there are times when it would be nicer to have something a little easier to carry around. The 7″ Samsung tablet might still be to big to be pocketable, but it won’t be a drag to carry round.
Actually I wonder if this is true of 10″ tablets. Two guys were showing off their 10″ iPads to a third friend on my train journey home last week. I was sitting there with my NC10 and I was thinking that actually their iPads seemed quite bulky and cumbersome. They were hard to hold in one hand yet couldn’t sit on your lap like a Netbook. I hope that the smaller 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab will get round this.
Tablets are more Accessible
One of my hopes for the new Galaxy Tablet is that it will be quick to start and easy to use. I want to have it on the coffee table in my living room ready to show the TV schedule or plug into the HiFi without having to wait for Windows to boot.
I spend a fair amount of time installing the right software onto my netbook and keeping it tuned and running smoothly, I’d like my tablet to “just work”. I’d want my kids to be able to use it intuitively, and without me worrying about it getting messed up.
Which is better: netbook or tablet?
This is always going to be a tough question to answer, and one of the things I hope this site will do is steer people towards buying the right type of device for them.
Are you a netbook owner? Would you buy a tablet? Let us know what you think in our forum.
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