Laptop or tablet? That is the question

It's a very difficult question to answer.

Both have clear advantages over the other, to be honest. One thing is sure though - if you are considering whether to buy a laptop or a tablet you need to think very carefully about what your individual needs are and what you will actually be using it for.

Make the wrong decision and you are bound to be disappointed. However, there is no need to panic. If you were just in the market for just a laptop, say, you would still be met with several dilemmas of choice. For example, Do I sacrifice screen size for a bit less weight? Do I want extra storage or increased portability? Etcetera, etcetera...

It's all about weighing up your needs against the compromises you are prepared to accept with your chosen machine. It's very unlikely you'll ever find any laptop, tablet - or indeed any piece of technology - that is absolutely perfect.

You just need to try and work out what are the most important features for you.

Understanding the differences

Back to the original question: Laptop or tablet? To help you focus on what your individual requirements are, it's best to appreciate the key differences between a laptop and a tablet. In general, there are 3 main areas of difference:

1. Performance
2. Portability
3. Versatility

Let's look at each of these in turn.

Performance

As a general rule of thumb, you can expect laptops to give you better all-round performance. Microsoft market their Surface Pro 4 as 'the tablet that can replace your laptop.' Indeed, it does run desktop software just like a laptop. The lowest priced model in the range comes in at £749. For that you have: 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and it all runs on an Intel Core m3 processor.

Interestingly, the price and specs are almost identical to that of the lowest price Macbook Air laptop (it just has an Intel Core i5 processor).

However, in comparison, for just £50 more at £799, you could pick up a HP Envy laptop which boasts 12GB of RAM, 2TB of storage and an Intel Core i5 processor.

Portability

This, of course, is where the tablet always comes out victorious. The average weight of a laptop is 2.3 kg, whereas the average weight of a tablet is just 0.8kg.

Battery life is also important if you want to work on the go. Again, tablets tend to offer more here too. The Surface Pro 4 claims that battery life will give you over 470 minutes in normal use. The similarly priced, HP Envy laptop will only offer just over 50% of that.

Versatility

Laptops typically used to offer much more versatility. Most can be used with removable media and the inclusion of HDMI input/output and USB ports is a clear advantage over tablets, which rarely have such features.

The pendulum is swinging towards tablets more and more though. There are now a plethora of apps that are available which increase the flexibility of tablets, and in general, Bluetooth connectivity is a feature of tablets, but not laptops.