OT - I believe we are getting way off topic, but I'll answer this until moderator is fine with it.
My answers below are not absolute. A number of issues I discuss have been overcome in research labs or by dedicated enthusiasts. What I try to present is more of a general public availability view.
would you buy a tablet if it can be docked just as a laptop, and with real key board and all necessarily software for "real productive" work? Actually, this has been proposed by a number of companies even before iPhone came out. Intel (among others) tried to create personal server device around 2005 or so. So far such devices have not caught on.
To answer your question, I agree with Chris - if you have to carry the keyboard, then it's already a laptop (or ultrabook depending on size). If you don't carry the keyboard, you can only do the productive work at the places where you can dock the device. Also in most cases, I'd need a bigger screen, so the docking place would have to have a monitor too. This becomes limiting and laptop seems a better alternative. There is also an issue of software being available for both tablet input-output mode (touch input, small screen) and for regular PC-like input-output mode (keyboard/mouse/large display). I.e. the tablet would have to have to have software for both worlds. Right now this is not really available.
Tabs are also far from laptops on 3D graphics capabilities. You can't run any new decent PC game on a tab (although you can run a bunch of good - and bad - nostalgia games from 5-10 years ago).
In ideal world, yes, I could see such device being great single processing unit for everything. In real world, we are quite far from it.
Couple more somewhat (un)related observations.
In ideal world, one could store their whole digital media collection on a tab and connect it wirelessly to TV to consume. In real world, if your TV connects wirelessly, why do you need a tab? You might as well stream content from the cloud or your home server.
Phones/tablets are good for media consumption on the go. This works well for people who like to use computer on the go like public transportation. I don't.
Clownbuck is right that one of the main attractive points of the tab is instant-on. That's the use of my friend's wife checking the bus in real time. I also use my tab for checking the weather. But then I paid $149 for it and I think that's already too much for a weather device. :)
For my price points: OKish basic laptop (15", 4Gb ram, for non gamers) costs $299. Gaming/power laptop (15-17", 4-6Gb RAM, good graphics chip) costs $599. These are sale, new (non-refurb) but close to rock-bottom prices. If you'd had to buy a laptop immediately without waiting for a deal, the price would be higher. |
