April 13, 2012 By

Who needs a laptop?

For a brief moment a couple of weeks ago I considered buying a new laptop so that I could work anywhere. My choices were wither an Ultrabook or a MacBook Air. I weighed up the options and considered the pricing and ended up spending £39.99.

Yes, I did not buy a laptop of course and instead chose a hardware keyboard for my tablet. You see, my needs when mobile are limited to writing, research and more writing. When I have a project to complete, I no longer expect to complete 100% of the task on my tablet. Images can be captured and converted on my desktop and so will the finished project be uploaded, spell checked and analysed for completeness. Some things are best done on a desktop and the majority of the tasks I would have previously used a laptop for can now be undertaken on a laptop.

Those tasks include email, web, writing and a few other things. Tasks that the vast majority of normal people use a laptop for. When I consider what I would use a laptop for and the fact that the desktop would still be used for many tasks even if I owned a laptop, a tablet still does all of that and with the benefit of longer battery life and extra portability. Plus instant-on, cheaper apps and so on and on.

I don’t need a laptop anymore and cannot see a time in the future where one would fit in between my desktop and tablet.

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About Shaun McGill

A freelance writer and mobile technology addict there are not many phones that have not been through Shaun's hands. Honest and straight talking, Shaun provides insightful content and provokes thought and debate and reviews products highlighting their good and bad bits to provided a rounded conclusion, taking in too all the various users.

Comments

  1. Mike Paterson says:
    April 13, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    Wholly agree Shaun…..
    Since purchasing an ASUS Transformer TF101 last year I have found both my 19″ Laptop and TabletPC are little used these days.

    Like you, last year I thought to myself my large Laptop is not ideal for taking around with me and my aging Fujitsu Siemens T4210 TabletPC is starting to feel the strain. As such I took a trip into town one day to check out what was available before later going Online to compare prices…
    It wasn’t until as I started to look at the varying ‘Ultra-Books’ my eyes cast over to an opposite counter which had a ‘Fruit’ and varying amount of Android Tablets.
    I skipped over to said counter, had a play with what was on offer and later that day phoned Clove and spoke with Chris Ward.
    Five minutes later the deal was done and my lovely TF101 arrived the following day.

    Since that day I have grown ever more fond of the little Android. It has replaced all of my mundane daily tasks.
    What’s more, as Android applications proliferate I find the Laptop’s programs and tasks increasingly less important.
    Even the mighty Photoshop CS5 on my Laptop is now gathering digital dust as the Tablets App PS Touch takes care of most of my graphic design work.

    I no longer browse the Laptop sections….. It’s an Android Tablet for me and no going back.

    Mike