Every device has its niche. I have sets of screwdrivers, I have an array of smartphones, tablets and computers. And accessories. Because I have spent the money to buy them, I can pick the device that is most likely to suit my needs. My needs at a given time, not anyone's needs always.
At home, I can often stay on the couch, and do most tasks on a 10.5" iPad Pro with a Smart Keyboard. I haven't touched most of my computers for two years now, merely the notebook with the two obsolete Windows apps that I use.
On the road, I carry an iPad if I think I'll need one. I default to an iPad Air 2, but this summer I tried my 12.9" iPad Pro. It had to do with boating: better viewing navigation charts against battery life under heavy GPS use and screen on.
So yes, now I know that for my uses (and my roles on the ships involved) the 12.9" is not an optimum - but it might well be in other circumstances.
If I do carry a tablet, I tend to use a smaller smartphone. If I don't carry a tablet, I tend to use a larger smartphone. I can choose a bigger or smaller iPhone on my primary number, I can choose Android phones on my secondary number (to which calls are forwarded if not answered on the primary number). I carry my smartphones in belt pouches (Hector sizes 4XL and 5XL, by Krusell), so occasionally bodily factors may decide.
In my opinion, a tablet has two characteristics that may make it preferable to a notebook:
1) the ease of switching orientations (try holding a notebook in portrait mode...),
2) the presence of the very input device that you need (typewriter keyboard, piano keyboard, pinball flippers), but only when you need it. With compromises (like no toch sensitivity), yes.
I don't mention computing power (I do have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet), I don't mention hardware connectivity. There are solutions, should you need them. (Doing presentations could well involve carrying a notebook. But I invested in a wifi module for my projector.)
I may be weird to start giving "my two cents" and then unfold a list of purchases (and hinting at not using them). Well, it's my tuition fee for feeling entitled to say that every device has its niche. :-)
--
Chris
reacting to:
> On Oct 19, 2018, at 11:38 AM, Jim Saklad jimdoc@icloud.com [iPad] <iPad@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm waiting for an upgrade on the iPad mini 4. I don't think it'll happen.
>
> I'm doubtful, also, considering the size of the largest iPhones.
>
> > Why people want to carry around big tablets I'll never know.
>
> Because it's a lot easier than carrying around a 3-to-6-pound laptop?
>
> > Alice
Yes, a big tablet is, for me, much handier than a smallish laptop. It's a media-presentation device, a screen without a keyboard, which I seldom if ever need. Tablets can be moved into many different positions, even suspended over a bed for nighttime reading. Try that with a laptop. What I want is the image, not the tools to produce the image. For that, a desktop machine is indispensable. A desktop is a workhorse. And in the rare cases in which a keyboard is necessary on the tablet - say, for doing serious writing - it can be tacked on and quickly removed.
The tablet lives in my house, on a table. If I needed to take a computer to class, I might want a laptop, but maybe not. Laptops are funny hybrids. I've never taken to them.
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Posted by: chrislaarman@yahoo.com
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