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Laptop or a Tablet....Which do I Choose?

by on ‎08-06-2014 04:53 PM

Now that we've entered back to school time, the classic question is popping up again. Should I be getting a tablet or a laptop for someone who will be hitting the books this fall? It’s a great question to ask! Unfortunately it’s not always an easy one to answer. As technology continues to advance at lightning speed, the power of tablets continues to advance while the portability of laptops makes them much more versatile as well.  Let’s break it down.


Advantages of a laptop


For several years, the laptop has been the go-to choice for high school and college students. A 15" or even a 17” size screen can fit in most backpacks. A hard drive of 500GB or even 1TB of storage means you have plenty of room to store all of your work for several years. The laptop is an ideal choice for someone taking courses in graphic design or video editing where storing large files and running complex programs is necessary. It’s also key to note that laptops continue to become lighter and thinner which makes them much easier to take with you. For example, I have an HP 17” laptop from 4 years ago that weighs more than 8 pounds.  A similar sized HP today comes in at under 5 pounds with a processor that blows the older model away.


Here are some great back to school laptop choices:


13" Apple MacBook Pro



17" Dell Laptop with Microsoft Office



15" HP Touch Laptop with Microsoft Office



Advantages of a tablet


The newer and trendier pick for students is the tablet. With a 9” or 7” screen, tablets are the ultimate in portability. With constant advancements in processing power, today’s tablets have the motor inside to keep up with the laptop world. Tablets will lack in hard drive space, but simply taking notes does not require a ton of storage. Plus, you can back up your data with a desktop, laptop or cloud storage to ensure your notes are safe.


 These are some tablets that are ideal for back to school:


 32GB Apple iPad Air



Samsung Galaxy Tab 3



Dell 32GB Android Tablet



Three or four years ago, choosing between a laptop or tablet was easy. The laptop was the choice for work. The tablet was more for play, but that is not the case anymore.  The merger of these two great pieces of technology is moving at lightning speed. My best advice is to take a step back and look at what is being studied. If its mostly a note taking need, the tablet will easily get the job done. For more complex programs, the laptop may be a better choice. Better yet, I recommend that you reach out to the school and more specifically your child’s teachers and see what they recommend. This will guide you towards the best choice for everyone’s  needs.


As always, if you have any questions connect with me on Facebook, Craig Smith for QVC.