Laptop or Tablet

[Bundy Bear]

Some of the new tablets are now working more like a laptop, but if you are using a laptop for travel then would you stick with a laptop or consider a tablet with keyboard attachment.

Anyone using a tablet and not a laptop; or people still using a small laptop; and I am not talking about netbooks.

I have a 5 year old Sony laptop that is starting to show some signs of giving up so thinking of what else is out there.

 

[Tazza_0712]

I love a gadget, and own an iPad, iPhone and MacBook Air. My MacBook Air is what I choose to travel with (iPhone is attached to my person and goes wherever I go anyway).

I find the MacBook Air performs brilliantly, especially for Internet browsing, word/spreadsheet processing, and some graphics work. I use mine extensively for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop as well and it hasn't put a foot wrong. Super quick to boot or wake up and no lag when operating a number of programs at the same time.

It's light, compact, battery lasts and lasts and is much more tactile for me than a tablet ever could be. Especially taking into consideration some of the work I need to be able to do on the run.

My vote is for the MacBook Air.

 

[RooFlyer]

What do you intend to do with the device while away?

If I just wanted to check e-mail and browse the web, a tablet would do me (but in reality these days, my iPhone6 replaces a tablet for these uses). Beyond doing anything more, then a compact laptop - like the Sony I used to have, or the Toshiba Portege Z30 I have now, is the go for me. In fact if you are going to take a tablet device with you, for all the additional stuff a laptop could do with little additional mass, then a laptop would always be the go - Mac or Windows based.

And it is for me.

 

[marki]

I use a MacBook Pro Retina display and find it great and robust and a little heavy but packs punch with power

 

[AnnaB]

I think it also depends on what you are used to and what you intend to do with your device. If you are used to Windows and wants to run windows programs, then a Samsung Tablet wont do you any good as it runs on an Android system.

If you are used to Apple products, then there is not much difference between the laptops and tablets.

Personally I like my laptop with attached keyboard, especially if I have to do lots of typing as there is a difference between the keyboards. A detachable keyboard can be quite tiresome after a while if you type a lot. I think you should evaluate what you want to do with it first, what programs you want or have to use, are some of the locked to a specific operating system, do you do a lot of typing, what type of battery life are you in need of etc. After that it will be easier to narrow it down your choices and alternatives.

 

[serfty]

I travel the world with my 10½" netbook - but since you have discounted them you can ignore the rest of this post.

This month I have watch stored moved on it, checked/sent emails, use in-Flight stream entertainment, Booked/Cancelled hotels and flights. All for a penalty of a little over a kg - which doesn't count as it fits into my 'personal item'.

 

[Barks]

Would you consider an MS Surface? I don't have one myself so I can't recommend it or not but seems like a good device and may be ideal for what you want.

 

[maxwell]

I would recommend a Dell XPS 13. The 13.3" screen size is ideal for me and I wouldn't go lower, the body is quite small (similar size to a laptop with an 11" screen) as it has a very slim screen bezel. Having a physical keyboard is important for me when I travel for work & for Uni, but I'm not sold on tablets such as the Surface Pro with detachable keyboards just yet. Dell are having EOFY sales now and you can earn points through the Velocity eStore as well.

 

[Buzzard]

I have both a MS Surface (2013 model) and a 13 inch laptop.
If all I want to do is check email, browse the web and a few social things like check into AFF then I take the Surface.
If I am going to need to do some serious work then I take the laptop. Sometimes I even take both so we have a his and hers

AFAIK my Surface is the first model and there have been quite a few enhancements since so it might be all you will need.
One thing I did get for the Surface is a genuine keyboard that doubles as a screen protector and I'm glad I did.

 

[Milefest]

I've tried the tablet + bluetooth keyboard combo and I've decided that a tablet is not a replacement for a laptop.

There's a variety of situations where a laptop is better than a tablet + keyboard but it does come down to how much you intend to type. If you don't expect to be typing much, go for a tablet of some sort.

 

[Bundy Bear]

I travel the world with my 10½" netbook - but since you have discounted them you can ignore the rest of this post.

This month I have watch stored moved on it, checked/sent emails, use in-Flight stream entertainment, Booked/Cancelled hotels and flights. All for a penalty of a little over a kg - which doesn't count as it fits into my 'personal item'.

A lot of what you say is useful.

At this time I think I will be replacing my current laptop with another laptop and then replace the Ipad separately when it dies.

A hybrid looks cool but I think there is still some way to go for a tablet to replace a laptop.

I did have a netbook for traveling for a year back in 2010/2011 and it did have the advantage of being able to connect to the company network not so with the tablet.

 

[irv]

I have a surface running Windows 10 with an attachable keyboard. I also have lightroom and photoshop installed so I edit my photos generally daily whilst travelling and store on a portable hard drive
I like the light weight and size of a tablet

 

[medhead]

I travel with both. ipad mainly for streaming IFE, so a bit of a waste. I do have a keyboard for the ipad, but have barely used it. Really can't get into serious word processing, and work files not really in a useful ipad format. I'm on some external committees and use dropbox to load on agendas and such onto iPad to save forests.

The laptop is an ipad air 11". pretty darn good for word processing and interneting for upto a couple of hours in the evening/lounge. Could do IFE streaming, but I prefer to watch movies and on my usual flights even minute of viewing time is valuable including when laptops need to be stowed.

 

[Mattg]

I ditched my laptop a little while ago, and tried travelling with just an iPad. It worked OK, but there are still quite a few things that computers can do that iPads cannot. For that reason, I ended up getting a new laptop and find I now use it much more than my iPad.

Both have their place. If you just want something to watch movies & access the internet on, then an iPad fits the bill.

 

[Mogul]

A lot of what you say is useful.

At this time I think I will be replacing my current laptop with another laptop and then replace the Ipad separately when it dies.

A hybrid looks cool but I think there is still some way to go for a tablet to replace a laptop.

I did have a netbook for traveling for a year back in 2010/2011 and it did have the advantage of being able to connect to the company network not so with the tablet.

There should be no reason why your tablet can't connect to your company network just like your laptop did. For me I only travel with a tablet and just log in remotely to do any work that needs to be done.

 

[Pleb Status]

Since I ditched the iPad Air and bought an Android tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab S), I have been able to travel the world without a laptop.

Android tablets are far more flexible to use as you can download anything you like on to them directly from the internet and you can use USB to go to transfer files without the need for iTunes etc.

I have a couple of 64GB USB/microUSB thumb drives which plug directly into my tablet (and phone) giving instant access to hundreds of GB of files.

 

[Foreigner]

Consider Surface Pro 4. It's a desktop replacement yet light.

Here's one review:

http://www.techradar.com/au/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/microsoft-surface-pro-4-1290285/review