Cleanse, Tone, Defrag: iPad vs. Laptop
This is an argument that many have been debating since the iPad’s release, and a question that I – and it would seem many other early adopters of Apple’s tablet — have been asked countless times – none more so than only recently with our most humble of editors, Tiarra, having been on the receiving end of; thus the inspiration of this weeks’ installment of CTD.
So what makes an iPad better than a laptop, or vice-a-versa? Honestly, it’s not so much a question of that as both have clear advantages and disadvantages over the other; but it’s more a question of what you do. What you’d get out of owning either one.
It goes without saying that with a laptop, you have all the intermediate functionality of what you’d expect out of a desktop, with the mobility to work away from a desk; but often with reduced specs such as limited graphics and video cards, lower processor and RAM due to ventilation. Again, this isn’t so much a problem depending on what you intend to do. High-end gaming and photo-editing can still be achieved with a laptop, but normally they’re only reserved for the more expensive, specialist models.
This isn’t going to be a priority for a fair few people, so if you’re a user that is mainly going to surf the Internet, listen to music, do some word processing, then this is where considering an iPad comes into play.
Some see the iPad as a luxury item, but if anything else, the iPad is Apple’s Nintendo DS. It’s so accessible – more so than an iPhone because of it’s size – and appeals to everyone, but thankfully without those god awful Brain Training games. Though, I’m sure if you look on the App Store, there’s some in similar vain.
This level of accessibility is perhaps the iPad’s greatest asset. Here you have, more or less, a laptop but without an OS environment that requires some prior knowledge and or training, set-up, maintenance and without security fears in terms of malware. For some, those are all valid factors that can be terribly daunting, and none more so to silver surfers — who I’m surprised haven’t been more heavily targeted as an audience for the iPad.
Those who don’t really need the full experience of a laptop or PC for anything other than using the Internet, can turn to the iPad and have a much cleaner, easier experience by touching what they want, rather than fighting with a mouse and keyboard.
That reason alone just has to be the iPad’s USP, right there.
If value for money is a concern, the tiered pricing of the iPad is relatively competitive with those of laptops. Spec wise, you are loosing out when comparing Apples’ tablet with a laptop, but again, it comes down to how you’d benefit over the other.
It’s no secret that the iPad is a very locked down system. It lacks extendible media, such as USB slots, fireware ports and disc-drives, but there are ways around that such as importing your content into iTunes and putting it on your iPad; or even saving documents and photos as a draft on your e-mail client of choice and then downloading them onto your iPad via the Mail app. Conversely, the iPad’s closed system has its benefits, such as mentioned above the elimination of the worry of viruses and the like. This is also thanks part in parcel to Apple’s operating system. The majority of malware is wrote for Windows as it’s the dominate OS, but like on a Mac, if a virus is downloaded, it won’t be able to run and execute its trollish commands as its file format simply isn’t compatible.
There’s also the inherent greater portability and lightweight-ness of the iPad; which becomes a positive to the negative of what it lacks. The 3G enabled models do offer an even greater sense of mobility, but at an added initial cost and a subscription too. My personal advice, stick to the standard Wi-Fi only model. Sure, not having the ability to go 3G when out in the wild does reduce some of its unique usefulness and intended function, the iPad isn’t something that you are going to whip out in the street and use; or at least search the Internet on. That’s why we have, for the most part, Internet capable phones where data costs come as standard with out plans. If you do take the iPad out, chances are you’ll be taking it to Starbucks or to a friend’s house where, inevitably, there’s going to be Wi-Fi, so you should be sorted in that respect.
Ultimately, it comes down to the user experience, and this is where the iPad flourishes, and I can honestly say that without bias. It’s simple, it’s clean, it’s easy and it’s incredibly user-friendly. Their slogan of “you already know how to use it” is completely true. Thanks to the App Store, there are thousands of apps at normally low prices, ready to download and enhance the use of the tablet whenever you want. When you factor the additional costs of a laptop in terms of software, it can sometimes be a deal-breaker. For example, if you had a laptop and wanted to go down the official Microsoft Office route rather than freeware options; you can expect to pay upwards of well over a £100. Whereas with the iPad, you can get the iWork apps – word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software – all three for under £15, and they’re compatible with a range of files types.
The iPad also has incredible potential to become more than it already is. Already it doubles as an e-reader, and as studies have shown that reading from an e-reader over a laptop is a much more pleasurable experience. Like the iPhone before it, it can adapt and offer unique features with creativity from the app developers’ part, such as making it into a musical instrument for teaching.
One such area is that the iPad has the makings of a great graphics tablet but has failed to see that properly realised. At the moment, if you want to sketch out an idea, you can via the fantastic Adobe Ideas app where it gives you a basic but powerful illustrator tool. The connectivity and technology is there thanks to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and perhaps Adobe would be best to look into syncing the desktop Photoshop/Illustrator clients so you can sketch away and create vector images from the iPad, eliminating the use of a further third-party graphics tablet.
At present, the iPad is not multi-task enabled, but it is a soon to be implemented feature with a new iPad iOS 4 firmware update later in the year; and that’s the beauty of the iPad – it is constantly changing. It’s a fluid platform and offers a whole host of opportunities.
For everything else, there’s a laptop.
“Cleanse, Tone, Defrag” is a weekly column dedicated to bringing you the best advice in staying ahead in the world of tech.
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