Tablets... want one?

[0iD]

Now personally, the new era & dare I say 'fad' for the new Tablet form factor will never take pesidence over a good Ultra Portable or Laptop. Mainly for me, it's purpose, usability & practicability & the keyboard will always be king (for me). I think it's a bit too bulky for what it is, it's going to be prone to damage (in it's current incarnations) and I can't work on it. Plus, for the price I can get a more functional netbook.

I even polled my children, always a good gauge of what teens want prefer to surf on netbooks or smartphones. They even prefer an e-reader like the Kindle for book replacement duties.

So, once we get past the media hype & "ooh, that's neat" factor, is there a future for the tablet in it's current form as a simple surfer?

[pollaxe]

Mainly for me, it's purpose, usability & practicability & the keyboard will always be king (for me). I think it's a bit too bulky for what it is, it's going to be prone to damage (in it's current incarnations) and I can't work on it. Plus, for the price I can get a more functional netbook.

^Pretty much my take on this too.

[jim]

My experience with a touchscreen phone hasn't been great. Yeah, it's okay, but it's horribly inconvenient. Touchscreen is fine, but it needs to be big for proper fingertip navigation.

I can't honestly think of any way in which a tablet would, or could, improve my life.

[TheAnimus]

Where is the already had 3 in the last 3 months option?

(Archos5, Q1 Ultra, Tecra M4).

[wombar]

For me, tablets just don't offer anything that I need/want. I can't see the point of tablets as ereaders, because the dedicated Kindle/Sony readers have terrific screens which let you read for hours. I own a Sony and it's one of the best gadgets I own, purely because the screen is so easy on the eyes.

In terms of browsing, well I'd rather have a mouse than have to touch the screen with a stylus/your hands. If I'm sitting on the sofa surfing the web, I tend to just have a mouse and it needs little movement to zip around a web page. I can see having to touch links getting old pretty quickly.

With the size of netbooks these days, I'm at a loss to see a situation where a tablet really shines, other than the "Look at me, I've got a tablet. Aren't I cool?!!" factor.

Saying that, everyone has different requirements. I'd love to hear from people who own tablets and why they rate them

[Tomahawk]

Really just reiterating what the majority have said but for me tablets don't fulfill any particular technological gap. Yes they are impressive; practical though? I'm not convinced. As a portable media/surfing device they seem to have a place, but I'd then view them as highly overpriced.

If I wanted an e-reader I'd go for something like the kindle as a physical book replacement; but apart from that a netbook/portable laptop wins everytime. I can't think of a situation where I'd be thinking 'I wish I had a tablet!'...

[scaryjim]

I've voted yes, because I want one, but whether I'll get a first generation one really depends on whether anyone implements it right

so, if any tablet makers are listening, here's what you need to include to get me to buy it:

1) a pen / stylus. If I'm getting a tablet I want to be able to write on it. That's one of the big draws for me: to replace paper & pen note taking. I hate typing in meetings, and I hate it when other people type during meetings I'm in. It's incredibly distracting. I've tried note taking on my smartphone, but it's just too small. A tablet would be a really good, practical solution to that.

2) a decent on-screen qwerty keyboard. I'm missing handwriting recognition on my HTC Magic because the screen is just too small for a qwerty keyboard and my fat fingers! A tablet would have a larger screen so should be better in that respect.

3) a maximum 9" screen, with slim bezels. 16:[9|10] ratio, ideally WXGA (although I'd consider WVGA). That'd make it about the same size as my existing paper notepad, which I can just about fit in my pockets, and comfortably stuff into whatever bag I happen to be carrying. If they can make a WXGA one @ 7" or smaller, even better.

4) weight of < 1Kg. I want to carry my tablet around all day.

5) Good connectivity. I'd want wifi, integrated mobile data, USB host ports, possibly bluetooth. It'd be quite nice to have one USB client port so I could also use it as generic portable storage.

6) at least 8hrs battery life in actual usage. I'd see this as a business tool and entertainment device for while I'm travelling. I don't need it to last for days - that's what I want from my phone - but it needs to last me from leaving the house in the morning to getting home at night.

7) "Full web experience" (I believe that's the current marketing jaron?), media player, MS compatible office tools, lots of applications, some decent (casual) games. I'm not that fussed about what OS it runs, but it needs to at least approximate a desktop OS, and it needs to have really good application support.

See, I don't want much, do I! Those are all things that tablets should be able to do based on existing technology, so now I'll just sit back and see who does it

[mikemikemi]

For me I think it's more a solution looking for a problem; I currently can't think of any possible use I could have for one. Although this might change in the future, but until then it's a "No".

[Whalefish]

There's nothing I like more than looking at a screen someone has smeared their greasy paws across.

[Zak33]

I think that, if it's as good as an iPod touch... then yes.

I'd like one please... where do I sign up for the free one then ?

[oolon]

Personally I can't see why I would want them, however I didn't think the iPod was better than any other mp3 player so what do i know! Tablette PCs have been done before, as have e-book readers, e-book readers were not popular while they had computer like displays. So people have been reading on PDAs for years just not many. Perhaps the App store will make it a must have. personally surfing without a keyboard seems pointless, as onscreen keyboards are so much hard work. To type on it you need the device at an angle that you have to hunch over as you need to put it on a table to type on it, or you need to type one handed. They make a stand with a keyboard for it but that kind of defeats the point and your hardly going to take that out and about with you. If you had dictation or neural input to it... how it might be a game changer.

[Lucio]

I'm all for the idea of a tablet style layout, with the aim in mind of being able to easily read information on the move. I can also forsee a big niche use in business, particularly warehousing and logistics work, especially if they can be combined with an RFID reader/barcode scanner. This of course depends on whether cost savings can be delivered by using the technology properly (for example replace printed picking lists)

[oolon]

This of course depends on whether cost savings can be delivered by using the technology properly (for example replace printed picking lists)

Glove PDAs are already available to do this, you don't need a big screen for picking as it only has to tell the worker the next item they have to get not the whole order the computer can work out the route for the worker so they take the shortest path.

[scaryjim]

There's nothing I like more than looking at a screen someone has smeared their greasy paws across.

That's what sleeves are for

... To type on it you need the device at an angle ...

When I type on my Magic (holding it landscape) I cradle it and type with my thumbs. I can get pretty close to my normal typing speed that way, and certainly fast enough to make it viable for posting in a forum, sending an email etc. I imagine that you could use a similar method to type on a tablet. But how much do you actually *need* to type when you're on the move? I wouldn't buy one intending to write my dissertation on it...!

[dave87]

Have used in the past (for work) tablet PCs with the swivel type screens. Apart from being relatively low powered, having the keyboard for ocasional typing was very, very handy, and potentially something I couldn't do without. They worked well for the purposes I used them for at the time, but now I don't think either the traditional conception or the new iPad-esque designs are that helpful for me.

That said, if they were cheap enough, I'm sure I'd be more than tempted to have a play...

[finlay666]

I'll have 2 paracetamol and 2 ibruprofen

oh, wait...