Laptop, tablet PC or iPad??

[Rookie1986]

Hey Guys,

I'm in the market for either a laptop, tablet PC or iPad, I'm looking for something small that I can use at work for email, document reading, PDFs, internet browsing, document creating, calendar, calculator you know the basic stuff that I could need for day-to-day work tasks. Also I would like some functionality that I can use when I travel for work in the form of movies, tv shows and music perhaps. Battery life is important because I will need it to be able to last around the 6 hour mark in most cases.

So, what do you guys think I should be looking at?

[scaryjim]

Honest opinion? I think you've got two options:

Get a netbook /notebook for the work stuff, and a cheapish Android tablet for media use on the move. Tablets aren't (in my opinion, anyway) up to the job of content creation yet, and laptops aren't the best fit for media consumption. So get the right tool for each task. You'll want an 11" - 12" netbook or a 13" ULV laptop, plus a lower end 7" tablet. This will be the more expensive option but you should be happy with both devices.

OR

Get a refurb Dell Inspiron Duo from Dell Outlet. Atom netbook which transforms into a tablet. Refurbs are < £300 which is a great price, and with a dual core Atom it's should handle pretty much any day-to-day office tasks. Not sure how it will run as a tablet mind, given that Windows isn't meant to be *very* touch friendly, but I get the feeling that you're quite keen to have a cool toy as well as a good work tool and this would definitely provide that

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What sort of budget are you looking at??

I would look at the Lenovo X121e which has a six cell battery and costs £337:

http://www.ebuyer.com/275877-lenovo-...laptop-nws5ruk

It uses an AMD Zacate CPU. Here is a review of the X120e,which AFAIK is the same laptop but for the US market:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-...w.56445.0.html

[tfboy]

I don't know if Acer still do something (and at a lower spec / cheaper price point), but last year I got a laptop for a friend that was touchscreen. You could open the lid, rotate 180 degrees and fold back making it a touchscreen tablet PC. It was an Asus Aspire 1825PTZ-413G25N. Just found a review here

He loves it and says he gets over 8 hours battery out of it surfing. It's heavier than an ipad and probably most netbooks but did have a more powerful CPU. But a nice machine nonetheless.

Of course, you're still bound to the touchscreen limitations of the PC OS of choice you put on it (his came with W7)