Laptop vs. iPad, Which One?

I have been in the technology arena now for over 20 years now and inevitably around gift-giving time, friends and family who value my opinion and experience begin to ask me about what to buy this year.  I’ve been using an iPad now for about 4 months and I also use a laptop regularly so here are my thoughts on the two different products.  For the first month or so, I found myself using my iPad exclusively and I was beginning to think my laptop was going to become a doorstop, then the “new” wore off of the iPad.  Make no mistake, the iPad is a great product, but it is more of a media/internet consumption device and not really a production device.  Case in point, I’m writing this on my laptop.  I find typing on the iPad fairly difficult when you have to “go long” on the keystrokes.  It’s fine for the short email, but I find it cumbersome to type anything longer than a URL or a short email response. There is an external keyboard available, but really, who wants to plug and unplug that thing and/or carry that around? The iPad does not replace a laptop and shouldn't, it's a different product.  It is really a giant iPhone.  You wouldn't use your iPhone to write a term paper. There are no real easy ways to print from it, nor are there any easy ways to save and store files on it.  The best explanation about an iPad is like it is a window into the content on the internet.  You do not use it to push content, files, or anything you might produce on a laptop or computer you use it to listen to music, read a book, or look at facebook.  Also, there is no USB port or any easy way to transfer files without going through iTunes which itself is getting long in the tooth and requires you to have a mothership PC to plug into.  Itunes has always been confusing to me anyway.  Now the good news.  Laptop manufacturers are feeling the heat from iPad and other tablet product producers, so there are great deals to be had on them.  I would not recommend a netbook as these products usually are short on interfaces (LAN, USB, Serial ports etc) and are really hard to use for any long period of time because the keyboard and monitor is so small.  I would recommend a full sized notebook computer running Windows 7 (full version, not starter edition) with at least 4 mbytes of ram and a 500 gig hard drive.  You can find one for aroundf $400 bucks if you look hard enough.  I might even go so far as to offer a good full sized notebook to replace old, worn out desktop computers since they prices are so low right now.  So, in summary, if you want something to listen to music, read books, subscribe to electronic magazines, read facebook and tweet – get an iPad.   If you want to produce term papers, presentations or write lots of text, get a notebook (not a netbook) PC.  You might even want to consider a Macbook, even though the prices are typically higher than a comparable Windows PC.  Good luck and happy shopping.







rates iPad and notebook prices for now get a "Well Done"