Tablets vs Ultrabooks
As technology is advancing and becoming faster, there is a pressing need of light-weight computing devices that aid mobility, have a solid hardware for some computation, are fast and can be used for all day-to-day computing jobs. This has led to design devices such as smartphones, netbooks, tablets and now ultrabooks. Though there do not exist standard definition for any of the devices and the boundaries between each are somewhat merged they all facilitate portability one or the other way.
Ultrabooks are a newer category of devices, coined by Intel. According to intel, Ultrabook is “It features reduced size and weight while retaining standard performance by using low-power IntelCULV processors with integrated graphics, solid-state drives, and unibody chassis.”
Tech experts say that unlike last year this year shall witness a boom in ultrabooks and ultimately ultrabooks will overwhelm tablets swiping them.
Various posts have already exploded the difference of ultrabooks and tablets in terms of performance, mobility, storage, productivity etc. but this post deals the topic differently. We shave done a situational comparison in day-to-day life. We have enlisted situations where either you will opt for ultrabook or tablet. Also note here, the comparison assumes that you have only 2 devices at hand, your tablet and your ultrabook and no other device. But practically you might have your smartphone too, with which you might prefer.
| Situations | Tablets | Ultabooks | Who wins? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Got up, want to instantly access your emails | Of course your tablet will wake up instantly. And all your unread emails are a single touch away. And most probably your tablet would be lying on your bed side for easy accessing! | Ultrabook might not take as much time as the desktop or your laptop but certainly it won’t wakeup instantly. And yes, you won’t like to sit-up and place that spacious machine on your lap and start all the system and read all the mails. | Your Tablet! |
| 2. You are already late want to get your emails read out to you while shaving in the washroom | Again your tablet is far more portable, and yet again you can place your tablet just about anywhere and listen to your emails. | I can hardly imagine anyone carrying a big device like the ultrabook anywhere s easily | Tablets are far more portable and hence tablets win here too. |
| 3. Got an important mail, have to reply to the email in just about a line or so | Tablet best-suits the task | You wont open your ultrabook to reply an email that is just about 2 lines? | Tablet wins here again. Best suited for trivial tasks. |
| 4. On the breakfast, you want to give a glance to your news feeds | Of course with a tablet in one hand and toast in the other you can read your news feeds. And certainly today the web stores are over whelmed with apps to assist you RSS and news feeds from around the web. | Ultrabooks do not fit perfectly in the scene as they are rather inconvenient as compared to tablets for minor tasks on the go. | Tablet again wins! |
| 5. You are on the go now, you need to read some document | Tablets can be best in this case they are easy to hold and they have a larger screen. As you might not prefer a smaller screen for reading. And yet again, if the journey is short than tablet is your obvious choice. | As you are on the go this might depend on what kind of travelling you are doing. If you are on a train you might want to pull up your ultrabook, as that too is very light and portable. Nevertheless if the journey is short you would not bother to take out an ultrabook and turn it on and find the documents…and read it… and then close it..pack it…etc. you would want to pull your tablet from your coats pocket and simply bring out the document! | This might be situational, but for me tablet does the work. |
| 6. You enter your workplace, college or office and you need to take your notes down, may be in a meeting or in a lecture | Tablets do not have a physical keyboard, usually, and it is very tedious to type on a virtual glass keyboard. Therefore tablets might not be a good choice here. Yes, but if you have a Bluetooth keyboard or a stylus you might want t use the tablet. There is still a “but”! having a bluetooth keyboard might reduce the overall portability of a tablet. also usually the stylus are not very efficient tools for taking notes. | You want it or not, you will have to turn your ultrabook on. And though not instantly, but the ultrabook will just take a few seconds to startup. The ultrabooks have a physical keyboard that can assist you in taking notes at an ease. Having a physical keyboard to type is a blessing! | Ultrabooks, my preference! |
| 7. Back to your desk, time for some serious work | Tablets are not meant for any kind of serious work. As the processing power and resources are much limited. | You can expect a better performance from ultrabooks. They have some rock solid hardware and awe-inspiring internal specs. Consider the Asus Zenbook UX31 sports an Intel Core i7 processor and 4GB of RAM. You can expect it to do any kind of good, computing intensive task for you! | Ultrabooks clearly win! |
| 8. You got to email, and the email is lengthy | Again as tablets don't have a physical keyboard, by definition, it is almost impossible to type a lengthy mail by touching the screen! | Ultrabook, a portable and light solution to your problem! | Ultrabook! |
| 9. On a 5 min tea break, need to update status on facebook or make a tweet! | Tablet is your choice! Small task small device! | May be if your ultrabook is already open in front of you..you would opt for it, but from scratch you wont bother to start your ultrabook, load everything and just then..your break ends! | Tablets for socialnetworking! |
| 10. Break time! Have to show some pictures and videos of Christmas to your friends | Tablets that present you an intuitive way of viewing images. Tablets like iPad have impressive screen and wide angles to view video and pictures collectively. | When showing of pictures and videos, a touch enabled device looks cool! | Tablets win when it comes to collective viewing owing to wide angle and brilliant display. |
| 11. Hey the weather is beautiful and you want to capture the moment, you forgot your digital camera? | Tablet has got a rear camera. Though for a moment you might find yourself in an awkward position but you will get your job done in a snap. And certainly you are more likely to carry your tablet everywhere than your camera! So don’t mind taking a snap anywhere anytime! | Ultrabooks is impossible choice! | Tablet is your handy replacement for amateur photography ! |
| 12. You are back home, you want to lay in the couch and read a ebook | Tablet! by definition you will be able to hold the tablet in one hand and read the ebook while just being comfortable. | You certainly cannot hold the device in one hand no matter how light it is! After all it’s a super duper light weight laptop! | Tablet your companion! |
| 13. Your small brother or your kid comes in and wants to play a game, while you still want to rest | Tablet, yet again! There are many touch-enabled games that are immensely getting popular. Moreover, though tablets do not pack any super specs yet they are optimized for gaming and they are very good at it. Enabled by accelerometer tablet is a perfect choice for some serious gaming as well! | Ultrabooks sound much work-oriented. | Ultrabooks can be used for gaming but tablets are meant for that! |
| 14. Evening tea, mild browsing | Tablets easy access to the web! | Ultrabooks might be a hassle to pull out, turn on and then do the browsing. Yet again they seem to be serious-work-oriented. | Tablets win! |
| 15. Some serious work begins! Download the documents and typing lot of stuff! | Tablets have no proper file system. They usually run on Mobile OS. | Ultrabooks are perfect replacement for a heavy laptop. Its ultra portable laptop packing some powerful features best suited for serious work that you can continue on the go! | Ultrabook a clear winner owing to powerful internals and light-weight, and greater screen size. |
| 16. Movie time! Time to play a movie from the USB 2.0 or HDMI | Tablets have a rather poor selection of ports. At large when you talk about tablets you do not have a USB port. | Ultrabooks have a better port selection. Ultrabook can offer USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and HDMI instead of mini-HDMI. | Ultrabooks has a better port selection. |
| 17. Bedtime just a few videos and video chat with your brother studying abroad. | Tablet would be a better choice if you want to comfort your self while doing these tasks. [exceptions are the tablets that don’t provide the video chat option. | Definitely the job can be done on an ultrabook as well but certainly you won’t be able to enjoy the bed as you will have to sit-straight-up while using the ultrabook!! | Tablet wins! |
| 18. Hell, Charging?! | Tablets have a better battery life as much as 9 to 10 hours. So you can expect it to live longer! | Ultrabooks usually have a battery life of max 5 to 6 hours. So you need to charge it! | Tablets win! |
| 19. Next day, you are assigned a project, a one that will consume quiet a processor, and you don’t want to carry your hefty laptop | Tablets, knock out! | Ultrabooks have a better storage capacity. They have file system, powerful spces to get your work done in the best possible way. Also as the device is portable you are likely to carry it around easily and continue working on the go with either Wi-Fi or 3G. | Ultrabooks can handle all your serious works! |
| 20. Rid of all the work, time for Angry Birds! | Here comes in the tablets! | No please I don’t want to even see my ultra book this time. | Tablets again win! |
| 21. Ah the price? | When it comes to price, tablets are cheaper but not to forget that tablets also lack in features. | Ultrabook are expensive and they pay off in form of extra features. | Tablets are cheaper. |
| 22. Apps, the goodies! | Tablets again win here. Tablet may they be features iOS or Android, are aided with a huge app store and you will almost all the time find a little app, light weight on the tablets resources to do your work! | Ultrabooks are featuring Windows, at large. So you might not be able to have a loght-weight-app experience nevertheless there are millions of software for download over the internet. | Tablets win again! |
As we see that in day to day routine you will most likely prefer your tablet over your ultrabook. But that is not to say that ultrabook do not have potential or they are somehow inferior to tablets. They are not. Nevertheless to say that ultrabooks will overrule the existence of tablets all together is not very precise.
In my opinion they are different niche of devices ant it is not that if you own a tablet you may not need an ultrabook or vise versa. In fact ultrabook might be a replacement for a laptop if you are not do any computing intensive task like solving/developing complex scientific algo with programs like Matlab etc. in the later case you will certainly neither opt for a laptop too. You might prefer your official laboratory’s desktop. While for all the other jobs, editing movie or pictures or manipulating large data a 4GB RAM of ultrabook will be sufficient. On the other hand, your tablet and your smartphones are cheap devices for instant access providing you more portability and mobility!
