Around a year ago, I sold my iPad 5th generation in a Cex in my region's high street. It was a tiny experiment for me to see if a tablet is really a necessity in modern days, even for a tech savvy person like me. I think the conclusion cannot be clearer. You should not buy your next tablet. If you have one, ditch(sell) it when you can find a good price.

A little of history of tablet computer

As many of you already knew, tablet did not appear when Apple launched iPad in 2010. Although back in the 90s, the most prominent tablets were called PALM PDA back then.

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Early tablets could even trace back to the 80s. As a concept, you could go back to 1960s which the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey showed you a guy using a fancy tablet to have a video call.

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Before we start...

I personally owned 3 modern tablet in the last 15 years. They are Google Nexus 7, Google Nexus 10 and iPad 5th generation. My conclusion applies to all general purpose tablet including both Android tablets and iPads.

The Promise

When iPad was launched back in 2010, it was an instant success. With many people started buying the product, it was not uncommon to see people taking photos, watching videos on their iPad in apublic. It had a promising form factor that seemed to be able to do any kind of task you could think of. It was much bigger than the phone back in the early 2010s, offering a promising screen space for you to do more other than checking WhatsApp and writing emails. It was much lighter than any laptop in the market. You could actually bring the tablet to a trip or even bring it along with you for leisure. It just seemed that the tablet is going to be a ultimate form factor that could replace everything else. Even Apple was trying to push this narrative as late as in the What's a computer ads in 2018.

On paper, tablet seems like the chosen one in computing.

• You can easily control it with your fingers. No stylus required.
• It is portable. Not as portable as a phone, but much better than laptop. Let alone a desktop.
• It has good battery, you can use your tablet for close to 8 - 10 hours with a heavy usage.
• You can watch videos and streaming.
• You can take photos and record videos.
• You can read your ebook on a tablet since it has enough screen real estate.
• It sits in the middle in the spectrum of portability, processing power and screen real estate.

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The Reality

In reality, tablet computer is like a living embodiment of the phrase Jack of all trades, Master of None. You can do literally everything with a tablet, but it does not do anything better than its alternatives. What ending up is that you are going to watch Youtube and TikTok on it all day.

Why is it so ?

Mobility: Tablet vs Phone

There is really no comparison between these two. You bring your smartphone everywhere with you. Many people even bring it to the toilet to fill up the boredom. With around 0.5kg, A tablet with 10" is not heavy. But the size of it is occupying the precious space in your bag. Unless you are driving a car all the times, bringing your tablet with you seems overwhelming. Even worse, the phones are getting bigger and bigger. The pro of bringing your tablet with you is diminishing-ly small compared to a decade ago. Eventually, people leave their tablet at home. And only use them when they are relaxing at home.

Productivity: Tablet vs Laptop/Desktop

The other selling point of using a tablet is that unlike a phone, you can actually work on it. But there is nothing further away from the truth. Working on a typical tablet like iPad is a painful experience. Mostly it is because the Android/iOS lacks the necessary multitasking capability that every laptop and desktop has by default. Even after years of adding multi-tasking functionalities, there is no developer I know could actually code on a tablet. The only work that you could do on a tablet are really the lightweight tasks that does not really require a lot of window switching. Any task that takes more than an hour to finish is painful to do on a tablet. The other reason is that touch-screen is really not that useful compared to a real keyboard. Every touch typists know that how much faster they can type on a real keyboard compared to a touch screen. That is why the latest models of tablets now include keyboard as well. It in turn hurts its mobility since it is now nearly as heavy as a ultrabook. The remaining question is, why bother working on a tablet then ?

Watching Video: Tablet vs Laptop/Desktop/TV

This point might surprises some of you. After all, I assume most people who own a tablet, use it to watch videos more than 80% of the time. Since it is so convenient to watch with a table when you are lying on the bed. You don't even need to find your remote control to find your favourite show. True, watching videos on a tablet is simple and easy, but it is not good in a social way. Imagine a family of four with four different tablets, each one of them watching their favourite show. How depressing is it? TV may seem obsolete nowadays, with many people considering it a waste of space in their living room. But watching TV together is one of the major thing family did together before the introduction of smart phone and tablet. Does the obsolescence of TV in the living room bringing the family closer together or alienating them even more ? I will leave that to you to decide.

Reading Ebook: Tablet vs Ebook-Reader

This is something that I hear some tablet owners always claim to do. Reading a Ebook on a tablet seems so logical and reasonable. People should probably read more with a tablet, right ? For me, it never happened, the temptation of having the access to the content of the entire internet just a search away is too strong for me to read without distraction. What ended up happening is that I had to put down my tablet and grabbed a real book to start reading. Tablet is essentially too powerful to be a E-Book reader. Yes, you can install Kobo Reader app or Kindle Reader app. But trust me, you won't open it because of the shiny Youtube logo next to it. I only realized that when I got a Kobo E-book Reader several years ago. I can actually read on a E-Book reader, because the E-Book reader simply cannot do anything else. I cannot play game on it nor watch videos on it. Since I have nothing that has a greater stimulus to my brain than reading, I can actually focus to read on a E-book reader.

Time sink: Tablet vs Laptop/Desktop/TV

Tablet also has an interesting "advantage" against other devices. You can use it anywhere in your home. You can use it while sitting, or while lying on your bed, or while having your meal. From a digital well-being point of view, it is one of the worst issue of having a tablet. Since you can use it essentially anywhere in your home, it is super easy to overuse your tablet without noticing it. It could become a dangerous time sink for you because of its convenience.

Drawing: Tablet vs Wacom Drawing Tablet

Some people would claim one can use Tablet to draw pictures. However, in the industry that involves drawing all days, artists actually use the Wacom Drawing tablet. The Wacom Drawing tablet comes with a Stylus and more functionality to work with the software on your laptop and desktop. Yes, I am aware that not every body needs a professional drawing tablet to start drawing. But if you are trying to convince yourself to buy a large tablet like iPad Pro such that you can start drawing. You might want to consider buying a Wacom Drawing tablet. A Wacom One Pen Tablet only costs you £34.88 as of time of writing. Less than 1/20 of the price of a iPad Pro.

User Experience: Tablet vs Phone vs Laptop/Desktop

The last point is that Tablet's user experience is subpar. Overwhelming majority of the apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store are designed for your smartphones. Tablet experience is almost always an afterthought. And as I mentioned above, touch screen is subpar if you need very precise control. Most tablet's application ends up look like a stretched mobile app with much less functionalities compared to their web page counterpart. It makes the tablet a bad device to work on. And people only use it for watching videos as a result.

Ditch your tablet and get a better life!

With a form factor right between laptop and smartphone, tablet seems a great choice of computing when it first appeared. However, times has shown us that tablet only became a time sink that consumed your time on something that you probably shouldn't spend your time in the first place. Therefore, if you are looking to improve your digital life and make a better use of your time. Be it writing, exercising or spending time with your family. Ditch your tablet and get a better life!