Since the introduction of the iPad in 2010, the tablet market has been revived from obscurity, with 65 per cent of all devices sold in this category coming from the Apple range in Q1, 2012.

Many people are choosing to purchase a tablet as a replacement for a more traditional laptop computer, but should you ditch your portable PC in favour of a slender, keyboardless alternative?

Travel Benefits

Modern tablets now tend to weigh under 700 grams and are typically less than one centimetre thick, which makes them innately portable and easier to slip into a bag or lug over long distances than a full laptop. In addition, you can choose tablets with screens as small as seven inches, which means that those who need to travel regularly will find a tablet a more convenient companion than a laptop.

Enterprise Functionality

Business users will be able to take advantage of tablets for work-related tasks, with high resolution touchscreen displays and diverse compatibility with different document formats allowing you to conduct presentations and share content during meetings. It is far easier to pass around a tablet containing pertinent information or brochures to clients than to get everyone to crowd around a laptop, so for those who operate in the field, it will be a practical boon.

Entertainment

Tablets are generally geared around the consumption of media files, so while you can enjoy video and audio playback with the option to stream content from the internet, there are also purposes which lend themselves more specifically to this form factor. For example, reading eBook publications on a tablet will feel natural, since you can hold it like you would a hardback book. The same cannot be said for laptops, which offer a less convenient setup that will require you to rest the whole thing on your lap or lean over a tabletop surface to read or consume media for extended periods.

Battery Longevity

The hardware which powers tablets is typically more efficient than that of a laptop, since portability is of the essence in this type of device. This results in improved battery life on tablets when compared to laptops, with some giving you ten hours or more of usage from a single charge.

Additional Features

Tablets can do much more than browse the internet and play media files; they now have integrated cameras for video chats, still photography and high definition clip capturing. In addition, the application ecosystems which support tablets like the iPad mean that there will always be a new and inventive program to download, further expanding the potential of your device.

Laptop Benefits

Of course it is worth pointing out that while tablets do take the lead in certain areas, your decision to pick one over a laptop will largely come down to your precise requirements. When it comes to typing for extended periods at speed, a laptop can still outclass a tablet. In addition, a tablet will usually have between 16Gb and 64GB of integrated storage space, while a laptop’s hard drive can possess over 500GB without much trouble, so for heavy data users, a laptop will still be the device of choice.

This guest article was contributed on behalf of www.evoke-kiosks.co.uk by writer Francesca, a British techie fan who’s saving up for her own tablet… You can tweet her your thoughts on this article @franki_blogs