Ditch The Laptop!

Tablets have been aiming to replace laptops for some time now. With the latest batch of pro slates, we might finally be there.

- Carrie Marshall

The days of scoffing at the iPad as a tool for real work have long passed – tablets are used in everything from design studios to hospitals. In most cases, anything you do on a PC you can do on a tablet… but not necessarily everything. While tablets are perfectly suited for many applications when given a touch-friendly interface, they’re not always perfect – and there are significant differences between the operating systems they run and the apps you can get. If you’re looking at buying a new mobile computer, the speed and portability of a tablet may be tempting, but is it best for you? We’ll take you through the options, so you can work out which (if any) will be your new travel buddy instead of a classic clamshell.

iPad Pro

Apple’s flagship is pricey, but oh so powerful

The new iPad Pro is the world’s best tablet, and it presents power users with an interesting dilemma: not only does it outscore all but the most powerful MacBook Pros in benchmarks, but it’s very similarly priced to them. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is currently £1,249 for the 128GB model; the 12.7-inch iPad Pro with 256GB – there’s no 128GB model – is £1,119 (an 11-inch version is available for £919 with 256GB). The redesigned and improved Apple Pencil adds a further £119 to the bill.

The fact that a tablet has that kind of processor power and still manages all-day battery life is impressive, but the difference from laptop to slate is in how it does things, both in terms of its shape and its operating system. An iPad Pro can be used pretty much everywhere, and the Apple Pencil makes it practical in environments where you can’t type. But its operating system is a mobile operating system, not a desktop one, and that means it’s limited in several key areas.