You may not need a tablet if you’re already satisfied with your other mobile gear, but they make great digital media viewers, and you can even game and get some work done if the need arises.
We love our tablets, so we know a thing or two about using them. This guide will help you determine if a tablet is necessary for you using several questions and factors related to your needs, budget, and lifestyle.
What Is a Tablet?
A tablet is a touch screen device like a phone with a much larger screen or a small laptop without the keyboard. Like phones and laptops, you can use tablets for entertainment, work, and other purposes.
They’re better for media consumption than phones since they have bigger screens, and you can pair a tablet with a wireless keyboard to approximate a lot of the functionality of a laptop if you’re trying to get work done on the fly.
Tablets are also less portable than phones but more so than most laptops.
Who Should Get a Tablet?
You might have a good use for a tablet if you:
Who Shouldn't Get a Tablet?
Not everyone needs a tablet. You might not if you:
Why You Should Buy a Tablet
Tablets are flexible devices that can be useful in a variety of situations. You can use a tablet to check and respond to email, participate in video calls, watch movies and TV shows, surf the web, read ebooks, play games, and more. Since there are so many different ways to use a tablet, there are also many reasons you might want to buy one. Below are just a few of the most important reasons.
You’re an Avid Reader
Do you love to read or listen to audiobooks? You might think you need a Kindle to read on the go, but you really don't. Tablets are excellent e-readers because of their large screens, and they’re still light enough to hold comfortably for extended periods.
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You Can’t Get Enough Streaming Content
Whether you’re trying to catch up on your favorite YouTube creators, check out the latest documentary on Netflix, or binge-watch a new K-drama, tablets are more convenient and not as bulky as laptops, and they provide a better viewing experience than phones. Streaming apps don’t take a lot of power to run either, so even older and budget tablets make great media streamers.
You Love Playing Games on the Go
When you have a bit of downtime throughout the day, do you like to fill it with gameplay? Phones are fine as mobile gaming platforms, but tablets provide more screen real estate to display the game, and they’re typically more powerful, which results in better performance. You can also use a tablet to stream games through Xbox Game Pass and Amazon Luna.
You’d Like to Increase Your Productivity
A tablet could be a good fit for you if you're always looking for ways to increase your productivity in the office and elsewhere. Tablets are better than laptops for taking notes during meetings, especially if you get a tablet that supports stylus input. Jotting notes down on a tablet makes it easier to keep everything organized than if you were taking notes on paper. You always have the option to pair a wireless keyboard if you need to get more serious work done either in or out of the office.
You Want to Lighten Your Daily Carry
If you carry around a bulky laptop every day, you might be able to lighten your load by leaving the laptop at home or the office, and packing a tablet instead. It’s more challenging to replace laptops and phones with tablets unless a phablet meets your needs. These hybrid devices provide all the benefits of a tablet, with big screens and long battery life, but can also function as a phone.
When You Shouldn’t Buy a Tablet
Tablets have a lot of uses, but they fit into an in-between space where some people will find them more valuable than others. Some people need a laptop, and a tablet won't do, while others don't need anything but a smartphone. Or, if you're already happy with your phone, laptop, and e-reader, you might struggle to find the need for a tablet. Here are some of the reasons you might not want to get a tablet:
You Barely Use Your Phone and Never Needed a Laptop
If you only use your phone to make and receive calls, and you’ve never felt the need for a laptop, then you’ll probably struggle to find a use for a tablet. Think about what you can do with a tablet, like use it as an e-reader or stream Netflix, and ask yourself if you’d use your phone for such things if the screen were bigger. If the answer isn’t yes, there’s no reason to get a tablet.
Your Phone Works Fine For Media Consumption
If you already use your phone for everything you’d use a tablet for, and you don’t have a problem with the small screen size, a tablet might not be the best purchase. The same is true if you only watch streaming services on your TV and already have a dedicated e-reader or only read physical books. You may still want to consider whether a tablet would be more convenient in some situations but don’t buy one if the answer is no.
You Absolutely Need to Carry Your Laptop Everywhere
Do you have a mission-critical app for work that will only run on your laptop or another reason you can’t ever leave your laptop behind? If that’s the case, there isn’t much point in adding a tablet to your daily carry. You might still want to pick up a tablet to use as an e-reader or watch streaming services in bed, but it’s unlikely to help reduce electronic clutter in your particular case.
Is It Worth Getting a Tablet?
Whether or not it’s worth getting a tablet is a personal question, and the answer depends on your circumstances. For example, if you like watching YouTube or Netflix in bed before you go to sleep, it might be worth getting a tablet just for that. The argument for getting a tablet is stronger if you’re also an avid reader and don’t have a dedicated e-reader.
If you already have devices that can do everything a tablet can, such as a powerful smartphone with a big display, a lightweight laptop, and an e-reader, it may not be worth getting a tablet.
Do You Need a Tablet to Increase Your Productivity?
Tablets are versatile devices that duplicate some of the functionality of phones and laptops while being less portable than one and more portable than the other. Some people's needs are met by a phone and a laptop (or just a phone), while others get a lot of use from a tablet. Tablets are also useful for tasks like acting as a point of sale terminal, gathering signatures, and even augmented reality applications where a phone or laptop wouldn't work.
If your goal is to increase productivity, you may want to think about instances where you felt like you could have gotten something done, but your phone was all you had. Or, when you had to leave your laptop behind because it was too big and bulky, you found yourself scrambling for pen and paper to jot down notes. Carrying a tablet could quickly increase your productivity if you often find yourself in situations like those.
Is It Worth Getting a Tablet if You Have a Phone?
While it’s true that tablets duplicate a lot of the functionality of phones, and modern smartphones are essentially just small tablets that can make phone calls, that doesn’t make them completely interchangeable. Tablet screens are better suited to media consumption. Even if you use your phone to stream video and don’t mind the small screen, you’ll find that the bigger screen on a tablet will provide a superior experience for tasks like writing emails and word processing.
FAQ
What is the difference between an iPad and a tablet?
Apple's iPad is that company's line of tablets, which come in a variety of sizes. The main difference between an iPad and a different kind of tablet is that Apple's devices run on iPadOS, an operating system based on the one that runs iPhones; Apple's closed ecosystem means that an iPad will work seamlessly with your iPhone and Mac. Most other tablets will typically run Android or Windows, depending on the manufacturer.
What is tablet mode?
Tablet mode is a feature of Windows 10 two-in-one PCs that lets you control the device with its touchscreen instead of a mouse and keyboard. Windows 11 basically eliminated tablet mode, but you can still use something similar by disconnecting the computer's keyboard and rotating the screen.
Laptops are compact enough to carry with you, yet powerful enough to run demanding applications. Notebooks are the best tool for doing serious work or play whether you're at home, on the road, or in a college classroom.
Whether you are just browsing the web, need to type a research paper, work on video production, or play some of the best PC games, it's all best done on a laptop. So how do you know what to look for in a laptop? Well, we've put together this laptop buying guide to help answer that question for you.
Laptops come in a wide variety of sizes, features, and prices, which makes choosing the best laptop a challenge. That's why you need to figure out what your needs are.
Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
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Depending on your needs this could be an easy choice, but if you don't have any existing loyalties to a platform or specific software that you need this can be a challenging question to answer. If you are in that latter camp here's a quick overview of each platform’s strengths and weaknesses to help you decide.
Most laptops come with one of three operating systems: Windows, ChromeOS, or macOS (for MacBooks only).
Windows 11 (or Windows 10)
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The most flexible operating system, Windows 11, runs on more laptop models than Chrome OS or macOS. Windows notebooks range in price from under $150 to several thousand dollars and offer a wide array of features from touch screens to fingerprint readers to dual graphics chips. Windows 11, the latest version of Microsoft's flagship operating system, provides a number of improvements over Windows 10, including the revised interface, the new Microsoft Store, handy features like Snap View.
Since its launch in October 2021, Windows 11 has also added a host of improvements, including Focus Sessions and a Do Not Disturb mode. The 22H2 update also came with notable performance and battery optimization enhancements. Windows 11 laptops are great for students, researchers, and business users, and they're still the only gaming laptops anyone should consider.
Apple macOS
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All MacBooks come with Apple's latest desktop operating system, macOS Sonoma. Overall, the operating system offers similar functionality to Windows 11, but with a different take on the interface that substitutes an apps dock at the bottom of the screen for Microsoft's Start menu and taskbar. Instead of the Cortana digital assistant, Mac users get Siri. They can also perform transactions with Apple Pay, take calls or texts from their phones, and unlock their laptops with an Apple Watch.
However, macOS isn't made for touch, because no MacBook comes with a touch screen. While Apple did bring iPad apps to its laptops starting with macOS Big Sur (iPad and iPadOS apps can run natively on M1, M2, and M3 Macs), you have to rely on a touchpad or mouse to navigate them. macOS Ventura brought Apple's Stage Manager for handling multitasking, which is an upgrade, but much more difficult to master than Windows solution.
ChromeOS
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Google's ChromeOS is simple and secure, but more limited than Windows or macOS. The user interface looks a lot like Windows with an application menu, a desktop, and the ability to drag windows around, but the primary focus is still the Chrome browser. All modern Chromebooks, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook can run Android apps, but they aren't always optimized for use in a laptop form factor.
The growing functionality of ChromeOS and improved performance of even relatively cheap recent Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 have expanded the use cases for ChromeOS laptops in recent years. Unless you have specific software only available on Windows or macOS, a Chromebook is a solid choice for most users.
They are also extremely popular with schools, parents, and increasingly businesses because they are hard to infect with malware. For educational use, they offer something closer to a full laptop experience and are more functional than most tablets. If you need a Chromebook, look for one with at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage if this is a secondary laptop, if it's a primary laptop we'd recommend 8GB of RAM and an SSD rather than eMMC flash memory. A screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution is preferred and you can now find 4K and OLED models if you plan to watch a lot of content on the Chromebook.
Many PC laptops fall into the category of 2-in-1 laptops, hybrid devices that can switch between traditional clamshell mode, tablet mode and other positions in between such as tent or stand modes. 2-in-1s generally come in two different styles: detachables with screens that come off the keyboard entirely and convertible laptops with hinges that bend back 360 degrees to change modes.
Most of these touchscreen laptops are much better at serving one purpose than the other, with convertibles being laptops first and detachables offering a superior tablet experience. However, if you don't see the need to use your notebook as a slate, you'll usually get more performance for your money with a traditional clamshell laptop.
Before you look at specs or pricing, you need to figure out just how portable you need your laptop to be. Laptops are usually categorized by their display sizes:
The most impressive specs in the world don't mean diddly if the laptop you're shopping for doesn't have good ergonomics. If you plan to do a lot of work on your computer, make sure the keyboard offers solid tactile feedback, plenty of key travel (the distance the key goes down when pressed, usually 1 to 2mm) and enough space between the keys. If you're buying a Windows laptop, be sure it has Precision touchpad drivers.
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Look for a large and accurate touchpad that doesn't give you a jumpy cursor and responds consistently to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. Lenovo fans still love the pointing stick (aka nub), which looks like an eraser head between the G and H keys so you can navigate around the desktop without lifting your fingers off the keyboard's home row.
Notebook components such as processor, hard drive, RAM, and graphics chip can confuse even notebook aficionados, so don't feel bad if spec sheets look like alphabet soup to you.
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Here are the main components to keep an eye on.
CPU: The "brains" of your computer, the processor has a huge influence on performance, but depending on what you want to do, even the least-expensive model may be good enough. Here's a rundown:
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RAM: Some sub-$250 laptops come with only 4GB of RAM, but ideally you want at least 8GB on even a budget system and 16GB if you can spend just a little more. For 99% of users, 32GB is more than enough, while 64GB and above is reserved for professional power users, high-end gamers, or those who just want too see how much RAM can conceivably fit in a laptop.
Storage (SSD): As important as the speed of your CPU is the performance of your storage drive. Actual hard drives have no place in a laptop in 2023, so stick to a solid state drive (SSD).
Sub-$250 laptops often use eMMC memory, which is technically solid-state but not faster than a mechanical hard drive, so if you have the choice of bumping up to an SSD from eMMC on even a budget laptop it will have a considerable impact.
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Display: The more pixels you have, the more content you can fit on-screen, and the sharper it will look. Sadly, some budget laptops still have 1366 x 768 displays, but if you can afford it, we recommend paying extra for a panel that runs at 1920 x 1080, also known as Full HD or 1080p. Higher-end laptops have screens that are 2560 x 1600, 3200 x 1800, or even 3840 x 2160 (4K), which all look sharp but consume more power, lowering your battery life.
Display quality is about much more than resolution. IPS panels range in color and brightness, so read our reviews to find out if the laptop you're considering has a good display. We typically look for a DCI-P3 color rating of over 85% and brightness great than 300 nits. If you want the very best picture quality consider an OLED display or miniLED, but read reviews of these models carefully as there can be battery trade-offs.
Touch Screen: If you're buying a regular clamshell laptop, rather than a 2-in-1, you won't get much benefit from a touch screen and you will get 1 to 2 hours less battery life. On 2-in-1s, touch screens come standard. If you still want a touch screen, check out our best touch screen laptops page.
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Graphics Chip: If you're not playing PC games, creating 3D objects or doing high-res video editing, an integrated graphics chip (one that shares system memory) will be fine, especially Intel's Iris Xe graphics. If you have any of the above needs, though, a discrete graphics processor from Nvidia or AMD is essential.
As with CPUs, there are both high- and low-end graphics chips. Low-end gaming or workstation systems today usually have Nvidia GTX RTX A1000 or RTX 3050 Ti GPUs while mid-range models have RTX 4050 or RTX 4050 Ti and high-end models have RTX 4070 or above chips. Nvidia maintains a list of its graphics chips from low to high end.
Nvidia's rivals, AMD, launched the Radeon RX 7000 GPUs at CES in January of 2023. AMD also keeps a list of its graphics cards.
Ports: While the absence of ports is usually not a deal-breaker when choosing a laptop, it's helpful to get the connections you need right on the system, rather than having to carry a slew of dongles. However, many mainstream laptops now only offer USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 4, or USB4 ports that are USB Type-C compatible. Having legacy USB 3.0 ports, an audio jack, an SD card reader, and HDMI can be useful, but depending on the type of laptop you are considering these features are growing harder to find.
With that said, USB Type-C is a definite plus because you can use it to connect to USB Type-C hubs or docking stations that can give you any combination of ports you might need.
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Connectivity: If you need to use your laptop on the go, consider buying a 4G LTE laptop or 5G laptop. You'll have to pay for a data subscription plan, but this will allow you to access the internet away from a router. If you want a laptop with the latest and greatest connectivity options, Wi-Fi 7 is it. However, Wi-Fi 6e is still excellent and far more common. Keep in mind that you also need a Wi-Fi 6e or Wi-Fi 7 router in order to actually enjoy the benefits of that performance boost.
We also suggest looking for a laptop with Bluetooth 5.3, the latest standard that offers improved connectivity with Bluetooth-enabled devices, like mice and headphones.
DVD/Blu-ray Drives: If you love physical media times are tough in the laptop world for you. Optical drives are virtually entirely gone, because all software and movies are downloadable, we continue to track down laptops with DVD drives, but it's a challenge these days. If you really need to read/write discs we strongly recommend leaving this off the wish list for your laptop and buying an external DVD drive.
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If you're buying a large, bulky notebook or a gaming rig that you'll use only on a desk near an outlet, you don't have to worry about battery life. However, if you plan to use the laptop on your lap, even if it's at home and or work, you'll want at least 7 hours of endurance, with 9+ hours being ideal. To determine a notebook's expected battery life, don't take the manufacturer's word for it. Instead, read third-party results from objective sources, such as our reviews.
MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life
These days, you can buy a usable laptop for under $200, but if you can budget more, you'll get a system with better build quality, stronger performance and a better display. Here's what you can get for each price range.
MORE: Best Laptops Under $500
Your laptop is only as good as the company that stands behind it. Accurate and timely technical support is paramount, which is why Laptop Mag evaluates every major brand in our annual Tech Support Showdown. This year Apple claimed first place, followed by Razer in second and Lenovo in third.
Support is only part of what makes a notebook brand worth your money. You also have to consider how the manufacturer stacks up to the competition in terms of design, value and selection, review performance, and other criteria.
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