What Do You Buy Next - Tablet or Smartphone?

Tablets are here, and they are here big time. We might as well call 2011, the year of tablets. With everyone from Apple, to the small time brands, we’ve seen a widening of the price ranges of these products. Tablets start from as low as Rs. 8,000 and they can be as expensive as Rs. 45,000. A big chunk of tablets have prices that clash with those of mobile phones. All of us have phones, but for those using older phones and looking to buy a new product, a questions that’s being asked more often than ever is whether the next purchase should be a large screen mobile phone, or a tablet?

Tablets were never designed to be mobile phones, in fact they were intended to be a replacement for netbooks. There were attempts in the past, but the end result was an underpowered and oversized product that are the tablets we see today. The new generation of tablets that spawned were post Apple’s iPad launch. There are a number of reasons why tablets could be your next big purchase and a number reasons why it could be a bad idea. Obviously, price plays a major factor in the buying decision.

Larger screen and resolution

The biggest differentiating factor is the screen size and the resolutions offered. Mobile phones, even the ones priced at roughly the Rs. 13,000 mark have started offering 480 x 854 resolutions. Most tablets offer similar or slightly higher resolutions. This depends on the price. In terms of workspace they’re both similar, but the size of the display matters.

Dell Streak - both, a phone and tablet

On one hand, watching content is a more immersive experience on a tablet than it is on a mobile phone. On the other hand, a tablet isn’t really portable. Even the most compact of tablets are required to be carried in a pouch or a backpack. Phones with really large 4.1- or 4.3-inch screens are the only pocket-able devices and they aren’t a lot larger than the usual 3.5-inch or 3.7-inch phones that we’ve seen in the last couple of years.

Power-packed

Demand on processing has increased and very few people use their phone only for making calls and sending SMS’. Playing games, browsing the web and watching movies on the phone is a passtime for many. The new generation of phones coming this year are built around dual-core processors. However, prices of these phones are closer to Rs. 27,000.

Dual-core processors are already here, quad-cores will follow soon

The more popular tablets such as the iPad 2 are priced at roughly the same price range and offer this additional performance. As of today, there aren’t too many apps that require this kind of power. Already, quad-core processors are on their way in and developers will have more power at their disposal. Tablets are used more for productivity and media consumption whereas phones are used primarily for instant communication and alerts. Phones in comparison don’t absolutely require to be really powerful in comparison to tablets.