Tablets vs. Laptops

Laptop shoppers now need to consider if a tablet will suffice—especially if they are looking for a highly portable, secondary machine, wholesale electronics suppliers as I noted in my last guide. The new iPad 2, which still starts at $499, has at least twice the horsepower of the original model, and now boasts 65,000 tablet-optimized apps. It is gradually morphing into a productivity platform—able, for instance, to edit videos. And it has now been joined by similarly powerful competitors running a new tablet version of Google's Android operating system and by the $499 PlayBook, the first tablet from Research in Motion, which boasts speedy hardware and a new operating system. Hewlett-Packard's new tablet, based on Palm technology, is coming soon.wholesale Android Tablets


Tablets tend to beat small, low-cost laptops in weight, start-up speed and battery life. And they are competitive for lots of common tasks, such as Web browsing, email, social networking, and viewing or playing documents, photos, videos and music.

But laptops still win for intensive work like creating long documents, or doing anything that requires precision and benefits from a physical keyboard. They also are more compatible with printers and external disks.

If you can't wait, or don't want a tablet, you'll find relatively little has changed in laptop-land in the past six months or so. Here's a rundown of what you should look for in a laptop.