Tablets to replace computers? Close, but no cigar

When it comes to buying a tablet, many people have trouble justifying their purchase. If you already own a computer and smartphone, do you really need a tablet? A computer arguably performs everyday tasks like web surfing, checking emails, and processing documents much faster than tablets. Smartphones can do most if not all the things a tablet can while being small enough to carry around. Despite all this, there’s still one reason to buy a tablet that may justify its purchase, and that is if you use it to replace your computer. For people who use their computers for things like those listed above, it may be better to use a tablet because it provides greater portability, which comes in handy when you want to compute while laying in bed or sitting on the couch. Things like checking email and surfing the web may even be more intuitive on a tablet than a computer. Productivity tasks like creating office files are conventionally done on a computer because there are things that you can do with a mouse and keyboard that you can’t do as fast using an onscreen keyboard and touch gestures (like edit text). Many argue that tablets will never be able to completely replace computers or laptops because they simply aren’t strong enough. Well, how strong is “strong enough?” because the strongest and most capable candidate for a laptop or computer replacement is about to launch in a few days here in the United States, which leads me to the product of interest, the ASUS Transformer Prime.

The Transformer Prime is the first Android tablet that is expected to have enough power and features to perform a good amount of computing tasks just as fast as a computer. The tablet features Nvidia’s latest mobile processor, a quad-core chipset called Tegra 3. Nvidia claims that this Tegra 3 chip is the first mobile processor to deliver PC level performance. Even with Tegra 3, will the Prime be strong enough to handle all computing tasks? Can you completely stop using your computer and instead, replace it with the tablet? Because for many, only then will its purchase be truly justified…especially if they already own a laptop, MacBook Air, or ultrabook because those products provide nearly the same portability while having a lot more functionality (and a larger price).

Here are some reasons why the Transformer Prime might be a possible computer replacement:

• Tegra 3 allows the tablet to be extremely fast, making everyday tasks like web surfing and email checking as smooth as they are on a computer
• Its large 10.1-inch display is close to the size of many ultrabooks, so there should be enough screen real estate to do work
• 1 GB of RAM alongside the quad-core CPU should also add to the fluidity and multitasking capabilities of the tablet
• Tegra 3′s GPU is capable of very graphic-intensive games and animations, allowing you to make use of various multimedia features
• There’s a laptop dock for the Prime that is very thin and offers increased battery life, USB, and SD card ports, allowing the Prime to transform into an Android ultrabook. With the dock, productivity tasks like creating Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files should be as easy as on a computer
• The thinness and weight of the tablet allows you to easily carry it with you around the house or in a briefcase or backpack

Despite all the reasons listed above, there will always be certain things that you can’t do on an Android tablet as well as on a computer. The biggest limitation is multitasking as Android does not support window or app minimizing, so it’ll be hard to do multiple things simultaneously. The task switcher on Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich is fast and intuitive, but it still requires too many gestures to switch between apps. This will prove to be a big limitation for using a tablet as a computer replacement. Regardless, the future does look bright as new technologies are proving to be quite capable. Time will tell as stronger tablets like the Prime are released and Android evolves.