Chromebooks or tablets?
You’re in the perfect place if you’re deciding between a tablet and a Chromebook for home or school. Our guide will help you choose the right equipment.
Chromebooks and iPads are amazing productivity and entertainment tools. Which is preferable if you want something bigger than a smartphone but simpler than a PC? Read below for a brief explanation.
Chromebooks and tablets pros/cons
Here’s a quick rundown of each device’s pros and cons.
Pros
- Laptop-style design
- Full keyboards and trackpads
- Easy to use
- Great for productivity and kids’ homework
- Various ports for peripherals
- Most are affordable
Cons
- Limited app selection (runs web-based apps)
- Not compatible with all PC peripherals
- Works best with a constant internet connection
- Generally poor webcams
- Can be underpowered
- Google-centric
Chromebooks are simple laptops for working on papers, the web, and other tasks. They’re easy to use, don’t contain viruses or malware, and come with Google office software, making them useful for productivity activities.
If you don’t care about gaming or Microsoft Office, Photoshop, or Final Cut Pro, a Chromebook could replace your old laptop.
Tablets
Pros
- Great displays
- Easy to use
- Good cameras (at least on non-budget models)
- Wide selection of apps
- Support Bluetooth accessories
Cons
- No keyboard or trackpad Few ports
- File systems can be hard to use
- Smaller displays
- Android apps may not be optimized for a tablet
Tablets have improved recently. Most are powerful, multipurpose devices. Budget tablets are excellent for Netflix and simple games, while a mid-range tablet can replace a laptop. Serious work requires a Bluetooth keyboard (or the approved optional one).
If you keep things simple, a good tablet will help you edit documents, prepare presentations, play games on the way home, and watch a Disney+ movie.
Display
In terms of screen size (and overall dimensions) there is a wide range of choice available on the Chromebook side of things, from the 10.1-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (which bucks the trend as it has a detachable keyboard and doubles up as an Android tablet) to the 15.6-inch Acer Chromebook 515 and many points in between.
Many recent Chromebooks include touchscreens, although cheaper models often have terrible screens you can’t touch. If you wish to watch Netflix, the low colours and off-center viewing angles may disappoint you.
Mid-range and premium Chromebooks have better screens than similar-priced Windows laptops.
Tablets have fine clarity, brilliant colours, and touchscreens (with few inexpensive exceptions). The regular iPad’s display is 10.2 inches.
If you work with spreadsheets or text-heavy documents, this could be a problem. But they’re great for gaming and media.
Processor
Chromebooks come with a broad variety of processors. Budget devices frequently have low-power, unreliable ARM chips. This is fine because Chromebooks mostly rely on websites. HP Chromebook x360 14C and Acer Chromebook Spin 713 sport new Intel Core CPUs for improved performance and make Linux desktop software more enticing.
Tablets are similar. MediaTek chips are fine for media viewing and a few apps on the Amazon Fire HD 8. Apple’s A-series chips power most iPads and keep them running smoothly. The iPad Pros’ M1 CPU is a desktop-class microprocessor found in MacBooks and iMacs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 8 Ultra has one of the most powerful mobile processors, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Camera
This is tablet-friendly. Chromebooks have one poor webcam. They’re fine for Zoom calls, but they don’t take good photos. The same is true for inexpensive tablets, but the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab S offer better optics for photos and video calls.
Storage
Chromebooks lack onboard storage because they’re web-centric. Budget and mid-range versions often have 64GB or 32GB. Google offers 100GB of free Cloud storage for the first year.
Some Android tablets can be expanded with microSD cards. While this is a wonderful alternative, especially for lower-end devices like the Amazon Fire 7, whose base model only has 16GB, we advocate merely saving files on the storage rather than installing programmes.
iPads can’t be expanded, however Apple offers 64GB and 256GB models of the 10.2-inch model.
The more capacity you have on a tablet, including music files, games, and apps, the better.
Battery
Chromebooks have greater battery life than conventional computers because ChromeOS is lightweight and you won’t be running graphically demanding games or apps. Chromebooks last all day.
Average iPad battery life is 10 hours.
Prices
As shown above, there are several Chromebook and tablet possibilities. Some Amazon Fire tablets start below $100/£100, while Chromebooks cost $250/£250.
Amazon Fire tablets range from $80/£80 to $150/£150; the Samsung A-series goes from $180/£180 to $229/£259.
The iPad and Samsung Galaxy S-series take over, ranging from $300/£300 to over $1,000.