iPad or small laptop
 

The young one aged 17 wants to follow the trend and buy an iPad.

My question is that concerning the limitations of the iPad wouldn't it be better to buy a Mac Book Air for not much more money and be a lot more useful especially with regards to being able to upgrade the lap top?

Any thoughts?

Horses for courses, really. If it's really just following fashion then you're lost! But if a significant amount of keyboard stuff is anticipated, then any sort of 'pad is irritating to use. I love my Samsung tab, but I don't have the patience to use it for 'serious' computer work. Great for music, movies and ebooks; ok for gps-stuff; acceptable for emailing & stuff, but if there are letters, lecture notes, essays to be written (young one a student, yes?) then a waste of money.

In my opnion, tablets such as the iPad are for consumers of information. People who wish to create info, write a fair bit or do programming away from home, need a small, light real computer.

This is written on an MSI Netbook. An iPad would be useless for my purposes since I have brought full computer application software installed on the tiny PC, I couldn't do that on an iPad or other tablet.

The screen on Netbooks doesn't have enough pixels vertically to display a full Web page. For that reason, I suggest what is now called an Ultrabook. They are small, light laptops without a CD/DVD drive. A colleague has had a Sony PC of this type for a number of years and he uses it both at work and at home. This genre of machine has just now been discovered by the marketeers and dubbed the Ultrabook. The MacBook would probably be classified as an Ultrabook.

Don't be trapped into an iFAD, when a real computer would have the growth ability to perform real computing tasks, not mainly just display info.

seacue

AROVET LI,

I would go MacBook Air. At the tender age of 17, your offspring will rapidly outgrow the iPad. A MacBook will give more room for growth and flexibility.

And I'd like to know where you can get a MacBook Air for not much more than an iPad!

While I spoke negatively about "10-inch" Netbooks (above), I now think that I was too negative. My (approx $300) 10.1 inch MSI Netbook, slipped into its padded sleeve, goes into the bottom of my small carry-on bag for travel. I wonder whether Ultrabooks / MAC Air would be enough larger to present a travel issue.

In any case, I continue to agree that a real computer is the way to go, not an iPad.

seacue

Interesting point of view, and sound advice I might add.

According to BBC's Click programme a Macbook Air type laptop with the facility to turn the cover over so it becomes a tablet was shown at the Vegas Consumer Electronics show will be launched this year. However they didn't go into its merits or operating system.

Maybe 2012 will be the year of the combi laptop/tablet?

Not that I'm a young one by any stretch of the imagination...or have one to worry about, I have both a laptop and an iPad to choose from when I travel.

As jimtherev says, it's horses for courses. I like seacue's distinction between consumers and creators of information too - I hadn't thought about these devices in this way but I think it sums it up nicely.

There's no doubt that an iPad is a neat way of keeping up with one's social network or accessing media whilst on the go (although it can quickly become costly using other people's networks!) but I don't find it suitable for real work. That said, cloud computing and the availability online of many of the applications that I use perhaps reduces the debate to how usable the keyboard is. It might be a generational thing of course - I've grown up using a keyboard and mouse to interact with these IT things and a touchscreen seems like harder work. A young one may be equally happy with a touchscreen as the primary means of interaction.

For me though, if I could only have one device, it would be a laptop - no question. But I would be wary of assuming that the next generation see things the same way as we do - remember, that old joke about having to get the kids to program the video recorder is true!

Thanks everyone for your advice and it pretty well sums up my thoughts as well.

I understand the 'need' for image & being 'cool' and so on with teenagers plus a few of his friends have an iPad but what I liked about a laptop is the ability to upgrade when you order it it whereas the iPad is what you get end of story.

We were looking just after Christmas and the price difference between the top of the line iPad and the cheapest Mac Book Air was not that significant.Perhaps there was a sale because it was after Christmas and the iPad is still trendy and in demand so they do not need to reduce it's price.

I feel as though the lap top is a better long term purchase as this is his last year at school before going to uni.

Thanks again everyone.

The MacBook Air is not an Ultrabook. Ultrabooks are based on a specific chipset from Intel which was created to allow other manufacturers to attempt to compete with the MacBook Air.

The best Ultrabook remains the Air, even though according to Intel it isn't one.

Yes, I know that Intel has legal claim to the term "Ultrabook". But that won't change the public definition in the long term. There are many registered trademarks which have become everyday terms, to the displeasure of their holders.

I went through this very debate. As others have said, are you a "reader" or are you an "writer/do-er"?

I went for the Macbook Air because it has a proper keyboard (which I need), it has a decent tough aluminium body and it can play flash as well as proper "Work" programmes
.
Also, it has 2 USB ports. I beat the living daylights out of my laptops. Well ok, they get dragged out of my nav bag and plonked on security belts, my bag falls over often and generally gets beaten and kicked.

Yes, the iPad has a lot going for it and we're looking at them for work purposes, but I have found the Air to be tough and useful. :ok:

Some interesting points of views on this thread, none are wrong but interesting none the less.

I own both a 2yr old mac book (not a pro and not an air) and an iPad and they cross over in their uses in some respects but each excel in different areas.

Instead of carrying books around little beats the iPad, for manuals such as software dev ones the screen presentation is better than that of the macbook and the kindle with navigation, note taking and thesaurus well thought out and a pleasure to use. However no software development can take place on the iPad as there are no compilers available and apple will not let there be one due to the security sandbox that applications run in.

For simple document editing you can do this on the iPad but one constraint is the keyboard, however a bluetooth keyboard such as provided by apple works well with the iPad (and the iPhone & Mac Books) and the one I am using is an apple imitation from Amazon that cost a whole 11 pounds.

I am writing this on my MacBook (using said keyboard) along with a belkin bluetooth mouse. I have an external monitor and these along with a second charger at my workstation in the living room, so I get my laptop out when home - plug the monitor and charger in and I am ready to go in twin screen mac heaven.

It really depends what your son will want the device for, but like most I would err on the side of the Mac Book purely because it gives you more options; most notably of which is that if required you can use vmware fusion (my choice) or parallels to run a windows installation alongside os-x on the mac. You then get the best of the apple and windows world on the same device.

Ultimately for the cost of a macbook air you could purchase a second hand macbook and a low end iPad so you do have plenty of options. The two real old macbook that I am running runs lion well as well as windows 7 at the same time (the only upgrade I have done is put in an extra 2gb or ram to take it to 4).

I think probably the best way to look at the devices is that the iPads are for the consumers of creations and the laptops are for the creators.

Best of luck

J

Lenovo already has one on the market; I was forced to buy one for my daughter by her new school. Touch-screen with tablet features such as on-screen keyboard, but quite bulky.

Professional-Grade Laptop Computers | ThinkPad X Series Convertible Tablet | Lenovo Australia

The EXO PC type of device will be the way to go when the price comes down. Full Windows in a thin "slate".

EXOPC Slate

The Asus Slider is the same thing as well, touchscreen with a keyboard underneath in a package a bit bigger than an iPad.

Remember that a Macbook Air isn't officially upgradeable by yourself, you'd certainly need some technical knowledge to do it.

Personally, I've got both a Macbook Air and an iPad and they do different things. If you want something for work, then the Macbook is a far better bet as it obviously has a proper keyboard and a mouse, but I think the iPad is better as a media player and interent browser simply because of its convienience

Android. No good for serious computing. ;)

I didn't want to say that :)