Do I need a tablet if I have a laptop?

by Jaimie Dee | Jan 11, 2016 | Atlanta Photographer | Jaimie Dee

Do I need a tablet if I have a laptop?

If you’re asking yourself “Do I need a tablet if I have a laptop?” you’ve come to the right place!

To give you a bit of background, I’m an entrepreneur.  I own my own wedding photography studio in Atlanta.  I find myself in coffee shops multiple times a week.  If I arrive early for an appointment, I often have time to kill.  In the days prior to getting my tablet, I would be forced to lug my laptop around if I wanted to get work done, or I would play around on my smart phone as I patiently awaited my clients to arrive.

The need for a tablet arose when I was looking for work related productivity tools to spend my money on at the end of the year.  I had the initial thought to purchase a tablet – but then I asked myself WHY.  What can you DO with a tablet?  I already had a laptop and a smart phone (albeit, not a great smart phone).  A tablet is more portable than a laptop, but less portable than a smart phone.

What can you do with a tablet?

I turned my attention towards my business needs.  A tablet would allow me to show documents to my clients during our meetings.  A tablet would also allow me to showcase photography to clients who had yet to see my work.  A tablet could easily fit into my purse, and be a much more acceptable form of presentation rather than a smart phone.  I would never show up to a meeting, proudly hand my cell phone to my clients and ask them to review documents!

In addition to valuable presentation ideas, tablets are more portable than laptops.  If I could fit a tablet easily into my purse, I could carry it around always.  If I arrived early to meetings, or found myself at a coffee shop with time to kill, I could get legitimate work done on my tablet as well.  This said work, could just as easily be done on a cell phone, but having a 10 inch tablet would afford more screen real estate.  I’m the type of person who concentrates better on a dedicated computer.  I’ve always had a hard time being productive on a cell phone.  I’m not sure if it’s because the screen is so small – or maybe the fact that I typically don’t purchase the most high end and efficient phones on the market at any given time.  Regardless, I tend to be able to focus better on laptops or desktops.

So I found my answers to – what can you do with a tablet?

My next thought was this – how expensive are tablets?  I remember when the ipad first generations came out.  They seemed ridiculously expensive with how few practical uses there were for them at the time.  Doing a couple quick internet searches, I discovered I wasn’t alone in my early tablet prejudices.

My main requirements for choosing my tablet were this – it had to be thin, and it had to be light.  It had to have better specs than my smart phone, and it had to fit easily into my purse.

As I started compiling a list of the newest tablets on the market, I found a superior model rather quickly.  The Samsung Galaxy S2 was just released into the android tablet market at the end of 2015.  It had stellar reviews on Amazon and everywhere else I could find.  Done.  I was sold.

I placed the order, and awaited patiently for it to arrive.

I’ve had my new Samsung Galaxy S2 tablet for a couple of weeks now.  It fits easily into my purse and goes with me everywhere.  It’s incredibly light and paper thin – I think it rivals the Ipad air.  I even bought a foldable bluetooth keyboard to accompany it.  I figured I could make the most of this tablet with the use of an external keyboard – something to help type emails and blog posts with when I have time to kill at coffee shops.  And of course, it was the smallest and most lightweight foldable keyboard I could find with the best reviews on Amazon as well!

I know everyones needs may differ when you you ask yourself – Do I need a tablet if I have a laptop?  But this post explains the reasons why I saw a need for it in my business.  It’s already come into great use a couple of times.  I enjoy watching webinars and photography-related workshops while I wait at coffee shops.  One morning I was rushing to a client consultation and my printer wasn’t working.  I typically prefer to have a printed copy of my documentation to hand over to clients, but the fact that I had a great shiny new tablet to take with me solved my problems instantly!  It’s definitely a great form of backup or even a more green alternative to printing paper.

I can’t wait to figure out more practical business uses for my tablet this year.