Should I buy a tablet or a laptop?

The two have converged enough that the specifications no longer separate them. What separates them is how you sit with the device and what you are trying to get done.

Step by step

1. List what you would actually do on it.Email, browsing, video, photographs, documents, spreadsheets, accounts, drawing, video calls, games. Write it down — the answer usually falls out of the list rather than out of comparing specifications.
2. Buy a tablet if it is mostly consuming.Reading, video, browsing, recipes, photographs, video calls. Lighter, longer battery, instant on, better in a hand or on a lap. For that use it is genuinely the better device.
3. Buy a laptop if there is real typing or multitasking.Long documents, spreadsheets, managing files, several windows at once, anything with a proper application rather than an app. A laptop does this comfortably and a tablet does it awkwardly.
4. Be sceptical about the keyboard case.It makes typing possible rather than pleasant, and it does not change the operating system underneath. A tablet with a keyboard is still a tablet, and it usually costs enough to close the gap to a laptop.
5. Check whether the software you need exists.This is often the deciding factor. Specialist software, anything work-mandated, and full-featured versions of office applications frequently exist only on a desktop system. Check before buying, not after.
6. Think about file management.Tablets deliberately hide the file system. If you regularly organise documents, attach several files, or work with a folder structure, that becomes a daily irritation.
7. Consider who else uses it.A tablet shared around a household works better than a laptop. A device for one person doing focused work is the opposite.
8. Weigh the battery and portability honestly.Tablets still lead on both, though the gap has narrowed. If it will be carried daily and used in short bursts, that matters; if it lives on a desk, it does not.
9. Consider a tablet as a second device.For many households the right answer is a laptop for work and a shared tablet for everything else — which is often cheaper than one device that does neither well.
10. Look at the support period.How long the manufacturer will provide security updates, which varies substantially. It determines how long the device is safe to use for anything that matters.
11. Do not buy for the occasional task.Buying a laptop for the tax return you do once a year, or a tablet for drawing you might take up, is how devices end up in drawers. Buy for the weekly use.
12. Try both in a shop.Type a paragraph on the keyboard case. Hold the tablet for two minutes. Both tell you more than a specification comparison, and both take five minutes.

Tips

• If you find yourself justifying how a tablet could do the work with accessories, buy the laptop. The accessories usually close the price gap anyway.
• An older laptop plus a cheap tablet is often better value than one new mid-range device, particularly for a household rather than a person.
• Check what your phone already covers. For a lot of people the honest answer is that a tablet duplicates the phone and the laptop is the gap.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a keyboard case makes a tablet a laptop — It improves typing and changes nothing about the operating system, file handling or available software. It is still a tablet, and it costs enough to close the gap to a real laptop.
• Buying for a task you do once a year — The device gets bought for the exception and lives with the everyday. Buy for what you will do weekly.

If it doesn't work

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