Android Are tablets getting phased out in favour of phones?

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deusExMachina

deusExMachina

Forerunner
When you look at the entry level segment, most tablets have like 1/2/3 GB ram only. I'm not even sure if this is really sufficient for using it as a daily driver for emails/browsing and rapid app switching.

On the other hand, there are a bunch of low end mobile phones these days with 4GB or greater Ram. So, why are the manufacturers focusing more on phones over tablets? are people using/buying the latter so less as to no warrant better designs or do they just have some optimization that lets them work fine with less memory?
 
I guess the tablet market at this point is so small that nobody bothers to make any tablets (good) apart from Samsung and Apple.
I have a tablet which lies completely unused for the past 3 years now. For my daily tasks I prefer to go to the mobile. For more involved tasks I go to the laptop or the desktop.

I guess the middle form factor appeals to a very small population now for the manufacturers to care
 
Because phones have become Phablets (this term existed but is now not used anymore) and people don't really see much use in buying dedicated big screen devices.
I myself use a really slow 7 Inch Amazon Fire tablet and that is because I am an iPhone user and don't really like super big phones. But if I was an android user, I could have compromised and bought some phone with 6.5"+ screen and use it for both the purposes.

I am still glad that companies like samsung are still trying to keep the tablet market alive (not counting apple) on android side of things.
 
I hate big phones myself and use a tiny SE, small phones with good specs is hard to find these days though. Recently I bought a Poco M2 in favour of a tablet for use as a small tablet to keep a tab on work email and spreadsheets.
 
I cannot live without my iPad - right from taking notes (work/personal - Notability is pretty good), to reading (books/comics - iBooks/Chunky/Documents by Readdle), to media consumption (Youtube etc) to basic productivity (mail/office apps/Goodreader/document editing/signing etc) to even presentations !

There's no way a phone can replace this. iPad + Apple Pencil + keyboard is an extremely powerful combo.
 
alekhkhanna said:
I cannot live without my iPad - right from taking notes (work/personal - Notability is pretty good), to reading (books/comics - iBooks/Chunky/Documents by Readdle), to media consumption (Youtube etc) to basic productivity (mail/office apps/Goodreader/document editing/signing etc) to even presentations !

There's no way a phone can replace this. iPad + Apple Pencil + keyboard is an extremely powerful combo.
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You are definitely a power user of the iPad and probably even the target audience. I have so many times contemplated buying one but keep asking myself what purpose will the iPad serve. I try to manufacture use cases to justify my "want" of iPad and I am unable to convince myself to buy it.
I already have a 10 Inch Fire HD10 tablet that I use only and only for watching my TV shows and movies and sometimes for reading magazines and it works well for that. It is not polished like iPad and neither that fast but serves me.
But still for most the tasks like accessing reddit, TE etc, I go to my phone (even with the 4.7 inch screen).

So I am now in a position where if I am casually using apps, I use phone, if I have serious work like editing docs etc, I will use laptop. So tablet sort of doesn't fit in the workflow.
 
raksrules said:
You are definitely a power user of the iPad and probably even the target audience. I have so many times contemplated buying one but keep asking myself what purpose will the iPad serve. I try to manufacture use cases to justify my "want" of iPad and I am unable to convince myself to buy it.
I already have a 10 Inch Fire HD10 tablet that I use only and only for watching my TV shows and movies and sometimes for reading magazines and it works well for that. It is not polished like iPad and neither that fast but serves me.
But still for most the tasks like accessing reddit, TE etc, I go to my phone (even with the 4.7 inch screen).

So I am now in a position where if I am casually using apps, I use phone, if I have serious work like editing docs etc, I will use laptop. So tablet sort of doesn't fit in the workflow.
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Yeah. It's definitely a specific use case scenario.

For me, the ease of taking notes in my own handwriting during a meeting, and getting it synced on iCloud is perhaps the biggest win.
Plus PDFs and comics - avid reader, and needed a great screen to enjoy. iPad doesn't disappoint ! That's why I went with the 512 gb variant - it's almost 90% full. Lol.

Edit: The iPadOS has matured quite a bit, and drag and drop is superior to Android. Multitasking can be improved, but eventually it's all for the better.
The pencil is an amazing piece of tech, and with the new iPadOS 14, you can write anywhere ! It's seriously impressive.
 
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I had iPad pro now Galaxy Tab S7

Yes tablets are not for everyone or for all professionals.
Being a doctor everyone around me possesses one tablet for study purpose and note taking. Be it the tab series or iPad series.
For my all youtube channel I stopped using laptop for video editing, everything on my Tab S7 etc
Even wedding photographers these days demo all their work on iPad.
Lot of fields need these tablets.
 
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Tablets are good-to-have devices but not must haves. If you have a well defined use case then it will be great for you.

I have removed my habit of meaninglessly scrolling on phone by switching to a tab. Earlier I was always on Instagram, Reddit or any other such apps. I was wasting 3-4 hours everyday by aimlessly scrolling phone and checking social media.
I just installed 4-5 apps on the tablet (PDF, ePUB reader, Zerodha Kite, Netflix, Youtube). Automatically my usage went down and I have happily reclaimed those 3 hours everyday.

Why was I not able to do this on Phone? Because I cannot remove Whatsapp, Email, Instagram, Facebook from it.
 
Shubham1401 said:
Why was I not able to do this on Phone? Because I cannot remove Whatsapp, Email, Instagram, Facebook from it.
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Yes you can. I removed Facebook and Instagram from phone and automatically my usage went down. Now I only open them once or twice a week on my laptop.

Also, on the topic of the thread, I think with big screen phones, one doesn't feel the need of tablets unless you have some specific use cases as have been mentioned by users above. Even for reading books and comics, I find holding my phone much easier than a tablet because I like reading while lying in bed. I do have an older Nexus 10 lying around and I have been contemplating getting a battery for it but it feels like a waste of money considering how little I would use it.
Also, the G8X with it's dual screen makes for a fantastic reading device with the Librera app as reported by some users of the same. With the Wide mode selected, it feels exactly like reading an actual book.
 
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I hadn't purchased a tablet since the iPad 3, but got myself a Tab S5e during the lockdown. I am now using the tablet far more than I am using my phone. I wouldn't really want a flagship tablet though as the main benefit of the tablet is the screen. In that sense, I think the S5e got it right with its 2k OLED screen as it is absolutely great for reading and watching stuff. On the flip side, I switched to an iPhone SE which I love to carry in my pocket and use with a single hand.
 
After being freed from Apple ecosystem, stopped using the old ipad air 2 completely.
Now using the new ipad air heavily almost everyday. I've not taken out the Windows laptop even once from the backpack yet.
Doing everything ( from work related emails to facetime with the kid and watching YouTube, marathon TV series binges) on it.
I often watch Netflix with my wife in the ipad with a headphones splitter, phone is too small and laptop is too much work...the TV in our hotel room is a giant dumbo!!
@ayaskant12 , buddy, you're possibly the owner of the highest number of tablets ( including Surface) in this forum.
Do you think it's possible to ditch a laptop completely and replace it with ipad pro, pencil and keyboard in our field?
I'm planning to travel even lighter now..
 
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iPad file manager is restricting.
Though it's very close but my main gripe was file management.
Many times when downloading Photos from camera SD card, the file manager hangs (workaround is transfer whole folder and not selected files)
Then some niche apps which may limit your use.
Full blown word and ppt have way more usability than iPad or Android versions.
Similarly coding softwares
Windows and Mac application database is so huge that tablets will need much more time to catch to the app situations. But for people like us laptops can be replaced very soon
 
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red dragon said:
After being freed from Apple ecosystem, stopped using the old ipad air 2 completely.
Now using the new ipad air heavily almost everyday. I've not taken out the Windows laptop even once from the backpack yet.
Doing everything ( from work related emails to facetime with the kid and watching YouTube, marathon TV series binges) on it.
I often watch Netflix with my wife in the ipad with a headphones splitter, phone is too small and laptop is too much work...the TV in our hotel room is a giant dumbo!!
@ayaskant12 , buddy, you're possibly the owner of the highest number of tablets ( including Surface) in this forum.
Do you think it's possible to ditch a laptop completely and replace it with ipad pro, pencil and keyboard in our field?
I'm planning to travel even lighter now..
Click to expand...
My answer would be no. But that would be only based on personal preferences.

I have 3 Tabs (S3, S4, S6), two iPads (12.9 Pro, Regular), and two surface devices (4, 6) and I still think there's nothing to beat a good solid desktop for productivity. I have barely, if ever, used laptops(the surfaces are still mostly used for inking).

I am a mechanical keyboard fan, along with a large screen fan. My three desktops have all massive screens (43, 34 ultrawide, 32) and all are equipped with nice mechanical keyboards (blue and brown switches. Gateron to Cherry to otemu to generic), and nothing absolutely comes close to a desktop for my use case.

For travel, I use the surface (I love the comfort and the universal appeal of windows), and couple it with my Tab S6 and a wireless keyboard. I barely use OTT platforms and all, so I am probably not the right person to say anything here.

I do not much like headphones, so I have a Blaupunkt BT40 Volcano for music on the move, and Altec Lansing MX5021, and an Edifier S730D, both of which cannot by used with the Tab or the iPad unless you are using lossy BT interfaces.

For drawing though, nothing to beat the tablets. And for writing, nothing to beat the Samsung Tab S series. The latest update to the Snote app absolutely makes it a killer!
 
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I had a Tab which I sold few years ago. And ever since I am dependent on my phone and laptop. Don't even remember when I last saw a Tab around me. But I loved that using my Tab. It was easy to grip, use and specially reading pdfs. But phones nowadays have done some rapid growth which left very small space for Tabs. And manufacturers are busy competing with those phone specifications. So I would say that Tabs are indeed getting phased out in favor of phones.
 
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