How a Smartphone Beats a Tablet

Tablets and smartphones are the most coveted mobile devices. Good plain old mobile phones are still abundant but when you are a heavy user and you want your phone to be able to do many things in addition to making calls, you start looking for a more advanced device. In such cases, the choice is typically either a smartphone, or a tablet.

While the two devices are very different, there are many similarities in function that make it harder to decide which one is better. All equal, a tablet offers more options for work with applications but aside from that, a smartphone beats it in many aspects.

A Smartphone Is Better for Calls

The first major point where a smartphone is a clear leader is making/receiving calls and texts. Since a smartphone is first a phone and then an attempted mini-computer, it is a much better choice, if you need the device to make/receive calls.

With tablets, there are almost no models that allow to make/receive mobile calls right away, though with some additional devices and software you can use them as a normal mobile phone. But even if they could, holding a 7 inch device to your ear, will make you look like a 1990s rich guy, who used to carry with them the then mobile phones that weighed more than a brick.

Smartphones Are More Portable

Smartphones are much smaller than tablets, which means they are easier to carry. While you can put your smartphone in your pocket, with tablets you need a bag to carry it. Additionally, a tablet is two or more times heavier than a smartphone, which makes it even less convenient to carry around. Therefore, if portability is important to you, then a smartphone has no alternatives.

Smartphones Have Longer Battery Life

Many people have the habit of carrying their mobile charger with them but if you don’t have where to charge your mobile, then the additional device isn’t of much use. This is why you will value longer battery life.

As far as longer battery life is concerned, a smartphone wins again. The reason is not that its battery is more advanced technically but the fact that a smartphone uses less power than a tablet and as a result it can last longer after you charge it.

For Work with Applications, a Smartphone Is More or Less OK

For most applications, a smartphone isn’t better than a tablet but it is more or less an acceptable alternative. In any case, neither a smartphone, nor a tablet comes close to the convenience and power of laptops and desktop computers, so if you are looking for a portable computer, then neither will meet your needs.

As a whole, for work with applications a tablet is the clear winner but in many cases a smartphone is also OK. For instance, for writing documents, a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard is a great option, though it is still very painful to use for a long time.

Another example when a smartphone is better is for taking pictures. While most smartphones have cameras (with high resolution at that), for tablets a camera is still an exception. Of course, for image editing, the situation is reversed but if you take pictures that need no editing or that can wait till you get home and use your desktop computer, then a smartphone is quite OK.

Of course, for almost any application use, a tablet wins. After all, a tablet is a mini-computer, while a smartphone is a phone with some resemblance to a computer. I am not saying that tablets are obsolete – just on the contrary, they are very useful when you travel a lot and need a decent and above all portable computer.

What I am saying is that if you need a mobile device for calls and texts mainly, you’d better pick a smartphone. If you get a SIM only contract with it, this will drastically decrease your mobile bill and who knows, the savings from this alone might be sufficient to buy a tablet as well!