Ask AnandTech: Tablets at Work, What are Your Experiences?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 12, 2013 3:13 PM EST
The tablet market has grown tremendously over the past few years. What started as a content consumption device for consumers has transformed into a device that has started to pull sales away from traditional notebooks. The obvious next step for tablets is towards the enterprise and business users.
As my usage models tend to be a bit unusual, when tasked with finding out how people use tablets for work my initial thought was to go to you all directly. So, how do you or could you use use tablets for work? What possibilities do you see for tablet use in work going forward? Respond with your thoughts in the comments, a lot of eyes will be watching this discussion and you could definitely help shape design decisions going forward.
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didi_tli - Monday, June 17, 2013 - link
Very useful. All my notes, recordings, class room exercises, listening can be saved and opened here, so do all online documents. It makes my work come in handy. I am using galaxy tab 2. All email and social networks that promote mynwork and business can be controlled from here too. Laptop compi is still being used for complete work, but by tablet, it's light to carry and moderately completemfor my work.estarkey7 - Monday, June 17, 2013 - link
I have been using tablets at work over 6 years. I first used a Fujitsu T2010, which is a convertible laptop. I now use a Sony Vaio Duo 11. I'm a software engineer and as others have stated, if it can't compile code then it can go kick bricks! The biggest use for me at work is pen use in OneNote. Drawing math symbols and UML diagrams just can't be done quickly with a mouse.Myrandex - Monday, June 17, 2013 - link
The only tablet I'd want for work is a Surface Pro or something similar.Where I've worked before the only times I've seen tablets used are by upper management and I think it is more of a toy to carry around rather than a laptop. In fact I saw one that was carrying around an iPad, with a case that included a keyboard that held the iPad in landscape mode, and then they simply used it to RDP into a laptop to run outlook through the RDP session. At that point I just wondered why the heck they wouldn't just use a laptop with Outlook built in out of the box like everyone else had in the meeting...so like I said just a toy / status symbol.
Jason
sligett - Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - link
I use a Nexus 7. For reading, e.g. Linux Journal. For network scanning and testing. For pinging and connecting to servers, printers, etc.gsellis - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
I will explain, and you can extract from there.I have a personal Surface Pro. I use One Note on it with the stylist to take hand written notes in those quick meetings. I have a USB 3 hub, a DVD burner, a Zalman (from the company), a 1.5TB HDD (mine), a 10/100/1000 USB3 "NIC", a USB to Serial connector, and various jump drives. I have used it to transfer files in the lab using the wired nic at 1Gb from a HDD using PSCP and SCP controlled through a console connection (powered hub). I have added ISO files to my Zalman to run CD boot configurations on devices. I use the serial connector in console ports on various hardware while leaving my company lappie in the cube I work out of. I can access USB keys that my company laptop wants to encrypt on insertion (like mfgr boot installers). I charge my android phone on the charger port of the power supply (because battery life really sucks at current rev of the HTC Evo 3d).
Must have app.... Touchpad Settings.... the typepad touchpad is too sensitive and screws with you while typing.
Still broken - wireless in the Surface RT is still not fully baked. My wife has to reboot her's to get it to work. She has almost given up on it on the commuter bus because between the RT and her Sprint HTC Evo 3d, it takes too much fiddling to finally get the hotspot up and running and the RT on the network.
And.... one of the initial reasons for getting the Surface Pro was to run a legacy Windows app (GemCad for Windows). I can take my Surface into the basement and quit printing cutting designs that then need to be modified.
davinleeds - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
http://www.twice.com/articletype/news/samsung-ativ...trn91765 - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
Belkin's Win 8 Tablet dock would helphttp://www.belkin.com/us/p/B2B043-C00
USB 3.0 & 2 external monitors
mathieu1911 - Sunday, December 15, 2013 - link
If you are looking to work on a tablet and you need standard Windows programs, consider trying a Windows cloud computer accessible from your tablet. Take a look at https://hazeware.com we have Windows 7 cloud computers accessible from your tablet below the market price.