Android Tab as a laptop replacement?

[g0nadz]

Hi!

My laptop is failing and I have a new job that will involve a lot of traveling. So I'm thinking of instead of buying a new laptop to get a tab. There are a few questions though that I can't find proper answers for just by Googling... I guess this kind of "radical" change is still a bit new

1. I need to use a lot of MS office files (Word, Excel, PP). Will I get in trouble or is there good apps for this. Needs to be able to handle 2007 office files.

2. Some simple graphics tools and able to at least view Photoshop and Corel

3. BitTorrent

4. FTP access

5. Anyone out there who is using a tab as their main computer for work? Can you share your experience?

I don't see missing a hard drive as such a big problem, I use Google cloud and I'm not a huge leecher of torrents

Also if you can suggest me what to get - dual core processor, about 10" size, SD, 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, GPS, 32-64GB internal - it doesn't have to be the best but up there

Thanks!

g0nz

 

[chanchan05]

1. Word processor, spreadsheets and PPT apps for Android or iOS come nowhere near the power of actual PC Office Suites. You will find a lot of features and capabilities missing.

2. Currently no apps are able to view .psd or .cpt files from those programs AFAIK. The only graphical editing tools involve

3. There are torrent apps for Android though.

4. There are apps that provide FTP access but I have no experience using one.

5.

Basically, a tablet is a consumer device, not a productivity device. You can read, play watch and browse easily and comfortably on a tablet, but when you go into stuff like graphical editing, word processing, video editing or production, while possible, you will find yourself quite limited in productivity. Even a basic netbook like an HP dm1 or a Toshiba NB-series is quite more powerful and feature-rich in such aspects than the most powerful tablet there is.

Even as a student, I find the capabilities of tablets regarding graphic tools, video processing, word processing and spreadsheets quite limited. As such the main use of a tablet in my case would be to read PDF files and browse the internet and maybe watch a video from time to time.

 

[g0nadz]

Thanks for your replay, good points but I feel I need to explain my needs a bit deeper.

My main tools for business are phone, e-mail and internet. Don't need much more. Most days I could survive on a smartphone without even breaking a sweat.

I need only basic functionality for word, excel and pp. Most of my outgoing stuff is already made as templates and only need filling. I need it to be compatible and work with no problems so I can view incoming and fill in my templates.

Work with images is very basic: mostly crop, re-size, add a little text or a drawing here and there. .psd and .cpt can be converted online to jpeg if I'm not mistaken so that would be a workaround wouldn't it?

Also what I need is to be able to convert word and excel into PDF. Is this possible on a tablet?

EDIT: Found Quickoffice Pro, does not look bad at all for my needs.

 

[chanchan05]

once you convert cpt and psd to jpeg, even if you transfer it to a computer, the level of editing you can do is very minimal. Apart from filters and adding objects and cropping, there isn't anything more you can do on a jpeg file on an Android. Basically the best Android image editing software has capabilities on the level of MS Paint. So basically yes, it suits your needs. Just be sure to tell the person on the other end that its jpeg format, because converting it would severely limit his own editing options.

Word apps do well, Excel apps are actually severely lacking in functionality and so are PPTs. Just extreme basics (think of it as MS Office from the time of before Office 2003). Basically if its just typing in some data, maybe your needs are covered. Also there is no spell check, grammar check and the like, so you better be innately good at that. For some reason many people aren't.

There are apps that convert docs to pdf I think but I haven't used any.

They'd provide you with basic functionality, but I have encountered several individuals who once thought like you wanting a tablet to replace a netbook for business or schooling and ended up frustrated. I am just giving you fair warning. For the purposes you mentioned, yes it would do, but not much more than they.

For your purposes the best tablet would probably be a Transformer Prime.

EDIT: A TPrime does not have 3G, so you may want to get a Galaxy Tab 10.1

 

[g0nadz]

I have to say that I think I'm sold. Transformer Prime looks perfect. Thank you so much for assistance

EDIT: 3G is not that big of a problem. Estonia is covered with WiFi and I can always use my phone to make a hotspot. Why pay 2 data plans when one can serve 2 devices

 

[Stuntman]

I use an Eee Pad Transformer with keyboard dock. It's a great near laptop replacement for me. I pretty much use it in place of my laptop now. The only thing I need my laptop for are the following:

Excel -- Spreadsheet apps suck on Android.
Audacity -- To convert my LP's and cassettes to MP3 format. I also use Windows media player to manage my music and to transfer the songs to my phone.
PC gaming -- I still have games, many old ones, not available on my tablet. Not a big gamer. Just like really old games.
A few web sites -- Some are just really slow or crashes my tablet's browser. The latest ICS update handles them better. Jury is still out on this, but I find for 98% of the time I'm surfing, the tablet works fine or is actually a better experience with apps like Pulse.

I'm probably at a point where I use my tablet over 80% of the time and my laptop only 20%. It seems to be approaching 90-10 as of late.

 

[chanchan05]

I have to say that I think I'm sold. Transformer Prime looks perfect. Thank you so much for assistance

EDIT: 3G is not that big of a problem. Estonia is covered with WiFi and I can always use my phone to make a hotspot. Why pay 2 data plans when one can serve 2 devices

As long as your smartphone creates an infrastructure hotspot, you're all right. Symbian phones for example create adhoc networks. Some others might as well.