ipad or laptop

[Littlepeahead]

Mr LPH's 40th soon, and his laptop is on its last gasp. So with about £400 to spend on his pressie should I replace his laptop or get him an iPad?

He uses his laptop for Facebook, saving a few photos, social email, looking up bass tabs, eBay and watching a few music videos and general browsing. He's not a gamer, doesn't need Microsoft office etc. and would never use a Kindle.

We've got decent WiFi at home and a good pc if he ever needs to create or print documents.

He's also got a 180gb ipod so he uses itunes.

So would an iPad be best for his usage? If so, what do they cost?

And please don't turn this thread into an Apple v everything else war.

sounds like it'll do the job perfectly, and that's exactly what tablets were made for. Light use and browsing. The only possible sticking point is how comfortable he is with touch screens vs keyboards. oh and if you get him angry birds with the ipad he will quickly become a sofa gamer

[NTECUK]

Ipad was made for that.
Plus there are some dead cool apps for his bass and guitar studio .
You can get a stomp pedal that interfaces with the Ipad .

[NTECUK]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bassist/id294945208?mt=8

Given what you're suggesting he'll use it for I'd say an Ipad, I recently converted to one and now hardly ever use my laptop.

Also if you keep the old laptop you'll probably find it would benefit massively from a full destructive reset back to factory settings, most of them have the option to do that along with the pretty pointless "windows restore points." I've got an 8 year old PC that runs quite well with that sort of treatment.

[Fallout]

Everyone is recommending the iPad, and on the surface it makes sense, but make sure he likes tablets. I have a good Android tablet and a laptop, and I never use the tablet. I personally don't get them. There are obviously positives to tablets like lighter to carry around, quicker turn on time etc. but I can't get over the fact I can:

- Type quicker on forums, for searches etc using a keyboard
- Sit with it comfortably on my lap and the screen pointing where I want to it, rather than having to hold it ALL the time. (This is one of the main ones for me. I want to be able to chill in front of the tele, laptop open and look at the screen without holding the tablet all the time)
- Nice big screen
- A tracker pad, though less intuitive, is a much more lazy interface. I can sit and just move 1 finger a few CMs, rather than constantly moving my hand around the whole screen
- When I close the lid, it doubles up as a place mat for dinner in front of the tele (I ain't joking. So useful for that!)

There are many other minor reasons, but they're the big hitters. Now that's just personal preference obviously, but the reason why I mention it is if he's anything like me, he'd see £400 on an iPad as a huge waste of cash when it can buy a pretty ninja laptop these days. Make sure he loves tablets!

iPad and get GarageBand too - http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallif...viewid=3264726

Garageband is probably the best £2.99 that a musician could ever spend.

Also, the screen on the iPad is far superior to *any* laptop on the market right now. Even the ones that cost ££££.

Why not go into an Apple store and have a play on one?

One option that has been missed is a netbook. It can be the best of both for that sort of usage.

Originally Posted by MattCollins

One option that has been missed is a netbook. It can be the best of both for that sort of usage.

Having just bought an iPad to replace my netbook, I'd say that the netbook is the worst of both worlds.

It's important to remember though, that an iPad is not a direct replacement for a laptop. They're completely different kinds of devices, both with their advantages and disadvantages.

[NTECUK]

Given he is a muso , the ipad has such good apps for that kind of thing its a no contests.
I'd have one at the drop of a hat, but still keep my laptop for games and serious stuff.