You just answered your own question about the notebook and textbook when you said someone wanted their tablet for an ereader. Tablets are easier to read on than a laptop, and you are able to scrawl in the margins. And in school we have it beaten into our heads that you learn better from writing things down than typing, so a lot of students have shifted to digital handwritten note taking.
I don’t think you have used a tablet for a while if you think they’re not as powerful as laptops nowadays. I specifically mentioned the Surface and iPads because the Surface pro is marketed by Microsoft as a equivalent to a laptop (and mine runs Linux really well). The iPad Pros run on the same M1/M2 chips as their Macbooks do, and honestly nothing comes closest to the pen and paper equivalent than the iPad+pencil (not even my Surface). I don’t see any other brands or Android tablets around, except for one guy in my human anatomy class that has a modded Nexus 7 and that thing is sick.
A lot of people don’t need more power than that in university or their work.
That was my first point mate, size. I don’t see the feature wise difference but I only tried the iPad pencil for a little bit and didn’t like it that much but could see people liking it.
Oop, when you said “size” I wasn’t sure if you meant screen size or the dimensions of the actual device, my b.
I actually talked to a few of my classmates since our conversation here made me curious. Many of them actually DO own laptops, but as their home PC setup, with dual monitors and external keyboards for gaming and as media centres. So it seems like laptops are the desktop replacements here, and tablets are the laptop replacement.
Again this is for a specific university demographic that primarily live in student apartment.
