BORING, USELESS AND EXPENSIVE TABLETS.

…THEY ARE NOTHING BUT AN ADVERTISING GIMMICK.

By Mansor Puteh

Despite having a degree in advertising, I was still attracted to the promotion of the tablets which are available by some companies in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and also America that have been released in the market in Malaysia since a few years ago.

I could imagine myself using one of them to create wonders with, being able to write and write and also to create photos and videos, to my heart’s content.

But the truth is, these tablets are not what their manufacturers claim they could do.

Of course, they could do what the manufacturers say they could, but it needs a lot of effort and discomfort, to be able to use the functions and also applications or software.

You think they are easier to use compared to the laptops or computers so you don’t mind parting with some money to get one. You are wrong.

They are not easy to use. They are only smaller and lighter than the laptops at less then nine hundred milligrams compared to the lightest laptop which is 1.2 kilograms, and the battery can last for six to eight hours, which is good.

So I decided to get one to check it out. But a newer model soon appeared and I got rid of the first tablet I got, also because it was not as good as I thought it was.

But the newer version of the tablet manufactured by the same company is no better. It is as heavy as the first tablet and a bit more expensive.

I bought one tablet and then the other which was said to be more advanced and slightly more expensive, which came with a pen thinking I could do wonders with them.

The reason why I exchanged the first tablet with the newer one because I thought the first tablet was useless; it did not have a pen.

I then got the newer version and found out that despite having the pen, it is still as bad as the older version.

So I have come to the conclusion that tablets are useless; they are only good as a gimmick for those who want to save photos and videos and play them when they want and also to be able to access the internet.

But one can do some of these using the smartphones, which cost a fraction of the tablet.

I have not been able to write much using the two tablets I have bought, so I ended up going back to my computer to continue writing whose keyboard is more comfortable to use to write anything including to edit text and design it in the Word files.

The tablet has touch screen functions which are difficult for anyone to write briskly like I do.

One has to stare at the keys on the screen so one’s vision can be affected a great deal after a while, writing just a bit.

And it is not easy to edit text that has been written or to design it in the Word files, which they come with.

I have not been able to write anything, except to jot down notes especially when I am traveling or on the road using the tablet.

I thought with a tablet that I can use to write, I can do that in real-time writing when and where I am so I can write better and with more details.

It will be like creating sketches on location and doing that in the hotel remembering the scenes and images to put to paper which can appear to be a rough rendition of them.

I did not bring along my laptop computer as it is bulkier than the tablet and also heavier.

So I have not found any gadget that I can use while traveling, to write on.

I have given up on the tablets of any design or model or brand as they are all the same.

So not surprisingly, I have not heard of any writer who has said he had produced a book typing on the tablet.

I have written long essays using a smartphone which I find to be much more convenient than the tablet.

The tablets are nothing but an advertising gimmick. The makers of them claim that they come with some software but they are almost useless, including their video and photo editing ones, as I have also found out.

I bought the tablets so I thought I could write and record photos and videos and edit some of them using it.

But it does not work as well as the computer which can do all these things and much more comfortably.

If there is a writer who has written an entire novel using the tablet, I surely want to know how he had done it.

It is also not easy to create charts using the tablets. It is easier using the computer anytime.

So I hope those who think they can get their money’s worth for buying the tablet, they must think again. The tablets are totally useless. To me they are only good as an electronic gadget for show, and to take around.

And each time I see an advertisement put out by the manufacturers of the tablets anywhere, I squirm; I fear there will be many who will be convinced by the tricks that their advertising agencies are using to entice them to buy a tablet, which will end up being useless to them.

Of course, everything looks easy in the advertising that are shown again and again on television and in the cinemas that show how you can use the tablets to create interesting videos and photos with.

But the truth is that it is not.