When picking up a mobile computing solution it’s always hard to choose from the huge collection of brands and models of various different types of devices available in the market. However there are basically mainly 3 types of mobile computing devices in the market. Smartphones, netbooks, and tablets. Tablets being the latest entrants since the introduction of the iPad. So what we’re doing today is weighing the pros and cons of all 3 devices and analyze how they compare with each other. This would give you a better understanding of which type of device suits you and your requirements better.

Size and form factor: Do you need portability, or power?

The most obvious and most noticeable advantage of a phone is that it’s pretty small and even though smartphones are usually larger than regular phones, they can easily slip into your pocket, and be carried anywhere. However, there’s a downside to this. In comparison to notebooks and even tablets, cellphones are the least productive. Typing out mails on a notebook is far easier than using your thumbs on even the best QWERTY around. It also has less processing power, which means it cannot handle more intensive tasks that a notebook, or even a tablet can.

Tablets can disguise themselves in many ways and forms. For example the Apple iPad doesn’t come with a keyboard at all, unless you choose to go for the dock which comes with an integrated keyboard. Whereas on the other hand, Acer’s Eee PC T-91M comes with a keyboard, but also sports a touch screen display and operates using the Windows 7 operating system. But in general tablets are not as powerful as notebooks.

There is also a whole host of devices that have made an attempt to bridge the gap between a smartphone/tablet, such as the new Nokia N900 that operates using the Linux-based Maemo OS and the rumored Nokia N9 that is said to have the Meego OS again based on Linux. Both of these devices include a full QWERTY keyboard, and although they may have a much smaller screen, they can prove to be powerful competition in terms of processing power when compared to these modern tablets. Most of these smartphones are now sharing the same operating system and features as the tablets, the biggest example being Andriod.

When taking the form factor into consideration, ask yourself if

1. You are going to be traveling with your device a lot, and need to use it while on the go
2. You need something to type out a lot of long emails – a notebook might be a better option, keypads on PDA phones and such are typically too small to get a lot of work done.
3. You want to produce, or consume? It is said notebooks are meant for producing, tablets are meant for consuming. A tablet is more for those who are looking for entertainment on the go. Of course, there are some notebooks from the likes of Toshiba and HP that also have tablet functionality.

Operating system

Since the dawn of the applications boom, more and more developers are coming out with applications which are simple and usually cheap to download onto your phone, whether you have a BlackBerry, Windows, iPhone or Andriod device. However, the displays on smartphones are usually small and many popular mobile applications such as Pocket Excel or power point only allow you to read documents instead of giving you the ability to create them on the move.

Tablets however have integrated a different sort of OS as compared to the one you’d expect on a netbook, which gives them the ability to perform almost the same amount of tasks which a notebook or even a laptop could perform thanks to larger displays and better(more powerful) hardware. Although some tablets like the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet, do utilize the touch screen features of Windows 7, some other tablets may use a slimmed-down version of the most popular operating systems.

There are, however special operating systems designed for the tablet market that can be modified depending on the manufacturer’s needs like Android that is a very versatile operating system and is also being incorporated in netbooks as well. Netbooks however come with much more powerful hardware such as dual core processors and up to 2 GB ram. Which allows them to used full-fledged operating systems that allow the user to perform almost any task on the move. However they can be twice as heavy and bulky when compared to a keyboard less tablet.

Battery life

Battery life is a major issue when using a smartphone. Most of the manufacturers implement batteries which are mostly just designed for making and taking calls, receiving emails and powering an always-on data connection which tends to drain the battery very fast

They are not usually designed to run multiple applications, and simultaneously swapping between Wi-Fi and a data network for long periods of time. So if you need a longer amount of working time from your device don’t just depend on a smartphone, go for a separate device for your work needs.

The battery lives of netbooks and tablets are however very comparable both of them often provide a backup of up to 10 hours. Its very obvious that with a tablet, there’s a fairly large touch screen to power, but this doesn’t usually much of an affect on the battery life because of the slightly less powerful hardware, which has been very well demonstrated by the iPad.

Multitasking and processing power

Multitasking is big issue when we talk about smartphones. Although many smartphones today are capable of multitasking some of which include BlackBerrys, Android devices and any handset which is running Windows Mobile they still are not powerful enough to perform them smoothly and they consume more battery and also slow the phone down.

Tablet PCs and netbooks are usually designed to run like regular notebooks, so are much more capable of running more than one program or app at any one time without being bogged down.

Processor speed is the main thing to consider in this task. You will obviously get a much higher speed from tablets and netbooks thanks to a full-fledged processor.  Whether you opt for Intel, ARM or any other processor, it will always be faster than a smartphone, and can also offering speeds up to 1.6GHz.

Storage

Storage Capacity is very important to keep in mind when choosing a device. Most smartphones and tablets enough memory so you can always store every document you’ve ever written, in addition to music and video, in spite of that fact many smartphones and tablets still have a long way to go until they can have the same amount of storage space as netbooks. They may have the additional advantage of having a microSD card slot for an extra hot-swappable memory card which can provide you with up to 64 GB of extra memory its still not enough to match the memory of netbooks which can be extended to up to 320GB which is what most laptops have.

Remember that a notebook’s hard drive is usually upgradeable, and there are up to 1 TB hard drives available in a 2.5-inch form factor.