As we were closing up on 2009 and heading into 2010, we had the inevitable slew of articles, features and opinion pieces that suggested 2010 to be year of the netbook. The laptop’s smaller cousin was expected to become more powerful, offer better battery and truly be the saviour of those who need an ultra-portable machine, on the move.

We now try to analyse how 2011 will shape up, we look back amazed at how far 2010 actually was, from the predictions. What actually happened was the netbook got relegated to the background, and a new breed of devices took charge. Or at least took control of our attention!

The device I am talking about is the tablet. In simple terms, this is the extremely big cousin of the smartphone, in a relatively similar (but enlarged) form factor. The portability and convenience on the move offered by the Tablet is unmatched. Keep it in the coat pocket, the handbag, or just carry it like a magazine- for it is almost that light.

With three devices now in the fray, let’s analyse which one will suit what type of usage.

1. Multimedia consumption: The tablets, with their 5-inch, 7-inch and 10-inch screens offered a much better experience than the good old smartphone. And they offered the same performance in a form factor much more convenient to carry around than the netbook and laptop. Most tablets offer extremely good multimedia playback in general. Some may suffer if you are looking to play back HD video content, but will do just fine with standard definition videos and your music library.

2. Document viewing/editing: For document viewing, the tablet is a lot more convenient than the smartphone and the laptop. The 7-inch and 10-screen tablets offer a lot of screen space. However, if you have to churn out a complete article while or make a presentation on the move, then a netbook will suit your requirement. A tablet, with its touch only screen will make typing out long text documents a bit of a pain. Or use a phone with a QWERTY keypad. Mind you, there are full-fledged document editing software available for the Android, iOS and Windows on Tablets. Essentially, it is the ‘touchscreen only’ limitation which goes against the tablet.

3. Phone use (voice calls): The smartphone will be the best companion here. It fits in your pocket. You can take it out when the phone rings and see who is calling before deciding whether to answer or not. With a tablet, you can only see who is calling if the device is in your hands at that time. What if it is in a bag? All you can do is pick up the call via the Bluetooth hands-free headset and pray that it isn’t someone you don’t want to chat with! A Tablet is essentially not a comfortable device to be used as a phone. Unless it is the Dell Streak5, with the much more manageable 5-inch screen.

4. Phone Use (Text SMS & Emails): Here also, the touchscreen bit comes into play. For the serious text and email user, a touchscreen phone has never been an option. It has always been a QWERTY keypad loaded phone. This is why the heavy text and email users prefer something like a Blackberry phone. The touchscreen bit limits the Tablets as well, along with touchscreen phones. If you rely on text messages and/or emails on the move, we would recommend you use a phone with a physical QWERTY keypad, rather than anything with a touchscreen only- smartphone or tablet.

5. Gaming: This is where netbook takes a beating straightaway, even though the game range for the PC is the widest- due to the lack of 3D Gaming capabilities. However, not all tablets are equal. The ones with iOS (Apple iPad) and Windows 7 (Viewsonic ViewPad 10) have an advantage over Android tablets (OlivePad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak and Viewsonic ViewPad 7). iOS and Windows tablets have a lot more games available to them, while Android as a platform is still playing catch-up.