Comment by jiggy2011 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jiggy2011 | Hacker News Reader

Device convergence seems like something that sounds great in theory, but based on my observations people seem to enjoy filling their lives with more gadgets rather than less especially when you have devices that can fit one specific use case very well.

Example would be games consoles and the amazon kindle, in fact plenty of people will have 2 games consoles to play different kinds of games (e.g wii and xbox).

I think the main draw of hybrid devices is where buying individual devices is unaffordable to most people (e.g cars) whereas the price is computing devices seems to be coming down.

Dedicated devices have other advantages too, for example if your kids are bored you can hand them your tablet or let them play xbox while leaving your laptop free to work on.

it might also be nice to have a hybrid device if carrying two devices is cumbersome. However in the event that you will be carrying a laptop, you probably have it in a bag find that a small tablet will fit comfortably in there also.

I agree. Because of the "hybrid" theory, I also thought that's the future initially. But once I started using Windows 8, and thinking about the compromises you have to make with a "hybrid", I realized it's not the best of both worlds, but the worst of both worlds.

With a Surface RT you get no legacy app support, and it's slow. You get support for Atom ones, but they are still too slow for most legacy apps. And they are not very cheap either. At a time that even an iPad, the market leader in tablets, costs $330, these things are going for $600+ with a keyboard. They stand no chance.

As for Surface Pro, you get the speed of an ultrabook (more than a tablet, but less than a regular laptop, or a PC), but 4h of battery life, so not useful as a tablet, while only having a relatively tiny tablet screen, compared to a laptop, so I don't think you can be that productive on it. It's also too thick and heavy for a tablet.

I now think the future really is having a good, no compromises tablet, that should be very affordable, especially in the future. And a good, no compromises laptop with a large screen, that you can use for work, and you don't have to change every year, or even every 2 years.

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