Should I Buy a Tablet or a Laptop? Back to School 2021

Rogelio Valdés

Mar 22, 2021

One of the most common questions parents ask us is whether they should buy their children a tablet, a Chromebook, or a Windows laptop. In this video, I share our view and comparison, taking into account the kinds of programs students may want to use.

The biggest difference is between laptops and tablets. It does not matter whether we are talking about Android tablets from Samsung, LG, or Huawei, or even Apple devices. In general, tablets are consumption devices, not creation devices.

For school, a tablet may work just fine in many cases. A student can use Zoom, watch class content, and even create simple presentations or text documents with PowerPoint or Word. But if your son or daughter wants to learn how to code, build their own video games, or create websites, a tablet usually will not be enough. More and more tools for those kinds of projects are appearing on tablets, but honestly they are still limited and the experience is usually not ideal. The main exception is when a child wants to create digital art. In that case, an Apple iPad with an Apple Pencil can be an excellent creative tool. But in general, if the goal is to create technology, I recommend a laptop.

Then the next question is: should it be a Chromebook, a Mac, or a Windows machine? The main difference between those devices is the operating system. A Windows laptop is what most people think of as a standard PC, and today they usually come with Windows 10 or newer. Macs are Apple computers and are generally more expensive. Chromebooks, meanwhile, use Chrome OS, which is basically centered around the browser.

The advantage of Chromebooks is that they tend to be cheaper. The drawback is that you cannot run many of the programs you would normally use on a Mac or a Windows computer. It is almost like having a computer that only runs Google Chrome and does not let you install other traditional programs. So how do people work on them? The answer is that many applications have become web apps. Just as you can create documents in Google Docs or presentations in Google Slides, there are now many tools you can use entirely inside the browser.

We try to make sure our courses work on any kind of laptop, whether it is a Mac, a Windows machine, or a Chromebook. In our courses on video game programming, robotics, video production, animation, music production, and web development, we use browser-based applications or tools that can run on nearly any computer. Some of them can also run on tablets, but as I mentioned before, the experience is not always ideal.

That said, there are more advanced programs, especially in our higher-level game development tracks, where students do need a Mac or Windows computer in order to install specific software.

So, to summarize everything: what should you choose? Personally, I would try to get a Windows laptop or a Mac, depending on your budget. There are several price ranges within those two options. If my budget did not stretch that far, I would get a Chromebook, and once I had that laptop, I would consider adding a tablet later as a device for leisure or light use.

In another video, I will share a list of the best laptops to buy in 2021, taking into account everything I discussed here and different budget levels. I invite you to subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications so you do not miss the next videos.