Tablet or Laptop for professional work

Which is better for professional work – Tablet or laptop? Tablets have been getting extremely powerful lately and many have been thinking if it is possible to replace a laptop with a tablet for working on professional applications like AutoCAD, solidworks, 3D modeling applications and so on. The answer is – it depends.

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To run the most powerful version of AutoCAD or similar application, you require windows and the most powerful windows tablet is Microsoft Surface Pro. If you get a cheap windows tablet under 200 dollars, you will be able to install solidworks or AutoCAD but you would not be able to run them properly. This is because they come equipped with ULV ultra low processors that simply lack the horsepower to run such processor intensive applications properly.

The reason we recommend Microsoft Surface Pro is due to its powerful specifications and high resolution screen with 4096 pressure levels. So, you do not need to buy a Wacom digitizer like in case of laptop or desktop. Try getting the top end i7 processor version that is backed by Intel Iris graphics card which is more than capable of handling all of your AutoCAD and 3D applications. The i5 version of Surface Pro tablet is good too but i7-equipped model is much more capable.

Laptops are a better choice if keyboard is important to you. They are also better if you have budget constraints. It is easier to find a laptop for AutoCAD as laptop components are so much cheaper than the tablet components. This is because there is more space inside a laptop compared to a tablet which is why less high tech components are needed. If you go for higher end computers, you will be able to find powerful graphics cards are cheaper prices. The tablet GPUs lack the horsepower that laptop and desktop GPUs have.

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If you are a moderate user and tight on budget, you should for a cheap laptop for AutoCAD. But if you have good budget and you want a highly mobile computer, Microsoft Surface Pro tablet is a better choice. Make sure to go for windows tablet and stay away from Apple iPad. Despite their commercials, the iOS system just lacks the flexibility that is provided by windows machines.