First look: Galaxy S21 and everything else announced at Samsung Unpacked [in pictures]
Browse all the products and highlights from Samsung's January 2021 Unpacked event.
Tablets are taking over the world, and it’s taken them longer than most people realize. The Tablet PC appeared over 12 years ago, and contrary to popular belief there were some pretty good ones. Here are the author’s picks for the top five tablets of all time.
The Tablet PC introduced by Microsoft over a decade ago was the result of a pet project by then company CEO Bill Gates. The thought of a portable digital slate that was used with a pen was advanced, but as history has demonstrated given the unsuccessful run of the Tablet PC that’s not always enough.
Even with the less than successful run of those Tablet PCs, they were the perfect solution for some. I fit in that small group as I used them in my consulting work for a long time. I took dozens of pages of handwritten notes every day for years, as it offered one major benefit over paper. I could search my handwritten notes and find the particular nugget of information I had recorded. That beat paper notes hands down.
My work back then consisted of attending five to six meetings daily, often at multiple venues all over town. I would take copious notes on the tablet, and at the end of the day would use the tablet’s keyboard to write official reports. I did all of this while also writing about mobile tech as a hobby. My days were full of words, handwritten and typed, and tablets were the vehicle for recording them.
Having used a number of tablets since the birth of the Tablet PC and into the present age, it’s worth noting the best of the lot. Most of them were amazing feats of engineering for their time.
The five tablets listed here were/are all used by me in my work and play. Together they recorded tens of thousands of handwritten pages of notes, and hundreds of thousands of written words. They are the five best tablets ever made, in this writer’s opinion.
They are presented in chronological order, based on the year each was released for sale. Each was chosen for this top five list based on some particular design that set it ahead of the pack, or for the total package that pushed it ahead of the competition.
If you have a favorite tablet, any type, that doesn't appear on this list, share it in the comments below. It’s fun to take trips down memory lane and important to not forget where we’ve been.
Caption by: James Kendrick
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