The perfect combination of convenience and powerful capabilities, it’s no wonder tablets are a popular choice for busy lifestyles. With easy-to-use touch screens and the ability to forego a bulky keyboard altogether, tablets are useful for far more than office management tasks; you can use your tablet for games and entertainment on lengthy road trips, to stream music or movies, or even as an e-reader to complete that novel you committed to finishing this year.

Tablets differ from similar devices (such as notebooks or convertible laptops); they are meant to serve as a middle ground between smartphones and computers, providing the best from both worlds. There are many reasons you might want to purchase a tablet.

The first question you should ask yourself is how you intend to use your tablet. Will you be using your tablet for sales presentations within an office setting? Will you be utilizing the intuitive touch screen to play educational games with your child, or even your dog? (Yes, there’s an app for that.) Or, for the most part, will you just use your tablet for business tasks such as email and word processing? Once you’ve decided on the tasks you want your tablet to perform, here are the key components to evaluate.

Operating System

If you plan on pairing your tablet device with your phone or laptop, it might be wise to choose a tablet that will pair easily with the already existing operating systems in your technology library. Most tablets operate on Android or iOS, though some models utilize Windows.

Androids tend to be more budget-friendly, but lower price points can also result in variations in terms of quality. Windows-based systems tend to focus on keyboard and office use; their touch screen features may be less friendly than their peers’.

Power, Storage, and Battery Life
If you want your tablet to serve as a replacement to a laptop, one of the most important factors might be the ability to run important applications without your workflow being interrupted. For true office performance quality, you will want a tablet that has the memory, storage, and CPU power to handle multiple apps running at once.

Greater processing power often means lower battery life. The portable intent of a tablet becomes greatly defeated if you have to sit near an outlet to use it. Battery life varies from tablet to tablet. One way to be sure you are getting what you want is to consider the apps you will be utilizing. See what other reviewers have to say about using those or similar apps, and how they affected battery life on a particular tablet.

Additionally, consider the built-in storage of your tablet in terms of how much space you think you will need. Some models feature a microSD card slot which will help you be able to effortlessly expand as your storage needs grow.