It's a hotly-debated point at the moment, being brought up by the selling power of gadgets like the Kindle and the iPad. Should you buy an eReader, or go for a tablet PC? Which one is worth spending your money on?
What will you mainly be using it for?
To start off with, let's make one thing clear. An eReader is just what it says it is - it's for reading electronic books. It may have some other capabilities, depending on the manufacturer, like note-taking, dictionary look ups, an MP3 player, and sometimes a very basic web browser. But at the end of the day it only has one purpose: to read electronic books.
On the other side, we have the tablet PC, which is designed to be a very portable computer. It can connect to the internet, send and receive emails, watch movies, listen to music, play plenty of games, and use thousands of apps (applications) which can allow you to do much more.
So when you're trying to decide between an eReader vs. Tablet PC, you need to remember that they have different markets. The eReader is made for bookworms - people who read a great deal and love to read. It's designed to make the reading it can be as simple and natural as using "e-Ink" - the nearest you'll come to "real" ink and paper on any digital device. On the other hand, the tablet isn't as comfy to read with, using its more computer-like display screen - but it can perform a lot more functions, and display color illustrations.
What's your budget?
In the war of the eReader vs tablet PC, the eReader certainly beats the tablet PC on price. eReaders are much much less expensive than the vast majority of tablets. OK, you can get a tablet for the price of an eReader - but it will be a low-end option which runs a lot more slowly and has less impressive overall features. You certainly won't get anything alike to the iPad for anything less than $500, which is a big wad of cash if you're not really sure whether you need one!
On the other hand, an eReader can easily be found for under $100 even for the best models. They are very simple to use and the battery can last for weeks (as opposed to 10 hours on a tablet.) This simplicity and battery life is down to the fact that they only have one functions.
Perhaps in the end it revolves around one simple question: "How much do you like reading, and how much are you planning to do?" I you are a real hardcore bookworm, and you're planning to read every day, then you should definitely consider an eReader - the reading experience is far superior than using a tablet screen.
However, if you'd rather have a device with the flexibility to do many other things as well, then the tablet has to win the eReader vs tablet PC discussion!
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