Some Android-based tablets can double up as a phone. But is it a good idea to ditch your cellphone?

Seven days with a ringing tablet

Some Android-based tablets can double up as a phone. But is it a good idea to ditch your cellphone? R Krishna uses a tablet as his phone for a week

Any tech pundit will tell you that the tablet is a device whose function lies between your smartphone and laptop. Which basically means that you have to own all three devices. Unfortunately, this means setting aside a large budget just for gadgets. That’s why tablets that double up as a phone are an alluring prospect. I, for one, have always been skeptical of such an arrangement. Using a large device like tablet as a phone is plain impractical. Recently, I decided to put my theory to test by using a tablet as a phone for about a week. Bemused colleagues wondered how I was going to hold a tablet to my ear, and were relieved when I told them that a hands-free provides a simple fix. But first, a little something about the tablet I was using: It was the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Note 800. Samsung, which lost a patent case to Apple last month, has tweaked the design significantly to make it look different from the iPad. A curvy silver border frames the all-white body. The exterior, despite being constructed entirely out of plastic, has a great finish, and in the bargain, allows the Galaxy Note 800 to be thin and light. The tablet is powered by a quad-core processor, along with a separate graphics processor. Suffice to say this was one loaded tablet. I put my SIM card in the tablet and was ready to go. I had bought a bluetooth headset a few years ago but I don't use it anymore. I felt it was the right time to bring it back into action. Unfortunately, it broke the moment I tried putting it in my ear. My only other option was to resort to regular earphones. But here lies the problem. The tablet was too large to fit into my pocket or carry in my hand. So I put it in my backpack. As a result, when it rang, I had no way of knowing whether I was getting a call or an SMS. To hear the entire ring-tone, I would have had to connect the earphones to the tablet, get the tablet out of my backpack and then put the earphones into my ears. This turned out to be quite a complication. I could have avoided this if I had a wireless headset. But then I would have had to wear it around all the time, and I am not yet ready to look like a half-bot. So the tablet remained in the bag, with its volume set at the highest level, and the earphones wound around the tablet. The moment I heard a ring, I would swing my bag in front, fish out the tablet, unwind the earphones, and... well, the call would get disconnected by then. I would then have to call the person back, talking into the 10inch slate, as a friend sitting next to me looked on in amusement. Stares from the friend, however, were nothing compared to the attention I got walking on the street and in a crowded Mumbai local as I tried talking on the tablet. The reaction from the person speaking on the other end was no better. “I can hear the vehicles on the road clearer than your voice,” said one friend angrily, “When are you going back to your regular phone?” To be fair, the situation would have been far better had I used a standard-issue hands-free, which comes with a mic, and is better suited for telephonic conversation. Typing an SMS turned out to be rather awkward as well. It was okay if I were at home or at the office, sitting at a desk. But typing while walking? Not a great idea. Samsung offers the option of splitting the keyboard into two, making it easy to type with two thumbs as you hold the tablet. But this doesn’t really help. After three days of the experiment, I was desperate to switch back to my cellphone. I started ignoring calls, and sending only selective messages. The only advantage of using the tablet was that finally my phone had extra battery life – it lasted a day and a half, compared with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S II) which starts complaining about a near-empty battery after just over half a day. My experience is in no way a reflection on the Galaxy Note 800, which is a good tablet in its own right. The tablet is meant for consumption of media – read a book, browse websites, watch videos, catch up on social media. Each of them leisurely activities. A phone, on the other hand, fulfills urgent needs, which is why it has to be accessible anytime, anywhere. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t own a tablet. Just make sure you have a basic phone to make phone calls and send texts. I now say this from experience.