An American in Paris Says Au Revoir to His Laptop | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD

Walt Mossberg hits the road sans laptop

The idea wasn’t to test the iPad per se as a laptop replacement, but to try it as a proxy for the whole wave of touch-controlled slates beginning to roll out, or planned in coming months, from companies such as Dell, Samsung, and others. All of these products will be vying to replace the laptop, at least some of the time, and in some scenarios.

So, what happened? Well, for me, the experiment was a pleasant success. With a few exceptions, I got everything done that I would have done with a laptop. Yet I toted a lot less weight, enjoyed much better battery life, and had a computer that started up instantly whenever I reached for it. I also was able to combine the functions of a comfortable e-reader with those of a laptop.

An American in Paris Says Au Revoir to His Laptop | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD