Tablets and smartwatches.. Why?

Tablet for me is mostly comfortable media consumption. Especially when the wife and kid are sleeping or when traveling.

My primary use for smartwatch is media controls when running, so I don't have to pull out my phone to play/pause/skip tracks etc.

I've also found that it's handy to use for timers for cooking.

Tablet

Great for watching videos, reading the newspaper and drawing (with a digital pen).

I actually don't have a laptop anymore, because I found that a tablet could do everything I needed on the go with less bulk, longer lasting battery and no fan noise.

Smartwatch

Tracks my heartrate (had some issues with elevated heart rate before), guilt-trips me into doing more excercise, shows me notifications without having to get my phone out, displays the time with a customizable watch face.

Tablet is just a bigger screen...

And this is why I got a tablet, I needed more space in my screen 🤷‍♂️

But then, why not get an external portable monitor connected to the smartphone?
- Because then I'm giving my phone more responsibility and the goal is to take away some from it, I don't want to be reading and get bombarded with notifications from social media, or get calls, or drain my battery by doing do. I want a dedicated device for that, an a tablet is more capable than an e-reader. I also want to practice writing and a tablet with a digital pen is good for that purpose.

less functionality than a smartphone

Tablet is just a bigger screen

A bigger screen is more functionality.

Well, i guess so.

By that logic, an external, portable screen connected to the smartphone is even more functionality!

I prefer to read manga and comics on a tablet screen, easy to make text bigger for someone with dyslexia, more portable than a laptop, not to mention cheaper. Smart watch makes it so u don't have to pull out my phone when i get a notification at work or when my hands are full, and i can glance to see if it's important. Also helps me reduce my screen time, and lengthens my phone's battery life. As far as tracking, i have almost all tracking disabled except what is necessary for operation of the "local"(i have precise gps disabled) weather. All health features and telemetry disabled/routed to 0.0.0.0. i understand not everyone has uses for these kinda of devices, but that doesn't mean no one does. My watch lasts 2+ months on a charge, my phone 1-3 days, tablet, lives connected to a wall unless i wanna read on the go. I don't worry about battery life.

Which watch have you?

I use a Pine64 watch, and set it as a notification center. It shows me notifications as they come in, so I don't have to take my phone out of my pocket while at work. It allows me to see if the notification is urgent or if it can wait until break. When I'm not at work, I put on an analog watch. I don't use tablets, except for an ereader.

Edit: added link.

I was interested in the Pine64 for its very low price, i mean, even if I don't like it, i didn't spend much on it.

But then.. Why would i pay for a device that gives me more notifications??

My phone has no notification sound, not even vibration, I hate being distracted while I am in the middle of something!!

I want less notifications, not more!!
- The same reason why I almost didn't buy it. But I changed my mind after missing a very important sms, because I was at work and couldn't take the phone out of my pocket.
  
  To each their own, for sure, and notifications on the wrist isn't for everyone.

My partner is a mechanic and is often underneath a vehicle when a notification comes through; so for him, the watch acts like an extension of his phone that he doesn't have to worry about falling out of his pocket.

And while he does have to worry about damaging the watch, this would still be true if it was a phone in his pocket; but would just be more surface area to get knocked into things.

Personally, I work at a desk all day; so outside of a few phone calls a month, I probably don't even need a phone...

I got iPad for drawing and reading comics/manga on a bigger screen and reading/writing on PDFs.

Because they're different than a laptop, desktop, phone, with different capabilities and limitations.

Why are you using Lemmy when reddit works better?

(By "better", I'm sure someone could make arguments why reddit works better for them, that would make as much sense as OP's opinion on "better" regarding these devices).

Or more simply, your opinion is just that - your opinion.

This makes no sense.

There is a reason both us are on Lemmy, but It still doesn't make sense to compare software to hardware.

Its not about opinions. I am asking actively: WHY? why do you use a tablet or smartwatch?

I have a Garmin for trail running, but it has a compass, offline maps, barometric altimeter, bunch of other stuff. I used it to plan a 2000 mile route through Canada while driving last summer because my phone had shit-tier 2G/3G roaming. I have it scheduled to go into ultra battery conservation mode when I should be sleeping and only need to charge it every 2 weeks.

It also records activities even without a phone, just need internet to upload it to Strava later, so pretty handy to be able to run without a phone (Strava or it didn't happen lol)

Off-topic, but: do you need some Garmin account to use these functionalities? I am looking into such a watch, but would not like to be dependent on some online service/account to use it.
- The big tl;dr is that a lot of stuff will work, but a lot of things relying on historical data will not work (resting heart rate, weekly step count, sleep, etc).
  
  But, the app/account is unobtrusive to the point that you could name yourself Mickey Mouse on creation, just to get a user ID for the watch to point to, and set permissions on the app on some schedule just to have the watch sync that data.
  
  No sort of verification/authentication of identity at account creation and the app/services are free (I'm sure, given this day and age, there's premium/subscription stuff but like I said it's unobtrusive and I've never once been nagged to upgrade my account)
What Garmin are you using?

I could look into a watch that needs to be recharged ~~never~~ every few weeks.
- I have the Fenix 6X, which normally lasts 4-5 days with all bells and whistles enabled. Three settings I use to extend the battery to 2 weeks:
  
  Disabled backlight on gesture, kept backlight enabled on keypress, set backlight to 5% and 4 seconds.
  
  Disabled SPO2/oximetry (huge battery hog and doesn't ruin functionality of other things to disable)
  
  Battery Saver set on a schedule for 10 hours per day - disables wifi/bluetooth. Basically an extreme 'do not disturb'.
  
  But the two week figure is when I'm not doing many if any activities. Every other Wednesday it gets to around 20% and I charge it, but when I was running a lot it was closer to once a week.
  
  Fenix 7 apparently has even better battery life tho so you might be able to wring 3 weeks out of that thing

It's about what I would or could use it for that I wouldn't use a phone for. I don't want a giant phone. I don't really enjoy watching videos/movies on a phone. For home control I don't need anything but wifi and maybe Bluetooth and I'm not interested in paying smartphone prices for the privilege. Same thing for viewing weather or schedules at a glance. Having that functionality to check on a smart phone is fine. Useful. Having it on a tablet where I can glance at it while getting dressed is better. And the speakers are generally better with better battery life (more space for a bigger battery) on a tablet. If you don't have the use case for a piece of tech, of course it doesn't make sense.

I guess that is what I am doing: searching for a use case, but the smartphone remains undefeated!

The only use case that I can find is to use it as a backup laptop: in the event I lose or break the laptop, i could get by with a tablet.

Although i could also get by with the smartphone 🤔
- Undefeated for you. I take it you don't work in a place where smartphones are not allowed. Or where it would be inconvenient to use a smart phone, but more convenient to use a watch or tablet (out to sea on a ship for instance). There's plenty of use cases. If you're looking for them for yourself I'm not sure we're likely to be able help you with that. If you're wondering why they're on the market at all, then it's because other people do have a use for them.

since a lot of functionality at my job that doesn't require me to physically be in the office can be done on a web browser I use my tablet as a work computer if the office is occupied. before this year I used my smartwatch as a phone monitor because even vibrating I can't feel my phone ringing in my pocket or vibrate for text messages. and it was literally vitally important that I be available 24/7. these days I no longer need to be constantly available but I now have to monitor my glucose levels so I found a watchface and corresponding phone app to send that information to my phone.

tablets and watches still have a place for a lot of people.

I was also interested in glucose monitoring, but the Samsung watch7 only gives an estimate.

The technology is still way behind.

Tablet: Read magazines and watch TV shows. You might be fine if you own a large phone, though.

A tablet is nice because it's a bigger screen. I like reading ebooks on them. (plz don't tell me to get an e-reader)

A watch is nice because it means you can ignore your phone, but still reply to notifications. I like the more accurate step count. I'd really like a device that counts my lengths when swimming too, but I haven't had a chance to use one yet.

In both cases I've gotten devices that have more battery than I expect. I rarely found myself in a situation where charging was a hassle.

I use my tablet for site surveys and leave my phone at home or work. It is light to carry, has great battery life, has a sim card, memory slot, headphone jack. When I'm done work I can watch a film. It's some shitty Samsung thing work gave me, it's great. I don't think I would ever buy a tablet myself though.

I do not have a use for a smart watch.

I've bought probably 5 or 6 tablets in my life. Each time, I thought I'd find a use for them. Every time, though, I ended up giving them away to someone so they didn't languish in a drawer.

The only use I found for a tablet was as an e-reader, but it was never really great at it (too large/awkward, poor battery life, etc). Bought a Kobo for that, and it's perfect.

Smartwatches? I can see the appeal for those. I don't wear it anymore, but the one I had was useful to use as a remote control for my phone (answer calls, see incoming notifications, music control, etc) while leaving my phone in my pocket. It didn't have any radio besides Wifi/BLE and was purely an accessory device. It synced with my phone via GadgetBridge, and everything stayed local.

And a smartwatch with a cell radio is no more/less a tracking device than the phone you're already carrying. Assuming you're not syncing your health data to some cloud service, that is.

I use my tablet to take handwritten notes.

I use my tablet to watch porn.

Also regular TV and movies, but mostly porn.

Tablet - if you don't need laptop power, but still would like to use some laptop like features (keyboard+mouse, Dex/desktop mode etc), or simply enjoying a bigger screen.

Watch - There are SOOO many different watches out there nowadays, with SOOO many different purposses. Some are really nothing like Samsung's , Apple's or Google's "tracking devices".

I got myself a somewhat pricey Garmin because i want to get more in shape (i have cardiac arrythmia, having troubles sleeping, depression and some bad health things happened in my family lately). Do i get tracked (assuming you mean the data farming thingies..)? Probably, a bit at least. But having a tool with many, many build-in tools that helps me get in shape and gives me some insights, has pretty much 'unlimited' battery life (solar version) and has some features that are just 'handy/fun' to have? I'd give up a little of my 'personal info' for that.

And, with many optional features, open-source apps and OS's, devices don't always are 'tracking devices'. Put in a little effort and things can be pretty sweet!

Tablets have bigger screen. This is important for some people but start watchs are something that i don't find useful

I asked the same question, until I found myself overweight and needing to start some sort of exercise practice, started walking, so got a cheaper level fitness tracker/watch, which is easier to refer to while engaged in activity than removing my phone from my pocket, it also is able to take readings directly from my body being pressed directly against it, so yeah, that's why

Problem is, smartwatches don't even track right. The tracking features are symbolic at best, and vary wildly between manufacturers!

I agree with you about watches. Tablets though, I disagree. I have several different tablets and they do different things in my workflow from my laptops or phones. My tablets can be an ebook reader, weather center, and video viewer. One of them, I read comic books on. They're easier to use for those purposes than my laptop. I would need a second monitor to do those things, and I would need to switch it to tate mode for comic books and other ebooks to be comfortable for me to read. Plus, I couldn't read easily in bed or somewhere like that even with the form factor of the smallest netbook in my collection.

What do you mean by "weather center"?
- I mean that I have two different radar apps along with the Accuweather software. I look at it both for long-term and short-term forecasts. The last time I had a dedicated device just to do weather with the granularity and scale that I have on my tablet, the unit was called a home weather center (and required both GPS and internet access).

I hate watches. Back before pocket phones (I'm old enough to remember when car phones were a thing for the rich) I carried a pocket watch instead of a wrist watch like most people had. Once I got a flip phone which fit in my pocket I stopped using the pocket watch. (I don't remember why I had both a "candy bar" phone and a pocket watch)

I use my Samsung A8 tablet mainly for reading in bed.

I use a smartwatch as a second phone that's always on me. Especially when I forget my main phone.

But you can do a lot less stuff, and in very uncomfortable way!!
- A smart watch certainly has more functionality to the wearer than a forgotten phone.

Smart watch will be what I get my kid instead of a smartphone. Its basically the modern day bepper in my eyes.

Makes sense! In that context, the missing functionality work in its favour:

kid won't install apps that steal data and money, or games

small screen means he won't be using it 24/7 and develop screen addiction

And he can't lose it as easily.

Tablet: TV in my camper van. But it wasn't expensive. I spent $120 on it new.

Watch: Companion to the phone. Does strava things beyond just riding a bike.

What stava things?

I've never used stava, but I do have a bike
- Sorry, typo. Strava.

I don’t have a smart watch both because I don’t really see the point in them and because adding extra things to be on me bothers me, so I wouldn’t even be wearing a regular watch.

As for tablets: It’s just a convenient compromise between a phone and a laptop for basic browsing and video watching. I can comfortably lay in bed with a tablet rested against the wall or propped up on my nightstand. It’s harder to do that with a phone or laptop and obviously the phone screen is also just smaller. I don’t really take the tablet with me unless I’m going on a long trip, but when I am it’s nice to both have the bigger screen and actually have my media device be on a separate battery from the device I need for communication and navigation.

Tablets are better than a smartphone for drawing. They're also cheaper than a pen display and have a smaller learning curve than a pen tablet. They're also a bit more portable and tend to have better battery life than a laptop. I also like using a tablet for reading comics.

I have a tablet with magnetic keyboard. It's about 20% as heavy as my laptop, doesn't make a noise when it's trying to keep itself cool and allows me to shop online, read some news, or browse Lemmy just fine.

They do it to fit into an in group called havers. They have stuff.

edit: probably not the people in this thread though, moreso the watch havers