iPad mini vs. laptop
 

I bought an iPad mini several years ago. I also have a Dell laptop.
The iPad replaces the laptop almost entirely. The iPad is faster and more portable. It can be used on the road without a WiFi Connection. The downside is storage. 32gb. Although, after two years less than half of the storage has been used.
Anyone think that an iPad mini should be the best choice for the average non technical or business user?

Not for me.
I need a CD drive.

I bought a Samsung Tab S3 tablet. I think it does everything an Ipad does, but it has a removable micro SD card that can store up to 256gb of data, in addition to the 32gb of internal storage. And, soon they will be perfecting a 512gd micro SD card. You can also use a Google drive for cloud storage with 16 gb of free storage and you can purchase unlimited additional storage.

The I-Pad mini is great for some things but Apple's need to sell new versions every couple of years means they stop providing IOS updates, whereas Microsoft still provides updates for my old Acer laptop running Windows 7 and Office 2003. At my age, I no longer am a slave to the newest stuff. Plus I could not find an app for the IPad Mini that was as good as my Basic Quicken for managing my very basic accounting needs.

It depends on what you need it for. For basic stuff (email, basic web surfing & a couple games and other basic apps) my iPad is fine but for "real" computer use you need a "real" computer be it a Windows machine or a Mac of some kind. It just comes down to what you need it for. Personally I couldn't live without a desktop and a laptop.

Have a laptop, iPad and a mini. Travel with mini. All of my personal, bills, banking is done on laptop only. Still have desk top for really big projects.

I have an iPad 3rd generation, think 3-4 years ago. It is as important to me as my iPhone. Travel to Europe yearly, brought Laptops, but the iPad just does it all, plus it all syncs with my Mac's and iPhone.

???

My last three laptops did not have CD drives.

I gave away my Samsung tablet because I could no longer tolerate the tiny keyboard and its tiny keys. I do a lot of typing, so I like my laptop and my desktop. I will NOT store anything in cloud because I am not always in a place where I can access the Internet.

That's odd.
The one I just bought has a DVD/CDRW.

I have a house full of apple products from tv to iPads, I phones,iMac and a MacBook pro. Use the cloud to store everything from pics to important files. 200 gb storage is a whopping $3.99 a month. Every item communicates with the others. Never had any problems. IMHO they are worth the extra $$. If you have an iPhone it makes sense, if not perhaps a pc based tablet would be best like the microsoft surface.

Yes or get a powerful IPhone and save to the cloud. I don't need a computer. I can do everything I need on my Note 5 (Android)... And unless u r working with complicated spreadsheets an iPad or IPhone should be just fine. Best of luck with your purchase...

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i have an Ipad but miss not having a laptop

I still use a desktop for taxes and serious financial tasks. I use a tablet for everything else. A laptop would be handy for travel, but I rarely travel anymore. I have never purchased an Apple product in my life because I could always find a more economical product that did the same tasks. For me, the Samsung tablets and phones are better than Apple products because of the ability to insert a micro SD card and store up to 256 GB of data without using cloud storage. They are also cheaper to buy. I guess the latest Apple product is the IPhone X for over $1,000. I could be wrong, but I think the specs on my Galaxy S8 phone exceed the specs on the new IPhone X in terms of screen size and resolution.

I bought an I-Pad Mini in 2013. I was so proud of it and gave it a name and the Apple Store engraved the name on it. Four years later it won't update. Very disappointing.