iApple Products

What is a tablet really for? In the first days of the iPad, it was clearly a device that was primarily passive - a way to watch films and TV, extending from the music that now travels everywhere with you on your smartphone.

But times are increasingly changing - for the sophisticated traveller, an iPad or tablet is all that it is necessary to take with you for work and play, so long as you plan ahead. In a world of frequent flying, the fewer adapters the better, but it's all the more important to make sure you still have all the kit necessary to get work done.

Hence the rise of new software from companies such as Citrix, which allow you to log in to any PC via a tablet, and the continued relevance of companies such as Logitech, whose excellent superslim keyboards turn a tablet into as much of a laptop as you need.

Finally, however, a new category of device is starting to emerge: Samsung's Galaxy NotePro is a tablet that follows on from Apple's own increasing emphasis on the iPad as a device that is as much for content creation as consumption. So now you can create Apple's luscious photobooks direct from an iPad, and with the NotePro 12.2 you can benefit from an interface that tidies up some of Android's messier edges to create a look and feel that is somewhere between Windows 8 and a conventional tablet.

Key to the appeal is the obvious size: this is a 12.2" device that provides more real estate and a lovely screen that, in collaboration with the S-Pen stylus is an ideal platform for note-taking as well as for watching those films that are still a valuable part of tablet use.

There are features that are cutting edge, from the USB3 charging to the octacore processor, but the technology is less important than the overall package: this Samsung, Apple's iPad and Sony's Tablet Z are increasingly aiming at a market that wants a single device, but isn't prepared to make compromises. In that sense, the age of the tablet is only just dawning.