With the holidays fast approaching, Computerbilities has been flooded with questions regarding the hottest tech-toy this season: the iPad. Upon Steve Jobs’ big unveiling, Apple-addicts waited in lines that wrapped around street corners just to get a glimpse of one. But how does the iPad compare to laptops? And, can iPads replace our beloved notebooks?

In short, no. IPads are sleek and light but they cannot serve as a replacement for laptops. Here are several comparative points:

• Multitasking: The iPad does not allow multitasking. If you are using a laptop for work or school this inability to multitask is an annoyance that’s hard to overlook.

• Digital vs. physical keyboard: Many users struggle with the digital keyboard, especially the mirror effect that occurs when the iPad is laid flat. For students this would make writing term papers difficult at best, but for e-mails and general usage this is not a point of extreme contention.

• Document Creation: Although Apple offers Pages, Keynote and Number (the Microsoft Office equivalent) the touch screen navigation makes creating usable documents difficult.

• E-mail: The iPad concentrates on the visual flourishes and misses key e-mail functions such as flagging, sorting and attaching files.

• Flash: The iPad has easy one-touch access to iTunes but viewing free content on Hulu or YouTube is not an option because the iPad lacks Flash support (there are solutions for flash with an iPad, but they can be a bit cumbersome to use).

• Price: Including all the accessories an iPad costs anywhere from $499.00 to $829.00 BEFORE you buy the accessories, while laptops come to about the same price and include more software and document creation capability.

• Ports: The iPad only has two ports, which are for charging and headphones. Many users would like to have ports for SD cards or USB sticks. The missing ports and inability to attach files to e-mails leaves many users’ data stranded in Apple world.

Now, please don’t get us wrong. I am NOT saying that you shouldn’t buy an iPad. The iPad has many great features.

First, it is compact. The iPad weighs about 1.5 lbs and gives it portability beyond any laptop. You say the iPad is not compact enough for you? Get an iTouch, basically the mini version of the iPad (or maybe the iPad is the extended version of the iTouch). The iPad is versatile enough to use in place of an e-reader, and let’s face it, it is FUN!!!

Then, of course, there is the “Coolness” factor. Beyond any doubt, the iPad is one of the coolest gadgets out their, and when you consider that it can run Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), an app that will let you login to your windows computer, you have a great excuse to buy one.

So… what am I getting this Christmas? Something to go along with my iTouch. You guessed it… an iPad!