The Apple iPad Pro Tablet, an industry standard. The Samsung Galaxy 3 Tablet with a detachable keyboard. The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Tablet

Optics is a broad term, and usually birding optics includes binoculars, spotting scopes, cameras and lenses, and accessories for all those products. This week let’s expand the description of birding optics to include computers and, specifically, tablets. Tablets provide a much-enlarged version of a cellphone’s viewing and computer capabilities, minus the phone. They provide a more manageable version of a computer that helps us better share our field notes and rare bird reports from the field; and they are undeniably easier to use to check ID and range information about different species. Tablets are clearly useful at home too, as well as at work or school, for birding activities and all the other computer options.

Do you need a tablet? Probably not. Is a tablet a great addition to your field equipment? Definitely!

Tablets are much more mobile and more manageable than a laptop computer, and tablets provide much better screen views and readability than using a comparatively “mini-screened” cellphone. Tablets also offer a camera and ample memory to store photos and other helpful information. Many tablets also provide the option of using a detachable traditional keyboard or an on-screen keyboard. Plus, we were surprised by how affordable tablets are today, especially if you take a look at 2018 or even 2017 (new) models available today.

So where do you start? The feedback we get indicates Apple is even more dominant among tablet products than cellphones. iPads appear to be the obvious first models to check out, then go to the equally obvious Samsung Galaxy, then whatever else shows up on your product searches, including a Microsoft tablet. We found the popular website techradar.com provided a fair introductory review of the Top 10 Best Tablets, which you can refer to at https://www.techradar.com/news/best-tablet

Be open to the improved options that a tablet can offer, and think about how a tablet can improve your birding options and communications – in the field, on the road, and at home. Try one, you’ll like it.