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Is Android good enough to be a laptop operating system?


Written by Mihir Patkar
Posted by admin

The Lenovo IdeaPad A10 runs Android 4.2 as the
OS
Lenovo Ideapad A10 (59-388639) Slatebook (quad
Core A9/ 1gb/ 16gb Emmc/

With Windows 8, Microsoft wants one operating
system that works well both on desktop PCs
and tablets. Google, meanwhile, has chosen Android
as its tablet and smartphone interface while
developing Chrome OS for laptops. So what
happens when you put Android on a laptop with a
touchscreen, like with the Lenovo Ideapad A10?

Not Quite Android
Many smartphone makers choose to put custom UI
skins on Android. Usually, I’m not a fan of that. But
on laptops, it’s a necessity. Android isn’t made for
laptops, so to make it usable with this form factor,
things need to change. Which is why Lenovo has
introduced things like a custom dock which mimics
the Windows Launch Superbar.
Android also needs a keyboard which steps away
from the traditional Windows and Linux keyboards,
with special buttons for common Android features
like apps drawer, multi-tasking, etc.
But the downside of all this is that these are, in the
end, cosmetic changes—the limit of what a
company can do without moving beyond the core
challenges Android faces as a laptop OS.

Apps, Apps, Apps
The big problem for Android is that its apps are not
made for use in a laptop or desktop setting, they
are made with the intent of being touched. While
some of them translate decently to a keyboard+mouse interface, they still don’t match up to what
you would get on Windows. And this is especially
found wanting in the quality of the programs.
No office suite, for example, matches up to what
you get in Microsoft Office on Windows or Mac.
Kingsoft Office and others are decent, but the
mobile versions are not as robust as desktop
alternatives. Try working with tables in the word
processor or try a spreadsheet file with macros and
the limitations of mobile office suites come to the
fore.
Then there’s the complete lack of support for
professional applications. Adobe Photoshop Touch
or any other image-editing app on Android doesn’t
hold a candle to their desktop counterparts.
But perhaps the most damaging thing for Android is
that its mobile browsers aren’t as good as Chrome
or Firefox on desktop. By default, these mobile
browsers are set to load pages in mobile mode.
With a few small hacks, you can set it so that the
browser always fetches the desktop version of any
website, but what makes Chrome and Firefox so
great on desktop are the many extensions and
plug-ins that make them a flawless interface to the
internet. Without those, we might as well be using
Internet Explorer, and that’s the same kind of
limitation you feel when you use Chrome Mobile or
Firefox Mobile on Android.

Bad Multi-tasking, Great Multimedia
The other thing that irks the Android laptop user is
the lack of true multi-tasking. While floating
windows have bridged the gap to an extent when
compared to what you’d get on Windows or Linux,
it’s still not as good as the desktop operating
systems.
Where Android does score is in its vast Play Store
and all the goodies that it brings. You have access to
the full Google Play Music library of music, the Play
Movies library of films and TV shows, and the Play
Books library of novels and magazines. As a
multimedia device, Android outshines Windows quite
easily.
There’s also the added benefit of the Play Store and
its collection of great casual games.

What Android Needs To Be A Laptop OS
So the question is, what would Android need to do to
make it a great laptop operating system? The
biggest thing missing, in my opinion, is bringing
great desktop apps to this OS through the same
Play Store. Just like you install Chrome for
smartphones, there should be an option to install
Chrome Desktop for the same touchscreen devices
—this app, however, would need to be made for
keyboard usage.
Apart from the apps front, a focus on true multi-
tasking would be great, but that seems more
unlikely. Instead, hardware manufacturers giving
more RAM in Android laptops makes more sense,
as features like floating windows take the brunt of
turning Android into a desktop interface.
Finally, much like there are homescreen
replacements for smartphones, it would be great if
there were third-party apps or downloadable
elements that customised your Android to be used
for laptops rather than tablets—i.e. turn the focus
from touch-based input to keyboard+mouse input.
As things stand today, however, Android is a long
way away from incorporating these features. As
such, it’s not yet ready to be a laptop operating
system, so your choices are still limited to
Windows, Linux, Mac and Google’s other operating
system, Chrome OS.

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