The choice between in a chrome book and a tablet is totally dependent on your requirements and need. A chrome book is simply a budget solution for the regular laptop designed specifically for online connectivity and portability. They basically run chrome OS but modern chrome books support linux based OS.
Size and Weight
Chrome books being a special type of laptop have the same looks and design of a traditional laptop featuring a 11 inches screen or large. They weight about two to three pounds that makes them much more portable than laptops. The tablets being a mobile device offer much more thin body and light weight than any chrome book. Even the larger tablets in the market are 2 times lighter than a chrome book. This makes the tablets much easier to carry and work with on the move.
Displays
Chrome books screens are larger than tablets but offer low quality resolution. Most of the budget chrome books offer you only HD displays as the higher models cost about 3 times more than regular chrome book. Most of the high end tablets in the market or even budget ones provide you a full HD display with high pixel density. The IPS panels used in a tablet provide much better colors and much better viewing angles than the panels used in budget chrome books. The size of the screen of a tablet is relatively smaller than a chrome book but provide better image quality and display and therefor in terms of displays, tablets have an edge over chrome books.
Battery Life
Both the chrome books and tablets are designed in a way that they have power to deal with day to day tasks while providing you best portability features and most efficient battery life. Even the most budget friendly tablets or chrome books provide you with a battery backup that can last more than 7 -8 hours on video playback. Some devices with higher quality hardware use smaller batteries to keep the cost as low as possible. In this the chromeboks have an edge as they provide similar battery backup like a tablet on a larger screen size. These chrome books have very light hardware that does not drain much battery.
Input Method
The chrome books are built in the traditional laptop design and therefore offer the usual classic keyboard for input along with the track pad. Newer and higher models of Chrome books have touch screen support but that feature is not found in budget friendly chrome books. The tablets are made to be used like a fully portable touch screen that offer every good response rates. But no matter how efficient or faster the virtual keyboards of the laptop become, they will never be as smooth and fast like the traditional classic keyboards. But to overcome that problem the tablets in the market have support to Bluetooth connected keyboard and even USB keyboards to some extent. But along with that feature comes a portability problem as carrying a full size keyboard along is not what tablets are made for.
Storage Capacity
Both the tablets and the chrome books rely on solid state drives for their fast and efficient storage. These SSD’s provide you with a lot of speed but a low storage as they are very costly drives. Chrome books usually offer about 32 GB of storage and tablets range from 8 to 16 GB in the budget section. But chrome books are designed to be online devices and therefore allow you to store all your data on a Google Drive that provides cloud storage for all you files and personal documents. Just like regular laptops you can easily plug in a USB in your chrome book whenever you need to access external data. Chrome books also provide a SD card slot for your flash cards.
Software
Chrome books run on Chrome OS, which is a special OS designed by Google for these online access devices. This OS works around the Chrome browser as all the applications and commands are written for the browser itself. This OS feels much like a regular computer OS. Most of the tablets in the market run on android that is a mobile operating system that is the most widely used OS in the mobile industry. Android is much more stable than the chrome OS. Tablets also offer more number of applications than the Chrome OS which is still a developing system. The tablet is a much faster approach that provides more number of applications while chrome OS provides flexibility and the feel of a traditional laptop.
Performance
Performance is a feature that depends on the specific device and can vary a lot from one device to another. Samsung Chrome book uses the same ARM processor that it uses in its Tablets that made the performance somewhat similar. While modern chrome books run different processors, including the Intel Atom processor. I terms of raw power you need to compare specific models of different chrome books and tablets as the hardware used depends on company to company and from one deice to another. Therefore it is not possible to compare tablets with chrome books in terms of performance.
Cost
Chrome books and tablets of similar specs have a very competitive price. Android tablets are found in a variety , ranging from 100 dollars to even 1000 dollars depending on the quality and hardware used in them While chrome books offer great features and start at about 300 to 400 dollars.
Conclusion
The decision to buy a tablet or a chrome book totally depends on your needs. If you need a device to access documents, typing work, and a lot of official tasks then a chrome book is a perfect fit for you. But if you need a device that is fast, efficient, and need it for browsing or watching media with a very portable design then you are better off with buying a tablet. Both the devices are of great quality in the market and are used widely all over the globe.