History Main / DataPad

* While not strictly seen in-game, your character in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' uses a PDA that's relayed to your HUD. It's used to retrieve emails, playback audio logs, and list your mission objectives.
* The [=RobCo=] Personal Information Processor, or PIP-Boy 2000, from ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advanced as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths of area via satellites, reads and records messages and videos and can even play simple games. By ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' onwards, it was revealed that some vaults received [[SuperWristGadget wrist-mounted variants of the device]].

* Tablet pads are commonplace in the Firaxis reboot of ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}''. In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', Chief Scientist Dr. Vahlen is always seen holding a large one that she apparently uses to interface with the research labs' network. In ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', Shen and Dr. Tygan use theirs to manage the Avenger's machines and lab systems, non-Specialist soldiers pull one out to hack ADVENT equipment, and ADVENT datapads are a valuable mission loot that can be sold instantly for supplies or decrypted at the labs for generous amounts of intel, though it takes some time to access their contents.

* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'': Every single stalker in the Zone has a PDA. In all games, the most prominent use of the player's PDA is to check the satellite map of the Zone (maps of certain underground locations can appear in the quest log) and track quest objectives.

[[caption-width-right:350:Number One, pull up the IGN guide for level 4-7 of ''VideoGame/AngryBirds''.]]

* Phablets, (phone + tablet), larger than a smartphone, smaller than a tablet, and purportedly have the function of both (which is debatable, it depends on which model you are talking about).

* The Imperial Guard of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' make use of "dataslates", assuming the author doesn't have them use [[SchizoTech feather quills and parchment]].

* Smartphones, which are essentially smaller versions with phone/videophone capability, plus Internet connection, photo camera and whatnot.

* In the TV version of ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', the Guide looks something like an Amazon Kindle--kind of a dedicated tablet computer which can only access the ''Guide''.
** [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The novel's version]] looks more like a large calculator with a hundred buttons and a 4-inch-square screen, evidently pre-dating the touchscreen.
** [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The film version]] of the Guide appears to be a closer example of this trope: styled to look like a book, but with a seamless folding screen instead of pages.

* The pilot episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' had one character's credentials presented in the form of a flexible display with a scrollable screen. In the show proper, they'd use bulky looking slate tablets instead, but for the most part the characters just used the station's multitude of wall or console mounted computer screens. Incidentally, the show also featured Data Crystals, which were used identically to USB thumbdrives, which would hit the market a year or so after the show ended its run.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Several ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' books make referenses to "noteputers," though little detail is given other than that they're fragile and have glass screens. The most details given about them come from a scene where a secret agent deliberately drops hers in order to set up a WardrobeMalfunction (in this case, popping out of her bikini as she picks it up) as a way of [[DistractedByTheSexy getting close]] to her target.

%%* TheCaptain's PDA in ''VideoGame/AlienLegacy''. (Administrivia.ZeroContextExample)

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the [[ComLinks communicator]] (AKA the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cell phone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed in the form of the tablet computer.

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the [[ComLink communicator]] (AKA the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cell phone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed in the form of the tablet computer.

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the [[CommLink communicator]] (AKA the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cell phone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed in the form of the tablet computer.

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the [[[CommLink communicator]] (AKA the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cell phone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed in the form of the tablet computer.

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the communicator (AKA the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cell phone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed in the form of the tablet computer.

In ScienceFiction settings, it can also work as a ClipboardOfAuthority.

* Smartphones, which are essentially smaller versions with phone capability, plus Internet connection, photo cameras and whatnot.

* Smartphones, which are essentially smaller versions with phone capability.

* While not strictly seen in-game, your character in ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' uses a PDA that's relayed to your HUD. It's used to retrieve emails, read audio logs, and lists your mission objectives.

* [[TruthInTelevision Tablet computers]]. [[OlderThanTheyThink While they've been around for decades]], it's only been since the introduction of the [=PalmPilot=] in 1994 that the device became practical and reliable enough to be viable.

* Scattered all over the ''VideoGame/BeingOne'' games as ApocalypticLogs.

* Tablet pads are commonplace in the Firaxis reboot of ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}''. In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', Vahlen is always seen holding one that she apparently uses to interface with the research labs' network. In ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', Shen and Tygan use theirs to manage the Avenger's machines and systems, non-Specialist soldiers pull one out to hack ADVENT equipment, and ADVENT datapads are a valuable mission loot that can be sold instantly for supplies or decrypted at the labs for generous amounts of intel, though it takes some time to access their contents.

* These are ubiquitous appliances in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' universe, though mainly for transfer of data between individuals. Personal computers takes form of [[SuperWristGadget wrist-mounted Omnitools]].

* Scattered all over the ''VideoGames/BeingOne'' games as ApocalypticLogs.