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The key advantages that have allowed transistors to replace vacuum tubes in most applications are:

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• no cathode heater (which produces the characteristic orange glow of tubes), reducing power consumption, eliminating delay as tube heaters warm up, and immune from cathode poisoning and depletion;

• very small size and weight, reducing equipment size;

• large numbers of extremely small transistors can be manufactured as a single integrated circuit;

• low operating voltages compatible with batteries of only a few cells;

• circuits with greater energy efficiency are usually possible. For low-power applications (e.g., voltage amplification) in particular, energy consumption can be very much less than for tubes;

• complementary devices available, providing design flexibility including complementary-symmetry circuits, not possible with vacuum tubes;

• very low sensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration, providing physical ruggedness and virtually eliminating shock-induced spurious signals (e.g., microphonics in audio applications);

• not susceptible to breakage of a glass envelope, leakage, outgassing, and other physical damage.

Reference: Wikipedia