Good Tablet for Note Taking?

[Dr. Yap]

I'll be a first year student this fall and I was thinking of getting a tablet for taking notes during class and reading PDF textbooks and stuff. I'm hoping not to spend too much on one, especially because I'll probably need to buy a case and keyboard, too. I've looked through a few old threads and people mainly seem to be recommending iPads and Surface Pros, the latter of which is waaay out of budget. If anyone has used any other tablets and likes them (or doesn't), I'd appreciate your input!
Thank you!

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[OhioDMD]

 

[dmdluffy]

Having owned every device under the sun. the iPad Pro w/ the Pencil is the best currently available. Accuracy and input lag are best in class, even when compared against the Surface Pro/Book.

 

[Combine33]

I'll be a first year student this fall and I was thinking of getting a tablet for taking notes during class and reading PDF textbooks and stuff. I'm hoping not to spend too much on one, especially because I'll probably need to buy a case and keyboard, too. I've looked through a few old threads and people mainly seem to be recommending iPads and Surface Pros, the latter of which is waaay out of budget. If anyone has used any other tablets and likes them (or doesn't), I'd appreciate your input!
Thank you!

You dont want to be "that guy" that whips out an iPad in lecture when everyone else has their MacBook or PC. Tbh, the legal pad is by far the best thing to have in dental school.

 

[tj530]

You dont want to be "that guy" that whips out an iPad in lecture when everyone else has their MacBook or PC. Tbh, the legal pad is by far the best thing to have in dental school.

Why not? The iPad Pro 9.7" with the Apple Pencil isn't necessarily eye-catching, not any more than a Surface pro with a Surface Pen. Plus it's great for organizing your notes, annotating PowerPoint notes and carrying around Ebook versions of textbooks without breaking your back.

 

[Dr. Yap]

Thank you everyone for your responses!
@dmdluffy, I was looking into that, but I'm scared to spend so much on a stylus. Do you think other styluses would work well? Maybe not as well as the pencil, but well enough to mark down some handwritten stuff here and there?

@Combine33 I see where you're coming from, but my current laptop is on the larger side and old, and it's relatively heavy to lug around. It still functions, but it's much cheaper to get a tablet for heavier use than a new laptop right now, and I'd use it for mostly reading ebooks and annotating powerpoints, like tj530 said. I just want something portable that I can both handwrite on and type on. I'll gladly be "that guy" if I'm the only one who has one haha. But now I'm curious. Have you taken all your notes on paper? Is it not too much to keep up with?

 

[dmdluffy]

Will they function? Sure. It really depends on your level of tolerance since you'll be using this for 2+ years of didactic classes. The Surface Pro is by no means bad, but there is room for improvement to mimic paper/pen combo.

 

[Hannah Banana]

I'll be a first year student this fall and I was thinking of getting a tablet for taking notes during class and reading PDF textbooks and stuff. I'm hoping not to spend too much on one, especially because I'll probably need to buy a case and keyboard, too. I've looked through a few old threads and people mainly seem to be recommending iPads and Surface Pros, the latter of which is waaay out of budget. If anyone has used any other tablets and likes them (or doesn't), I'd appreciate your input!
Thank you!

My school made all of us getting the same Mac Book Pro (included in tuition & fee) and I have been taking notes in the "Preview" app thing and it's been great

 

[Endeross]

Surface Pro 4 M3 version, you dont need the higher cost ones. The M3 version gives the best battery life, and Onenote is the best program there is for note taking and organizing as well as annotating PDFs/Powerpoints. Its what I used in undergrad for every class, I havnt used paper or purchased books in 3 years.

 

[derbear]

There's just something about writing on paper that you just can't replicate on the computer/mac/iPad. To each his own. I personally use my mac to download lectures and recordings but the majority of notes I take are in a small lined notebook. Works like a charm.

 

[Combine33]

Thank you everyone for your responses!
@dmdluffy, I was looking into that, but I'm scared to spend so much on a stylus. Do you think other styluses would work well? Maybe not as well as the pencil, but well enough to mark down some handwritten stuff here and there?

@Combine33 I see where you're coming from, but my current laptop is on the larger side and old, and it's relatively heavy to lug around. It still functions, but it's much cheaper to get a tablet for heavier use than a new laptop right now, and I'd use it for mostly reading ebooks and annotating powerpoints, like tj530 said. I just want something portable that I can both handwrite on and type on. I'll gladly be "that guy" if I'm the only one who has one haha. But now I'm curious. Have you taken all your notes on paper? Is it not too much to keep up with?

We were all required to buy a new laptop and thats what everyone takes to school. It has all of our textbooks, preclin and clin software, and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo. I take all my notes in powerpoint presentation notes section and sometimes in Preview. Before exams I re-write my notes and important points on the legal pad.

 

[enamel88]

iPad pro with the Apple pencil is a good note typing device. Try it at the Apple Store to make sure you can see yourself using it


Sent from my iPhone

 

[Confused1617]

We were all required to buy a new laptop and thats what everyone takes to school. It has all of our textbooks, preclin and clin software, and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo. I take all my notes in powerpoint presentation notes section and sometimes in Preview. Before exams I re-write my notes and important points on the legal pad.

What's preview? I have a Mac air but idk where to find preview?

 

[Dr. Yap]

We were all required to buy a new laptop and thats what everyone takes to school. It has all of our textbooks, preclin and clin software, and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo. I take all my notes in powerpoint presentation notes section and sometimes in Preview. Before exams I re-write my notes and important points on the legal pad.

I see. I'm pretty sure my school does not require us to buy a new laptop and I don't know if my current one has enough life left to last a few more years of intensive note taking haha. It's interesting that you guys are taking notes in Preview, though. I always find it hard to work with.

Anyway, I think I'm still leaning towards getting a tablet. I appreciate everything people are telling me about their experiences with those!

 

[i D M D]

I got an iPad pro 32GB 12.9 +pen ($490+$99+tax) during a BB sale. (New open box $740-$150BB deal-$100 apple student discount) I also got a wireless Apple keyboard and a portable mount for the tablet just in case I needed to type something on the go. As far as handwritten notes, it gives you the greatest and most natural feeling of all tablets+pens I tested. It looks like a pen, feels like a pen, and writes like one. You are still writing on a glass surface, so it lacks that friction you have while writing on paper, but you quickly get used to it. The pen tip is solid, so it won't break or bend like the Surface pen. Pen can be charged in a few seconds for half an hour constant use by inserting it in the charging port of the ipad. In a full charge it is more than enough for a day or two usage.

The most important thing is all your notes are very well organized and you can edit, insert pictures/diagrams/webpages/etc. right along the note you are taking. If you rather type/copy-paste a text to your notes, it's easily done. If your professors provide pdfs/power points you can insert that within your notes and write/type/highlight directly on the pdf. I use Notablity app ($7.99) and it's great, with lots of options. You can even record the lecture while you are writing. If later on you play the recorded lecture and press on each word it will fast forward the recording right to the point you were writing that word during class. There's another app that can recognize your handwriting and make it searchable within the app, but doesn't have the voice recoring capability. Whichever app you use, all your notes are synched to iCloud, Google drive, Dropbox as a pdf or an editable version. You can share your notes with your classmates right after class via email or a link to your cloud storage.

I am staring school this August so I can't tell how useful it would be specifically for dental school, but if DS is similar to undergrad classes as far as note taking and stuff, iPad pro 12.9 will make life much easier and well organized. I know all textbooks in my school are digital, so no more back pain. Just a tablet and a laptop in my bag.

I should add that I always carry my laptop in case I need to do something a tablet can't do. But for note taking iPad 12.9 is great! I have a 9.7 iPad Air too (which I'm getting rid of) and it is too small to write on. 12.9 is optimal IMO.

 

[Endeross]

I know I'm kind of late but I tried opening pdf on one note and I can't command find text on it and can't open it nor ppt sometimes. Do you have a MacBook ?

No I dont use a macbook, It auto reads the text of PDF for the full version (I dont have experience with the app store one) of one note 2016 on my PC. Wish I could be more helpful, cuz that's a shame.