Best Tablet Specs for Vet School

[DouglasVet]

Howdy All,

I will be a 1VM student starting at TAMU CVM in August of 2016!

I am considering buying a tablet and have done a considerable amount of shopping around up to this point. I am pretty much sold on the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. (I'd be happy to explain why if necessary, mostly personal preference though).

The only question is what specs will be sufficient for the school.

Leaning toward the i5/256SSD/8GB RAM.

Here are all the options, you can even special order them with up to 16GB RAM and up to 1TB SSD.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Surface-Pro-4/productID.325711500

All comments/suggestions welcome 🙂

Other info:
I am very much a microsoft/android user, so no need trying to convince me that Apple is better, etc.

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[epivetlove]

I have the lowest-tier Pro 3 and haven't had any issues with having enough space or speed or anything. I only use my Surface for school stuff, though. I have a laptop that I use for gaming/streaming/etc. I also move each semester's material (almost everything is on OneNote) onto an external drive and Google drive and take it off my Surface so I have a clean slate each semester. I should mention that I only purchased the Pro 3 because at the time, it was the only one that ran a full Windows OS which was required for our exam-taking software. I wish I had known a non-Pro 3 version was coming out...I definitely would have waited and saved all the $$$, since I don't feel the Pro provides anything over the regular Surface as far as school stuff goes. If you're wanting it to replace your laptop/desktop, then I think Pro would be a good choice.

 

[Coquette22]

I had an original Microsoft Surface RT and it suited me just fine for vet school. Until it met it's untimely end falling out of a locker.

 

[dvmhopeful2018]

The Pro is awesome. I have a Pro 3, as do several others in my class and the class below us. It's invaluable for anatomy, histology, pathology, and radiology. Make sure to check with TAMU because they most likely have "minimum software requirements". As long as it meets those, you're fine.

I have i5, 8gb RAM, and 128gb hard disk. I would probably do the 256gb hard disk if I bought again, but I still have room and keep everything backed up on a thumb drive and external hard drive at least once a week. I bought through Best Buy and got 3 years geek squad because I need it fixed/replaced quickly if something goes wrong. I also have everything on OneNote in the cloud.

 

[Pugsforlove2014]

I have the S3 pro I7 256 gb one. Works great for school. You will want to get the S4 now....its just newer why not. If I could do it again I might get an I5 processor, cheaper. Who really needs an I7 for a tablet computer honestly, unless you plan on gaming on a tablet...

 

[cooper.benjamin]

With such a monster, you can play new videogames!!
Why do you need such?
I recommend you to but smth with core i5, and 8GB ram. Will be more than enough!

 

[wheelin2vetmed]

If it's your primary machine, any Core i model starting with Haswell ix-4xxx will be fine (the year of the Surface Pro 2), as there were big gains in battery life from the third to fourth generations. Core M would be fine too, it's a step below Core i but has better battery life and is fanless so you don't bother anyone in class.

If your tablet is secondary to another laptop or desktop, you'd be fine with something lower powered. The Atom x7 in the Surface 3 is more than capable. Atoms just got a bad rap from the days of the netbook.

I highly doubt there'll be anything computationally demanding in vet school.

8GB RAM is a good sweet spot for lots of multitasking, but 99% of people would be absolutely fine with 4GB.


Moral of the story is, you can buy a machine for about 1/3 price as the newest generation that is more than enough and actually overkill for anything you'll encounter in vet school. I value quiet operation and battery life over power for my tablets, but you may choose differently. I also won't spend $500 extra because the newest machine is 70g lighter and .05 inches thinner.