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I'm looking to buy a computer for my first year of med school. I'm trying to decide between a normal laptop and a tablet pc. Any suggestions as to the pros/cons for each?
Technology Computer recommendations??
- Thread starter HuskerRED08
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Pros of a tablet:
You can take handwriten notes and draw diagrams
Cons:
Fewer choices when it comes down to brands and models
More expensive for comparable spec'ed non-tablet
Smaller screen sizes
You should try out a tablet if you know someone who has one because it's not the same as taking notes on paper. If your school uses powerpoint slides then you won't need to draw diagrams anyhow. My recommendation would be to just look at traditional laptops. 13" widescreen ones are light and can handle all the daily tasks without slowing down.
I personally switched to a 15" Macbook Pro after using PC all my life and would also recommend that route since you get a large screen with a 1" thick computer that can run for 4 hours on battery. I have Vista installed to dual boot when I have to run a windows only program but the transition to OSX is pretty simple and quite nice. Hope this helps👍
You can take handwriten notes and draw diagrams
Cons:
Fewer choices when it comes down to brands and models
More expensive for comparable spec'ed non-tablet
Smaller screen sizes
You should try out a tablet if you know someone who has one because it's not the same as taking notes on paper. If your school uses powerpoint slides then you won't need to draw diagrams anyhow. My recommendation would be to just look at traditional laptops. 13" widescreen ones are light and can handle all the daily tasks without slowing down.
I personally switched to a 15" Macbook Pro after using PC all my life and would also recommend that route since you get a large screen with a 1" thick computer that can run for 4 hours on battery. I have Vista installed to dual boot when I have to run a windows only program but the transition to OSX is pretty simple and quite nice. Hope this helps👍
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Buy a tablet. They are much less obtrusive in certain situations where you might want your computer when you are taking notes (in certain kinds of meetings and even with a patient, if you choose to use it then). Plus, they are great for annotation on PowerPoints, etc.
N
njbmd
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The technology is going to be far above what it is now for tablets when this OP will actually see patients. Get a notebook and not a tablet. Find out if your school gives you a syllabus of notes. A tablet would be useless if that is the case. Good old fashioned pens and paper work very well.
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Stick with a notebook, and by a USB tablet. A bit clunkier than most would like, but still gets the job done. I'm not sold on the total Tablet PC as you won't actually get to use the tablet part 99% of the time.
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A number of my classmates used tablet PC's during lecture. Looked extremely convenient for basic science years.
I'm really old school when it comes to computers (desktop purist) and I have a neurotic obsession to have things on paper to study. But it really sucked to dump almost all of my basic science notes when I moved onto rotations (its like lugging around two full sets of encyclopedia britannica's). It would have been awfully nice to have access to that stuff on a tablet (I have only a tiny fraction of my notes on my current desktop).
Even though I usually hate all laptops, if I had the opportunity to repeat MS1/MS2 again I definitely would try to pony up for a tablet PC (if I could find one that was relatively cheap and durable).
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