iPad for textbooks/notetaking

[simbad8]

I'm thinking about getting an iPad mostly for textbooks because I don't want to buy them and carry them around (my school gives them to us electronically). I haven't started school yet so I was hoping some current med students could give me suggestions on which iPad would be the best or which one you use. I'm a little hesitant about the mini because the screen is so small.

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[HopefulSpartan]

I just ordered a refurbished ipad 4 (retina) 32 gb for 379$ from apple. I know that android tablets are the better deal but I've been in the apple ecosystem for years. I was picking between the mini and larger one - and I think for m1 + m2 since it'll be mainly used for textbooks and notes the 9.7 inch ipad is the better tool for the job.
It's a good idea to go to an apple store/best buy to test them out (and other tablets if you're not bound to iOS already) and see what you like best. I also found an app that no one seems to talk about, it's called Documents by Readdle. You can connect as many cloud accounts as you want to it (ie multiple dropbox accounts - I made one just for textbooks). It also has annotating/highlighting options but I haven't played around with those much.

 

[simbad8]

I just ordered a refurbished ipad 4 (retina) 32 gb for 379$ from apple. I know that android tablets are the better deal but I've been in the apple ecosystem for years. I was picking between the mini and larger one - and I think for m1 + m2 since it'll be mainly used for textbooks and notes the 9.7 inch ipad is the better tool for the job.
It's a good idea to go to an apple store/best buy to test them out (and other tablets if you're not bound to iOS already) and see what you like best. I also found an app that no one seems to talk about, it's called Documents by Readdle. You can connect as many cloud accounts as you want to it (ie multiple dropbox accounts - I made one just for textbooks). It also has annotating/highlighting options but I haven't played around with those much.

Yeah I'm thinking the regular iPad (not air or mini) but they only sell the 16 gb online. That's probably not enough space for a bunch of textbooks though.

 

[HopefulSpartan]

The textbooks I "acquired" in PDF format take up less than 2 GB. I think I have around ~20 of them and it is the majority of ones I'll need for M1 and M2 (minus board prep and review/condensed books). Harrison's (both volumes) is only around 250 MB total. 16 should work, unless you plan on recording all your lectures or something.

Edit: YMMV with the size of things because if you are getting texts from different publishers, each with their own software - that might add significantly to required space.

 

[studocplsignore]

Used an iPad4 + iAnnotate to great success this year. Fit all my lectures and such. Use cloud such as GoogleDrive or Dropbox for easy storage and such. If you're like me, you'll stop attending lectures halfway through and your iPad will start to become much less useful. Thinking about getting a Surface Pro 3 instead.

 

[HopefulSpartan]

Well I got mine and fooled around in Notability today. It seems like it will work well for taking notes on power points and keeping them organized in dropbox.

 

[lotusblade]

I'm not currently a student, but I will be this fall. I bought the surface pro 2 for my note taking because of the digitizer screen (palm detection and no lag while writing). The newer Surface Pro 3 has improved on the 2nd, and sports a larger screen for, which also helps you with your textbooks. If you get the chance, I recommend you take a look at the SP3 at your local best buy.

 

[simbad8]

I'm not currently a student, but I will be this fall. I bought the surface pro 2 for my note taking because of the digitizer screen (palm detection and no lag while writing). The newer Surface Pro 3 has improved on the 2nd, and sports a larger screen for, which also helps you with your textbooks. If you get the chance, I recommend you take a look at the SP3 at your local best buy.

Not gonna lie, I'm an apple person, which is why I was leaning towards the iPad already. But I just looked up the surface pros and they are way too expensive!

 

[chizledfrmstone]

Well I got mine and fooled around in Notability today. It seems like it will work well for taking notes on power points and keeping them organized in dropbox.

How easy is it to sync and backup stuff on dropbox with an iPad?

 

[HopefulSpartan]

How easy is it to sync and backup stuff on dropbox with an iPad?

Notability can be linked with your Dropbox to handle syncing automatically. You can have different subjects in Notability (like tabs in OneNote) and those subjects are the folders containing the notes you have tagged with that subject in your Dropbox.