iPad vs. Android tablet for med school

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hookgrip

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First question: I already have a Thinkpad X200 tablet PC, would a tablet like an iPad (or Android alternative) still be useful in med school?

Second: My top choice right now is the Nexus 7 Android Tablet. It's much more portable and easier to hold than an iPad, and for $199, it has specs that are unbeatable. It also has guaranteed software updates straight from Google since it's a Google Nexus device. But are there any useful apps for med school that are only available on iOS devices? Or is there an Android alternative to all the useful apps for med school?

Thanks
 
Does the EMR at your school's affiliated hospital system have an android app?
 
Im really big on android. I have had 5 diff android phones, and 4 diff android tablets. IPad however has significantly more medical apps though. The main apps that docs use are on both ios and android, but amazing anatomy apps with killer graphics and stuff med students will use are only on ios bc that's where the devs make the big bucks.

That being said, it depends on what you will be needing the tablet for. Ur thinkpad is fine for note taking n stuff. I love using my nexus 7 to read ebooks, it's light and fits real nice in the hands.

Sent from my Galaxy S2 via tapatalk
 
Just wondering, what's a tablet useful for in class? Why not a laptop?
 
This question should probably be in Allo rather than pre-Allo
 
iPad.
I'm making the switch from PC and Android. There are a bunch of apps that help me stay on top of things at school. Everything just seems snappier and flows better. Apps are better quality and I don't have to worry if there's an Android version.

My i5 and 4g Mac is faster than my i7 8g PC.
 
Purple2012 said:
iPad.
I'm making the switch from PC and Android. There are a bunch of apps that help me stay on top of things at school. Everything just seems snappier and flows better. Apps are better quality and I don't have to worry if there's an Android version.

My i5 and 4g Mac is faster than my i7 8g PC.
Click to expand...

Lolwut
 
Purple2012 said:
iPad.
I'm making the switch from PC and Android. There are a bunch of apps that help me stay on top of things at school. Everything just seems snappier and flows better. Apps are better quality and I don't have to worry if there's an Android version.

My i5 and 4g Mac is faster than my i7 8g PC.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with you here... I've always been an android guy but recently I got an iPad and I absolutely love it. There's no better tablet right now and apple knows it. Hence the crazy price
 
Josh7 said:
I have to agree with you here... I've always been an android guy but recently I got an iPad and I absolutely love it. There's no better tablet right now and apple knows it. Hence the crazy price
Click to expand...

iPad 3 > iPad 2 > everything else

A new iPad 3 is only $500. A new iPad 2 is only $400. (This assumes 16GB and Wi-Fi only). Both are awesome deals.
 
Gnomo said:
iPad 3 > iPad 2 > everything else

A new iPad 3 is only $500. A new iPad 2 is only $400. (This assumes 16GB and Wi-Fi only). Both are awesome deals.
Click to expand...

Yep I bought an iPad 3 and the screen is absolutely amazing. I have a super powerful android phone with a nice screen (Rezound) and I find it to be slow, clunky, and the battery life is horrendous. I'm definitely going with an iPhone once my contract runs out.
 
rachelkj said:
Pen & paper also have this feature at a considerably smaller cost.
Click to expand...
Most professors send you the lecture notes electronically anyways. The notes they give you can be very large indeed and printing them all off daily could be a big hassle. Not to mention the all too common occurrence of a lecturer forgetting to post the notes before the lecture. Technology certainly has a convenience factor going for it.
 
Sept. 12 Apple is having a press conference where it is rumored they are introducing the iPhone 5 and an iPad mini. I suggest you hold off a month to make a decision you won't possibly regret.
 
Purple2012 said:
iPad.
I'm making the switch from PC and Android. There are a bunch of apps that help me stay on top of things at school. Everything just seems snappier and flows better. Apps are better quality and I don't have to worry if there's an Android version.

My i5 and 4g Mac is faster than my i7 8g PC.
Click to expand...

Enjoy paying more for worse hardware.
 
Fivo said:
And so it begins

:meanie:
Click to expand...

I don't feel too bad considering a guy says is cheaper hardware Mac is "faster" than a higher spec'd PC without any sort of benchmarks.

By the way, I like Macs and will be buying one as my next laptop. I'm not a fanboy by any means. But let's at least be honest here.
 
I would wait until you're accepted to a school and decide to go there before you start buying stuff like this. Some schools will make you pay them extra tuition in exchange for a tablet loaded with textbooks
DavetheMD said:
This question should probably be in Allo rather than pre-Allo
Click to expand...

I don't think the OP is in med school
 
you already have a tablet thinkpad...that's fine enough, an ipad or something similar won't really make any difference
 
ehh

pro-android people love to proclaim they have superior hardware specs and etc. but that doesn't necessarily correlate with better performance. apple devices are more expensive and have inferior hardware... but what you are really paying for is the iOS operating system and app library.

i've used both android and iOS devices.. and i find that iOS runs much smoother and more efficiently than any android device, regardless of the hardware. i have an android dual-core phone and i experience things that i know i would never experience with apple devices. crashes, random choppiness and lag, programs not responding, glitches, etc.

so obviously specs are important, but you should consider the actual performance and experience using the device. that's why apple is still around despite having significantly inferior hardware.
 
Josh7 said:
I have to agree with you here... I've always been an android guy but recently I got an iPad and I absolutely love it. There's no better tablet right now and apple knows it. Hence the crazy price
Click to expand...

Same. I've gone through a couple Android phones and had an Android tablet. Then my parents got my 2 year old sister and ipod touch and my grandparents an iPad. They worked better than any Android device I ever had.

NickNaylor said:
Enjoy paying more for worse hardware.
Click to expand...
I don't need better hardware.
I got it for the better functionality, synchronization, apps, and overall quality,


lolcat said:
Lolwut
Click to expand...

Yes, my Mac with lower specs is faster than my Dell XPS with higher specs.



NickNaylor said:
I don't feel too bad considering a guy says is cheaper hardware Mac is "faster" than a higher spec'd PC without any sort of benchmarks.

By the way, I like Macs and will be buying one as my next laptop. I'm not a fanboy by any means. But let's at least be honest here.
Click to expand...

Everything my Mac does is instant and it boots in less than 10 seconds. My XPS desktop is nowhere near as fast. I wouldn't call myself a fanboy. In my experience it just works better, so I'm making the switch.


ShenanigansMD said:
The Apple zombies are on sdn, can't I ever get away from them?
Click to expand...

I'm not an Apple zombie. My Apple products just preform better than my Android and Windows.


dominicandoctor said:
ehh

pro-android people love to proclaim they have superior hardware specs and etc. but that doesn't necessarily correlate with better performance. apple devices are more expensive and have inferior hardware... but what you are really paying for is the iOS operating system and app library.

i've used both android and iOS devices.. and i find that iOS runs much smoother and more efficiently than any android device, regardless of the hardware. i have an android dual-core phone and i experience things that i know i would never experience with apple devices. crashes, random choppiness and lag, programs not responding, glitches, etc.

so obviously specs are important, but you should consider the actual performance and experience using the device. that's why apple is still around despite having significantly inferior hardware.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
My Android devices are the same way. Always is crashing, being laggy and unresponsive. The camera on my phone just wont work anymore and I can no longer end calls. Can't wait for the new iPhone to come out.
 
The iOS is so damn trendy, but you gotta pay for that.
 
Have both Asus transformer prime and an iPad 2. Prime wins every time. But I agree ios if much easier to use for non tech savvy.

Sent from my Galaxy S2 via tapatalk
 
How is note-taking on a tablet? I saw a few students with ipads making notes on the PDF slides during lecture, but those stubby styluses (stylii?) don't seem like they'd be very good an drawing or long-term writing. Also, do you have to hover your hand off the glass or can you rest your wrist on the touchscreen?

I like Apple products. Very well designed with software that operates smoothly, even if the device is underpowered next to its PC or Android competitors. But I ended up getting an Galaxy S3 over the iPhone because I can't stand the lack of support for external storage and user-replaceable batteries. Most tablets don't have user-replaceable batteries, but almost every Android tablet supports SD or microSD. That allows me to reserve the built-in memory for apps and depend on external storage for data files.

I'm considering a iPad (3rd gen)+bluetooth keyboard and an Asus Transformer TF300 + keyboard dock to use for internet/notes/lecture slides/video lectures/digital textbooks. Is this effective for this purpose?
 
I must be the only person to have had bad experiences with Macs. I used an iMac in my last lab, it was 6 months old, i5, brand spanking new when the lab bought it for me in December. Since then it's had time after time where mysterious problems would pop up. For example:

1) There must be a major bug in the OS (I think it was Lion) somewhere because every time I need to access the lab's shared NAS and do basic file manipulations (like deleting files/folders), the OS would hang and basic functions like deleting, copying files would crash systemwide. And it was not large files or anything, just basic word documents. The worst part is that when it hangs, I can't force close finder and restart doesn't work because it couldn't force close finder either necessitating a hard reset by pressing the power button. This happens at least a couple time a month, something I never had to worry about with my many PCs.

2) I never shut off my computers (who does these days?) and when my Mac has been running a while it would slow down dramatically and experience performance issues. I would try to minimize a window and it wouldn't do it. Things wouldn't open when clicked on, etc. The funny thing is that there's nothing visibly wrong with the system, no spinning beachball, program run fine, etc, except random things would just not work necessitating a restart.

There are other problems and I'm sure this is all anecdotal and could be because of the "secured" OS image that my paranoid employer organization insists on. The point is I never ran into such problems even with other machines at my work place (Windows, other Macs, etc) and these problems are so "nebulous" and vague in symptoms that it would be almost impossible to replicate or pin down yet they are very real.

Does this mean windows is faultless? Far from it, it freezes, crashes, BSODs, frequently too. But OSX and apple products are not all perfect user experiences all the time either. Speaking from a personal perspective, at least when my Windows PCs go south, I know what to do and how to fix them. Apples, not so much. I'll stick with the evil that I know for now.
 
ghostman said:
How is note-taking on a tablet? I saw a few students with ipads making notes on the PDF slides during lecture, but those stubby styluses (stylii?) don't seem like they'd be very good an drawing or long-term writing. Also, do you have to hover your hand off the glass or can you rest your wrist on the touchscreen?

I like Apple products. Very well designed with software that operates smoothly, even if the device is underpowered next to its PC or Android competitors. But I ended up getting an Galaxy S3 over the iPhone because I can't stand the lack of support for external storage and user-replaceable batteries. Most tablets don't have user-replaceable batteries, but almost every Android tablet supports SD or microSD. That allows me to reserve the built-in memory for apps and depend on external storage for data files.

I'm considering a iPad (3rd gen)+bluetooth keyboard and an Asus Transformer TF300 + keyboard dock to use for internet/notes/lecture slides/video lectures/digital textbooks. Is this effective for this purpose?
Click to expand...



Lenovo Tablet is designed to be used with a stylus. It has unmatched palm rejection and it actually feels like a pen
 
@DreadfulGlory,

The networked drive works fine with other machines (PCs and Macs) in the lab and I've never heard of others complaining of this problem. Our computers aren't really used for any heavy duty applications that require high performance hardware. Just the occasional image editing, sequence analysis, and MS Office applications. TBH, I'm leaning towards this being either an OS problem (I've seen a few complaints regarding this online though the specific problem is hard to pinpoint) or just a botched installation of the OS. Since the place that I worked for insisted on standardizing all machines by wiping the HDD and putting on a preconfigured OS image it may be that. The only other possibilities would be either a back-end problem with the network drive (unlikely) or the network itself (again unlikely).

Either way, my main concern with OSX is that most problems I've run into on Macs are ones that are vague, unacknowledged, or difficult to pin down and as such this has made troubleshooting difficult. And this is exacerbated by the nature of the OS IMO that shelters the user from many technical aspects. Again, I seem to prefer the evil that I know to the one that I don't.
 
My dad develops apps for both apple and android, so he always buys the latest tablets for both and i get to play on them. I'd have to say that the ipad is alot more user-friendly and the apps are also alot better in general. Android can be faster, but alot of the apps and the app store itself is crap since Android doesn't regulate what is put on google play as much as Apple does. If price isn't a problem for you, go for the iPad
 
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