Laptop Options for First Year

[RealHumanBean1]

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Beginning the search for the most efficient laptop purchase and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I'm interested primarily in note-taking efficiency/versatility, as well as reliability and affordability. Thanks in advance!

 

[Beezlebub]

I use Growly Notes (Mac, $5 for life). Efficient, simple, cheap. I'm part of the mac cult mainly b/c their product is reliable - I've been using my macbook for over 3yrs with no problem at all. A lot of my colleagues also use surface pro to annotate their notes. At the end of the day you want to do research into the products that will maximize your potential. Medical school is a huge investment so it's definitely wise to pick a reliable hardware. All the best.

 

[intellectualedema]

Stalk the Apple refurbished page for a 2015 13" macbook pro or air. Or if you're looking for windows, this.

 

[NotaCop]

Once you go touchscreen note taking you'll never go back. Try it before you make any purchases.

My setup: last year's HP Spectre x360 with Dell stylus (much better than HP's and half the cost) and OneNote 2016 (Program, not the desktop "app" version). Combine that with OneNote phone app and an app called Office Lens that converts pictures such as screens and whiteboards into clean images (eve correcting for angle of incidence you take it from) and imports it directly into OneNote.

This year's model of the laptop adds some good features but the sacrifice is that it's bulkier and heavier. Pick your poison.

Some would also recommend the Dell XPS 13 but I found the keyboard to be crap and the rest was equal to or inferior to the spectre. Do your research and test them both out in the store.

You have plenty of time to wait for a good sale that will save you a couple hundred bucks on whatever you end up buying, so do that. Also open the store card when you make this purchase and use the money you get back from that (likely 1-200) for accessories or some headphones or something for studying with. Then close the card ASAP because store cards are the devil.

Hope it helps. Remember to test drive before you buy and tune your purchase wisely.

 

[libertyyne]

Surface pro 3. They can be had for 600 or so dollars if you keep looking for sales .
Mac and affordability don't belong in the same sentence.

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

in my personal opinion, all that touch-screen note taking and drawing stuff is really inefficient. The most efficient way to take notes during lecture is import ppts into OneNote and then type notes in the margin. Then when you study, your notes are right there. This means that any computer can get the job done. I wouldn't waste my money on a computer with a bunch of fancy features and upgrades. All you need is something that has a screen with decent resolution and a decent amount of memory and RAM and it shouldn't cost you more than $400 - $500. Take that extra money you would have spent, and put it towards some new shoes/clothes/furniture or whatever.

 

[NWwildcat2013]

in my personal opinion, all that touch-screen note taking and drawing stuff is really inefficient. The most efficient way to take notes during lecture is import ppts into OneNote and then type notes in the margin. Then when you study, your notes are right there. This means that any computer can get the job done. I wouldn't waste my money on a computer with a bunch of fancy features and upgrades. All you need is something that has a screen with decent resolution and a decent amount of memory and RAM and it shouldn't cost you more than $400 - $500. Take that extra money you would have spent, and put it towards some new shoes/clothes/furniture or whatever.

As much as I want to embrace electronic writing and handwritten annotations I just can't.

I can get down and manipulate my thoughts about 10x faster by typing.

I am about due for a new computer and I am trying to decide whether to stick with a Mac, switch to a Surface pro/book, or be really bold and try an iPad pro. If I did the iPad pro I would probably keep my Mac for anything that the iPad couldn't handle like hardcore data manipulation in excel or writing a manuscript with many different PDFs open.

 

[libertyyne]

in my personal opinion, all that touch-screen note taking and drawing stuff is really inefficient. The most efficient way to take notes during lecture is import ppts into OneNote and then type notes in the margin. Then when you study, your notes are right there. This means that any computer can get the job done. I wouldn't waste my money on a computer with a bunch of fancy features and upgrades. All you need is something that has a screen with decent resolution and a decent amount of memory and RAM and it shouldn't cost you more than $400 - $500. Take that extra money you would have spent, and put it towards some new shoes/clothes/furniture or whatever.

There have been some studies that indicate higher retention by writing compared to typing. Typing is also not conducive to diagraming.