Laptop or Tablet

[wareagle94]

I'm an incoming D24 and I'm torn on which type of laptop/tablet will be best for school. I like the option of being able to annotate pdfs/PowerPoints with the tablets, but I wonder if not having a cursor and solely having to use apps on the iPad is going to be a hindrance. The Surface Pro solves that issue, but I have been an Apple person up to this point, so I'm not familiar with their products really. I'd love some opinions from current students. Thanks!

P.S. I don't think my school has any strict rules on which device you can/can't have.

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[artist2022]

P.S. I don't think my school has any strict rules on which device you can/can't have.

Just want to say that even though they may not have restrictions, they may have certain programs that you'll need to install. For example, UCLA requires a Lockdown Browser for when we take online exams, and it doesn't work on iPads/tablets sooo... Just keep that in mind.

Personally I have a touchscreen PC and it lets me draw whatever and also lets me type fast af to get all my notes down, and it lets me download CBCT files to view for our group case discussions (can't view them on Macs), but to each their own. I do think a laptop would be better than a tablet (unless it's a Surface).

 

[batman12345]

I'm incoming D24 and I'm torn on which type of laptop/tablet will be best for school. I like the option of being able to annotate pdfs/PowerPoints with the tablets, but I wonder if not having a cursor and solely having to use apps on the iPad is going to be a hindrance. The Surface Pro solves that issue, but I have been an Apple person up to this point, so I'm not familiar with their products really. I'd love some opinions from current students. Thanks!

P.S. I don't think my school has any strict rules on which device you can/can't have.

Damn d24? You ain’t tired of school yet?

I’d get both a laptop and tablet, unless ur getting a surface pro that is basically a 2 in 1. I’m personally doing surface laptop and an iPad. Both great for note taking and studying

 

[spdental]

I like having an iPad Pro with a wireless apple keyboard. This allows me to type when I need it but when I'm just going through lectures I can write on it and keep the keyboard in my backpack. I'm a D2 and it's been awesome so far - I have yet to find anything that I needed a laptop for that the iPad Pro can't do.

 

[BasicG]

I tried going the iPad route to be more minimalistic and portable but there were too many quirks. Powerpoint PDFs occasionally being rotated after they were downloaded, lockdown browser needing the faculty to enable it on their end (when they're not tech savvy), and the lack of any decent keyboard for typing up reflections.

Get a surface pro 7 pen and keyboard bundle at Costco for 800 and be done with it imo. It does everything an iPad can do and more

 

[Laradd]

Laptop has more data capacity. I would recommend Laptop.

 

[the_molar_bear]

I absolutely love my iPad pro 12.9. Does everything I need it to do and I have the Apple Pencil so I can annotate powerpoints. I’d check your schools tech requirements before you buy.

 

[dds_2024]

For those with an iPad Pro... from your experience will 128GB suffice or will you need 256GB (For all the powerpoints, books, PDFs? Etc. )

 

[spdental]

For those with an iPad Pro... from your experience will 128GB suffice or will you need 256GB (For all the powerpoints, books, PDFs? Etc. )

I got the 128 GB and pay the $2 a month or whatever it is for 200 GB of iCloud storage (that way if I'm on another computer I can just pull up my files online). I've never had any issue with storage.

 

[the_molar_bear]

For those with an iPad Pro... from your experience will 128GB suffice or will you need 256GB (For all the powerpoints, books, PDFs? Etc. )

I agree with above post, 128 is fine. Use google drive and cloud storage!