Verbatim from our class resource page:
"
Laptop Specifications
Computers are an essential part of your dental education. The UW School of Dentistry requires all students to have laptops. You are strongly encouraged to have a sufficiently recent model laptop with the following considerations:
- Minimum 4GB of RAM (required);
- Minimum 120GB of storage (required);
- Dedicated graphics card with at least 4GB of system memory
- Ethernet (wired) network capability (required);
- Wi-fi (wireless) network capability (required);
- External hard drive for back-up storage (strongly recommended);
- Lightweight (recommended);
- Battery life of 3-4 hours or more between charges (recommended);
- Recent operating system (Windows 7 or later or Macintosh OSX 10.6 or later) with all current updates (required);
- Anti-virus software with all current virus definitions (required); Note: Sophos is available free from UW IT);
- Microsoft Office Professional (required); Note: available free for students from UW IT. See below;
- Extended warranty and/or technical support provided by the manufacturer (recommended)
Although tablets have been used successfully by some students for day-to-day use in class, some are not recommended as a replacement for a laptop computer. Likewise, devices with a smartphone OS (iOS, android, Blackberry, etc.) may be useful but should not be considered a laptop replacement.
Please note that, aside from these requirements and recommendations, your choice of laptop is an individual matter, and should be made at your discretion. Please be aware that regardless of whether you choose a Macintosh or Windows PC, sometimes there will be minor compatibility issues if your professors or classmates are using a different platform."
This could change next year for you guys, but I have high doubts. I believe I have seen a couple of people in my class using a Surface Pro. The majority, however, have either Macbook Pro's or Air's. I'm in the minority with a PC (that is 6 years old and is heavier than a large textbook), but I often bring my iPad to class and that has worked out well for me.