Thinking of getting a tablet PC for med school...good idea?

Started by dewgong
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dewgong

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Is it worth the price? Any good places to buy one from? I'm thinking of getting a Lenovo X201 but they seem to be hard to come by.

I like having everything digitized but I also like writing down notes (helps me remember better), and I feel that a tablet PC will be the best of both worlds. Thoughts?
 
dewgong said:
Is it worth the price? Any good places to buy one from? I'm thinking of getting a Lenovo X201 but they seem to be hard to come by.

I like having everything digitized but I also like writing down notes (helps me remember better), and I feel that a tablet PC will be the best of both worlds. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I personally think you would so better with a macbook air or some of the new pc rivals (i.e. samsung).

Tablets are nice, but with the pace of some med school lectures, typing on a keypad is a bit easier.

I love my mac, and it was very useful in my M1/2 years.
 
DrVanNostran said:
I personally think you would so better with a macbook air or some of the new pc rivals (i.e. samsung).

Tablets are nice, but with the pace of some med school lectures, typing on a keypad is a bit easier.

I love my mac, and it was very useful in my M1/2 years.
Click to expand...
The tablet he's talking about can be converted to a laptop and he can type his heart away.

Yes, do it. I still have Dell's original tablet from like 4 years and it's been amazing. I have it docked and hooked up to an external monitor. I can have whatever opened on my 24" and then write on the unit in tablet mode. Great for annotating notes and working out problems. Get OneNote and you'll be set.

Lots of good stuff on eBay and manufacturer outlet stores.
 
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I bought a HP Touchsmart tm2 last year and it's really nice. I would highly recommend it. It's highly portable and the tablet mode comes in handy when you are trying to draw diagrams or show relationships between concepts. Plus, I feel like it would be very useful during clinical years when you might need to take notes during rounds. You can't exactly walk around and type on something like a macbook air, eventhough it's very portable.

The latest tm2s are a huge improvement over the previous model. They kept the price down, but they switched to a much better processor. Windows 7 has much better tablet support than XP; the HP software is also decent. The only thing is, it's clearly not suitable for entertainment. It's not very fun to watch hulu or play games on this, but then again I didn't buy this laptop for its graphics or surround sound system.
 
Alvarez13 said:
The tablet he's talking about can be converted to a laptop and he can type his heart away.

Yes, do it. I still have Dell's original tablet from like 4 years and it's been amazing. I have it docked and hooked up to an external monitor. I can have whatever opened on my 24" and then write on the unit in tablet mode. Great for annotating notes and working out problems. Get OneNote and you'll be set.

Lots of good stuff on eBay and manufacturer outlet stores.
Click to expand...
One note is sooo amazing!
 
saishravan said:
I bought a HP Touchsmart tm2 last year and it's really nice. I would highly recommend it. It's highly portable and the tablet mode comes in handy when you are trying to draw diagrams or show relationships between concepts. Plus, I feel like it would be very useful during clinical years when you might need to take notes during rounds. You can't exactly walk around and type on something like a macbook air, eventhough it's very portable.

The latest tm2s are a huge improvement over the previous model. They kept the price down, but they switched to a much better processor. Windows 7 has much better tablet support than XP; the HP software is also decent. The only thing is, it's clearly not suitable for entertainment. It's not very fun to watch hulu or play games on this, but then again I didn't buy this laptop for its graphics or surround sound system.
Click to expand...

Seriously, notes for rounds? You gonna keep a laptop computer in your white coat and whip it out to write "Keep an eye on Ms. Johnson's potassium level"?
 
i loved my tablet for ms1 + 2 - havent used the tablet part (its a convertible) since though

whatever tablet you get, make sure its an active digitizer

my tablet (gateway 142xl) is amazing but has been discountinued
 
saishravan said:
I bought a HP Touchsmart tm2 last year and it's really nice. I would highly recommend it. It's highly portable and the tablet mode comes in handy when you are trying to draw diagrams or show relationships between concepts. Plus, I feel like it would be very useful during clinical years when you might need to take notes during rounds. You can't exactly walk around and type on something like a macbook air, eventhough it's very portable.

The latest tm2s are a huge improvement over the previous model. They kept the price down, but they switched to a much better processor. Windows 7 has much better tablet support than XP; the HP software is also decent. The only thing is, it's clearly not suitable for entertainment. It's not very fun to watch hulu or play games on this, but then again I didn't buy this laptop for its graphics or surround sound system.
Click to expand...

A pen and paper have served me well.😕
 
theWUbear said:
In case anyone ever stumbles upon this thread, tablet PC [lenovo x201t] has been awesome.

While waiting to see physicians during my clinical research hours I was able to take care of paperwork, keep my email in order, do my homework, etc., with full laptop functionality - all while standing outside an exam room

I have fully eliminated the need to carry around any spiral notebooks during the semester. I take notes for all my classes on the tablet while recording them (OneNote is God)
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5849/classnotes.png

I also take book notes on my tablet
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/731/booknotes.png

When flying on a plane, or just hangin out in bed, I use my tablet in tablet mode, set it in landscape, and watch a movie with a device more compact than a normal laptop.

Core i7 processor, whatever that means (i believe it is higher end). Computing hasn't been slow at all and that's all i ask for in a computer

Battery life is up to 8 hours. 8. hours. so good
Click to expand...
.
 
don't a bunch of med schools nowadays give you a tablet? I know both the schools that admitted me had you pick up your tablet as part of orientation week (pretty sure it already has a bunch of the necessary programs loaded on it too). Of course, i haven't picked it up yet seeing as orientation isn't till august, so i could be wrong
 
I got a tablet (x220T, x201 is the older model, couldn't find it on thinkpad site anymore), similar one as WuBear who recommended it to me and it is pretty awesome. I've been out of school for 2+ years now so I haven't had classes but I use it to read news and mark up charts for my job. It is pretty awesome and like bear said it is the future. Only downfall I think is the battery life. I do not get anywhere near 8 hours using it in tablet mode unless I buy the "slice battery" which is supposed to give me like 21 hours of battery, but will really probably just go to 10-12, still very solid battery life. But without the slice I only get maybe 4 hours max.

wu bear, are you getting the same I am on battery life?

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/731/booknotes.png

here I see your battery is at 2:43 left and it is about 40% down which seems about the same.
 
Anyone consider an iPad with a blue tooth keyboard? I have a friend at Stanford that swears by it. (But then again, they have iAnnotate).

Allen
 
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I used pencil and paper to study, and printed out scribe notes when I needed to. Having fancy tablet technology would not have enhanced my studying style whatsoever. I cannot learn by looking and reading off a screen.
 
biobossx99 said:
Anyone consider an iPad with a blue tooth keyboard? I have a friend at Stanford that swears by it. (But then again, they have iAnnotate).

Allen
Click to expand...
I use an iPad without the keyboard. At first i needed a bit of practice at taking notes fast, then got into it, now same speed as pen on paper. The main advantage for me is that I don't have countless sheets of paper to loose, and everything is in one place. Again it took a bit of getting used to when making notes during rounds, but the paperless benefit outweighed all the getting-used-to-new-tech bits 🙂
 
i bought a nice tablet for use and was really excited. used it for about a week and hated it. eventually i just stopped taking notes and memorized power points, to each his own.
 
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