Which iPad?

[Agent Michael Scarn]

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There have been several threads comparing the types of iPad as far as which is best for starting med school, but not since the new iPad dropped.

I feel like I'm mostly going to be using mine to annotate powerpoints while I listen/watch, and probably go paper/pencil for my outside learning and note-taking. What should I get? I already have a MacBook pro. iPad pro+pencil would run about $750 (with a cover), and the new iPad would be more like $450 if I get a nice stylus (like an adonis jot dash).

Do people thing the extra $300 is worth it (basically for the pencil and its functionality), or can I get a functional equivalent by doing the lower tier and just shelling out for a nicer third-party stylus? I don't need to have ridiculous shading ability to do artsy-fartsy stuff, just write quickly and legibly during class and maybe make some diagrams and stuff.

Thanks!

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

The one made by microsoft

 

[begoood95]

Until Apple incorporates some real productivity tools in their iPad, I'd agree with @Princeton Medical Student. I love the feel, OS, and etc. of Apple products, but the Surface is undoubtedly the better "tablet."

 

[ciestar]

I have the Pro and LOVE the pencil. I use it for all of my notes in class.

EDIT: I am required to have an ipad at my school, so I just went with the option that basically gives me everything I need without having to buy a Surface when I already have a MacBook Pro and I had to have an ipad anyway.

 

[begoood95]

I have the Pro and LOVE the pencil. I use it for all of my notes in class.

So I'm not yet in medical school, but all throughout undergrad I took notes with a pen and notebook. Do you feel like your recall of the content is the same when you write on a surface? I ask because you always hear that writing with a pen and paper results in better recall vs typing on a laptop and I'm wondering whether or not writing electronically on the surface gets the same result.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Mini is the best because you can throw it in your white coat pocket and use it on the wards. Looks slightly better than using your phone for uworld/uptodate/etc.

I personally don't think the Pro is useful (at least enough to justify the price) to the average med student if you have a laptop.

 

[mwsapphire]

Mini is the best because you can throw it in your white coat pocket and use it on the wards. Looks slightly better than using your phone for uworld/uptodate/etc.

I personally don't think the Pro is useful (at least enough to justify the price) to the average med student if you have a laptop.

Are you guys wearing those silly, short white coats?

 

[WedgeDawg]

Are you guys wearing those silly, short white coats?

If you get into med school you'll have to wear them too

 

[Knicks17]

The huge one

 

[Agent Michael Scarn]

If you get into med school you'll have to wear them too

Alerting the burn unit that we need to send someone over...


Mini is great for the portability as others pointed out, but with current pricing it is actually $70 for less tablet.

My inclination is that having a laptop and being used to doing paper notes on my own time, it probably isn't worth it to go for the pro. I do think they have done back-to-school deals in years past (thought for laptops, not iPads) where they throw in a pair of beats (noise cancelling headphones are also on the pre-school list) for free with a purchase. I guess if they did something similar I might go higher tier. But that is all completely hypothetical.

 

[mwsapphire]

Alerting the burn unit that we need to send someone over...


Mini is great for the portability as others pointed out, but with current pricing it is actually $70 for less tablet.

My inclination is that having a laptop and being used to doing paper notes on my own time, it probably isn't worth it to go for the pro. I do think they have done back-to-school deals in years past (thought for laptops, not iPads) where they throw in a pair of beats (noise cancelling headphones are also on the pre-school list) for free with a purchase. I guess if they did something similar I might go higher tier. But that is all completely hypothetical.

....I don't think he meant that as a burn.
Nobody can be sure if they'll get into med school and I wasn't insulting him to begin with.
Saying " when" would have sounded overly fruity and whimsical, as well as unrealistic.

 

[ScottTenorman54]

Mini is the best because you can throw it in your white coat pocket and use it on the wards. Looks slightly better than using your phone for uworld/uptodate/etc.

I personally don't think the Pro is useful (at least enough to justify the price) to the average med student if you have a laptop.

The latest mini right now is 2015 tech though, by the time OP hits the wards it'll be 4-5 years old.

 

[Knicks17]

But really I think you should save money and get the surface it is much more versatile and has a larger format.

 

[WedgeDawg]

The latest mini right now is 2015 tech though, by the time OP hits the wards it'll be ~5 years old.

That's true. Honestly, I got a new mini as a gift the year I started med school and pre-clinically, there wasn't much use for it. I used it for Kindle, Netflix (which I also had on my laptop), and very occasionally (aka twice) to read stuff for class (like textbook level stuff the few times we had to do that).

I haven't used it for too much more now that I've started clinicals, but I could see using it to read e-textbooks/review papers/study books/whatever and doing UWorld questions on it, but I already have so much stuff to carry around and I can do the same stuff on my phone anyway, so I don't see a point to bringing it with me in my white coat. I'll sometimes leave it in my bag, but as long as you're smart about it (i.e. not during rounds or times when you're supposed to be doing other things), you can absolutely get away with using your phone for exactly the same purpose, and it's like 1/8th the weight.

 

[ciestar]

So I'm not yet in medical school, but all throughout undergrad I took notes with a pen and notebook. Do you feel like your recall of the content is the same when you write on a surface? I ask because you always hear that writing with a pen and paper results in better recall vs typing on a laptop and I'm wondering whether or not writing electronically on the surface gets the same result.

Yeah, I don't feel it's any different, paper vs tablet. I do a lot better this way than typing anything.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

I really like my ipad pro, with keyboard case, and pencil. It's pretty much replaced my laptop. I use it all the time to read articles, write up word documents, and to edit PDF student grading forms. And if someone actually gives me a hard copy of a form, I just scan it using the ipad and make it an editable PDF.

 

[McDreamy123]

Gonna throw in my plug for the iPad Pro 12.9'. It's use with Apple Pencil and annotating pdf's on notability or one note is incredible and efficient. Try the surface and handwriting notes and then try the Apple Pencil with iPad Pro--the difference in quality of inking is huge!!

 

[tarheelpenner]

Alerting the burn unit that we need to send someone over...


Mini is great for the portability as others pointed out, but with current pricing it is actually $70 for less tablet.

My inclination is that having a laptop and being used to doing paper notes on my own time, it probably isn't worth it to go for the pro. I do think they have done back-to-school deals in years past (thought for laptops, not iPads) where they throw in a pair of beats (noise cancelling headphones are also on the pre-school list) for free with a purchase. I guess if they did something similar I might go higher tier. But that is all completely hypothetical.

Keep in mind most of the deals I've seen are for beats the earphones. To upgrade to the "headphones" (as in, not the little buds you stick in your ear), it costs $100. I did the same deal this summer for my phone.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

Gonna throw in my plug for the iPad Pro 12.9'. It's use with Apple Pencil and annotating pdf's on notability or one note is incredible and efficient. Try the surface and handwriting notes and then try the Apple Pencil with iPad Pro--the difference in quality of inking is huge!!

Agreed, the ipad pencil is second to none when it comes to marking up documents. I like Scanner Pro, PDF Expert, and PDF Converter. All three are made by the same company (Readdle) and are quite useful on the Ipad pro.