What Kind of Tablet PC to Buy?

nic barajas asks: "I'm going to be attending college this fall, so I have been looking into a computer to use on campus. My preference has been to looking at the Tablet PC, although they are still in their proverbial infancy. I have been looking at a multitude of vendors, including Sager, Acer, and Toshiba. I'm looking for something that has a sizeable screen (at least 12"), decent storage (40GB+), and a long battery life. What are some of the better models on the market with these characteristics?"

Comments

I got a solution...

[cujo_1111]

Notepad and pencil... so much easier to edit on the run.

The bonus is that when transcribing your notes into a computer for safe keeping a filing, you are effectively reprocessing the lectures you go to. One of the best study methods i know of.

Re:I got a solution...

[nomadic]

The bonus is that when transcribing your notes into a computer for safe keeping a filing

No, the bonus is notepads and penciles don't cost FOUR THOUSAND FREAKING DOLLARS.

Re:I got a solution...

[RocketRainbow]

At my school the preferred study tool is a blackboard. Consider the display area! I bought a shiney new Toshiba notebook when I started with CD-RW and all sorts of gizmos but after 3 years here is my advice: You won't use it as much as you thought you would.

I went to law school and found the notebook was too bulky to sit on the desks properly but useful for self-study later in my room, especially given its compact size. I then went to maths/physics lectures and found I couldn't use Texmacs properly because I only had a yukky celeron processor that couldn't handle the stress. And in the odd programming project, forget about it! I borrowed my boyfriend's processor. Rather than getting around with work on CD-RWs, I found I lent them to friends to store movies portably in CD wallets.

Now consider the hassle you're going to go through trying to find drivers and software for your funny little screen. And how the software you do want will be less flexible than just grabbing another pen or turning the page.

Get a nice computer, absolutely, but travel light on campus with a little spiral-bound notebook for notes from each subject, all stored with note paper etc. in one of those folders with a zipper. At home you can have a clever filing system and I found that it helped to have a different coloured document envelope for notes for each current assignment.

Don't even get a laptop before checking that your library has data points and so on. I assumed mine would and they still don't. Other aussie universities have campus-wide wireless or nice unix labs and we get the dregs and pretty scenery. I usually manage to grab a desk near a power point (they need to plug in the vacuum cleaner somewhere I guess) and work there which helps because I live way off campus. Usually I'm only in the library preparing notes anyway and use paper. A tablet would be utterly useless to me.

I do enjoy my palm pilot, but I don't use it as a study tool, rather as a very clever and flexible organizer.

Why?

[ameoba]

Really, you probably won't use it much. I've known a lot of people who have picked up PDAs or laptops for the purpose of using them in class and, after the initial novelty wore off, reverted to pen&paper. I can't think of anyone who's kept using them.

There's something to be said about a laptop for doing work while on campus, but I don't think that a tablet is worth the extra expense.

Get a 'real' Laptop

[Anonymous Coward]

The Tablet PC's aren't nearly as usefull as they are touted as being. Sure, you can draw driectly onto the screen.

They are like giagantic PDA's in that respect. If you want a good PC for college, get a VERY powerful system that will last you a good three or four years before showing it's age.

Take a look at one of the high-end gaming Laptops from Dell, Alienware or other high-end laptop manufacturer.

I considered tablet PC's for some of our sales staff, after taking a look at a few models, I found them quite lacking in terms on long-term performance, long-term durability as well as usability. Some of them DON'T have keyboards at all.

If you need serious portable computing power, a Tablet PC is nothing but a really fancy toy.

Re:Troll Question

[RoshanCat]

Lets see,
i) Read thousands of e-books on my couch, while making notes on it
ii) Browse in a comfortable position, while watching TV
iii) Take Notes in a meeting / classroom.
iv) Pass it around easily to show something
v) Design/Architect solutions while not having to worry about transfering it to PC(the monkey coders at /. wouldn't understand that anyway)
vi) Reduce endless clutter of sticky pads

and surely each person will have a niche use

From my experience with them

[Sycraft-fu]

I'd say don't, get a laptop instead. Reasons:

1) Unless you are quite a slow typist and quit a fast writer, you can probably type as fast or faster than you can write. Also probably far more accurately than the computer will recognise your penmanship.

2) You can get laptops plenty portable. Dell offers lots of nice, light, but respectably powerful laptops.

3) Laptops tend to cost less, for what you get. So either save the money or invest it to get more computer.

4) All the tablets I've used have quirks and problems that laptops don't. You don't want to be dicking around with something that will cause trouble when taking notes, you just want it to work.

5) You'll find that for papers, typing is much, much better. It is a much superior interfact for composing, organising, and editing large amounts of text. A large part of what you will be doing is writing papers, so keep this in mind.

6) Depending on your major, you may want to load specialised software to work at home. For example our engineers load a student version of Pspice on their systems so they needn't work in the labs. You are more likely to have compatibility problems on a tablet than a full blown PC.

So, unless there's a real compelling reason, get a lightweight notebook. You'll be far happier in the long run. DOn't let the wow factor of tablets draw you in. They are neat, but not ready for the prime time yet.

Re:Troll Question

[atheken]

I really have to say, I don't like to have so many paper notes, and furthermore, I study better when it's available on my laptop (which I have on me almost 24x7) I really don't like the tablet PCs that are out, I'd like something less klunky than what's out there now.. maybe 6x8.5 inches.. Apple, where's my MacInTouch?! if Apple wants to use that name, they're more than welcome to use it. (I know, it was formerly called the Newton).