Best Tablet for college??!!

turtlerock
Wed, 04 Dec 2013 14:25:29 +0000

I looked into this recently as well and really a lot of them are good (I ended up buying a Nexus 7 and it’s awesome!), but like it’s already been mentioned there are a couple things to consider:
a. Will this replace a laptop completely? From the read of your post it sounds like it would. Therefore, you should probably go with a bigger and better quality screen (10"+) to ensure adequate room for taking notes and typing (plus the bigger size would give the better experience for movies and games or general online media too). [For me, I was keeping my laptop, so I prefered something smaller and more portable like 7"].

b. Do you plan to type notes or would you prefer to write them out with a digital pen? You can get an external keyboard or separate digital stylus for almost all models, but some do it better than others. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note series (so, like the 10.1) come with a digitizer that has built-in features for a more streamline experience in using it with the device (i.e. open programs and menus directly from the “S” pen). I’ve heard a lot of praise for the tactile keyboards (not the flat “touch” ones) for the Surface.

c. What are you used to using? iPads of course will feel very familiar if you have an iPhone and/or Mac, plus your content can be synced easier, but IMO they are overpriced and so are the peripherals (keyboards, etc). If you’ve used Windows and MS Office extensively, then the Surface will be the most familiar to you. If you have no preference or are willing to delve into something new, then I highly recommend Android - Samsung Galaxy series uses a version of it and the Nexus line offers it in themost “pure” form. Trust me, there is a difference in which platform you use: my wife has an iPhone and iPad and I used those a lot in the past before purchasing my N7, and as soon as I started usingmy N7 I realized there was so much more freedom in the usage of my device than what it felt like with the Apple products.

d. What apps do you plan on using? All of them offer comparable MS Office suites (some for free and some for $10 - 30 depending). I agree that Apple seems to have the most extensive offerings of apps. There has been a couple instances where I’ve seen an app in the Apple App store on my wife’s devices that I’d like to have only to find out that it’s not actually offered in the Google Play store. Sometimes there is a comparable app on Googe Play, but sometimes not. If you have in mind which apps you’d be using, then you can look in each store online to see what they have. I would also agree with, however, that the apps Google Play offers (aside from games) are mostly free. I’ve spent like $5 in apps in 3 months of use. I downloaded a MS Office comparable app for free, Adobe Reader for free, Nexflix, Skype, online radio apps, news feed apps, and much more all for free. I even have one of the most awesome school schedule/assignment tracker/planner called Timetable for free on Google Play. All platforms will offer the basic apps like utilities (calculator), email, calendar, web browser, etc.

e. Odds and ends? Some people have very specific preferences, like wanting something that they can plug a USB into or want to use an SD card to extend their data storage. Only specific models fill these kinds of needs. Neither the Nexus or iPad lines offer SD storage (or USB for that matter), so you will need to buy the bigger storage models up-front. There are other slight preferences too though. Think about any of these you may have.

Anyway, I’m absolutely satisfied with the N7 so far. I take it to campus all days, use the internet on it (of course), but also plan how to complete my assignments, use the calendar for combining school and work commitments, and use notes for various things (mostly lists of things). I also use it a lot to view course handouts in digital form (so office docs and PDF) because courses rarely print thigns for students these days due to cutting on costs and environmental factors. I’ve had professors publish lectures before the class begins and I can follow along on my N7. I still take notes with pad and paper, but that’s because I’m just so used to that already. I also mostly do my typing for papers on my laptop as well.

If it was cheaper I would have gone with the Surface and attempted to replace my laptop with that, and thus would be more inclined to take notes and type extensively on it, but the N7 was much cheaper so I went with that.