Chemistry Major, Japanese Minor

[KiyaYuki]

Hi there,

I am going to be starting university here in September and I am looking to get a tablet to take notes, write down formulas and record lectures and experiments. I am also going to be taking a minor in Japanese so I need to be able to read and write in Japanese.

General Questions.
1. What is your budget?
I would like to spend no more than $1000
2. Would you consider purchasing used/refurbished?
No
3. Do you prefer a Slate, Convertible or Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)?
Slate or Convertible
4. What size Tablet PC would you prefer?
Small and light ~ 5" to 8.9"
Compact ~ 10"
Mainstream ~ 12.1"
Large ~ 13.3"
Anything other than small though preferably mainstream
5. Which country do you intent to purchase from?
Canada
6. Do you have any preferences to brand loyalty or dislikes?
Not really
7. How many hours battery life do you require?
Min 8 hours
8. What will be the primary usage scenario of this tablet? (Email/Web Surfing/Drawing/Word Processing/Entertainment/Notetaking etc)
Email, Word, Notetaking, Writing down math and chemistry formulas down, recording experiments/lectures, surfing the web, reading and writing Japanese
9. Do you have an OS preference?
Preferably windows, though I am open to other OS.
10. What software and tasks do you intend to run? (Microsoft Office or other Word Processing Suite/Photoshop/3D Studio Max/Autocad etc)
Microsoft Office
10. Do you intend on playing Games? If so please list.
No

Screen Specifics
1. What resolution do you prefer?
XGA - 1024x768 ~ large and easy to read text and graphic icons but you fit less on the screen.
SXGA - 1400x1050 ~ Small text and graphic icons which require good vision but the gain is a much larger screen. (no longer available new, must look for used or refurbished machines)
WXGA - 1280x768 ~ has a wider usable area than XGA, ideal for viewing Spreadsheets and other programs that require desktop space. The mainly used resolution for new tablet PCs since 2008.
Any will be fine
2. Do you require the screen to be readable in sunlight?
Would be nice, but not needed
3. Do you prefer your display to be glossy or matte?
It does not matter to me
4. Do you require Touch? (without pressure sensitivity) (Which one: resistive or capacitive)
Resistive would be preferred
5. Do you require a Pen? (with pressure sensitivity) (Which one: Wacom or N-Trig)
I would like to be able to use a pen with it, but not needed

Component Specifics
1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require?
Min 32GB
2. Do you require an Optical (CD/DVD) Drive to be built in?
No
3. Do you require ability to add a second Battery or Hard Drive (Modular Bay technology)?
It would be nice, but not needed.

Misc
1. Other non specific items ~ please add other items you require not covered above?
Needs to be able to connect to a keyboard

[pmatulew]

??

Your initial request was to be able to take notes and write down formulas but then you stated that a pen is optional?

At the end of the post you state that you want the device to connect to a laptop? Would the new device in question not be your laptop? What scenario are you envisioning?

[alex.db]

lol, clearly you have not used many tablets...

resistive screen for writing.....
optional pen for writing.....

[KiyaYuki]

??

Your initial request was to be able to take notes and write down formulas but then you stated that a pen is optional?

At the end of the post you state that you want the device to connect to a laptop? Would the new device in question not be your laptop? What scenario are you envisioning?

Woops, sorry I meant to say that I want a keyboard to hook up to the tablet. And the formulas are letters and numbers mostly.

[KiyaYuki]

lol, clearly you have not used many tablets...

resistive screen for writing.....
optional pen for writing.....

I am used to resistive screens, though I don't know how they are on tablets, so if a resistive screen is not common then I am open to capacitive. And the optional pen is that I would use a keyboard more often than handwriting.

[pmatulew]

It sounds as though any of the commonly recommended professional grade convertibles would work for.

Since you appear to be uncertain about what you're asking, (and you have some time before school starts), I would strongly advise that you purchase and older cheaper model with the express intent that it would be a disposable starter machine just to get the feel of things. For not very much money you would have the chance to find out what features you value more than others. Then later this summer you could lay down your cash with more confidence in your final decision.

[nyb72]

As someone who has majored in the sciences and taken asian language courses, I would strongly advise you to look into a tablet that has pen capabilities.

If your notetaking activities involve formulas, it's very difficult to find the right keys for brackets, symbols, exponents, and subscripts while keeping up with the lecturer. Anything with fractions makes things even more worse, and if there is anything that involves diagrams or drawings, then a keyboard is useless.

For asian language courses, I found the pen to be very useful when it comes to any sort of calligraphy type of activities.

[alex.db]

As someone who has majored in the sciences and taken asian language courses, I would strongly advise you to look into a tablet that has pen capabilities.

If your notetaking activities involve formulas, it's very difficult to find the right keys for brackets, symbols, exponents, and subscripts while keeping up with the lecturer. Anything with fractions makes things even more worse, and if there is anything that involves diagrams or drawings, then a keyboard is useless.

For asian language courses, I found the pen to be very useful when it comes to any sort of calligraphy type of activities.

+1

I tried to use the keyboard once to try and make all my equations look neat ( I have terrible handwriting). Needless to say after about 30 seconds I took my pen out again.

[Hattori Hanzo]

+2

You can learn to do that with LaTeX in almost realtime, but this takes quite a bit of time to learn, let alone learn it so well that it does not distract you from thinking about what it actually is supposed to mean.
You've spent years learning to use a pen. You don't need to spend a lot of time learning to substitute it when you can just have it.


You should be fine with almost all convertibles. If you want touch for writing only, you can omit it entirely. If your budget is 1K and you're only starting, I'd second pmatulew in getting something older well under your budget.
For just replacing paper, using Office and browsing the web anything with a dual core will do. The TC4400 I'm now using is more than half a decade old and for what you want still more than powerful enough (with a HDD upgrade and more RAM).
I'd look into slightly newer models, though, with WXGA (1280x800) like the x200t, T4410 or 2730p.

If you really need 8h of continuous battery life and can't even get to an outlet for an hour or so, you will need to invest in a new main and a second battery, though. Even newer models well above your price range would require this.

[Shogmaster]

+3

Having an EMR pen is light years better than resistive or capacitive for INK. I struggled to use TIP on my old Fujitsu P1620 compared to other Wacom Penabled TPCs. It will be same struggle with Cap touch due to vectoring.

Anyways, TIP is also great for learning a new language. My cousin's wife is learning Korean with the TIP. TIP also supports Japanese and Chinese recognition. You'll need Win 7 Ultimate, or install MUI on to Pro via hacking.