LD Student [Filled Sticky Form] advice please!

[UCD80]

Foremost, I am looking to buy a PC Tablet.

Secondly, I do have learning disabilities but can function primarily as a normal student outside 'note-taking' and needing 'more time to complete exams'. I have already done a lot of research within PC Tablets, so the detail of my responses & questions will be very if not extremely specific. Thank you to all those who wanted to help but could not, and those who wanted to help; and have.

General Questions.

1. What is your budget? $5,000.00

2. Would you consider purchasing used/refurbished? Yes

3. Do you prefer a Slate, Convertible or Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)? Convertible

4. What size Tablet PC would you prefer? Mainstream - Large

Small and light ~ 5" to 8.9"
Compact ~ 10"
Mainstream ~ 12.1"
Large ~ 13.3"


5. Which country do you "intend" to purchase from? U.S.A.

6. Do you have any preferences to brand loyalty or dislikes? No

7. How many hours battery life do you require? 2 hours minimum - 6+ hours maximum (Unless the battery is modular, then I will simply purchase multiple batteries.)

8. What will be the primary usage scenario of this tablet? Note-taking

9. Do you have an OS preference? Windows 7

10. What software and tasks do you intend to run? Microsoft Office, Microsoft One Note and possibly a type of Dragon Speak program.

10. Do you intend on playing Games? If so please list. Intend, not so much. However, it would only be Guild Wars 2 if I could.



Screen Specifics

1. What resolution do you prefer? WXGA

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.


2. Do you require the screen to be readable in sunlight? Not required

3. Do you prefer your display to be glossy or matte? Matte (Ultimately, does not matter.)

4. Do you require Touch? (without pressure sensitivity) (Which one: resistive or capacitive) Prefer Resistive, however it does not matter if it functions in how I need based on the explanation described below in the "misc" section.

5. Do you require a Pen? Yes. Wacom preferred


Component Specifics

1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require? Hard Drive - Least 80gb (prefer SSD, if possible). Memory - Capacity to hold a minimum of 8mb (does not matter what it comes with as long as I can replace and install my own memory).

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)? Would prefer, but not required.


Misc
1. Other non specific items ~ As mentioned before, I do have specific learning disabilities that greatly effect my ability to learn <-DOH!. Basically, my grade literally depends on how well I write or receive notes. It is extremely important to me that I am able to get the most efficient notes as possible. I have been able to get by in my courses in community college with either having official note takers I have to pay for to take notes for me, or developing close knit relationships with my instructors for them to give me special considerations that sometimes include receiving already written or their own personal notes. I was just accepted to UCDavis in California and I don't think I can do this same intimate process with professors that have 200+ students in each class. With that in mind, there are two programs I plan on using along with this decided PC Tablet. One I think is MS One Note... Program #1, I will be able to train the program how to interpret my writing skills with legible letters/words. Program #2, there is a piece of software and hardware, that I will be able to point at a professors direction and it will not only be able to cancel out outside noises, but will scribe what that specific person is saying down in the formats already created or that I create. I apologize for not knowing exactly what these programs are called, but I know they exist. If it is known what these are, 1 of 2 of these must be able to be used in this decided PC Tablet.

2. Additional requests ~ Not sure if this is an additional request, but I think it might help to mention how I write. I tend to smoosh/smash the corner of my right hand and pinky on notebooks/tablets pretty hard. Also, I put a lot of variable pressure when I am writing on writing utensils. Most of the pressure however, is again very hard. Let's just say I go through pencils like they were crayons that are being used on a fairly warm frying pan.

Thank You

[Moderators: Question #5 of the Sticky Form uses the word "intent", however the word used in that phrase should be "intend".]

[pepper_john]

I have also been researching on a tablet pc for a while, and biased by my previous positive experience with Thinkpad, I suggest X220t

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet Review

Others may provide their own experience.

I am hesitating mostly because 1) window 8 is coming in Fall which provides better support for tablets 2) I also heard about Lenovo Yoga which is very interesting

[UCD80]

I have also been researching on a tablet pc for a while, and biased by my previous positive experience with Thinkpad, I suggest X220t

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet Review

Others may provide their own experience.

I am hesitating mostly because 1) window 8 is coming in Fall which provides better support for tablets 2) I also heard about Lenovo Yoga which is very interesting

I apologize for the late response.

Thank you for replying. I looked up both the x220 and the Lenova Yoga, and I can see now why you are hesitating. Looks like I am looking for a high end PC Tablet at the age of extremely good new tech recently released or releasing soon.

I don't have to have whatever unit in my hands until September of this year (09/12'), so I suppose I can hold off a little to see what comes out.

Again thank you for the reply; much appreciated.

[pepper_john]

You are welcome. Good luck in your study.

[seaturn]

Looks like you also need some kind of camcorder with external microphone gun. May be streaming to the tablet at the same time?

[UCD80]

Looks like you also need some kind of camcorder with external microphone gun. May be streaming to the tablet at the same time?

Yes, that is correct. There is a program I read about 6-9 months ago (wasn't dragon speaking) that not only utilized the camcorder and came with an external mic gun, it also digitized words as if I were typing them myself. Maybe it was a Dragon sister company, I have no idea.

Also why I am going with a higher end unit, to be able to process the multitasking and heavy information without stutters.

As I will be:
Recording with on-board and external hardware, running MS One Note /w Dragon like software and heavy usage from stylus pen.

[seaturn]

UCD80, I'll try share my experience with Lenovo x220t (outdoor version) 4294/i5 no touch, only pen. I'll try to cover thing, what might be interesting for you.
This tablet is for my daughter - HS student. Main programs for her: musescore(for helping her with flute), beginner drawing, some discussion with me about math(two pens at the same time),
sound recorder for her music tests.
Proc: Wacom digitizer, battery Life, upgradable to 16GB, not very heavy, point stick in notebook mode, fingerprint login, performance,
ans personal - pointing stick (we hate touchpads )
Cons(I like cons. They really show the pitfalls):
1. After 3 firmware updates, the pen still off on the right side in the landscape mode. Scrolling on page, as scroll bar on the right, is inconvenient without multitouch.
No idea if multitouch functionality helps)
2. Screen is 1366x768, only landscape mode is useful. But even in landscape mode 768 vertical pixels are not enoght for techical drafts or physics problems, or matricses. She often scroll up from down to have a look at the "given" of a theorem.
3. The microphone in, is combined with line-out. It is a headphones/microphone one outlet. My standard Sony stereo mic is not working if I plug it.
My daugher records her music tests with internal mic , what, to be honest, is quite good. She is 2-3 feet away from LCD during recording.

So, in my opinion, x220t does NOT meet your requirements. May be people will give an idea how to workaround the issues.

[doobiedoobiedum]

Foremost, I am looking to buy a PC Tablet.
--

Misc
1. Other non specific items ~ As mentioned before, I do have specific learning disabilities that greatly effect my ability to learn <-DOH!. Basically, my grade literally depends on how well I write or receive notes. It is extremely important to me that I am able to get the most efficient notes as possible. I have been able to get by in my courses in community college with either having official note takers I have to pay for to take notes for me, or developing close knit relationships with my instructors for them to give me special considerations that sometimes include receiving already written or their own personal notes. I was just accepted to UCDavis in California and I don't think I can do this same intimate process with professors that have 200+ students in each class. With that in mind, there are two programs I plan on using along with this decided PC Tablet. One I think is MS One Note... Program #1, I will be able to train the program how to interpret my writing skills with legible letters/words. Program #2, there is a piece of software and hardware, that I will be able to point at a professors direction and it will not only be able to cancel out outside noises, but will scribe what that specific person is saying down in the formats already created or that I create. I apologize for not knowing exactly what these programs are called, but I know they exist. If it is known what these are, 1 of 2 of these must be able to be used in this decided PC Tablet.

I have to say I haven't been so shocked at an email in years.

Is there not a learning / student support system where the college or university provides official scribes and dictation recording machines to help you out?

I am full of admiration that you've gotten by so far out of your own resource and pocket but besides the tablet pc, check if you can get a scribe through the support department (you ARE paying fees after all and here in the UK, your fees are supposed to cover such basics). I'd certainly get a voice recorder alongside any computer you buy - most lecturers here at my university (including myself) are used to a row of digital voice recorders near where they might be speaking. The other thing would be Blackboard or Moodle help notes for you and everyone else to download or work from as part of your course and homework study.