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Question

Best small tablet for a college student?

Jan 17, 2013 4:51AM PST

Hello, I'm an engineering student looking for the best small (7" maybe a little bigger) tablet for everyday use.
I need it for lecture slides/note taking, lab group activities (research, data collecting, and writing notes/documents), and just daily use, the more functions the better.
I have a Dell xps 15z, but I use it as a stationary desktop in my room, so I'm looking for something that I can easily use on the go, and transfer the information over to my laptop when I get back each day.
My budget is around the $200 mark or lower preferably. I was looking at the nexus 7, but with the asus announcement on their new tablet, I'm wondering if I should hold out if there's going to be a flood of new releases, or if I should just get one now.
Any help would be great.
Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
The first question I have is.
Jan 17, 2013 6:26AM PST

Have you taken notes on this tablet yet? I find the students that try this lag before others or go down in flames if you go too fast for them. The students with pen/cil paper seem to keep up.

Also, did you figure out how to get your notes INTACT from the tablet to the laptop? Most folk discover this later.

My advice is to not buy this until you have tested out this system. From my view it looks flawed and a fine way to get you to part with your money.
Bob

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PS. I have a few tablets at the office if you need a test.
Jan 17, 2013 6:27AM PST

We have the usual Nexus 7, Transformer with keyboard dock, KF HD 7 and some others. But would I use such for notes? Sorry, no.

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Answer
Re:
Jan 17, 2013 11:10AM PST

I've always been a paper and pencil person, but the reason I want to use a tablet is because my professors just read off of the lecture slides that are downloadable and available online. So instead of having a quarter of a page of notes each class, It'd be 100 times easier to have it in front of me and be able to just write the notes directly on the slides.
Also in one of my classes, he expects us to print 5-20 pages of notes/discussion questions a day, or bring them on a computer. So with the tablet I could save money in the long run bc of ink alone. Part of the reason for me posting this was to figure out if it was possible to transfer the notes/documents to a pc via the usb cable or something. In addition to those reasons, I walk 3-5 miles a day, and carrying my laptop, books, paper, and misc items, its putting a lot of strain on my back. I have tried out writing with a stylus on my roommate's ipad, and that was half the reason I considered it after I saw how easy it was to pull lecture slides up and take notes directly to them.

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Then it's the iPad.
Jan 17, 2013 1:35PM PST

The app you saw is not on Android yet.

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adobe reader
Jan 17, 2013 11:38PM PST

do the androids have adobe? Or anything like that? The slides and whatnot are just pdf files.

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Yes.
Jan 17, 2013 11:54PM PST

I have quite a few models at the office but for the note taking apps, some get picky or want what they saw on the iPad.
Bob