Tablet Notebook vs. Conventional Notebook

[LifeStealer]

I'm in the market for a laptop that will be used around campus as well as at home for a couple of years at least. I'm an engineering student so I've been looking at tablets but I question how much use I could actually get out of it, or whether its worth giving up a decent video card just so I can write on it.

So the question is, does anyone here use a tablet? Would you consider it useful for CAD, Calculus ect...? Should I just go with a laptop from cyberpower instead? It wouldn't be that much of an issue but with the requirements of CAD as well as my personal gaming I would like something with a decent card in it. The best card I can get in a tablet in the states is currently a 6200. Is there just a pad I can get that will make it a bastard tablet?

Thanks,

 

[oynaz]

Tablet notebooks are very useful for engineering work. Taking notes for calculus or construction is much easier with a tablet.

 

[Aluvus]

I've had the oppportunity to play with a tablet some, and I can't say I was overwhelmed. Note-taking, especially, seemed to be really oversold.

Here's the thing: paper has really high resolution. You can fit a lot of information in very little space, you can create dense but readable sketches, you can write arbitrary characters with no worries (distinctly writing lower-case sigma vs. lower-case o, for instance), etc. My experience writing even pretty basic calculus equations was not good. You either have to wing it (my handwriting normally is not great, on a tablet it's piss-poor) or pin your hopes on the handwriting recognition (which, again, did not fair well with Greek characters that look like Latin ones).

I don't do much CAD (EE here), but I'm not sure I can see where a tablet would hold a great advantage there.

As with any user interface, you are not me. If you can borrow a tablet, or even just try one out in a store, and give it a go for some basic things (transcribe some notes from paper, make some simple sketches) that will tell you a lot about how well it works for you.

I will say that you emphatically don't want a slate (with no keyboard) unless you're going to connect an external keyboard and mouse. On screen keyboards are adequate for some tasks, but any serious math work is going to outstrip their capabilities.

 

[LifeStealer]

Thanks guys, I'll try one out. My hand writing is very small so I think there may be problems.

 

[StopSign]

Tablets are a waste of money. If you're taking notes, use paper and pencil. If you need to write with a pen on the laptop, buy a Wacom pad.

PS: I'm an engineering student.

 

[L337Llama]

I had a tablet for a semester, and returned it because I hated it. (bought a t60 and a wacom tablet). Trying to write stuff so it can be converted to text take longer than handwriting on paper or typing.

 

[LifeStealer]

So do you just use the same programs for the wacom that you use for tablet? Or does it work with separate programs? I was reading somewhere that most tablets use the wacom pad.

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

I asked a friend of mine in a Discrete Math class and he said it was totally useless and he was trying to sell it. He said trying to take notes on it was more trouble than its worth and most of the time took longer than just simply doing things out on paper. Plus, as stated above, you have to consider the fact that you are going to be spending most of the time in your university career writing in symbols and Greek letters, not simple English! Not worth the trouble. I bought one of those nice Five-Star notebooks for 5 bucks and couldn't be happier - writing on it is smooth and clean!

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: LifeStealer
So do you just use the same programs for the wacom that you use for tablet? Or does it work with separate programs? I was reading somewhere that most tablets use the wacom pad.

Tablets might use Wacom's technologies for the design, but the Wacom pads themselves definitely come with their own programs.

 

[LifeStealer]

Is that a self rating or did cnet give it five stars? (Sarcasm) Thanks.

 

[L337Llama]

Onenote is the program used the most to take notes, and its sorta nice how it organizes your stuff, but the program is still quite glitchy. One glitch in particular caused it to stop reading all input information from the pen, and then any movements picked up by the pen are converted into erasing 30 seconds later, happened to me daily when using the thing. Also, you cant look at as much at once like you can with paper.

As for wacom stuff, they licensed the technology used in thier tablets (like the pen and pressure sensitivity) for use in the screens in the tablet pcs (although the screens are less reponsive to pressure than the standalone pads).

 

[LifeStealer]

Anyone know of a small (15inch or less) laptop with a 7600 or comparable in it? Closest thing I've found is cyberpower or ibuypower and I don't want to order from either.

 

[oynaz]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Tablet notebooks are very useful for engineering work. Taking notes for calculus or construction is much easier with a tablet.

Ooops, I made a mistake here. I confused tablet with artpad. I have never tried a tablet, so disregard my advice. (I am not a native English-speaker, so bear with me

 

[StopSign]

Yeah I was just gonna say... You gotta be crazy to think that.

 

[sdifox]

Tablets are slow as hell. Not going to cut it for engineering. Cool toys, horrible tools.

 

[LifeStealer]

Lappy I decided on: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220098