Do I need a laptop or tablet for college

PCSharkey

I was thinking of getting a HP x2 or a chrome book for college, I want it just for taking notes and not having to worry about losing them, am I better off with a laptop or tablet and if so which would you recommend ?

Aimead

Personal preference is to go with a laptop. My reasoning is that while a tablet is easier to carry around with you, it lacks the range of functionality that comes with a laptop.

- Want to torrent and watch movies? Easier on a laptop (and on an Ipad even getting torrent software is hampered by the Apple store banning such).
- Have a really niche computing task you need done (eg: maybe you need to use R and do some statistics for coursework)? If software for that exists it will be on laptop.
- You device is broken? Laptops are easier to fix, while most hardware problems with the tablet aren’t as easily solvable (if at all).
- Laptops have more connects which make connecting and transferring to other devices much easier.
- Laptops have much more processing power which helps for a lot things (eg: maybe you are doing drama and you need to edit and transcode some video).

Personal preference, but I always considered tablets to be a more-portable-but-in-all-other-ways-more-crap laptop.

K.O.Kiki

Laptop + lots of paper notebooks.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

sugarman wrote: »

Neither.

Most lecturers aren't too keen on students using laptops in class.

Its also awkward to lug around all day, everyday.

Its handier to just use a notepad to take notes, and a hell of a lot easier to draw diagrams and sketches.

I dumped mine after a few weeks, only bring it with me during exam time when the library gets too busy.

Really? :pac:

Pat Mustard

PCSharkey wrote: »

I was thinking of getting a HP x2 or a chrome book for college, I want it just for taking notes and not having to worry about losing them, am I better off with a laptop or tablet and if so which would you recommend ?

I dunno about using it for taking notes but you will need a laptop for essays, assignments, etc.

You don't want to be stuck trying to get this coursework done on the computers in college. It is difficult to get significant amounts of typing done on a tablet. You need a laptop for this work.

looksee

Techmaster wrote: »

Really? :pac:

Surprising how even in computer classes so many students think lecturers are too thick to see the open tabs behind the work 'being' done, and how they relate to football, wrestling, and other stuff that is irrelevant to the course. (Especially when the lecturer is an aul wan who looks as though she knows as much about computers as their granny.)

hytrogen

Depends on your course & your own skillset.
Laptop / desktop keyboard are much more comfortable to write long essays, projects etc.
Tablet is handy and light for scratching down notes, photographing board notes, web researching & can be good for projects if you're a master at the office suite that comes with it or can download a decent software package you're comfortable with. Depends also on your budget

Atlantic Dawn

Laptop, don't touch a Chrome Book.

wally1990

Laptop!!!

Ging Ging

Laptop, if you're lecturers are like mine were then they will be pedantic about how written reports are presented. Small differences between microsoft office and open office or google can be important.

Ging Ging

No rush though. Wait a few weeks and suss it out. You'll need paper and pen regardless.

Humour Me

Laptop for when you're up at 3 in the morning finishing an 8000 word report worth 30% of your grade that has to be handed in by 12 the next day - not that I have ever done that!

PCSharkey

I am going to be studying computers and I will be doing a fair bit of programming, I like the idea of being able to do a small bit of programming when I'm in the library or on the train or something as well as taking notes, I have a beefy PC with an i7 4790k and a 780 at home so programming wouldn't be a huge priority for the laptop/2in1.

I have been taking notes for the majority of the past 6 years and I hate losing notes, I like the idea of writing up notes and uploading them to the cloud and better organisation but I will be bringing the pen and paper with me too. I have a rough budget of 500 what would you recommend laptop wise or just a 2in1, what sort of CPU and ram would programming need

Aimead

Ging Ging wrote: »

Laptop, if you're lecturers are like mine were then they will be pedantic about how written reports are presented. Small differences between microsoft office and open office or google can be important.

Google dox wasn’t around in my day, but getting formatting right was pretty important in some of my courses. Doing up equations in Word or OO was a total no-no and highly frowned upon – you needed to use LateX for that.

Aimead

PCSharkey wrote: »

I have a rough budget of 500 what would you recommend laptop wise or just a 2in1, what sort of CPU and ram would programming need

To be honest I think even the cheapest laptop has the juice needed to do basic programming. It all depends on the compiler used. You can get compilers for most languages that are fairly lightweight. The exceptions would be .Net languages where Visual Studio is the best compiler out there, but I’ve never had any issues running this on a low-end laptop.

Unless your course will be providing you with one of those ‘industry-standard’ (meaning expensive and loaded to the hilt with more cruft features that you’ll likely never use) I’d say almost any laptop will do the business. Being able to keep your machine lean and cruft-free will be more important in the long run than the actual specs imho.

a streambook (windows equivalent of a chromebook) would probably be best. get the benefits of all the windows programs in a light package. I would go for 13.3 inch instead of 11.6 as it's a lot more usable especially for documents. tablets are pretty crap for taking notes unless you get one with advanced pen technology - like the samsung s series tablets - but they are expensive. normal tablets don't allow for taking notes in any useful way really. you can get windows chromebook type machines for 250 euro.
something like this
http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/acer-aspire-es1331-133-laptop-white/327703/396.0.0?OpenMenu=true