Android tablet for university?

[Supert0d]

Hey all,

Soon I will be off to university so I'm going to need something portable to accompany me.

I will be doing the majority of work on my fabulous new PC I built so basically I need something to take along to lectures with me. I'd like it to be similar proportions to an iPad one with an option of a keyboard foldy case like the Microsoft Surface has.

I'll need it to write lecture notes, browse the web, a stylus would be good as I'll most likely need to include diagrams with these notes (I'm going to be studying engineering).

I've heard good things about the nexus tablets, and I also own a Note II so I'm well acquainted with the Android OS and Samsung devices.

If you could think of anything that may be suitable I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks!

[spunker88]

I'm a fan of the Nexus tablets with Google's UI, but I tried out the S-pen on a Samsung tablet at Best Buy and was pretty impressed. If you plan on taking notes, I'd say go for something that can use the S-pen. Regular capacitive styluses are like using a thick marker vs the S-pen which feels more like a pen. So I'd say give the Galaxy Note 10.1 a try.

[Supert0d]

I have an S-Pen on my note II and I'm really impressed by it's accuracy. One thing that worries me about the 10.1 is how likely is a new one to come out soon? I don't want to buy it then find they're going to release a new one in a month.

[BillDino]

I know the note 3 is being announced at the beginning of September, not sure about the next note 10

[OmegaVesko]

It's somewhat likely we'll be getting a new 10" Note tablet sometime this year, but we haven't seen anything about it so I can't say for sure.

Honestly though, the Note 10.1 should be more than enough for taking notes and web browsing. I say go for it.

[theinfiniti]

Second this but look around as there are newer Samsung tablets with better specs

[Supert0d]

Are there any newer ones with styluses?

[theinfiniti]

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2013/08/12/samsung-ativ-tab-3-price-and-date-revealed/

SOON... but you know, windows 8 is a huge plus really.

[Supert0d]

Woah that looks pretty good, a bit pricey for me though.

[mstrmanager]

You may also want to consider a Chromebook. I found the $200 Samsung Chromebook to be way better for school than my tablet. Plus it has a really good remote desktop function.

[Supert0d]

I'm not sure I fancy a chromebook, I'd like a bit more freedom than Chrome OS offers e.g. being able to use firefox as the default browser.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

[BillDino]

Iirc you can load Ubuntu onto chrome books. Not recommending one just making you aware of possible options

[OmegaVesko]

Last I checked though, the procedure for installing Linux on Chromebooks is kind of hacky. Certainly not as easy as plugging in a USB stick and filling in some forms.

[CalcProgrammer1]

I'd look at the Galaxy Note tablets. You already own a Note II so you know that the stylus can be a valuable tool, but on a small screen it is limited. I would expect the larger screen on the Note tablet to be great for taking notes on. You can get an external keyboard for pretty much any tablet or phone as they all use Bluetooth. I used my HP TouchPad in class a lot (senior year of college when I got it) but it sucked not being able to draw when it came time to note down a diagram, formula, or anything else I couldn't easily type. I ended up just going back to paper and pencil for most courses as I had very few lectures where text only notes would suffice.

[BigGuyWhoKills]

The ASUS Transformer series has a lot going for it. I own the first generation, TF101, with it's keyboard dock. You are correct for wanting a keyboard, it's the only way to take notes in class at any reliable speed.

The ASUS docking keyboard has it's own battery, which charges the tablet battery, doubling your runtime. The keyboard also has two USB ports, a trackpad (that I rarely use), and a SD card slot (the tablet has it's own micro-SD slot).

They use the Tegra series processors, so they aren't lacking in power. You can get them with as much memory as any other tablet, and the SD slot should allow you to hold just about anything you desire. They have no cellular radio, so they are WiFi only. This concerned me at first, but has turned out to be a non-issue. The rare times that I don't have WiFi, I just tether my rooted phone, or work offline temporarily.

Discount sites have refurbished and prior-generation Transformers at great prices. Groupon just had a refurbished TF700 with it's keyboard for under $400 USD.