After my business going down the pan I’m back at uni doing another degree. I’m doing a fair amount of research as part of the assignments, so downloading lots of PDFs to read & take notes from. I’m doing a bike (5 miles) & train (40 mins) commute so it makes sense to try to make use of the time on the train as well as not having to rely on uni’s IT while I’m there. I’m thinking it’d be best to get some sort of small, light device that lets me download and view PDFs as well as make notes on them. Ability to fiddle with other office stuff (PPT & XLS) would be useful, then the rest is just normal browser/email guff. Only need wireless access, no 3G.

So what’s the best solution – tablet (maybe with add-on keyboard) or netbook PC? And where’s the best price/performance cut off these days.

PS – I’m not an Apple fanboi so anyone who says iPad will have to do a lot of convincing.

Tablets are all similar hardware wise – a big screen you touch. SW is what matters, and apple have a huge headstart here. You can’t actually go into a shop and buy a tablet from anyone else with a tablet OS on it yet (though this will change soon with google’s honeycomb, it’ll take some time for the SW to catch up).

After SW, battery life is key. 10hours use is the benchmark here (ipad again) will be interesting to see what the others can do here…

Having said all that, a kindle might do enough of what you need it to, and is very light and cheap.

Netbooks are decent though, work in a familiar way (depending on OS) and are also a nice cheap option.

(FWIW I’ve owned/used all the above… and have an ipad at the moment, take from that what you will)

have an ipad at the moment, take from that what you will

fanboi presumably?

Tablets are all similar hardware wise – a big screen you touch.

Not quite the full picture is it 🙂

Resistive vs Capacitive displays for example, one complete pony (resistive) the other being the one to get (capacitive). Then there’s CPU/Memory/Expansion ports/Storage card options etc etc

fanboi presumably?

….or he could own a iPad so can give an informed opinion on it.

PS – I’m not an Apple fanboi so anyone who says iPad will have to do a lot of convincing.

Well, your choice should be easier now you have dismissed one of the main players in the market just because you do not like a particular logo. Guess Dell or Samsung it is then.

aracer – Member

have an ipad at the moment, take from that what you will

fanboi presumably?

Jealous I presume?

I’d go netbook (in fact I did). Tablets look swanky, but have very little storage and are expensive, whereas you can get a decent netbook for £300.

(resistive) the other being the one to get (capacitive). Then there’s CPU/Memory/Expansion ports/Stoarage card options etc etc

None of this matters, so long as it’s reasonably high quality. How fast the CPU is, or how much memory there is, doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that it has useful software, that works well.

Resistive screens aren’t all bad, some can be as sensitive as capacitive ones – or better in the case of poor capacitive units. They have the advantage of being able to use stylii, which matters if you’re insisting on a non-tablet os, e.g. win7, not optimised for finger use.

I still argue the SW matters more than the hardware. Read reviews of the galaxy tab to get an idea… nice enough hardware (leaving aside the size argument for now), let down by inappropriate software.

Ok, i’ll bite, I’m obviously a total fanboi of course, sat here with my iPhone 4* on the desk beside me, typing this on my macbook pro**.

*wait, it’s not an iPhone, it’s a nokia N8.

** hang on, I sold that last year, this is a PC I built myself***.

*** this is an apple bluetooth keyboard though!

I’d go netbook (in fact I did). Tablets look swanky, but have very little storage and are expensive, whereas you can get a decent netbook for £300.

Good reasons to get a netbook. But there are pros and cons with every choice.

I’d seriously be trying out a 3G kindle though. Cheapest option of all, can email pdfs to it for reading on the move, and they’re small and light. Can do basic web browsing too.

Netbook if you want to do work… imho.

My Netbook cost a fraction of the price of a (decent) tablet, and can do a lot more. In fact I could have got a netbook, a kindle, and a usable 3G phone to tether and still had change from the price of an iPad or Galaxy Tab. Oh and all my apps are free, and available thru a single repository (it’s just not called a store).

only ever seen 1 ipad in the wild, and impression I got was it was a total horror story getting files on/off it. android ones might be fractionally easier by not needing itunes.

How fast the CPU is, or how much memory there is, doesn’t matter at all.

We’ll have to agree to differ on that then 🙂

I went with a netbook (Samsung NC10) for using on trains etc. I’ve had a play with an iPad but while it’s a nice bit of kit it didn’t work as well for me. I really don’t like typing on touch-screens and it’s a bit on the expensive side – especially if you want one with a reasonable amount of storage.

My wife has a 3G kindle and that is a very nice bit of kit – very tempted to get one myself. It’s a lot smaller, lighter and cheaper than an iPad so no issue to carry it as well as a laptop or netbook.

I just bought a Dell Mini 10 for my eldest daughter and installed OSX onto it. For sofa surfing it’s brilliant (as you don’t have to hold it to read it) plus you can obviously do a load of other stuff which would either be tricky or almost impossible to do with a tablet.
I really wanted a tablet but I’ve ditched that idea and am going to get myself a hackintosh.

p.s. My business is IT based and we have two laptops and a desktop in the house all the time.

you can get a decent netbook for £300

You can get a decent notebook for that too. Does it really need to be super portable? I’d maybe try and pick up an old X series Thinkpad second hand.

FWIW I have a work supplied iPad and whilst it’s lovely and has it’s uses I take the laptop if I’m likely to do more than a bit of surfing and email.

I had a very brief play on a Kindle last week and it was lovely to read off.

p.s. My business is IT based and we have two laptops and a desktop in the house all the time.

I wouldn’t advertise breaking Apples EULA then 🙂

Don’t forget you get a big student discount with Apple. The really big student discounts are on software so check with Apple directly on prices. Some shops offer apple student discounts but these are not nearly so great as dealing with Apple directly. I am not saying do buy apple, but make sure you factor this in to your price comparison.

I wouldn’t advertise breaking Apples EULA then

I bought a retail copy 🙂

Jealous I presume?

Nope – have no particular desire to own a tablet made by any company.

Sensitive presumably? (unlike IA who took the comment in the way it was intended 😉 )

Interesting anecdote for you – saw a few people with tablets on my recent flights to Norway – was curious what people actually use them for, so peered over shoulders. Every single one was being used to play games (unlike the notebooks, which people were typing on).

My vote would be for a 11.6″ unltraportable – like the Lenovo X100e I’m typing on right now. Significantly greater capability than a netbook for very little extra weight and size.

I’m in a similar position, a fanboi and a geek(ette).

I’ve just ordered an iPad because I want it mainly for reading stuff, but want the ability to send emails, update web-based documents etc.

I’ve tried a cheap <£100 Android tablet and it convinced me of the benefits, but the implementation wasn’t great.
I’ve got a netbook (Samsung NC10), but the screen and form doesn’t lend itself to reading long document off it with it sat on your lap.

There are some very good android tablets out there – Galaxy Tab etc., but I just like the way Apple stuff works.

Sensitive presumably?

Nope, but you obviously are… hook, line, and sinker..

I bought a retail copy

Still violates the EULA.

Every single one was being used to play games

Main work uses I have for my iPad are reading and annotating drafts (ace for this, being able to annotate PDF and sync back to my desktop with dropbox rocks my world), reading scientific papers (again, ace), and making and giving presentations (smaller than a laptop, better battery life, all make it killer for this).

Aside from that, as somewhere to show off photos, and copy/edit/upload from my camera when i’m away/out and about it’s ace. Also better than a laptop for web browsing and email, IMO, which is another big use.

I tend to instapaper stuff I want to read in my RSS, then go and sit with a coffee reading on my ipad when I want a break.

File transfer wise, I do nearly everything via dropbox, hardly plug in to sync at all. Use goodreader effectively as a filesystem on the device to manage stuff.

update web-based documents etc

No rich-text editing support (i.e. for google docs etc) is a weakness here, the only rich text editing you can do is with a few, specific, apps. Namely pages and keynote – though these are excellent. Typed up a document in pages on a train down to london for example. I couldn’t do that on my old laptop, as there’s not enough space on a typical train seat.*

*I’ll admit I could and have done it on a netbook though, and the netbook is better for this. But it’s not better for reading documents.

i fancy a tablet purely for traveling – but not enough to drop 700 quid on one….

as for needing one at uni – no

im a recent graduate in mech eng and not once did i feel like i needed even a laptop……. and i had a 40min train journey and a half hour walk for a commute … it would be nice – but dont try and justify it with need it for uni……

but if you want one – fire on !

oh and having bought an iphone last year – im convinced by apples touch interface and software !

it would be nice – but dont try and justify it with need it for uni……

Good point. I managed the first year of my CS degree without net access on my computer, let along on the move. I didn’t even own a computer for a chunk of the start of it.

Having said that, I wish I’d had an ipad for my PhD, the amount of screenreading etc etc I did, would have made things much easier.

i fancy a tablet purely for traveling – but not enough to drop 700 quid on one

hence why I have a £279 screen with a fold-out keyboard 😉 , 3 usb ports and built in SD card slot (all features missing on most pads, although maybe ipad2 will get this built-in rather than add-on?), that runs a full (properly multitasking) OS,…

but dont try and justify it with need it for uni……

Maybe not for undergrad stuff, but I have a lot of reading to do for my MBA. The ability to snatch 10 mins hear and there reading something makes a big difference to getting through the material. Having it all loaded as PDFs in iBooks works well.

hence why I have a £279 screen with a fold-out keyboard , 3 usb ports and built in SD card slot (all features missing on most pads, although maybe ipad2 will get this built-in rather than add-on?), that runs a full (properly multitasking) OS,…

But you don’t have 10hours use out a single charge, or a device as good for reading/consuming content on. As for the multitasking? On a small screen it doesn’t actually matter that much IME. And it’s more like £280 vs £430.

You pays your money, takes your choice. Pros and cons to both. I’ve owned both, for a similar amount of time (though not at the same time).

430 for a 64gb wifi ? – wow prices have come down since i got my iphone – i was toying with getting a shit phone and an ipad but went for iphone instead

£430 for a 16gb wifi.

Unless you want to store a lot of video content (some do, I don’t), no real need for huge storage. Having said that, I have a 32gb (£500), mostly for photos.

I’ll get a tablet at some point, but only when decent spec Android ones are in the sub-£200 price point. Not too far away from that now.

No way am I splashing over £400 on an Apple fondle slab 🙂

Thanks folks – so, barring the usual sidelines & Apple arguments, the consensus seems to be that a netbook is better for what I need than a tablet which is pretty much what I’d thought. FWIW I’m studying psychology so typically finding and reading 20-30+ papers for each asssignment, which is probably a bit different to mech eng.

But you don’t have 10hours use out a single charge, or a device as good for reading/consuming content on

No but I have one that does 5-6 hours on a single charge (which is more than enough for a 40min commute each way + lunch break), and lets me type on a real keyboard (although swapping between a MacBook kb with half an acre between the lozenge keys, and a (proper, SSD based, 9″) netbook is “fun”).

You pays your money, takes your choice. Pros and cons to both.

Can’t disagree with that bit. I paid less and can do more, but then I don’t use it just to read.

finding and reading 20-30+ papers for each asssignment,

IME this is the single best thing about the ipad, it’s by *far* the best device for finding, reading and annotating papers, and for reading and annotating drafts of papers. That’s why I wish I had it for the whole of my PhD (where I read a *lot* of papers!).

For maximum flexibility I would (and did) get a small normal laptop. Full version of Office not to be sneezed at, it means you’ll be able to do 100% of anything anyone else can do.

Kindle however is also great for reading docs and annotating them (a bit) and is cheap as chips relatively speaking. And generally a brilliant bit of kit. THE best thing for reading on imo, better than iPad or laptop, even not counting price. And then they’re only £120 🙂

molgrips +1. Together, a kindle and a netbook is still a lot cheaper than an ipad

Doh. Been loving my daughters ‘hackintosh’so much I’ve just bought another Dell mini 10 to convert……. when Mrs Sb finds out I’ll be toast – until she starts using it!

Edit: Oh I can’t be arsed!

Maths not your strong point then?

The cheapest iPad from Apple Store is £439.

Top Kindle is £152
Decent Netbook = £250

…..get calculating 😉

They can be had for less than £439 and I don’t consider £37 to be a *lot* of money
YMMV

…and you can get the kindle for £112 and a netbook for £200. I was just pointing out your comment was a bit harsh at Mr Lightyear.