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I've recently gotten fed up with my laptop. I'm on the move a lot, my laptop of 5 years is loud, clunky, and heavy. It is a gaming laptop, so obviously with how things were back then it wouldn't be as light and as quiet as the laptops today. But with the changes in my lifestyle during the past few years, I don't need a gaming laptop anymore, I just need some kind of computer device so that I can do some random browsing, watching videos, watching SC2 streams, listening to music, chatting- that's about it.
I spend a lot of time in-class and in between classes just browsing the web on this gaming laptop. In fact I'm sitting here typing out this blog on this crusty laptop right now lol. I've tolerated how cumbersome it is to carry it around (not to mention it has to have a power source because of its dying battery) because I don't want to throw money away at an Apple product. But now in this new semester I'm actually going need to have some type of electronic device so that I can read the books I purchased online that can only be viewed online. The past few weeks of lugging around this hunk of junk has really been driving me nuts.
But is it really worth it? I don't plan on buying a brand spanking new iPad 2, I just want a used cheap 1st gen iPad. Hopefully I'll be able to find one for around $300 or possibly less. I also thought about purchasing an iPhone but then I would need to activate or find some illegal means to activate right? This is a replacement for a laptop so I figured that the iPad with a larger screen would make my life easier when I'm trying to read my books.
I just don't know enough about the iPad to come to solid conclusion. $300+ is a good chunk of money for a college student. Will an iPad satisfy my needs just as my laptop has? Given that my laptop has been failing me in the mobility department to the point that it's becoming a hassle I would like to think that an iPad would be a good investment, unless there are other alternatives that I'm completely ignorant to =(
 
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If you can get an iPad for $300 or less then its pretty worth it IMO to just read books/pdfs and browse the internet. Keep in mind that you can't do all of them at once. If one of your classes has power points, the iPad is amazing if you export those powerpoints in pdf form and just store them on your iPad for quick reading.
I don't think the iPad will replace a laptop, but I'm someone who needs a standard keyboard and substantial multitasking with multiple programs. Especially for college, I think you need a complete laptop or at least a desktop at home. Maybe you can look into an Asus Ultralight laptop that's super light with long battery life (8 hours ish) if you're willing to pay more ($500-$600).
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if you're just typing stuff up or browsing the web, any tablet would serve that function well. If you're 100% sure that you're not gonna wanna game between classes, the $300 iPad/Tablet/whatever would be a good investment IMO.
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Amazons new kindle is a tablet if I'm not mistaken? Maybe worth a look. Loads of competitors to the ipad which lose to it on everything but the price
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United States22883 Posts
A newer cheap laptop (which can be found for $300-400 these days) will suit your needs better than an iPad.
iPads and most tablets in general are just entertainment devices with a few minor work/presentation features built in, but it's much more difficult to be productive on them. The software isn't very powerful for creating documents and none of the OS's can really compete with Windows. Including Android, none of them can really do multitasking the same way you'd find on a real computer. Some documents might be saved but for instance, if I were writing this post on an iPad and opened up a new tab or app to look something up, this would all be lost because tablet browsers don't save states, they just reload the page each time you switch to it. Or if you want to browse TL during a SotG commercial, you can't do that without having the SotG window be suspended.
For pdfs, ebooks, movies, streams and simple web browsing, it's fine. For work and heavier web browsing, they're not. At that price range, you can find a cheap laptop that might not be as quick as an iPad/Tab/Prime, but is a lot more powerful.
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On February 02 2012 02:59 Jibba wrote:
A newer cheap laptop (which can be found for $300-400 these days) will suit your needs better than an iPad.
iPad's and most tablets in general are just entertainment devices with a few minor work/presentation features built in, but it's much more difficult to be productive on them. The software isn't very powerful for creating documents and none of the OS's can really compete with Windows. Including Android, none of them can really do multitasking the same way you'd find on a real computer. Some documents might be saved but for instance, if I were writing this post on an iPad and opened up a new tab or app to look something up, this would all be lost because tablet browsers don't save states, they just reload the page each time you switch to it. Or if you want to browse TL during a SotG commercial, you can't do that without having the SotG window be suspended.
For pdfs, ebooks, movies, streams and simple web browsing, it's fine. For work and heavier web browsing, they're not. At that price range, you can find a cheap laptop that might not be as quick as an iPad/Tab/Prime, but is a lot more powerful.
I thought that the OP only wanted the iPad for web browsing/streaming/books/etc?
But yeah, a laptop does have more features.
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I would rather get a netbook for work (assuming you're really getting it for work) to carry around than have an iPad. The iPad doesn't even fulfill its roles that well, other than playing angry birds and such. I fail to see why it would be 'necessary' for a student. It's just a really overpriced toy.
That's only my personal opinion anyway, maybe I'm living in the past.
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On February 02 2012 02:55 DKR wrote:
Amazons new kindle is a tablet if I'm not mistaken? Maybe worth a look. Loads of competitors to the ipad which lose to it on everything but the price
Yeah I was just shopping around and found the Kindle Fire. Any thoughts on how well it'll match-up to an iPad? It's $199 for a brand new Kindle Fire so it looks great in terms of price. But I want to do a lot of web browsing and stream watching too, and I couldn't find any information on that on the Amazon website.
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I got an iPad for a graduation present, here are my .02$:
I use it so much, especially for thing I never even thought about. When I am working on a project, It is so much better than a laptop for opening up datasheets/looking up things/jotting notes down. But, I also have a laptop and desktop, and use both of those as well. It is an augment, not a replacement. Get yourself a laptop
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On February 02 2012 03:01 HereBeDragons wrote:
I would rather get a netbook for work (assuming you're really getting it for work) to carry around than have an iPad. The iPad doesn't even fulfill its roles that well, other than playing angry birds and such. I fail to see why it would be 'necessary' for a student. It's just a really overpriced toy.
That's only my personal opinion anyway, maybe I'm living in the past.
Netbook is a nono because the stock OS on those is always some shitty Windows 7 Basic crap. Unless you plan on partitioning and using linux of course...
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United States1719 Posts
I bought an ipad for $200 when the ipad2 first came out and everybody was trying to sell their original ipad... I also got a samsung nc10 netbook for $285 and a regular-ish 15.6" laptop for $440. I'll try to give you a breakdown of my impressions from using the three. I must say I enjoy using the ipad immensely, but like others have said, being productive on it is nigh impossible; I even bought the little rubber tip pen thing to take notes on it, but it still doesn't compare to having a legit laptop or pen and paper. It's good enough to just carry around anywhere, surf the web, check emails and read books - it's ultra portable, light, and has good battery life at around 10 hours. At $200, I would say that's the best bang for buck out of the three.
The $440 hp probook is my second pick, as it is still somewhat light, and provides the muscle to do actual document editing and browsing. I got it because it was the cheapest laptop I could find that had an i3 processor at the time (about a year and half ago) and I must say I have been loving it despite the relatively high price tag. It's somewhat portable, and battery life is good at around 6hours light usage, 3~4 hours watching youtube videos. It's big though, so you wont be able to just carry it around in your arms like an ipad.
My netbook is a piece of shit IMO, definitely would not recommend. The atom processor is too slow to do anything comfortably, including browsing a website, and it is not as portable as an ipad/tablet. The keyboard is crammed so even though it says the keys are at ~90% of full-sized keyboards, it's ridiculously awkward typing on it and I make alot of typos. Plus, with the keyboard being that small, I keep hitting the touchpad with my palm, and it is REALLY annoying. Screen is also small and resolution sucks. With no CD/DVD drive and piss poor sound output to boot, I would recommend netbooks to only those that I detest. It's more portable than a regular laptop, but less portable than a potato, while having about the same level of functionality. Seriously, a gigantic headache and a waste of money; don't buy it.
EDIT: perhaps you can buy a physical keyboard for the ipad? my biggest gripe with doing work on the ipad is the onscreen keyboard, because it is hard to type on, and also makes you prone to distraction since you hardly even have to lift a finger to switch back to the web browser where all the internetz goodness lies... but if you get a separate keyboard that might help. If you are going for portability, there are keyboard/case combinations where it's like a lid for your ipad when you are not using it as a keyboard, so it serves both purposes at once, but it's quite pricey at $99. My friend had one and it was pretty cool, and he used it during his commute to work just like you are planning to do. Here's an example: + Show Spoiler +
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I somehow skipped over a bunch of nice posts sorry =(
Well I already have a laptop so I don't see a point in getting a new one. I want a tablet because I don't need a powerful computing machine for heavy duty web browsing and writing out papers. And I need something that is even more mobile than a laptop. When I say I'm on the move I'm quite literally riding the train every single day several times a day for over an hour total and then waiting between classes or waiting in the class for class to start.
But the post about the iPad being nothing more than an expensive toy concerns me, because quite frankly that's what I originally thought as well, until now. In fact I still use a normal cellphone, rather than all that smartphone jazz.
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iPad is good, yo. But it is not laptop replacement. Netbooks have worth from laptops and tablets, so it is not a good option.
MacBook Pro (or MacBook Air if you are not working with heavy software) + iPad = pure awesomeness =).
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On February 02 2012 03:01 Snuggles wrote:Show nested quote +On February 02 2012 02:55 DKR wrote:
Amazons new kindle is a tablet if I'm not mistaken? Maybe worth a look. Loads of competitors to the ipad which lose to it on everything but the price Yeah I was just shopping around and found the Kindle Fire. Any thoughts on how well it'll match-up to an iPad? It's $199 for a brand new Kindle Fire so it looks great in terms of price. But I want to do a lot of web browsing and stream watching too, and I couldn't find any information on that on the Amazon website.
I have a Kindle Fire and I use it soley for entertainment purposes. I've not really seen any productivity applications for it, but I also haven't looked. There is a justin.tv player app for it, which I use to watch streams regularly. The web browser is fine, works as well as you could hope.
You kind of lose a lot of functionality of the device if you don't have Amazon Prime, no free movies or books. The Android Market is restricted to the Amazon one, but you can root it and have access to everything if you want.
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no, i would always no matter what go for the Galaxy pad by samsung
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I would stick with a simple laptop in the 400-500$ range. I share an ipad2 and a couple laptops with my gf. The ipad is a great product, but not everything is tablet friendly. Just to get total control of the things I run is why I would go the laptop route.
Windows version 8 is supposed to be very tablet friendly upon it's release and would probably make my answer above look stupid. For now -- embrace the laptop imo.
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Honestly, pony up and get the iPad 2. I have both the iPad, iPad2, kindle fire. For being extremely mobile and what not, the fire is great, but the screen is so much nicer on the iPad 2 for web browsing and what not. I like it very much, and once you jailbreak it, you can do most anything.
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It's worth it, being a gamer in college I have a full desktop at home for normal stuff, but use a galaxy tablet during class and stuff. I take notes using paper so that doesn't really bother me. The best part is going out to eat/in between classes and being able to read/listen to music without having a bootup and stuff. Tablets are great devices for consuming content.
desktop/tablet setup is the way to go.
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Just get a laptop and dont waste your money on apple products.
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I'd echo the sentiments of most in this thread: If you want it for laptop-stuff, get a damn laptop.
However if you're really set on a tablet, I'd go with an android tablet before an iPad. I'm a bit biased against apple stuff of course.. but the "free and open" concept of the android marketplace is much awesomer than the itunes store when it comes to tablets.
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EPT
