Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Recommendation Tablet thingy you can write and draw on and add text etc

E

Edie

Well-Known Member
What’s the best one for this please?

When I read books I like to write down ideas and grab quick Googles and maybe add a pic.

A cursive to type conversion tool might be cool too.

Might be quite good if I can also watch tv when I’m on call and got a few hours rest or on a plane. But this is optional, I don’t care much about this.

Is iPad best or is there a cooler alternative?

Ta for any advice! :)
 
What mobile phone do you have? If you have an iPhone then the iPad runs the same operating system iOS, if you have an Android phone then you might as well get an Android tablet. You will probably find it much easier both to learn to use and connect them together if you have the same.
Because I have an Android phone, I have a Samsung Galaxy S5E (£250-£350ish now though about £500 when I bought it) which can do everything you want, I can read books, watch Netflix shows or ones I have copied to it myself.
jot down notes etc. The great thing about Android tablets is you can add loads of different apps to it (you can with iPhone of course but you're very much restricted to what Apple wants you to have).
Samsung dominate the Android tablet market and their kit is good quality but there are other manufacturers. As to price well the skies the limit with tablets plenty of 4 figure ones out there.
My S5e has 64Gb of internal memory and a 256Gb SD card.
It has all the standard Google apps such as it's MS Office alternative (you can get ie pay for MS Office if you want but the Google suite is rather good), Gmail, Calendar (all the stuff you find on your phone) plus I have added WhatsApp, Amazon Music, Spotify, Messenger, VLC (video playing app) Netflix, the Natwest Banking App, Hive (controls my Central Heating), Kasa and Alexa to control all my smart home devices, Facebook, Dropbox (online disk storage), Kindle book reader plus a few nerdy ones( that would interest only nerds) like VNC and PuTTY which get me GUI and command line access to various other computers I have.
It has coped with everything I have thrown at it and I suspect I have thrown more at it than you are likely too.
 
MickiQ said:
What mobile phone do you have? If you have an iPhone then the iPad runs the same operating system iOS, if you have an Android phone then you might as well get an Android tablet. You will probably find it much easier both to learn to use and connect them together if you have the same.
Because I have an Android phone, I have a Samsung Galaxy S5E (£250-£350ish now though about £500 when I bought it) which can do everything you want, I can read books, watch Netflix shows or ones I have copied to it myself.
jot down notes etc. The great thing about Android tablets is you can add loads of different apps to it (you can with iPhone of course but you're very much restricted to what Apple wants you to have).
Samsung dominate the Android tablet market and their kit is good quality but there are other manufacturers. As to price well the skies the limit with tablets plenty of 4 figure ones out there.
My S5e has 64Gb of internal memory and a 256Gb SD card.
It has all the standard Google apps such as it's MS Office alternative (you can get ie pay for MS Office if you want but the Google suite is rather good), Gmail, Calendar (all the stuff you find on your phone) plus I have added WhatsApp, Amazon Music, Spotify, Messenger, VLC (video playing app) Netflix, the Natwest Banking App, Hive (controls my Central Heating), Kasa and Alexa to control all my smart home devices, Facebook, Dropbox (online disk storage), Kindle book reader plus a few nerdy ones( that would interest only nerds) like VNC and PuTTY which get me GUI and command line access to various other computers I have.
It has coped with everything I have thrown at it and I suspect I have thrown more at it than you are likely too.
Click to expand...
Oh sorry yeah should said. I have an old but very reliable and brilliant iPhone SE. I’m an apple gal I’m afraid. Does that mean iPad or nowt tho?
 
Edie said:
What’s the best one for this please?

When I read books I like to write down ideas and grab quick Googles and maybe add a pic.

A cursive to type conversion tool might be cool too.

Might be quite good if I can also watch tv when I’m on call and got a few hours rest or on a plane. But this is optional, I don’t care much about this.

Is iPad best or is there a cooler alternative?

Ta for any advice! :)
Click to expand...
I use one for note taking. Mine is one of the Samsung tablets.

Do watch out - there are cheaper tablets that claim to be stylus-compatible, but from what I have been able to see, only those which are specifically sold as stylus-enabled tablets work well enough to use handwriting. I don't even know if mine does handwriting recognition, because I don't really use it for that.

It's worth noting that stylus-enabled means a pretty big hike in price: the RRP on the base Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is £750 for the 11" version, going up to an eyewatering £1200 for the 14" one (roughly equivalent to an A4 page).
 
Edie said:
Oh sorry yeah should said. I have an old but very reliable and brilliant iPhone SE. I’m an apple gal I’m afraid. Does that mean iPad or nowt tho?
Click to expand...
The phone of choice for the women of the Q household my wife, my daughters and my son's G/F all had/have an SE at some point. No you can buy an Android if you want but you might very well find it easier with an iPad.
I've never truly got into iPads but Mrs Q and Youngest Q both have one and they love them. It will certainly be much easier if you find yourself wanting to share files, apps etc between the two and even if you don't want to now you will almost certainly do so at some point. Regardless of which one you get keep a healthy skepticism to whatever the salesperson says but don't stint unnecessarily otherwise you will probably have to upgrade at some point.
 
MickiQ said:
The phone of choice for the women of the Q household my wife, my daughters and my son's G/F all had/have an SE at some point. No you can buy an Android if you want but you might very well find it easier with an iPad.
I've never truly got into iPads but Mrs Q and Youngest Q both have one and they love them. It will certainly be much easier if you find yourself wanting to share files, apps etc between the two and even if you don't want to now you will almost certainly do so at some point. Regardless of which one you get keep a healthy skepticism to whatever the salesperson says but don't stint unnecessarily otherwise you will probably have to upgrade at some point.
Click to expand...
You give great Dad-advice :cool: Thanks x
 
The Lenovo ones are quite good and have large screens but you have to get the Lenovo stylus, random ones don't work well. Still far cheaper than an ipad.
 
The LENOVO IdeaPad Duet 3 is a brilliant tablet/Chromebook that offers astonishing value and regularly picks up rave reviews. It's way cheaper than an iPad if you want a keyboard.

www.tomsguide.com

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 review

The Duet 3 is a bigger, brighter version of one of our favorite 2-in-1 Chromebooks
www.tomsguide.com www.tomsguide.com

www.theverge.com

A day with the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3

A doable Duet day.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

www.zdnet.com

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 review: One of the best budget Chromebooks just got even better

This compact and reliable 2-in-1 tablet is new and improved with a (slightly) larger screen and updated processor.
www.zdnet.com www.zdnet.com

 
Probably not quite what you're looking for Edie but I have a Kindle Scribe which is wonderful for reading and note-taking. It does nothing else, so is great for distraction free immersion. The stylus/e ink screen combo is a way nicer writing and reading experience than on standard tablets. It's a pleasure dribbling notes on pdfs or jotting down thoughts as I read through books.
 
Samsung notes is great. I have a samsung laptop as well, so i csn share notes, present them at work etc etc.

My colleague has a remarkable, says it's really good.
 
chilango said:
Probably not quite what you're looking for Edie but I have a Kindle Scribe which is wonderful for reading and note-taking. It does nothing else, so is great for distraction free immersion. The stylus/e ink screen combo is a way nicer writing and reading experience than on standard tablets. It's a pleasure dribbling notes on pdfs or jotting down thoughts as I read through books.
Click to expand...
It’s an excellent call. Kindle is the best of tech- simple, functional, pleasing to use.

Can you Google and cnp text? How do you export your notes?
 
The e-ink writing devices (reMarkable 2, Kindle Scribe) always look attractive.
I haven't tried one myself but they look better for note taking / annotation than the usual laptop/tablet screens. How well they sync with wherever you actually need to use the notes would be key.
 
Edie said:
It’s an excellent call. Kindle is the best of tech- simple, functional, pleasing to use.

Can you Google and cnp text? How do you export your notes?
Click to expand...

I think there's the usual Kindle feature of looking up words in texts, highlighting portions of text and so on.

I don't export my notes. I use it like an old fashioned notebook. Handwritten scribbles, mindmaps, sketches etc.

The ReMarkable can apparently convert your handwriting to text, the Scribe can't (yet, they keep updating its software though.) But I actively don't want to do that.

The Scribe is cheaper than the Remarkable, and has a better reading experience (imo), backlit for use in the dark (which is really adjustable plus cool to warm light adjustment) so can read/write in bed.

The pen to screen experience is really really good.

Here's a doodle and some notes.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20230421_161004_612.jpg
    IMG_20230421_161004_612.jpg
    131.1 KB · Views: 14
  • IMG_20230421_160929_538.jpg
    IMG_20230421_160929_538.jpg
    89.8 KB · Views: 14
Edie said:
iPad and re:markable now head and head towards the finish!!
Click to expand...
I have both and they are very different devices.

ReMarkable - very good to write on; easy sync to cloud; cannot Google or insert images afaik; not sure about reading books.

ETA - looks like you can download eBooks/pdfs. NB it can’t read/convert my handwriting but then neither can I.

iPad - many more functions; writing to screen is poor (pencil slips on glass); pencil expensive and needs charging.
 
My brother has a remarkable but I've got an ipad - it's a pro because I design on it. so I want the big screen. But I used to have an ipad mini and it works the same for notes and drawing. Charging the pencil on newer ipad models isn't a problem because it magnetically stick sto the ipad and charges that way, when you're not using it. I've never managed to make mine go flat during a working day, ever. It's also seemingly indestructible, I've dropped it no end of times on hard floors.
 
Had a good read and compare as I’m on the train.

Re:markable pros for me:
Simple so no distractions
Better screen quality for reading & writing. More kindle-like.
Stylish design
Cons:
Can’t get kindle books
Can’t insert photos or images (I grab figures out of scientific papers a lot)

iPad Pros:
Can do pretty much everything- could watch a film or do a video call
Camera to take and insert pics
Can snip or cnp text/images and insert into notes
Cons:
The quality of the writing/reading experience is inferior
Not as cool as remarkable
Fucking eye wateringly expensive
 
chilango said:
The thing with the Scribe (and the Remarkable) is that they are very "focussed" devices. They only do a couple of things, but do them very, very well. Something like iPad can do the same things well enough for most, but obviously have infinitely more uses.
Click to expand...
Basically this.

Which to choose…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
Tablet recommendations
Replies
18
Views
536
nightowl
N
Kid_Eternity
Can you trust Google?
Replies
0
Views
159
Kid_Eternity
Kid_Eternity
Helen Back
Can anyone recommend an autocorrect for Firefox?
Replies
2
Views
143
Helen Back
Helen Back
T
Help Light text on some sites
Replies
0
Views
133
trevhagl
T
editor
Help How can I batch rename MP3 files to take out the track numbers?
Replies
10
Views
235
editor
editor
Back
Top Bottom