I'm looking to add a tablet & stylus to my business IT mix so I can take manuscript notes during meetings, draw diagrams etc. I'll then be able to get rid of A4 paper notes which I then have to scan and shred. I'm looking for something that gives a screen size of greater than 10", up to a max of say 13". I'm not buying a 12.9" iPad Pro, so I'm really looking at Windows or Android-based tablets with a good stylus and software to support stylus notes.
Initial research has come up with:
Microsoft Surface Pro 6
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4
Lenovo Yoga Book
Does anyone have any experience with these, or other devices for the above purpose?
I have a Microsoft Surface Pro and think it's excellent.
I take notes frequently at client meetings and have resorted to using One-note. I find it covers everything I need from hand-written notes to taking screen shots, to showing project photos, press articles I've written etc etc. Also great for drawing and explaining. (I did a most excellent drawing of Grenfell Tower showing how the lack of fire stops in the ventilated facade was a major cause of the ACM cladding to go up).
The screen is both responsive and fast and it handles my hieroglyphic-like handwriting well. It even converts handwritten text to typed text with remarkably few errors.
Well worth considering imo.
Yep OneNote sounds ideal, with the bonus being that I have licences for it which are currently unused. The Surface Pro 6 was top of my initial list, so your feedback is really helpful Pen, thank you. I think I'll organise a trip to a local stockist and have a play with one. Out of interest, which version do you have and which CPU? I was thinking i5 256GB SSD, but was wondering if I would get by with a lower spec version, or alternatively if I needed to go for an i7 version for smoothness of operation.
I bought the expensive one with the 1TB SSD and independent graphics card.
This was the spec https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Surface-Tablet-Graphics-Windows/dp/B01H763TPC/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1543505238&sr=1-1&keywords=Microsoft+Surface+Pro+4+Tablet+%28Intel+Core+i7%2C
It was just under £2k when I bought it.
There are plenty of cheaper ones but as you know with the way the VAT and the capital allowance thingy works on the flat rate scheme I needed to spend £2k to get £400 vat back making it in essence £1600 which worked out the same price as buying a lesser one.
You won't notice any difference between the i7 and the i5 with light weight tasks (the sort of stuff described in this thread). The i5 with whatever size SSD you think you need should serve you well.
The independent graphics card though does make a big difference imo. Although I fully agree with Ben's comments about the suitability to usage factor.
Things may have changed but certainly when I was researching them it was a big factor in my decision-making. I forget who was at the LAN playing Elite with it on their Surface Pro (sorry!) but it was impressive to see.
Would I have spent the extra is if wasn't ultimately a cost-neutral exercise? No, probably not but I don't regret having it now.
Probably this was Faust? He has a surface with a 1060 in it. This indeed makes a big difference, but it doesn't really matter what processor you pair it with.
By that I mean if they make an i5 and an i7 with the same graphics card, you'd see no difference between the two.
If only the i7 comes with the 1060, and you need the graphics grunt (gaming, content creation, etc) then you'd be stuck with the i7, for sure.
Only when you don't need the extra graphics horsepower can you disregard discrete graphics and make it a CPU only decision (where the i5 and i7 both have the same iGPU).
As pen quite rightly said, it just depends on your particular usage / needs, and if you want to spend a little more for 'bling' :D I think the latter is something most of us can relate to!
Guy at work has a Lenovo Yoga book. It's a stunning piece of hardware. He uses it for mindmaps and story mapping for development planning.
@tealeaf - what did you go for in the end? I'm considering a Surface Pro 6 for my wife's school work as the XPS13 is on it's way out. Mostly just word editing and basic resource creation. That said the school seem to have gone the google route so perhaps a decent chrome book would be better.... I just like the look for the Surface Pro's
I ended up concluding that I wanted a Surface Pro 6, but the lack of a USB C and only having 8GB with an i5 put me off sufficiently to wait. There are now some US Surface Pro 6 deals that can get you an i5 with 16GB, but these are not in the UK yet and are still without the USB C.
However the Surface Pro 7 now seems to have one in its spec, so I think I am going to hang on to that. Everyone I have talked to says they are not the cheapest, but it is brilliant bit of kit.
If you can live with 8GB and no USB C then they are stock dumping at the moment and you can get some cracking deals on a Surface Pro 6.
I think they're brilliant.
I got the tablet one with a 1tb SSd, i7, 16gb ram and independent graphics card and it's excellent.
ONe of my clients use Surface Books as they like the functionality of the full keyboard and the ability to pull the screen off to show imagery. Also slightly better specced.
Thanks TL/Pen, I'll take a look and see what deals are about. Pro 7 might not be out this year, maybe Oct 2019, maybe 2020.
Might end up with a 6 then, I'd be tempted enough probably if the USA ram deal comes over here. I'd still love a USB C port though :sad:
@Penfold What's the noise level like on the i7 version of the Surface Pro 6?
Yes, good question. It's noisy when the fans or whatever kick in. You know when they're on.
I'll take a vid to show you if you'd like.
Thanks, that's initially why I had figured the i5 as it is allegedly a lot quieter. I'm not going to be using it for anything other than business and I was reckoning an i5 would do it all just fine.
Countries where you can buy a Surface Pro 6 with an i5 and 16GB RAM.
- USA
- Canada
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- Greece
- Hungary
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Romania
- Slovenia
- Slovakia.
Nice to see the UK in there. :angry:
I toyed with this and decided an A5 size Rocketbook was my best option for price, weight and ease of use. They do A4. I recommend them, the only pain is wiping the pages when it's full, takes a bit of scrubbing.
https://getrocketbook.co.uk/
Doesn't have enough USB ports for me.
Quote from: Penfold;438077Doesn't have enough USB ports for me.
:roflmao:
Quote from: smilodon;438078:roflmao:
Just trying to give an alternative to spending a grand on USB ports with a pen and screen :yahoo:
The Everlast does look extremely cool. I use Fixation pens a lot but the write, scan and wipe idea is very compelling. Ordered on Amazon
cheers
:D
Quote from: smilodon;438080The Everlast does look extremely cool. I use Fixation pens a lot but the write, scan and wipe idea is very compelling. Ordered on Amazon
cheers
:D
I received a free Bambook and the wife uses it. I had already bought the Rocketbook due to a work colelague recommending it. Everlast is the app is it not? Certainly anything that is physical but acts like One Note would be a fantastic idea. One Note is really the best M$ solution they have thrown at us for years.
Actually the Rocketbook does look cool. I may get one for meetings. I do use One Note a lot. It's a great programme and one I use daily.
As I understand it the Rocketbook is a limited use pad. Five wipes and it's done.
The Everlast is more of a write and wipe book and seems to have unlimited uses which would be ideal for me as I scribble stuff and then scan it to a Google Doc. At the moment I get left over with masses of bits of paper that I have to shred.
Quote from: albert;438076I toyed with this and decided an A5 size Rocketbook was my best option for price, weight and ease of use. They do A4. I recommend them, the only pain is wiping the pages when it's full, takes a bit of scrubbing.
https://getrocketbook.co.uk/
Jokes aside, that looks pretty good. I had a LEUCHTTURM1917 Whitelines notebook but I never once bothered to take pictures of the pages. The icons configured to file the pages in certain places is pretty neat.
One for the Christmas list.
Quote from: smilodon;438096As I understand it the Rocketbook is a limited use pad. Five wipes and it's done.
The Everlast is more of a write and wipe book and seems to have unlimited uses which would be ideal for me as I scribble stuff and then scan it to a Google Doc. At the moment I get left over with masses of bits of paper that I have to shred.
My bad, it’s the Rocketbook Everlast with the Frixion pen and water wipe (not microwave) that I was referring to. Why on Earth anyone would pay â,¬20 for a 5 use notepad is beyond me. It cleans up perfectly with water and as I said dry as you go and it’s like new each time.
Only issue is you must set a marker on the page and define a destination and any you don’t need you remove the destination otherwise it sends to the default location like 5 times.
Loving a gadget I have bought on and so far it's great. Certainly a lot easier than handwriting notes then scanning them in to the PC. via the printer.
Nice one.
Quote from: Penfold;438262Loving a gadget I have bought on and so far it's great. Certainly a lot easier than handwriting notes then scanning them in to the PC. via the printer.
Nice one.
Are you using it with OneNote? I want to try that as I heard OneNote is a real win these days.
Yes. Playing with it still but I’m sending to email, OneNote and Dropbox. OneNote is great but o found it better saving as a pdf as opposed to jpg.
Accidentally grabbed a sharpie pen instead of the frixion one so that's one page knackered :rolleyes:
If anyone wants to try it, they have free pages you can download and use
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eqnsm164v0sav3v/AAA-cMxpo8BhBH8sLOFbkUe2a?dl=0
Just print a few pages, get the app and have a play.... :thumbsup2: