best tablet or PC for nursing school

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Oct 9, 2014

If you're not a die-had "Apple person", I can strongly recommend a Surface Pro (Microsoft) in terms of portability and versatility. It is a tablet/laptop with a detachable keyboard that folds over to act as a case. I tote mine around in a large purse... no need for an extra bag. It functions just like any other Windows laptop and comes in various price points, depending on how much internal memory you want. You can always opt for the lower cost one and just add on an inexpensive external drive for additional storage.

There are a lot of great products out there with similar features. Since you're going to be hauling it around quite a bit, size, weight and sturdiness are important factors. The only ones that I would rule out are any that are not compatible with Windows... .like Chromebooks... they're nifty, but won't run Windows at all.

Also (he he he) talk to your tax preparation person... equipment that you have to buy for school may count as an education expense. If so, you may be able to up the ante a little. It's worth a try!

Good luck in nursing school. We're all rooting for you!

whitestripes · Oct 9, 2014

Thank you for your help! The surface is exactly what I had in mind but I wanted to get someone else's opinion. The only thread I could find on this site about laptops vs tablets was from 2011. Tablets have come a long way since then! Thanks for the tip about educational expenses!

ThatOneDude822 · Oct 9, 2014

I'm also doing my prereqs this year. I'm a part of my university's honors program and one of the perks was that all members got a free iPad Air. I've been using that for my prereq courses and I'm really happy with it. The app store has Microsoft OneNote for free, so I use that to take notes. They also have the Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), but you have to pay a subscription fee (just like you would on a Windows device). However, on iPad there are free third party apps that are capable of creating and editing word/ppt/excel files.

I also bought a case for my ipad that does the same thing the surface does - it allows you to use the iPad as a laptop with a nice sized keyboard, or you can pop the keyboard off and use it as a normal tablet. It's pretty nifty and only cost $30 on Amazon with free 2-day shipping for Amazon Prime or Amazon Student members.

The downside is that iPad has no place for usb flashdrives/SD cards, but I personally don't see that as a problem because I use OneDrive cloud storage, so I can open my files anywhere as long as I save them to OneDrive.

iPad also has the advantage of having more of the familiar apps - I actually use quite a few of them to help with my prereqs and they're designed to be in-line with my textbooks. These apps are not available from the Windows store. So that's another thing to consider - a lot of textbook companies make apps and likely all of them will support iOS, but very few will support Windows.

I'm not sure what the battery life is like on the surface, but my iPad Air gets about 10 hours. It also has retina display so the screen can be seen from any angle without glare. The camera is excellent, which really comes in handy when recording anatomy lab demonstrations - it really picks up the details. It's also super light weight. It also provides wifi print capabilities. I'm not sure if the surface does or not, but I do know that my windows phone does not support wifi print without third party apps (that are not free). You just need a wifi print capable printer and you're set. (If you don't have a wifi capable printer, but you're interested in one, the I recommend the Epson XP-200. It's low price under $75, the print quality is amazing, it has a scanner/copier with color and black&white options, and the ink is relatively cheap at $36 for all 4 cartridges).

I'm usually a Windows fan - I have a Windows Phone and a Windows laptop running Windows 8 (the same OS as the surface pro) and I love them both, but for my particular needs, the iPad is definitely a match. It can print, it has the apps I need, it comes in wifi only AND wifi+cellular models so you can add it to your cellular plan and run 3G/4G internet service on it, the battery lasts all day, even on my long days when I'm at school from 10am to 8:30pm, spending about 6-7 of those hours in class using the iPad.

So bottom line, if you want a familiar interface that will allow you to do basic "netbook" type activities (make word docs, use the internet, etc) then a surface will be good for you. If you want something that's a little more integrated into the textbook world (as far as apps connected to your textbooks goes) and is capable of printing, then the iPad air is something you might look into. If I were you, I would just pull up two tabs in your browser and open Apple's page in one and Microsoft's page in the other and go to the specs for each device and see which meets your needs better. Watch some videos/reviews of each on on youtube to become familiar with them and find out which would be best for you. They're both great devices, it's really just going to depend on what you want out of a tablet.

whitestripes · Oct 14, 2014

Thank you for your feedback! This is so helpful. We are an apple family to say the least. We all have iPhones, a macbook and an iMac. So delving into the Windows world would be different. I love the idea of the third party apps connected to textbooks. I'm sure it makes it easy and convenient to study. Looks like I've got some research to do! Thank you again for your help!

negatron · Oct 14, 2014

My nursing program actually uses the surface tablet for taking exams. It's actually pretty cool. I was thinking of getting one because of that. It was fast, and reliable when i took my exam, had no issues. And it's just the right size that i could probably use to read my large pdf textbooks from. The surface is essentially a really small Windows laptop if you get the keyboard with it!

The Google nexus 7 is also pretty good too for the price now.

Ks mommy nurse · Oct 15, 2014

I simply love my surface tab!

ILoveHealthCare · Oct 15, 2014

The nice thing about having an iPhone and an iPad is you can sync your devices so what shows on one can show on the other. For example your calendar. I have an iPad and I use it in school all the time. I have my textbooks on it even. The only drawback is not having adobe flash so you may want to weigh that option. I don't bring my macbook air to class because there isn't enough room on my desk. I take notes on my ipad as it is much easier to read and if I draw a picture I just take a photo of it and input it that way. You can also get a stylus and draw your pictures directly on it. Make sure whatever you get matches with your needs. I don't need a Usb port because I put all my documents in dropbox or you can use the cloud.

ThatBigGuy · Oct 15, 2014

I love Apple products myself, but I'd recommend going with a Microsoft laptop (with the caveat that I haven't used a Surface). I was one of the only ones to lug my HP laptop to class, and it came in very handy when trying to open webpages, files, and attachments. Mobile devices are great for taking notes, pictures, or accessing Canvas/Blackboard, but they often run into capability issues with education websites and files from teachers, especially when the documents had multiple tables, like syllabi and grading rubrics.

For instance, the partner website for our mother/baby class had absolutely not mobile capability at all.

For our school, it became such an issue that all group projects required at least one person to provide a laptop. Your school may be different, perhaps more up to date with mobile compatible websites, videos, etc. But our program wasn't exactly backwater and sometimes you simply needed a real computer to accomplish tasks.

RunBabyRN · Oct 15, 2014

I love my Macbook Pro, and I have Office Suite on it (as Pages doesn't open on our school's system). I love being able to take it to class, to study, having my ATI books downloaded onto it, and that it's actually a computer with a keyboard and such. I think a tablet would be too small for me, but I can see the convenience of it.