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I'm not up to date at all in the tablet technology world, I have a laptop, a smartphone and a tight wallet so I'd never considered one. BUT I see it being advertised that with the latest iPad OS and the Apple Pencil, you can scribble notes with the 'pencil', which are recognised as text, so you can later search for words and be taken to your scribbles. As a student this is a big feature for me, allowing me to write notes now and search for terms come exam/revision time. It would be nice to move my note taking from paper to tablet. Just wondering if there's anything like this on android that's potentially better value for money? I was looking at a 2nd hand iPad Air 3 with pencil which comes in around £400-450 altogether. Really would prefer to be spending closer to £300 max.
TLDR: Are Apple just advertising a feature that other, cheaper tablets already have so noobs like me that know no better will fork out £100’s more than they need to?
Galaxy S3 Tab Lite? It includes a pen/stylus
Around £300 new if you look around
If you prefer iPad then maybe think about a basic (used) 32GB 6th gen for note-taking? Should be able to get one for a £200? Mrs P got one for around that a couple of years ago. A used Apple Pencil another £50ish (factor in £25 for a replacement pencil tip)
If buying used I’d want a report of battery health before buying. I bought a used iPad Pro some time ago and turned out the battery is 30% of original health. Expensive PITA
I personally haven't used but my workmate uses one of these, fits your budget.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/BOOX-Nova2-Octa-core-processor-Frontlight/dp/B085VQ633Z
If notes in black and white is fine - Have a look at remarkable. I've got the original - i like it - there are a few things I would improve:
- even if the display is only B/W it would be nice to pick red, blue. green pens to add comments, similar to the highlighter (which is pale grey on tablet and yellow in a pdf).
- copy and paste between pages (it may be possible but its certainly not obvious)
- a bigger screen would be good for what I use it for - but I realise others would not
- it feels like it could be really good for forms stuff, if you need to quickly capture data on a standard template, but Ive not found a way for different templates on different pages.
- I'd love to have by calendar on it (and maybe my email) but they've designed it to be distraction free so you don't get that
- there should be a ruler and snap to grid type function for when you dont want the sketch mode.
- the text recognition is pretty good but obviously not perfect - it struggles with text in diagrams/boxes/arrows.
There's a new version just coming out. I've not looked at whats improved/changed. It was certainly not cheap at list price when I bought it - I got a substantial discount by preordering.
Bookmarked. I've been wondering about this since I lost my Apple Pencil last year, although now it'd be cheaper to buy a new one I guess....
I didn't know things like Boox, Remarkable and Livescribe existed, nor did I know which of Samsung's 100 tablets would be most suitable so thanks for all the recommendations!
I know I specified note taking, but I do like a colour screen and the ability to annotate pdfs/slides that Boox/Remarkable/Livescribe can't offer. At some stage I'll probably get a second screen/monitor for my laptop for home use, but for the moment a normal tablet would be handy as a second screen - e.g to watch a youtube tutorial while I code on my laptop. So I think it's between Apple & Samsung. The others are the in same price bracket with significantly fewer features, and at best a marginal advantage in note taking specifically.
I thought what Apple were offering was the ability to search for terms in handwritten notes but it looks like that's only for phone numbers/addresses/dates. I think what they can do is convert your handwriting to text, which can later be searched, which as far as I can see any tablet with something like Microsoft OneNote can do that. So a Samsung coming with a stylus seems better VFM. £350 with free samsung earphones on Argos at the moment and I've ~£90 on Quidco to use. iPad will probably last longer and be a bit slicker OS though (i have a MacBook too). Might have to get to a PC World for some touchy feely to make my mind up.
I used Notability for note-taking on an iPad when I was doing an apprenticeship. Was using a basic Ipad which was okay and then as I was starting using it a lot more for general stuff I upgraded to an iPad Air which I love and use it a lot more now than my Macbook Air nowadays.
I also use a Paperlike screen cover which makes writing on the iPad more like writing on paper but was recently shocked at what they are charging for them now.
I did also look at Samsung and also Microsoft Go but having everything else Apple it was a bit of a no-brainer and go Ipad for me.
Might have to get to a PC World for some touchy feely to make my mind up.
I think that’s very sensible. The 16:9 format of the Samsung’s just look totally wrong to me for note taking, maybe they are not all shape now.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ - pretty much does eveything I need a device to do, including notepad