Anything better than a tablet for math notes?

February 28, 2008 10:20 PM

I'm thinking of replacing my old Compaq tc1000 tablet with either a new tablet or a regular notebook. Whatever I replace it with though has to take engineering/math notes well. So what are your suggestions for my tablet replacement?

I absolutely love my tc1000 but at 5 years old it's starting to get slow, beat up, and the battery life has slowly dropped from 3 hours down to 1 hour which makes carrying it to class a gamble even with an extra battery. After using it for class for 5 years I can't see myself comfortably going back to pen and paper for note taking not to mention the lack of Hexic deluxe during my geotechnical classes.

I'm looking to replace it with either a tablet (more than likely a HP tx2000z or HP 2710p) or a laptop (PC or Mac doesn't matter). I'll only be using it for note taking and internet surfing so optical drives, hdd space, and pure performance aren't important but battery life and portability are key. I'd prefer something that's smaller than 15" and 5lbs with exchangeable batteries being a nice extra. Also it must have an active digitizer as I find touch screens make me want to stab the stylus through the screen after using them for a minute or two. I'd also prefer a keyboard instead a slate only tablet due to the convenience of internet surfing and non-math note taking with a keyboard.

If you suggest a laptop over a tablet I'd want suggestions on why it'd be better than a tablet for taking notes in engineering and math related courses. Right now I'm using Microsoft OneNote which I absolutely love with a stylus but don't see how I can take effective math notes with OneNote using a keyboard. I realize Word has an equation editor that looks really nice for reports but I find it extremely cumbersome to even attempt using it to take math notes on. I've never used a Mac but would still consider one if there are Mac programs that make equation typing super easy.

Also as far as my notes go I need easy access to integral signs, greek letters, sub and super scripts, division lines, and simple drawings (lines and curves).

With all of that in mind what's your suggestion for my next computing solution?

posted by woolylambkin to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Why not a Thinkpad? I would marry my X41 Tablet if it were legal in this state.
posted by LarryC at 10:37 PM on February 28

I have been very happy with my Fujitsu T4200 series tablet. The swappable DVD Drive with Extra Battery is what sold it for me.
posted by stew560 at 10:42 PM on February 28

I like my HP tx 1000 - cheap, easy, works well.
posted by k8t at 10:57 PM on February 28

When I was looking at tablets, I settled on the Toshiba Portege M700 (before deciding I actually didn't need a tablet). Judging from the reviews, it's got good battery life (with potential for extra-long life if you get the slice battery), it's decently light(4.7lbs I believe), it's solidly constructed, it has a nice screen for a tablet, and it has the Core 2 Duo processor. I didn't like the tx2000z because of the bad battery life/bulky 8-cell battery and the Turion processors. However, the Toshiba is a lot more expensive. I have a friend with the 8-cell tx2000z who uses it to take notes in class and he seems quite happy with it.
posted by pravit at 10:58 PM on February 28

Hopefully this isn't too offtopic, but if you're planning on going relatively far with the whole 'math/engineering' thing, it'd be in your interest to start learning LaTeX - it's the preferred typesetting language for mathematics.

It's pretty easy and fast once you get the hang of it (I took most of my notes in LaTeX until my tendonitis started acting up), and there are *tons* of macros and templates available (including the formats many academic journals use) for creating exams, worksheets, papers, you name it. There are packages available for creating graphs and commutative diagrams on the fly, so you can really take notes in real time if you're into it. <3>
To try and keep it on topic, I use an Apple laptop (an old one) with TeXShop for my math needs. You can run LaTeX on any system you'd like, but Apple's integrated PDF stuff is super slick.
posted by lastyearsfad at 11:22 PM on February 28 [1 favorite]

I just bought an HP tx2000z - it'll arrive in a couple weeks, I can send you a mefi mail with my impressions.
posted by backseatpilot at 6:57 AM on February 29

What about a Thinkpad X61 tablet? They're small and compact and the guy at work who has one adores it. The writing surface is a bit small (it's a 12 or 13 inch screen I think), but it has a keyboard as well.
posted by calistasm at 7:21 AM on February 29

LaTex is cool, but it's too slow to take class notes in it.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:39 AM on February 29

I'm in the same situation as you, woolylambkin. Was actually looking at tablets yesterday.

For programs that help you type math, LyX is probably the closest thing to what you described. Download here. It's a graphical front-end to LaTeX; I can take superb-looking notes in class very quickly.

However, there are some classes where you need to draw a lot of arrows, sketches, weird abstract things. For these, no typing solution works; you need to draw them by hand.
posted by lunchbox at 7:52 AM on February 29