Laptop/tablet/tech for pre-med/med school

[mindfxck]

I am an incoming third year pre-med student. I have gotten by on an HP laptop for the past few years but am looking into "upgrading" my tech for more vigorous study.

I currently use a samsung galaxy tab 4 10.1" for light academic use and more for personal use. Many med students seem to recommend an iPad instead. There is one person in particular who uses an iPad mini for clinical rotations (keeps it in their coat pocket) but has and still uses an iPad Air 2 that was purchased prior to beginning rotations. I am fairly new to apple; I have been an android/samsung user since 2013 and only made the switch to apple in late 2015 with the iPhone 6s+. Beforehand, I have only had iPod touches.
There are apps available on apple products that are not available on android, however some apps available on both aren't always the same prices...so, I am conflicted between switching to an iPad and just upgrading to a newer samsung tablet (with a stylus, of course). I would like to still be a user of both products, but I am willing to sacrifice losing my first love (samsung haha).

I know for sure that I want to switch to a mac though. I hate windows 10 and apple computers seem to do much more justice than windows computers. I am debating between a macbook air and macbook pro for heavy use (personal and academic).

I am hoping to use these throughout undergrad and med school.

Any suggestions? I am open to all products, not just the ones listed.

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[Ismet]

Moving to pre-allo.

 

[mindfxck]

Moving to pre-allo.

Sorry hahaha, thanks!

 

[Oh_Gee]

essential anatomy is an absolutely essential app for medical school. newer versions of it only run on certain i"whatevers" so you might want to get 1 of those when you get to medical school

 

[Vladimir7]

I say macbook pro, pricey, but very worth imo. I have a 13' 2015 version and I have had little to no issues with it. (I have sync issues but thats because im not very apple-tech savy). It has an SSD so its very fast booting/start-up. Battery life is fantastic but this is compared to my previous lenovo that barely laster 2 hours uncharged. If you get a mac i'd recommend and Iphone too. I have the original iphone 6 and don't plan on upgrading until iphone7s or iphone 8 latest. Again it's the pricier option but you will get a lot of value out of it AND since its apple it will fit under your current ecosystem.

If you have any questions about the macbook/Iphone 6 feel free to ask! But i'm definitely glad i switched to mac in college. It's just better overall for professional reasons. With phones it is a bit more gray because there are many really good phones out there but since they're getting pricier and pricier, you might as well just get the Iphone and remain under the iOS ecosystem.

I know nothing of tablets so can't help there. Honestly don't know why people have those.

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

Ik op said they didnt like windows 10 but i use a Surface Pro 4 and it is AMAZING...

that being said if you got the money go for a macbook pro but then again, i hate macs so maybe my opinion dosnt matter?


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[njtrimed]

I am an incoming third year pre-med student. I have gotten by on an HP laptop for the past few years but am looking into "upgrading" my tech for more vigorous study.

I currently use a samsung galaxy tab 4 10.1" for light academic use and more for personal use. Many med students seem to recommend an iPad instead. There is one person in particular who uses an iPad mini for clinical rotations (keeps it in their coat pocket) but has and still uses an iPad Air 2 that was purchased prior to beginning rotations. I am fairly new to apple; I have been an android/samsung user since 2013 and only made the switch to apple in late 2015 with the iPhone 6s+. Beforehand, I have only had iPod touches.
There are apps available on apple products that are not available on android, however some apps available on both aren't always the same prices...so, I am conflicted between switching to an iPad and just upgrading to a newer samsung tablet (with a stylus, of course). I would like to still be a user of both products, but I am willing to sacrifice losing my first love (samsung haha).

I know for sure that I want to switch to a mac though. I hate windows 10 and apple computers seem to do much more justice than windows computers. I am debating between a macbook air and macbook pro for heavy use (personal and academic).

I am hoping to use these throughout undergrad and med school.

Any suggestions? I am open to all products, not just the ones listed.

My first year class is pretty much a mix of everything, including plenty of older models. But most people buying something new either seem to have MacBooks or Surface Pro 4. I personally opted for the Surface Pro 4 and I love it. I wasn't a huge fan of Windows 8 or 10 on my laptop (a newer HP model), but I'm thrilled with it with the Surface. My friends who have both MacBooks and iPads are envious.

Regardless, don't even think about a med school computer until you start. By then, Apple will come out with something better, and so will Microsoft, and this entire conversation will be obsolete.

 

[NimbleNavigator]

My first year class is pretty much a mix of everything, including plenty of older models. But most people buying something new either seem to have MacBooks or Surface Pro 4. I personally opted for the Surface Pro 4 and I love it. I wasn't a huge fan of Windows 8 or 10 on my laptop (a newer HP model), but I'm thrilled with it with the Surface. My friends who have both MacBooks and iPads are envious.

Regardless, don't even think about a med school computer until you start. By then, Apple will come out with something better, and so will Microsoft, and this entire conversation will be obsolete.

Windows 10

Still, being able to convert from laptop to tablet just like that is pretty nifty.

 

[ciestar]

Keep in mind some schools have a technology requirement. For example, Drexel requires an ipad (and yeah, so do others but you have to buy the ipad yourself.)

 

[jih]

Surface products are currently the best computers you can get for medicine hands down. Several people in my class have surface pro 4s and surface books and it is incredible how useful they are in a variety of situations.

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[CaliforniaDreamer]

I'm very against apple products (exceptionally high prices for middling performance specs), but I do enjoy using the iPad pro with the Apple pencil for note taking, the pencil really makes it worthwhile, it's a great piece of tech.

 

[AggieDoc45]

The iPad Pro has been invaluable to me this year. Definitely pricy but very very useful for consolidating notes and textbooks in one place. I would imagine the surface pro would also be a very good choice, but our school required us to get a different laptop.

 

[Cara Delevingne]

Most big retailers have good return policies. I tried out a SP4 for 2 weeks and returned it. Bought a macbook pro after and kept it. Won't go into details since there's a lot of love for surface products on SDN, but you should try them out for yourself.

 

[Oh_Gee]

Ik op said they didnt like windows 10 but i use a Surface Pro 4 and it is AMAZING...

that being said if you got the money go for a macbook pro but then again, i hate macs so maybe my opinion dosnt matter?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

My first year class is pretty much a mix of everything, including plenty of older models. But most people buying something new either seem to have MacBooks or Surface Pro 4. I personally opted for the Surface Pro 4 and I love it. I wasn't a huge fan of Windows 8 or 10 on my laptop (a newer HP model), but I'm thrilled with it with the Surface. My friends who have both MacBooks and iPads are envious.

Regardless, don't even think about a med school computer until you start. By then, Apple will come out with something better, and so will Microsoft, and this entire conversation will be obsolete.

how durable do you feel the SP4 is? i hear a lot of stories about the screen cracking from minor impact. can it survive a 3 foot drop to carpet? i am on the clumsy side

 

[Oh_Gee]

Spend the extra money on the UAG case. Very rugged and durable. But definitely worth the cost. SP's are expensive to repair if the screen breaks.

damn that looks cool. i wish they had better color schemes though. hopefully SP4 will get a substantial $ drop for black friday

 

[chrisjh]

damn that looks cool. i wish they had better color schemes though. hopefully SP4 will get a substantial $ drop for black friday

It already has 150$ off deals rt now for students. Just keep in mind the SPs price generally doesnt include the keyboars. Thats usually purchased separately

 

[TheBiologist]

If you have the money and like apple, macbook pro

I've also heard rumors that the new iPad pro 2 will be more geared toward education/students, so maybe consider that (although again the price is a little over the top)

 

[NimbleNavigator]

Are there ever Black Friday deals on Macbooks? I'm guessing not...

 

[libertyyne]

laptop:
If you want a laptop form, a Dell XPS 15 inch is a power house that will last you the entire duration of medical school and provide a lot of screen real estate. Its an amazing laptop and has a dedicated graphics card that can pull double duty as a recreation machine for gaming if you would like. I honestly cant recommend a Macbook pro because they haven't updated the design for close to a 5~7 years they are also behind on the hardware and some IT departments may not fully support them requiring bootcamp.

Hybrid:
SP4 is also an amazing machine that I wholeheartedly recommend. You can find an SP3 for cheaper if you are on a budget. These devices will pull double duty as a tablet and a laptop, the Surface pro series is really a thing of beauty, content consumption is hindered because of lack of app specific ecosystem as the ipad, however it has the ability to run all windows x86 software. This is huge for undergrad because depending on your major you may need to install software like stata, matlab,arcgis, etc. This is probably the best option, you get the best of most worlds. The laptop would be able to run the x86 software but may not have the touchscreen or writing capabilities that the SP4 has, if you set it up correctly SP4 is an amazing machine for note taking.

Tablet:
Undergraduate work is partially about content creation. You could buy a ipad air or mini or pro, but they are realistically designed for content consumption. The pro version may be good for note taking, however I am not intricately familiar with that functionality and if it is worth the hassle.


Phone
Iphone6s is still the fastest phone available a whole year after its introduction. Lots of app support. I would wait till mid september because the Iphone 7~ is set to be released in a few weeks.

 

[Oh_Gee]

It already has 150$ off deals rt now for students. Just keep in mind the SPs price generally doesnt include the keyboars. Thats usually purchased separately

does the UAG case cover the screen too or do you have to buy their screen protector also? with a case like that, do you even need a screen protector?

 

[CoomassieBlue57]

You have two more years until you potentially med start school. Don't buy anything tech related for med school until you actually start. I was in the same boat as you, but I realized technology changes quickly. I'm using an iPad Pro and it's awesome (all my slides, notes, and books are in one place). If I didn't wait, I'd be stuck with an older iPad Air for the same price I paid for the pro.